Browsing by Author "Partanen, Timo"

This thesis studies Latin loan-words in the Cornish language. Latin was spoken in Britain for over four centuries during the period 1st century BCE – 5th century CE, and in this time many words were borrowed into local Celtic languages. Hundreds of these loan-words have been identified. I shall focus my study on Cornish even though I have made many references to Welsh and Breton. These three languages were not yet differentiated into languages of their own during the time of Latin influence, which is why comparing them is pivotal. I begin my thesis with an introduction to Celtic languages in general and Cornish in particular. After that I shall discuss the concept of British Latin and how it has been dealt with in previous studies. Word analysis will comprise the largest part of thesis. I shall analyse 120 Cornish words of Latin origin. This work will include phonological and semantic investigation as well as comparison with relevant languages, most of which, in addition to Cornish, Welsh and Breton, will be Romance languages. I shall argue that the knowledge of British Latin thus gathered reveals that this language was essentially similar to other varieties of substandard Latin. This information will, however, also expose some features that are unique to British Latin.