Old Welsh Dinacat , Cunedag , Tutagual: Fossilized Phonology in Brittonic Personal Names

Abstract

Abstract That personal names can preserve phonological patterns which have long since vanished in lexical items is a familiar phenomenon. Anna Morpurgo Davies has herself commented upon this in a discussion of Greek personal names: in a literate society (or for that matter in a society which is rich in oral poetic performances) older forms of words may be recorded in writing or in the poetic tradition. In the case of names, the incentive to resurrect them or to continue them in the original form may be stronger than for other lexical items. (Morpurgo Davies 2000: 23)