Reconstruction talk:Proto-Celtic/brīgos

Etymology

@Sokkjo, Victar There is no convincing way to get this from *bʰerǵʰ- any more than there is from *gʷreh₂-, since *bʰr̥ǵʰ- gives Proto-Celtic *brig- with a short i, and this word unambiguously has long ī. PC ī can pretty much go back only to PIE iH or ē/eh₁, so only *gʷreyH- (if such a root exists) can get us there. I guess *bʰreyH- would work phonologically as well, but the semantics would required some fancy footwork. And I wonder about Welsh brig (“summit”) (< *brīkos?) as well. —Mahāgaja · talk 10:08, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

Well, no, because *gʷreh₂-G- > *gʷrih₂-G- is impossible, and *gʷr̥h₂-G- would've yielded *brāg-. Trying to reconcile a long vowel from an expected short one is much easier. Semantically, a derivation from *bʰerǵʰ- is pretty uncomplicated, compare Sanskrit cognate बृहत् (bṛhat, “mighty, strong”) to Proto-Celtic *brīgos (“power”). -- {{victar|talk}} 19:52, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

To work it out a little more and try and reconcile the long -ī-, we could start with *bʰrēG-, from *bʰréG-s-s ~ *bʰréG-s, which could derive from a liquid metathesized form of *bʰerǵʰ-. --{{victar|talk}} 20:39, 16 June 2023 (UTC)