Italo-Celtic group

E90380

The Italo-Celtic group is a hypothesized branch of the Indo-European language family that posits a closer historical relationship between the Italic and Celtic languages based on shared linguistic innovations.


Statements (46)
Predicate Object
instanceOf hypothesized language group
proposed branch of the Indo-European language family
basedOn lexical correspondences
morphological similarities
phonological similarities
shared linguistic innovations
contrastedWith purely areal contact models for Italic–Celtic similarities
view that Italic and Celtic form separate primary branches of Indo-European
fieldOfStudy Indo-European linguistics
historical linguistics
hasAlternativeExplanation areal convergence between Italic and Celtic
parallel independent innovations
substrate influence in western Indo-European
hasConceptualAncestor early comparative work on Italic and Celtic
hasEvidenceType comparative method
shared innovations criterion
hasGeographicContext ancient western and central Europe
hasLinguisticFeature assimilation of *p to following *kʷ in some environments
genitive in -ī
merger of PIE *o and *a in certain contexts
parallel innovations in nominal inflection
similar developments in verbal morphology
subjunctive in -ā-
superlative in -ism̥mo- / -issimo-
hasMember Celtic languages
Italic languages
hasOpponent scholars who favor areal contact explanations
scholars who treat Italic and Celtic as separate primary branches
hasProponent A. J. van Windekens
Frederik Kortlandt
Julius Pokorny
Ranko Matasović
Warren Cowgill
hasStatus controversial in Indo-European studies
not universally accepted
influencesDebateOn internal subgrouping of Indo-European
reconstruction of Proto-Celtic
reconstruction of Proto-Italic
languageFamily Indo-European
relatedTo Celtic branch of Indo-European
Indo-European family tree reconstruction
Italic branch of Indo-European
areal linguistics in ancient Europe
subclassOf Indo-European language subgroup hypothesis
timeOfProposal early 20th century
late 19th century

Referenced by (1)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Proto-Italic
sharesIsoglossWith

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