Goidelic substrate hypothesis

Common card · No. 377307

The Goidelic substrate hypothesis refers to the hypothesized language or languages spoken in Ireland before the arrival of the Goidelic languages. They may include an earlier wave of Celtic languages or a hypothesized pre-Celtic language or languages. Scholars have suggested: that an older language or languages could have been replaced by the Insular Celtic languages; and that words and grammatical constructs from the original language, or languages, may nevertheless persist as a substrate in the Celtic languages, especially in placenames and personal names.

Read on Wikipedia