[Spellyans] 'who' in Cornish

[Craig Weatherhill]

And (dare I be naughty?) - hw in Old English.

Craig


On 18 Gor 2011, at 11:50, Eddie Climo wrote:

> On 2011 Gor 18, at 10:15, nicholas williams wrote:
>> …Cornish pyw, W. pwy and Bret. piv are from IE *kwei, *kweis, cf.  
>> Irish cia 'who?' and Latin quis.
>
> This reminds me of an interesting observation: the interrogative/ 
> relative words like who, where, what, why, where tend more or less  
> to follow a pattern. For fun, I've extended the list with the help  
> of Google Translate:
>
> wh- in English,
> w- in German and Dutch,
> hv- in Norwegian, Icelandic and Danish,
> qu- in Latin, Spanish and French,
> p- in p-Celtic (Cornish, Welsh, Breton) and Greek,
> c- in q-Celtic (Irish, Scots and Manx Gaelic),
> k- in Latvian and Lithuanian,
> m- in Finnish and Hungarian, as well as (surprisingly) Arabic and  
> Hebrew.
>
> By contrast, Maltese and Swahili seem to show no pattern,  
> understandable perhaps given their heterogeneous roots.
>
> Eddie Foirbeis Climo
> - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- - -- -
> Dres ethom akennow byner re bo lyeshes
> Accenti non multiplicandi praeter necessitatem
>
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--
Craig Weatherhill