Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/bwiyeti

This Proto-Celtic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Celtic

Alternative reconstructions

*biyeti^[1]

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-yé-ti (“to grow, become”). Cognate with Ancient Greek φῡ́ομαι (phū́omai, “to grow”), Latin fīō (“to become”) and English be.

Verb

*bwiyeti^[2]

to be
to become

Inflection

Thematic present, suffixless preterite
Active voice
	Present	Imperfect	Future	Preterite
1st singular	*bwiyū	*bwiyemam	*bibūsū	*bubuwa
2nd singular	*bwiyesi	*bwiyetās	*bibūsesi	*bubuwas?
3rd singular	*bwiyeti	*bwiyeto	*bibūseti	*bubuwe
1st plural	*bwiyomosi	*bwiyemo	*bibūsomosi	*bubuwmo
2nd plural	*bwiyetesi	*bwiyestē	*bibūsetesi	*bubuwe
3rd plural	*bwiyonti	*bwiyento	*bibūsonti	*bubuwars
	Pres. subjunctive	Past subjunctive	Imperative
1st singular	*buwū	?	—
2nd singular	*buwesi	?	*bwiye
3rd singular	*buweti	?	*bwiyetou
1st plural	*buwomosi	?	*bwiyomos
2nd plural	*buwetesi	?	*bwiyete
3rd plural	*buwonti	?	*bwiyontou
Passive voice
	Present	Imperfect	Future	Preterite
1st singular	*bwiyūr	—	*bibūsūr	—
2nd singular	*bwiyetar	—	*bibūsetar	—
3rd singular	*bwiyetor	?	*bibūsetor	—
1st plural	*bwiyommor	—	*bibūsommor	—
2nd plural	*bwiyedwe	—	*bibūsedwe	—
3rd plural	*bwiyontor	?	*bibūsontor	—
	Pres. subjunctive	Past subjunctive	Imperative
1st singular	*buwūr	—	—
2nd singular	*buwetar	—	—
3rd singular	*buwetor	—	—
1st plural	*buwommor	—	—
2nd plural	*buwedwe	—	—
3rd plural	*buwontor	—	—

Reconstruction notes

It is possible that the development within Proto-Celtic was *biyeti < *bwiyeti < *buyeti, Zair prefers the simpler *biyeti < *buyeti. He rejects the counter-evidence to this provided by Welsh ysbyddad (“hawthorn”) and the Brythonic word for “duck” (Welsh hwyad, Cornish hos, and Breton houad).

Derived terms

*du(s)-bwiy-om
*su-bwiy-om
- Old Irish: subae (“joy”)

Descendants

Proto-Brythonic: *bɨðɨd
- Old Breton: bout
- Cornish: bos
- Old Welsh: bot
  - Middle Welsh: bod
    - Welsh: bod
Gaulish: biiete (2pl.pres.ind./imp.), buetid (3sg. subj.)^[2]
Old Irish: bí (see ·tá for derivatives)
- Irish: bí
- Manx: bee
- Scottish Gaelic: bi

References

^ Nicholas Zair (2009) “OIr. biid < *bʰuH-ye/o- and “Hiatus” Verbs”, in Stephanie Jamison, Craig Melcher, Brent Vine, editors, Proceedings of the 20th UCLA Indo-European Conference: Los Angeles 2008‎^[1], Bremen: Hempen Verlag, archived from the original on 2024-09-24, pages 213-20
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 Schumacher, Stefan, Schulze-Thulin, Britta (2004) “Urkelt. *bu̯-ii̯e/o-”, in Die keltischen Primärverben: ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und morphologisches Lexikon [The Celtic Primary Verbs: A comparative, etymological and morphological lexicon] (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft; 110) (in German), Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck, →ISBN, pages 241-56