[PLUG-TALK] Why ‘Mandarin’ Doesn’t Come From Chinese

[John Jason Jordan]

On Fri, 4 Jan 2019 10:35:34 -0800
Galen Seitz <galens at seitzassoc.com> dijo:

>More fodder for John.
>
><https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/where-does-mandarin-come/579073/>

Speaking of exonyms, allow me to add one that I have not been able to
unravel completely:

Julius Caesar wrote a book 'De Bello Gallico' (About the Gallic
War),required reading for Latin students, in which he penned the famous
line 'Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres' (all Gaul is divided into
three parts). 

I focus on 'Gallia' and the adjectval form 'Gallico,' borrowed into
English as 'Gaul' and 'Gallic,' and into other languages as similar
words. Caesar also referred to their languages as Celtic, which we know
is a family of languages which originally spread from Gibraltar to
Scotland, although some areas of that region were populated by speakers
of non-Celtic languages (e.g., Basque).

It dawned on me one day that 'Gaelic' (Scots or Irish) must be related.
And then one day I realized that the Spanish word for Wales is 'Gales.'
For a [g] to become a [w] or vice-versa is not uncommon. And then I
thought of Cornwall, which I presume is a compound of 'corn' and
'wall,' more grist for my search. I don't know the details of how these
exonyms are related, but clearly there must be some connection.

And then I thought of 'Celt' and 'Celtic.' Are they related to 'Gaul
and 'Gallic'? The first syllable could easily be from the same source,
both are [+velar, +plosive]+V+[+liquid]. The difference in the velars
is just voicing, a trivial sound change. The vowel difference is also
probably irrelevant. And the coda is the same. But what of the [t]?
That's the part that has me stuck. To claim that 'Celt' and 'Gaul' are
cognates I must explain the [t], and I haven't found the answer. What I
need to do is get off my butt and research proto-Celtic, but so far my
genetic proclivity for lassitude has overcome my curiosity. Maybe
someday.