From 'Ambassador' to 'Whisky': A Note on Celtic Elements in Contemporary Polish Vocabulary

Abstract

The paper discusses elements of Celtic origin present in contemporary Polish vocabulary. Polish did not have any direct contacts with the Celtic languages, however, some elements of Celtic (i.e. Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton) origin entered it via other languages, especially English and French. Additionally, several early borrowings from Continental Celtic spread through Latin, and subsequently the Romance languages, to other languages, including Polish, thus becoming internationalisms of Celtic origin. For the purpose of this paper all such indirect borrowings will be referred to as ‘Celtic elements in Polish vocabulary’. The relevant lexical items have been extracted from a general dictionary of Polish, several other words come from specialized sources.