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Iii. Initial, Mutations in the Living Celtic, Basque

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Iii. Initial, Mutations in the Living Celtic, Basque 155 111. - INITIAI, MUTATIONS IX THE LIVING CELTIC, BASQUE, SARDINIAN, AND ITALIAN DIALECTS. By H. I. H. PRINCELOUIS-LUC~EN BONAPARTE. THE principal Celtic dialects, comprising Irish, Gaelic, and Manx amongst the Gaelic, and Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Breton of Vannes amongst the Cambrian, are undoubtedly those which present more than any other the interesting property of regular initial mutations, suppressions, or addi- tions at the beginning of words, determined by the forms or meanings of preceding words. Other dialects, however, as I showed for the first time in my “Osservazioni sulla pro- nunzia del dialetto sassarese ’’ (prefixed to the translation of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew into this dialect by the late Canon Spano, London, ISSS), possess regular initial mutations similar to those of the middle form of the Celtic, and also others not to be found in Celtic, but yet taking place in a similar manner under the influence of a preceding word. In the several Basque dialects, initial mutations, correspond- ing to those of the advanced form (the “provection” of Zeuss), peculiar to Cornish, Breton, and Breton of Vannes, are also to be observed, but only under the influence of bai (when meaning ‘ because ’ and not ‘ yes ’), and of ez ‘ not.’ Amongst the four principal dialects of the Island of Saydinia, Logudorese and Cagliaritan, both belonging to the Sardinian language (but, as I think, Non-Italian, although Neo-Latin), show initial mutations belonging to the middle form of the Celtic languages, without reckoning those they have in common with standard Italian or Tuscan. And this obser- vation applies also to the third dialect of Sardinia, Sassarese, which is decidedly Italian, although not to the fourth, Tem- piese, which, being even more Italian than the Sassarese, possesses hardly any initial mutation not to be found in Italian. Regular initial mutations influenced by a preceding Phil. Trans. 1882-3-4. 12 156 H.I.H. PRINCE L.-L. BON.4PARTE. word as in Celtic, do certainly exist in Italian, but they do not belong to any of the four Celtic forms, middle, nasal, aspirated, or advanced (" provection "1. I place them under a new form, which I call " weak," taking into consideration this very important fact, eiz. that in Tuscan Italian, as well as in the majority of the real Italian dialects (such as Roman, the two Corsican, Tempiese, Sassarese, Sicilian, the two Calabrian, Neapolitan) initial consonants, although written single, are generally pronounced as they would be if written double. This strong pronunciation of consonants occurs not only at the beginning of any isolated word, or of any word beginning a sentence however short it may be, but also every time the consonant is not preceded by a word capable of determining the mutations constituting the '' weak " form. It is, then, necessary to remember that, in Italian at least, the sounds which I represent in my tables by the symbols (bb, dd, ff, etc.), are the natural forms of consonants beginning their names in the Italian alphabet, and constituting their first or radical form (see note 5, p. 179). The sounds represented by the symbols (a, b, f, etc.), are, on the contrary, mere mutations of (bb, dd, ff, etc.), and are determined, as in Celtic, by a preceding word. Before entering into further details on the initial mutations of Celtic, Basque, Sardinian, and Italian, it will be as well to remark first that they may be determined by two very different causes, according to the nature of the dialects. The first, or purely syntactic, depends on the meaning of the word and obtains in Celtic and Basque, while the second, not only syntactic but phonetic as well, belongs to Sardinian and Italian. As an instance, take the word "heart," as in all the Celtic, Sardinian, and Italian dialects here treated : 1". Irish, croidhe, the Connaught pronunciation of which would be expressed phonetically and with the consonant and vowel symbols I have adopted and explained in the first table, by (Irra'ie) ; 2". Uaelic, cridhe, pronounced according to the Inverness pronunciation (krla) ; 3". Manx, cree, pron. (kr2) ; 4". Welsh, culon, pr. (kbllon) ; 5". Cornish, colon (k6lon) ; 6". Breton of Lkon, or simply "Breton," caloun (kblun) ; ON INITIAL MUTATIONS. 157 7". Breton of Vannes, or simply "Vannes," kalon (kalbn) ; 8". Logudorese, coro (kkbro) ; 9". Cagliaritan, coru (kk6ru) ; 10". Sassarese, 11". Tempiese, and 12". Southern Corsican, cori (kk6ri) ; 13". Southern Calabrian and 14'. Sicilian, cori (kkbri) ; 15". Northern Corsican, 16". vulgar Florentine or rather Florentine '' Cianesco," 17". Pisan with Livornese, and 18". Roman or rather " Romanesco Trasteverino ;" 20". Northern Calabrian, core (kk6re) ; 19". Neapolitan, core (kkbra) ; 21". Lucchese, core (k6re) ;l 22". Standard Italian, cuore (kkubre). All these words being isolated, occur under the radical form and begin with the voiceless sound expressed by (k), as in Celtic and vulgar Lucchese, or with its strong modification expressed by (kk), as in Sardinian and generally in Italian. Let us however prefix to them any of those words capable of determining an initial mutation, and we shall perceive, as in the following examples, that (k) has been mutated either into voiced (g), as in Celtic generally, Sar- dinian, and Sassarese, or has remained unaltered, as in Scottish Gaelic, or been entirely suppressed, as in vulgar Lucchese, while the strong modification (kk) has been mutated into the simple (k), as in standard Italian and the majority of its dialects, or into (h), as in vulgar Florentine, or otherwise suppressed, as in vulgar Pisan or Livornese. Thus : 1". Irish, bhur gcroidhe (war gra'ie) your heart, instead of (war kra'ie) ; 2". Gaelic, bhur cridhe (viir krb), id. ; 3". Manx, nyn gree (nhang gri), id., instead of (nhang kri) ; 4". Welsh, dy galon (da gRllon), thy heart, inst. of (da kbllon) ; 5". Cornish, de golon (de gblon), id., inst. of (de k6lon) ; 6". Breton, da galoun (da gblun), id., inst. of (da kblun); 7". Vannes, ha galon (ha galbn), id., inst. of (ha kalilbn) ; 8". Lo- gudorese, su coro tou (mu g6ro ddu), literally, the heart thy, inst. of (mu kk6ro d6u) ; 9". Cagliaritan, su coru tuu (mu g6ru dGu), id., inst. of (ssu kk6ru dh); 10". Sassarese, Zu to cori (llu do g6ri), literally, the thy heart, inst. of (llu do kkbri) ; 11". Tempiese, Zu to cori (llu to kbri), id., inst. of (llu to kk6ri) ; 14". Sicilian, k to cori (llu to kbri), id., inst. of (llu 1 As a general rule, Lucchese substitutes the weak for the radical Italian form. 158 H.T.H. PRINCE L.-L. BOXAPARTE. to kk6ri) ; 12". Southern Corsican, u to cori (u to k6ri), id., inst. of (u to kkori) ; 13". Southern Calabrian, u to cori (u to kori), id., inst. of (u to kkori) ; 15". Northern Corsican, u to core (u to k6re), id., inst. of (u to kkore); 16". Florentine, ittd core (ittb h6re), id., inst. of (itt6 kk6re) ; 17". Pisan, er tu 'ore (er ttu 6re), id., inst. of (er ttu kk6re) ; 18". Roman, er tu core (er ttu k6re), id., inst. of (er ttu kk6re); 20". Northern Calabrian, lu core tue (llu k6re the), the heart thy, inst. of (llu kk6re the) ; 19. Neapolitan, lo core t.jo (u k6ra thya), id., inst. of (u kk6ra tGya) ; 21". Lucchese, il tu 'ore (il tu he), the thy heart, inst. of (il tu k6re) ; 22". Standard Italian, il tuo cuore (il ttho ku6re), id., inst. of (il ttho kku6re). However numerous may be the instances quoted, they will fail however to show the purely syntactic nature of the Celtic and the few Basque mutations, and the phonetic Sardinian and Italian. I shall speak of the Basque in my explanation of Table XII., which relates to the causative bai (bhhi) and negative ea (es) in this language. The purely syntactic nature of the mutation in the Celtic languages (whatever the ancient original cause may or may not have been), is shown by the fact that the very same word, spelled and pronounced in the same way, may bring about two different forms of mutation in the initial sound of the word that immediately follows, as, for instance, by reason of its grammatical gender, independently of the nature of its final sound. In Irish, Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Cornish, Breton of Lkon,* the possessive adjective expressed in English either bp his or by her, is in both cases rendered by the same word: a, a, e, ei, y, hC (a, a, e, Qi, a, e), respectively. Now, in Irish, Gaelic, and Manx, a, a, e, meaning his, governs the fourth or aspirated form of mutation, and meaning her, almost always, the first or radical; while in Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, ei, y, hC, meaning his, governs the second or middle form, and, meaning her, the fourth or aspirated. The two Celtic branches differ very widely in that respect in the application of the same principle. 2 In Vannes e' (i) means his, and he' (hi) meam her. Ex. e' galon (i galh), his heart ; and Ire' halon (hi halbn), her heart. ON INITIAL MUTATIONS. 159 The following are instances : 1". Irish, a chroidhe (a khraie), his heart, and a croidhe (a kra'ie), her heart; 2". Gaelic, a chidhe (a khrb), his heart, and a cridhe (a kria), her heart; 3". Manx, t! chree (e khrl), his heart, and e cree (e krt), her heart; 4". Welsh, ei galon (6; gbllon), his heart, and ei chalon (di khbllon), her heart; 5". Cornish, y golon (a gdon), his heart, and y hoZm (a hdon), her heart; 6'. Breton, galoun (e gblun), his heart, and hC c'haloun (e khblun), her heart.
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