Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/anmeniyā

This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

From *an- (“un-”) +‎ Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to wait, remain”) +‎ *-iyā. The semantics would go from "not standing still" > "perseverance" > "patience".^[1]

*anmeniyā f

1. patience

Old Irish ainmne is a problem; it has nt-stem inflection. Its nt-stem inflection is ignored by the GPC^[2] and Isaac,^[1] but Matasović takes it seriously and supposes the separate Irish form *anmenants.^[3] There are a few ways to explain the separate Welsh and Irish formations:

• Irish secondarily changing ainmne (<*anmeniyā) from iā-stem to nt-stem inflection;
• *anmeniyā and *anmenants coexisting separately in Proto-Celtic and being inherited separately by Welsh and Irish respectively;
• *anmenants being primary (and inherited as is in Irish) and Welsh amynedd being created by secondarily suffixing -edd to a base *anmen (< *anmenants);

Posing *anmenants poses major semantic problems on the Irish side; one would expect, if *karants (“friend”) and *nāmants (“enemy”) are of any indication, for *anmenants to denote a patient person or entity, not the state of being patient that ainmne actually denotes.

• Proto-Brythonic: *anmeneð
  • Middle Welsh: anmyneð, ammynedd
    • Welsh: amynedd
• Old Irish: ainmne
  • Middle Irish: ainmne