No, Welsh is NOT Slavic and "why is it said that?" hides who is saying it. (Quora)

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Q

Why is it said that Welsh is not at all a Celtic language but Slavic? What are some similar words in some Slavic languages and Welsh?
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-said-that-Welsh-is-not-at-all-a-Celtic-language-but-Slavic-What-are-some-similar-words-in-some-Slavic-languages-and-Welsh/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl-1

Hans-Georg Lundahl

10m ago

amateur linguist

My Latin teacher used to say, the main reason for using passive is, it makes the patient of an action subject and the main reason for doing that is avoiding to mention the agent of an action (bc you have already mentioned him and don’t want to get boring, bc you don’t know who, bc you want to hide it, etc).

“It is said that Welsh is Slavic”
= “[someone] is saying Welsh is Slavic”

Would you kindly tell WHO is saying “Welsh is not at all a Celtic language but Slavic”?

Bc, the reason that person is saying so or those persons are saying so is either ignorance as in being ignorant himself or themselves or hoping someone else is ignorant.

I

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Just now

In fact, finding a few words similar between Welsh and Slavic can’t hide you find lots more words similar between Welsh and Irish. Where Slavic languages have other words, also many more, similar between them.

Or that grammar is different : Welsh has no rule saying words ending in a hard consonant have to be masculine. Maiden is morwyn, and the n is not palatalised.

II

Axel Brosi

20h ago

Welsh belongs to the Brythonic Celtic language family and has very little in common with the Slavic language group. Although Welsh belongs to the Indo-European language branch - it was much more influenced by the non-Indo-European language which it eventually replaced.

Hans-Georg Lundahl

Original Author

Just now

Very little indeed.

I think, while Welsh and Breton certainly have a common ancestor (Brythonic) and probably so with Continental P-Celtic and even with Q-Celtic, the Celto-Italic common ancestor is more tenuous and when it comes to PIE, credited with both Celtic and Slavic, among others, I think this may be a mirage of reconstruction, while commonalities come from Sprachbund phenomena, a k a areal phenomena.