Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/tungeti

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.

• *tongeti^[1]

A verb infamous for its complicated origin. There are two major theories on its origin:^[1]

• A modern theory derives the verb from a suppletive conflation of a nasal-infix present *lungeti from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lewgʰ- (“to announce”) and a preterite derived from *tek- (“to reach out, receive with one's hands”). The initial t- outside the present would thus come from analogy with the preterite. This theory dismisses a connection with Gaulish toncsiiontio.^[2]
• An older, more traditional theory supposed descent from Proto-Indo-European *th₂négti (“to touch, grasp; to take”), ne-infixed verb from the root *teh₂g- (“to touch; to take”), with semantic divergence (i.e. to “take (an oath)”); compare Latin tangō (“(I) touch”), especially in the figurative meanings “affect; enchant”, Proto-Germanic *þakkōną (“to touch lightly”) and Ancient Greek τεταγών (tetagṓn, “having seized”, ptcp.). The o-grade in Old Irish however would be unexplained.

*tungeti

1. to swear (an oath)

• *writ-tungeti (“to counter-swear”)
  • Proto-Brythonic:
    • Middle Welsh: gwrthdwng
      • Welsh: gwrthdyngu
  • Old Irish: fristoing (“to forswear”)

• *lugyom n (“oath; swearing”, verbal noun)^[3]

• Proto-Brythonic:
  • Middle Breton: toeaff, touet
    • Breton: touiñ
  • Cornish: tia
  • Middle Welsh: tyngu
    • Welsh: tyngu
• Old Irish: tongaid
• >? Gaulish: toncsiiontio (3p.fut.rel.)