Negation in the history of the Brythonic Celtic languages

Abstract

This chapter sets out the separate but parallel emergence of new markers of negation in Welsh and Breton, Welsh ddim from an earlier indefinite pronoun ‘nothing’ and Breton ket of unknown origin, and the subsequent erosion of the former marker of negation nid to a prefix d- in Welsh. Interactions with other areas, such as the loss of true negative imperatives, reorganisation of the system of negative concord, and the trend for indefinites to acquire a negative interpretation are also considered, along with issues in the syntactic reconstruction of Common Celtic and language contact between Welsh and English and Breton and French.

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