The hypothesis that the languages spoken in Gaul and Great Britain (
Gaulish and the
Brittonic languages) descended from a common ancestor, separate from the Celtic languages of Ireland, Spain, and Italy, is based on a number of linguistic innovations, principally the evolution of
Proto-Celtic * into (thus the name "P-Celtic"). These innovations are not shared with the
Goidelic languages, which also called
Q-Celtic in this model because of their preservation of Proto-Celtic *' (often represented as
qu in English). The proposed shared innovations not in Goidelic are: • Proto-Celtic ''
> Gallo-Brittonic p
, or in voiced form b
(e.g. Gaulish mapos
, Welsh mab
≠ Irish mac'') • Proto-Celtic
mr and
ml > Gallo-Brittonic
br and
bl (e.g. Gaulish
broga, Welsh, Breton
bro ≠ Old Irish
mruig) • Proto-Celtic
wo,
we > Gallo-Brittonic
wa (e.g. Gaulish
uassos, Welsh
gwass ≠ Old Irish
foss) • Proto-Celtic ''
> Gallo-Brittonic w'' • Early loss of
g between vowels in both Gaulish and Brittonic • Proto-Celtic
dj between vowels tended to give Gallo-Brittonic
j • Proto-Celtic
*anman > Gallo-Brittonic
anwan. (Gaulish
anuana, Welsh
enuein ≠ Irish
ainm; but also Gaulish
anmanbe) ==See also==