Celtic Languages Compared - Animals

Welsh, Irish, Cornish, Scots Gaelic, Breton and Manx compared for animals, and for a bit of fun.

Comparison of Celtic vocabulary for the curious, learners and experienced alike. For everyone,

[michaelhalsall]

This video shows the clear distinction between the Goidelic and Brythonic Celtic languages.

[TreforTreforgan]

Another awesome presentation. Could I add a tuppence by pointing out that the word cu is used in Irish for hound. The name of Irish mythological hero Cuchulain translates as the hound of Culain (note also the mutation, same as Welsh)

[Superadis]

In the Faroe Islands we have words such as Tarvur and Dunna (duck), originated from Celtic

[Knappa]

Interestingly the old Welsh word for fish (prior to borrowing piscis from Latin) is retained in the river name ‘Wysg’ (the River Usk) which literally means the River [of] Fish.
It is a clear cognate of Irish ‘iasc’.

[kristallklar]

Rabbit - Ja, ich habe das KANINCHEN erkannt! Ich bin begeistert!

[WilliamScott]

Amazing. So many new words. I'm learning Scottish Gaelic for a while, and this video was quite useful for me :)
Also, I can pick up some words from it to illustrate why I prefer to use P/Q Celtic hypothesis evey time I have to explain the difference between Celtic languages — you are able to find some real distinctions in the words' spelling. Of course, this is not even a valid or convincing argument, but still xD

[pirangeloferretti]

Well 'konikl' sounds so close to 'coniglio' in Italian, also those capall/ceffyl with 'cavallo'.

[gwilwilliams]

Very informative. Thank you. Being half Welsh I just had to look up “corgi”.

[kernowforester]

Carrow is a word found in many Cornish place names, means 'deer'. Ky or Cae often found in Cornish placenames (ki), means dog. Margh also found in Cornish placenames, means horse.

[tedi]

Diolch yn fawr unwaith eto Ben, so interesting to see the similarities between Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

[leighcanham]

Thank you for this Ben Llywelyn. Interesting that the Welsh for stallion is 'march'. Compare with Cornish 'margh' and Breton 'marc'h'. Capall and ceffyl, compare with 'caballo' in Spanish. I look out for comparatives between Iberian and Celtic languages. On another note. There's a pub in Inchicore, Dublin 8, An Capall Dubh (Y Ceffyl Du / The Black Horse) I visited once or twice when I lived in the Liberties, Dublin 8, back in the day.

[connortierney]

I noticed the Cornish word margh seems similar to the english word mare which is a female horse.
Wonderful video Pur dha!

[ffttt-pznt]

Interesting, that I could recognise, almost with certainty, words for squirrel, eagle, otter. Very similar like in my language, Croatian.
Through out the history Celtic influence in the area where I’m from, was big. Some historians from time, described some Illyrian tribes as joint, mixed Illyrian- Celtic tribes. Just some of the names of Illyrian tribes with Celtic influence: Ardijejci, Dalmati, Liburni, Scordisci, Veneti in north Italy.

[matthewmccallion]

A fantastic video! Maith an fear! I would probably make in addition to "Madra" for "Dog" in Irish, "Madadh" (maybe also "Cú", with a note that it means "Hound" - I know another comment has already mentioned it)

[miragaiamaia]

very interisting. i speak portuguese and we have some very similar words, curiously, not always from the same place, such as peixe, cavalo, urso and cão.

[ewensecher]

In breton for a rabbit we can say juste lapin, like in french bit we pronounce all the letters

[Ikasib]

Knowing several Slavic languages, I noticed some cognates that have common meanings with Celtic in Slavic and Baltic languages (I will use Latin transcription instead of Cyrillic words):

Squirrel:
from the proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *wewer- was formed the proto-Balto-Slavic (PBS) root *wēweris, which today exists in Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian (veverka), Belarusian (vaviorka), Ukrainian (vyvirka), Czech (veverka), Polish (wiewiórka), Silesian (wywiōrka), as well as in the Latvian (vāvere) and Samogitian (vuoveire) languages.

Eagle:
from the PIE root *h₃érō was formed the PBS root *arélis, which survives today in all Slavic languages: Serbo-Croatian orao, Slovenian, Bulgarian and Macedonian orel, Czech orel, Polish orzeł, Kashubian òrzéł, Silesian oreł, Slovak orol, Lower Sorbian jerjeł Upper Sorbian worjoł, Ukrainian orel, Belarusian arol, Russian oriol.
And also in Baltic languages: Latgalian ereļs, Latvian ērglis, Lithuanian erẽlis, and extinct Old Prussian arelie.

Bull:
from the PIE root *táwros was formed the PBS *taurás with the meaning “aurochs” (the wild extinct ancestor of modern cattle). In all Slavic languages the word sounds like /tur/, and as for the Baltic languages: in Latvian tàurs, in Lithuanian taũras.

Dog:
The PIE root *ḱwṓ did not develop in the Slavic languages, but was preserved in the Baltic: Latvian suns, Samogitian šou, Lithuanian šuõ, Sudovian kuo. By the way, I know that such a cognate for a dog also exists in the Armenian language: շուն (šun).

Thank you very much for the video! I hope to learn at least one Celtic language one day! (I’m already trying something in Duolingo 😅)

[lugo_]

Excellent work Ben. Greetings from the dying nation of Ireland. Soon to resemble London & Paris. The Bretons have similar problems with all their houses being bought up by parisians.

[comparisonfun]

Great video. Do you want to know what the longest living species is on this planet?

[nicnam]

Also there is a weird thing with the word dog in welsh,
We have Cwn which means dog,
and Gi or Ci which means dog aswell, E.G. Corgi - Dwarf Dog