This paper constitutes an analysis of those terms which supply the concepts ‘nothing’, ‘anything’, as employed in negative, interrogative or conditional statements in the Gaelic branch of Celtic. The study, based on data published in the Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (1958-69) and supplemented by a small number of additional sources, categorises the results into 2 main classes. One of these consists of inherited terms of diverse origins, such as pronominal and adjectival forms, while the other is based on human activity of various types, including the use of the senses, coinage and other measures, as well as movement and creativity generally. The terms in question may also be qualified by numerous adjectival or adverbial phrases – some quite striking – in the sense of ‘any, at all’. The picture which emerges serves to indicate the great range and variety of expression involved.
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