Thursday, 9 July 2015

prefixes - If the prefix anglo- means "of the English", what prefix means "of the Welsh"?

In my opinion, Kate Gregory is on the right track.



The Latin word for Wales is Cambria, so by analogy, the prefix would be cambrio- - Cambriophonic, Cambriophilia, Cambriocentric, and so on.



When choosing a prefix to attach to an existing word in order to make a new word (a neologism), the convention is to use a prefix with the same linguistic root as the main word. Cymru- would be inappropriate for prefixing to words with Latin origin, or that come to us in English through Latin (as most Greek roots do). Cymric would be better, it and is certainly the English-language adjectival form of the Welsh demonym, but it doesn't have the form of a prefix.



Of course, if you want an adjective that stands as its own word, Welsh or Cymric is best, though frankly, Cymric isn't as widely used.



So you might want to say a "Welsh speaker," "Cymric speaker," or a "cambriophone" depending on your audience.

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