Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Goidelic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun the Goidelic language group

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From the change of the Common Celtic labiovelar stops to velar stops in Goidelic and on the model of P-Celtic.]

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Examples

  • Whether this was a component of Q-Celtic, a component of some other language I have wondered about links with Scandinavia; there were certainly strong links between Scotland and Scandinavia in the Viking age, and since geography doesn't change perhaps there were cultural links earlier, a distinctive dialect, an archaic form of P-Celtic, something else altogether or any combination thereof is pretty much open to speculation.

    Pictish female names Carla 2010

  • There's still a debate about whether the Pictish language was a form of P-Celtic (Brittonic), Q-Celtic (Gaelic), non-Celtic, or something else (I have seen a theory suggesting it was related to Finnish), so it's tricky to define what counts as Pictish.

    Brittonic names in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ genealogies, and vice versa Carla 2009

  • But the tribes of Ireland spoke the Q-Celtic branch of the language, subsequently known as Gaelic; and in that respect, the Caledonians and the Irish were different peoples.

    'The Invention of Scotland: History and Myth' 2008

  • The characteristic difference between the groups is that Q-Celtic (to which Gaelic belongs) uses a K- or Qu- sound where P-Celtic (to which Brittonic belongs) uses a P-sound.

    The Picts (or Cruithne, or Albans): What's in a name? Carla 2007

  • If you take ‘Pritani’ and transliterate it into Q-Celtic, you get ‘Cruithne’.

    The Picts (or Cruithne, or Albans): What's in a name? Carla 2007

  • If you take ‘Pritani’ and transliterate it into Q-Celtic, you get ‘Cruithne’.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Carla 2007

  • The characteristic difference between the groups is that Q-Celtic (to which Gaelic belongs) uses a K- or Qu- sound where P-Celtic (to which Brittonic belongs) uses a P-sound.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Carla 2007

  • The term Q-Celtic is used to refer to the language spoken by the Celts in Ireland [and in Scotland] because it uses the Q, or hard C, sound where Welsh [and Breton] uses the P sound.

    between the rock and the cold, cold sea -- Day etumukutenyak 2005

  • They belong to the Goidelic or Q-Celtic branch of Celtic languages, AFAIK, and Welsh, Breton, and Cornish are Brythonic or P-Celtic.

    languagehat.com: TALKIN' CAPE BRETON. 2004

  • Pinmore in Ayrshire, mentioned in one of the Dorothy Sayers murder mysteries featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, is a Q-Celtic name -- the P-Celtic equivalent is Bryn Mawr.

    Latest Articles 2009

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