Linguists crack medieval Welsh word, linking three Celtic languages
Researchers have reinterpreted a misunderstood Middle Welsh word as 'skimmings' rather than 'meat fragments,' revealing a previously hidden connection across Breton and Cornish. The discovery demonstrates how historical linguistics can recover lost meaning from fragmented records—a finding relevant to anyone working in cultural heritage, language preservation, or cross-border data integration.
Originaltitel: Middle Welsh dihynnyon ‘fragments, bits of meat’ and Breton dienn, Cornish dehen ‘cream’
<p>This paper argues for an interpretation of Middle Welsh <em>dihynnion</em> as ‘skimmings’, i.e. ‘scum and fat skimmed from the cooking-pot’, rather than the traditional ‘fragments, bits of meat’. With this interpretation, Middle Welsh <em>dihynnion</em> can be connected to the otherwise etymologically isolated Breton <em>dienn</em> and Cornish <em>dehen</em> ‘cream’. All three words are derived from a Proto-Brittonic compound verb *<em>di-hɪnn-</em> ‘to skim, to scoop off’ which in turn ultimately stems from the Proto-Celtic verbal root *<em>sem-</em> ‘to pour, to scoop’.</p>