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Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-seventy-third issue:

“Correspondences between Old Chinese and Proto-Celtic Words,” by Julie Lee Wei

ABSTRACT

This paper presents 150 pairs of Sinitic and Celtic words that bear a striking resemblance to each other in sound and meaning. Of the 150 Celtic words, 120 are Proto-Celtic words corresponding in sound and meaning to 120 Old Chinese words. The remaining thirty Celtic corresponding words are in such languages as Old Welsh, Old Irish, Brythonic, and Welsh. Two of the 150 Celtic words correspond to Modern Standard Mandarin words. Proto-Celtic covers the period circa 1300–800 bc. Old Chinese covers the period circa 1250 bc–220 ad. The oldest Chinese script, Oracle Bone and Shell Script (OB), covers the period circa 1250–1050 bc. In the list of 150 pairs of corresponding Chinese and Celtic words, some regular sound correspondences can be discerned, notably the correspondences of Proto-Celtic initial voiced labial velar approximant (*w- / *u-) to Old Chinese labialized velar, uvular, or glottal obstruents or nasals (*gw-/*gu-, *kw-/*ku-/*ko-, *ɢw-/ *ɢu-, *qu-, *qo-,*ŋw-, *hw-/*hu-/*ho-, ɦŋw-, ɦŋo-, or *ʔw–). Of the 120 Proto-Celtic words in the list of Proto-Celtic and Old Chinese corresponding pairs, thirty-five begin with the initials *w- or *u-. All except six of the 150 Chinese words in the list of correspondences are monosyllables. The remaining six Chinese words are bisyllables. Examples of the six are Mandarin 咳嗽 kesou “cough” (Proto-Celtic *kwaso– “cough”) and Mandarin houlong 喉嚨 “throat” (Welsh llwng “throat”).

The findings of the paper include the correspondence of old Chinese 王 *ɢʷaŋ “king” (Modern Mandarin wang) with Proto-Celtic *walo- “prince, chief” (the same word as TocharianB walo “king”). The methodology for proposing the Chinese and Celtic correspondences is described in the paper.

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Selected readings

• Victor H. Mair.  "The Horse in Late Prehistoric China:  Wresting Culture and Control from the 'Barbarians'."  In Marsha Levine, Colin Renfrew and Katie Boyle, ed.  Prehistoric steppe adaptation and the horse, McDonald Institute Monographs (Cambridge:  McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2003),  pp. 163-187.
• "Horse culture comes east" (11/15/20) — with a lengthy bibliography of archeological, linguistic, historic, etc. sources
• "Of horse riding and Old Sinitic reconstructions" (4/21/19)
• "Mare, mǎ ('horse'), etc." (11/17/19)
• Once more on Sinitic *mraɣ and Celtic and Germanic *marko for 'horse'" (4/28/20)
• "Some Mongolian words for 'horse'" (11/7/19)
• "'Horse Master' in IE and in Sinitic" (11/9/19)
• "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
• "'Horse' and 'language' in Korean" (10/30/19)
• "Archeological and linguistic evidence for the wheel in East Asia" (3/11/20)
• "Equine excursions and explorations" (9/8/25)
• “Horses and Humans: A Consequential Symbiosis,” edited by Victor H. Mair, SPP 365 (September, 2025)
• "Of knots, pimples, and Sinitic reconstructions" (11/12/18)
• "The origins and affinities of Tocharian" (8/20/23) — with lengthy bibliography and extensive comments from Tocharian specialists

December 30, 2025 @ 5:30 pm · Filed by Victor Mair under Announcements, Historical linguistics, Language and archeology, Language and history, Phonetics and phonology

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