The Celtic languages are characterized by an elaborate system of alternations of word-initial segments, traditionally known as ‘consonant mutations’. Although historically they arose from across-the-board phonological sandhi, they are now deeply embedded in morphosyntactic processes. They are relatively phonologically coherent, but also non-concatenative, and sensitive to a wide range of lexical, morphological, syntactic and semantic factors. As a result, Celtic mutations present an important test bed for theories of word structure and its interactions with both phonology and syntax.

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