Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
The intensive-durative prefix ∗ande- which appears in Ir. andfocul, annocul ‘habitual saying’ (cf. G Anderoudus ‘sehr rot’, Pedersen, VKG 2.10) can also be identified in the following Irish words: an[d]-ainmne ‘perseverance’, LB 261b26 (= ACL 3.320.17, where 23 N 10 reads ainmnet against the metre: the text has been assigned to the 9th century by Strachan, Trans. Phil. Soc. 1894.516); and-glondas ‘habitual cruelty’ (A1 2 168.5 = O'Dav. 135); and-locht ‘habitual fault’; and-lonn ‘condiment’; Andobor ‘the river Anner’; andord ‘musical strain’; and-ró ‘trouble’.
1 Where no other reference is given, the examples will be found in Meyer's Contributions to Irish Lexicography. (This paper was read at a meeting of the Linguistic Institute in Madison, in July 1944. It has benefited by the criticism of some of those who heard it.)
2 It is noteworthy that all the adjectives cited as examples of this prefix have en-: enfawr, enrhyfedd ‘wonderful’, enwir, enwyn (Pedersen, VKG 2.10); enbyd ‘dangerous’ (Morris Jones, Welsh Gr. 269, who postulates *ṇdo-); and to these may be added enddawd ‘conspicuous’, enwaered ‘prone’, enwair ‘vigorous’, enwaisg ‘lively’. Nouns have en- or an-: enawel ‘tempest’, enchwardd ‘laughter’, enddwl ‘affection’, enfyged ‘worship’, enrhydedd ‘honor’ beside anfon ‘to send’, annerch ‘greeting’, anrhaith ‘booty’, anrheg ‘gift’. I suggest that W en- represents an original *eni-, and is to be kept apart from Irish and-. The W nouns that have an- may well contain the same prefix as the Irish nouns.
3 Professor Goetze calls my attention to Hittite hanti ‘especially’ (Sturtevant, Hittite Gr. 87, 124), which is semantically close; but if the identification of hanti with Lat. ante is correct, a connection with Gaulish ande- is not evident. Gothic anda- might be considered.
4 Pokorny has sought to explain capall as a blend of caballus and capellus, and regards W ceffyl as the borrowed form.
5 Zur Theorie der Mischsprachen und Lehnwörter, Ber. u. Verh. d. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss. 49.101 (1897), which is not available to me.
6 Growth and Structure of the English Language4 38.
7 See M. Bartoli, Archivio Glottologico Italiano 21.90 (1927).
8 I leave out of account other reasons for rejecting his main thesis that the early Celtic invaders of Ireland were Brittonic speakers (P-Celts), and that the Goidels are descended from a settlement made by the Helvetii after the battle of Annecy. See Vendryes, Etudes Celtiques 1.352; Mahr, PPS 1937.402.
9 For giorno see now L. Spitzer, Studies in Philology 37.578 (1940). This brief list could be greatly extended. I owe the information to my friend Giulio Bonfante. Meyer-Lübke refers to the influence of French upon Italian, Hist. Fr. Gr.3 22.
10 He shows, by the way, that there is a group of non-familiar words, consisting of legal terms, among the Scandinavian loan-words, ib. 72.
11 Technical terms proper to the trade or industry of the ‘lower’ people constitute, of course, a special case, of which Lat. bos is the typical example.
12 ZCP 16.97–8. The question of the substratum is here discussed with citation of many authorities. Pokorny's formula is not supported by the evidence presented by Rohlfs from southern Italy, where the Greek substratum appears to have influenced syntax and vocabulary in Italian, but not phonology, and the areas in which Greek is still spoken betray the influence of Italian phonology. See Germanisch-Romanische Monatschrift 18.37–56 (1930).
13 The revival of the language in the schools has no bearing on the question.
14 I owe this reference to Professor Neale-Silva. Thurneysen suggested that Pokorny's proof of a Hamitic substratum in Irish might be invalidated by an investigation of the syntax of popular speech in areas not suspect of Hamitic influence (ZCP 18.428). Havers' Handbuch der Syntax (1931) seems to support his suggestion, e.g. in the discussion of parataxis (169) and of the nominative case as a caseless form (2, 58, 68).
15 Alonso outlines the method that is possible for South America with the abundant evidence available, RFH 1.349 (1939). He discusses the work that has been done, Substratum y Superstratum, RFH 3.209–18 (1941), with special reference to vocabulary on 216.