Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/dakrū

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 Proto-Indo-European *dáḱru (“tear”).

*dakrū n

1. tear
2. drop of liquid

This entry needs an inflection-table template.

The reconstruction of this noun's declension is difficult, since Old Irish and Brittonic clearly show independent secondary developments that obscure the old Proto-Celtic situation. See Hamp (1971) for more details.^[1]

• The GPC, followed by Jackson, reconstruct a singular *dakrū, plural *dakrowes, but there is no regular way to derive such a paradigm on an Indo-European basis.
• In Old Irish, the word became a neuter o-stem, which Hamp believes must have happened after general apocope that made u-stems homophones to o-stems outside the genitive singular.
• Brittonic has Welsh with i-affection and Breton without i-affection. Hamp explains this via a very archaic plural form *dakrū (< *dáḱruh₂), which would yield Middle Welsh deigyr via regular i-affection; the Breton singular form either could have been formed by reverting the i-affection, or Breton simply inherited a singular *dakru.
• Thurneysen (and implicitly Matasović, by copying Thurneysen's reconstruction^[2]) suppose this word switched to the o-stems, meaning that Middle Welsh deigyr must instead be explained as a secondarily masculine i-affected plural.

• Proto-Brythonic: *dėgr
  • ⇒ Old Breton: dacrlon
  • Middle Breton: dazrou pl
    • Breton: daer, (Vannetais) dar
  • Middle Welsh: deigyr
    • Welsh: deigryn, (archaic) deigr
• Old Irish: dér, dǽr (Milan glosses)
  • Middle Irish: dér f
    • Irish: deoir
    • Scottish Gaelic: deur
    • Manx: jeir