English, Celtic and Catalan?

The following translations are derived from a book I’m reading about the influence of the Celts on modern languages, and the strange similarities between Hebrew and Welsh (and obviously why these similarities exist). The author cites Celtic as the language, without specifying the regional variety of Celtic to which he referred. Still, interesting stuff.

While a linguist would probably say that both Celtic and Latin are Proto Indo-European languages, I can’t help but be suspicious of this claim. Very little of anything credible is written on the Celtic peoples even though their lands once stretched from Northern Italy, to Spain, North to France, and then to England and Ireland.

Spanish and Catalan etymologies suffer from the weakness of always contenting themselves with Latin, no matter how far it may be from the modern version of the word; meanwhile, in the same time and place there was a people who were learning Latin, badly, and who might have had more influence than we think.

One problem with citing Latin as the origin of every word in the Romance languages, other than the fact that it’s lazy, is that Latin had a lot of strange resemblances both to languages spoken in the Balkans and the languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula.

Other possible sources are easy to overlook because they’re less available. The Celts are a mystery, and a fascinating one.

ENGLISH CELTIC CATALAN

God Dia Deu

Brother Bhrathair Germà

Land Ter Terra

Priest Sacard Sacerdot

Door Doras Porta

Word, vowel Focal Paraula

Ship Naoi Naue

Day Di Dia

Sound Son Son

Pen Peann Boligraf

Middle Meadhon Mitxe

Woman Fem Dona

Man Fear Home

Place Loc Lloc

You Tu Tu

Heaven Ceal Cel