Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Celtic Speak, Celtic Think?
On the off chance that you didn't happen to grow up speaking the Irish, or any of its near kin, let me mention just a few intriguing facts about the Celtic languages.
In Celtic languages, words shape-shift.
In Welsh, tad means “father,” but—depending on phonic environment—can also take the form dad, nhad, or thad.
In Celtic languages, things have agency.
In English, we say: I have a book.
In Scots Gaelic, though, the agency is the book's: Tha leabhar agam, literally The book is at me.
In Celtic languages, the verb comes first.
Unlike Subject-Verb-Object English (the cat caught the mouse) or SOV German (the cat the mouse caught), in VSO Celtic sentences, the verb comes first: Rug an cat air an luchag, literally Caught the cat the mouse.
When Celts speak, you're already in the middle of the story even before you've reached the second word of the sentence.
Shifting of shapes, things with agency, the primacy of story.
To what degree have the Celtic languages themselves shaped the phantasmagorical Celtic imagination?
Really, one has to wonder.
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