Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/sūdyā

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.

Oft-considered cognates include Lithuanian súodžiai, Proto-Slavic *saďa, and most controversially Proto-Germanic *sōtą, all meaning "soot". For these three, Matasović reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *seh₃wd- as their common root, independent of *sed- (“to sit”) from which the Germanic word was traditionally derived.^[1] The Celtic would require a metathesis of *-h₃w- to *-uh₃- in this root.

The Germanic word in particular requires what Kroonen calls "Mahlow's law", where long vowels in open syllables caused a following -w- to be lost in Germanic, for Matasović's etymology to work. Kroonen does not deal with Proto-Germanic *sōtą in his dictionary.

*sūdyā f

1. soot

• Old Irish: súide
  • Irish: súiche
  • Manx: sooie
  • Scottish Gaelic: sùith
• Gaulish: *sūdiā
  • → Catalan: sutge
  • → French: suie
• →⇒ Latin: *sūdiclum (British Latin)^[2]
  • Breton: huzil
  • Middle Welsh: huddygl
    • Welsh: huddygl