Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/blēdanī

< Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic

Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/blēdanī

This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Celtic

Etymology

Related to synonymous *blēdū, but with no known Indo-European cognates. Matasović says Pennaod’s connection of this word with Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyd- (“pale”) (compare Old Church Slavonic блѣдъ (blědŭ, “pale”), Old English blāt (“pale”), Lithuanian blaĩvas (“whitish”) “is possible formally…[but] the semantic connection is weak.” Stokes suggests Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleydʰ- (“to glide”) (Proto-Germanic *glīdaną), but MacBain writes that an evolution of ǵʰ- into Celtic b- is doubtful.[1][2]

Noun

*blēdanī f

1. year

Declension

Feminine ī/yā-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*blēdanī	*blēdanī	*blēdanyās
vocative	*blēdanī	*blēdanī	*blēdanyās
accusative	*blēdanīm	*blēdanī	*blēdanīms
genitive	*blēdanyās	*blēdanyous	*blēdanyom
dative	*blēdanyai	*blēdanyābom	*blēdanyābos
locative	*?	*?	*?
instrumental	*?	*blēdanyābim	*blēdanyābis

Descendants

• Proto-Brythonic: *bluɨðẹn
  • Old Breton: blidan, bliden, blidon
    • Breton: blizen, blizenn
  • Old Cornish: bliþen
    • Middle Cornish: blythen
      • Cornish: bledhen
  • Old Welsh: bloidin
    • Middle Welsh: blwyðyn
      • Welsh: blwyddyn
• Proto-Brythonic: *blɨneð (earlier *blɨðneð < nominative plural *blēdanyās)
  • Old Breton: blened
  • Middle Welsh: blyneð
    • Welsh: blynedd
• Old Irish: blíadain
  • Irish: bliain
  • Manx: blein
  • Scottish Gaelic: bliadhna

Further reading

• Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*blēdanī”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 69
• Pennaod, Jord (1986), “La désignation de l’année en celtique [The designation of the year in Celtic]”, in Études Celtiques (in French), volume 23, pages 53–56
• Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, pages 242–46

References

1. Stokes: Urkeltischer Sprachschatz
2. MacBain, Alexander; Mackay, Eneas (1911), “bliadhna”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Stirling, →ISBN