Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/dolinyā

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.

Proto-Celtic

Etymology

From *dol- (“leaves”) +‎ *-inyā (feminine singulative suffix).^[1]

Noun

*dolinyā f^[2]

a leaf

Inflection

Feminine ā-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*dolinyā	*dolinyai	*dolinyās
vocative	*dolinyā	*dolinyai	*dolinyās
accusative	*dolinyam	*dolinyai	*dolinyāms
genitive	*dolinyās	*dolinyous	*dolinyom
dative	*dolinyāi	*dolinyābom	*dolinyābos
locative	*dolinyai	*?	*?
instrumental	*?	*dolinyābim	*dolinyābis

Reconstruction notes

Other flawed reconstructions have been offered previously:

Matasović, failing to notice the singulative suffix, reconstructs *dolnyā.^[3]
Koch erroneously reconstructs *dalinyo-;^[4] while seemingly recognizing the presence of a singulative suffix, he gets the word's gender wrong (it is actually feminine) and he does not notice Old Irish duilne and Middle Irish duille, which rule out the zero-grade of the root.

Descendants

Proto-Brythonic: *dölenn
- Breton: delenn, delen
- Cornish: delen
- Middle Welsh: deilen
  - Welsh: deilen
Old Irish: duilne
- Middle Irish: duille
  - Irish: duille
  - Manx: duilley
  - Scottish Gaelic: duille

References

^ Stifter, David (2023) “With the Back to the Ocean: The Celtic Maritime Vocabulary”, in Kristian Kristiansen, Guus Kroonen and Eske Willerslev, editors, The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, page 180
^ Schumacher, Stefan, Schulze-Thulin, Britta (2004) Die keltischen Primärverben: ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon [The Celtic Primary Verbs: A comparative, etymological and morphological lexicon] (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 110) (in German), Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, →ISBN, page 257
^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*dol-V-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 102-103
^ Koch, John (2004) “leaf”, in English–Proto-Celtic Word-list with attested comparanda‎, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, page 198

[1] Stifter, David (2023) “With the Back to the Ocean: The Celtic Maritime Vocabulary”, in Kristian Kristiansen, Guus Kroonen and Eske Willerslev, editors, The Indo-European Puzzle Revisited Integrating Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, page 180

[2] Schumacher, Stefan, Schulze-Thulin, Britta (2004) Die keltischen Primärverben: ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon [The Celtic Primary Verbs: A comparative, etymological and morphological lexicon] (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 110) (in German), Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, →ISBN, page 257

[3] Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*dol-V-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 102-103

[4] Koch, John (2004) “leaf”, in English–Proto-Celtic Word-list with attested comparanda‎, University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies, page 198

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