WILLIAM KNOX

Portuguese words of Celtic origin:

cama (bed), camisa (shirt, French "chemise"), carvalho (oak - French "chene" from "cassanos"), cabana (hut), cerveja (beer), touca (headdress) etc.

SYNTAX COMPARISON: Portuguese, Spanish, Welsh, Welsh English (Wenglish), Irish

The Celtic languages differ in many ways from their Indo-European relatives. For example, they answer questions with a verb or a copula instead of YES or NO. In fact, they have no equivalents of YES or NO, nor do they have a verb "to have".

In these online examples I will make it more interesting and give examples of a Latin language (Portuguese) which sometimes uses the same syntax as Celtic. This is very atypical of Latin languages. I therefore will compare Welsh and Irish with Portuguese and Spanish, so as to compare with non-Celtic syntax. These aspects of Portuguese, as well as others, such as nasalization and heavy use of the copula, are very likely to have come from Celtic influence. Celtic was spoken in Galicia, where Galician-Portuguese developed.

First, let's compare possession using verbs:

Spanish uses "tener" and Portuguese uses "ter", among others, while Welsh uses the verb "to be" in combination with the word "with", since the Celtic languages don't have the verb "to have". In Portuguese, the verb or copula is used to answer, as in the Celtic languages, while Spanish is typical of the Latin languages, using YES or NO. Even "kaout" in Breton is sometimes claimed to be a verb to mean "to have", but this is false, as it uses a form of "to be" (eus) in it. "Kaout" in its real verb form means "to get".

Portuguese:

Tens o dinheiro? Tenho. / Não tenho.
= Do you have the money? I have. / I don't have.

note: Although Portuguese is a Latin language, due to Celtic influence, it uses the verb in responses. Although Portuguese does have SIM and NÃO, they are used seldom on their own in answers.
 

Spanish:

Tienes el dinero? Sí. / No.
= Do you have the money? Yes. / No.

Welsh:

A ydy'r arian gyda ti? Ydy. / Nac ydy.
= Is the money with you? It is. / It isn't.

note: Welsh uses a totally Celtic syntax in both the question and the answer.

Another example: notice the change below in the Welsh verb "to be" when there is no definite article (the).

English:

Do you have (any) money? Yes. / No.

Portuguese:

Tens dinheiro? Tenho. / Não tenho.

Spanish:

Tienes dinero? Sí. / No.

Welsh:

A oes arian gyda ti? Oes. / Nac oes.
= Is there money with you? There is. / There isn't.

Let's compare the Portuguese and Spanish verb ESTAR with the Irish verb form TÁ:

English:

Is the money on the table? Yes. / No.

Portuguese:

O dinheiro tá sob a mesa? Tá. / Não tá.

note: "tá" is commonly used instead of the full form "está"

Spanish:

El dinero está sobre la mesa? Sí. / No.

Irish:

An bhfuil an t-airgead air an bhord? Tá. / Níl.
= Is there the money on the table? Is. / Isn't.
 

We have compared verbs. Now, let's compare the copula. For those who are not sure what a copula is, compare the Spanish and Portuguese ESTAR (verb "to be"), which is used to describe, with SER (copula "to be"), which is used to identify. Again, Portuguese uses the copula in the answer, which is typically Celtic, despite the fact that Portuguese is Latin-based. Be careful comparing the English, because we don't distinguish the verb with the copula (in form at least), and also be careful when analysing the Welsh - sometimes the forms YDY / YW are used as a verb, and sometimes as a copula (or in a kind of combination with the copula).

Here, we compare the Spanish and Portuguese copula SER in the third person singular form, with the English verb/copula "to be", and the Welsh copula, in its various forms.

English:

Is it your house? Yes. / No.

Portuguese:

É a tua casa? É. / Não é.
= It is the your house? It is. / It isn't.

Spanish:

Es tu casa? Sí. / No.
= It is your house? Yes. / No.
 

Welsh:

Ai dy dy di yw? Ie. / Nage.
= Is it (a question form of the copula) your house that it is ("copula", in a different form)?
It is / It isn't.

note: ai is originally from a (question particle, which you can see in the first example above) and hi ("she"), but is now used universally, and in the answer ie and nage are used, which come from the masculine, since "house" is masculine. Ie is now used universally in the positive identifying answer "it is", and naci is the feminine form of nage ("it isn't").

The Portuguese language and the Celtic languages, as well as the English spoken in Wales, use a typical Celtic copula question tag in the negative (and positive), sometimes even following a sentence using a verb, and not a copula. Copulas are in bold.

Portuguese:

Eles foram ao carro, não é? (or "..., não foram?")
= They went to the car, isn't it? (or "..., didn't they?")

note: syntactical mix in the first tag example.
 

Welsh English:

They went to the car, isn't it?

note: syntactical mix, because "It's to the car they went, isn't it?" is not English-sounding enough, but this would sometimes be used. In any case, this is not mainstream English.

Welsh:

(Ai) i'r car aethon nhw, nage?
= (It is) to the car they went, isn't it?

note: other possibilities:
1 - "Aethon nhw i'r car, naddo?" = They went to the car, didn't they?
2 - "Aethon nhw i'r car, nage?"
These are some of the negative copula question tags: there are also positive copula question tags.
1 - Aethon nhw i'r car, do? (verb "did")
2 - Aethon nhw i'r car, ie? (copula "it is", not "is it", which is "ai")
3 - Aethon nhw i'r car, ynde? (or "yndo", "yndefe")

note: ynde = "ai nid e" ("is it not" - identifier / copula in its negative rhetorical question tag form)

Another interesting note about Welsh:

The "rhetorical" question tag to a negative statement is also negative, and a separate form as well.

Nid ydynt yno, nac ydynt?
= They are not there, aren't they?

Ni fyddi yno, na fyddi?
= You will not be there, will you?

note: There are many base forms of the negative article in Welsh - notice the change from nid to nac (equivalents of ni and na):

literary forms:

ni, nid (in statements and counter-statements, negative form of copula)
na, nad ("that...not")
na, nac (in negative answers and negative question tags, etc.)

Lexical units including the copula in them:

onid (negative question)
ai (positive identifying question)