2710: What Tannins Have to Do with Oak May 22, 2024
We don’t get many scientific words from Celtic, and in a particular way ‘tannin’ exists as a modern word because of Latin, but the origin goes much further. The English word ‘tan’, as in the color, comes from a Celtic root meaning ‘oak’, and since acorns and oak bark are used in the production of leather, the verb ‘to tan’ also comes from this. Likewise, the bitter quality of acorns comes from their tannic acid, named for the same reason. So the word ‘tannin’ is used in science now because it is derived from Latin according to the guidelines of scientific nomenclature, but Latin ‘tannum’ got it from a Celtic source.
2531: Order in Welsh Numbers Nov 17, 2021
Welsh numbers are already very complex with two different systems, but part of the complexity is the variation. Celtic languages have many sounds which mutate and different adjectival forms for these numbers, but on top of that the order of the words is not necessarily set. The numbers are stated with prepositions, such as "un ar ddeg ar hugain" (one on ten on twenty) to say '31'. When this is used as a modifier, the noun can be put in the middle of the phrase as well such as "un ar ddeg ar hugain o gŵn" (31 dogs) literally "one on ten on twenty of dogs" which can be reordered as "Un ci ddeg ar hugain", literally "one dog ten on twenty".
2530: Welsh Numbers Nov 16, 2021
People may be aware that French numbers use somewhat mathematical descriptions, like soixante-dix for 70 meaning sixty-ten, and 'quatre-vingts' for 80 meaning 'four-twenties' but Welsh numbers are even more extreme. Indeed, there are actually two different systems, one decimal and one vigesimal. The decimal system operates similarly to English's decimal system, but the vigesimal is base-20 for all numbers so to say '30' it is 'deg ar hugain' (ten on twenty), '40' is 'deugain' (two twenty) and likewise for 60 and 80. To say ‘70’ is 'deg a thrigain' (ten and three twenty) and likewise for 90, but 50 is 'hanner cant’ (half a hundred) which also does not exist in the decimal system. The vigesimal system is more common when talking about dates and ages etc. and people may switch back-and-forth. There are many internal variations as well, including dropping the prepositions, or adjectival forms.
2190: Plural as the Default Dec 13, 2020
Usually, plurals are formed from the singular, but this is not always the case. Exceptionally, in Welsh for instance there are words for which the plural is the base and singulars are formed off of that. This is on top of the fact Welsh has plurals where no non-affixed form exists: ‘merlen’ (a pony) and ‘merlod’ (ponies), but no *merl. Now, take the examples of
Llygod (mice, pl.) but llygoden (mouse, sg.)
Erfin (turnips, pl.) but erfinen (turnip sg.)
These have the same singular ending as with ‘merlen’ but the plural form is indistinguishable from a root, lacking any additional morphology. Keep in mind this is unlike languages like Latin or Finnish where endings indicate not only singular–plural, but also case. There is no particular reason why the singular will resemble the root if one would have to, but looking at how exceptional this is, it could be said to make intuitive sense. Celtic languages did once historically have cases which one could try to explain this with, but so did English, French, and many other such Indo-European languages where this does not happen.
