Reconstruction:Proto-Celtic/enīkʷom

Etymology
From. The exact shape of the compound is difficult to reconstruct due to various phonetic irregularities in Celtic.

One possible reconstruction for the compound formation is *h₁éni-h₃kʷ-, which leads to *enīkʷ-. However:
 * Both 🇨🇬 and the Brittonic forms fail to show raising or fronting of the initial vowel except in the Old Irish dative plural form and the Primitive Irish combining form.
 * Brittonic -e- for the second vowel indicates the *-ī- must have been shortened somehow on the way to Brittonic. The lowering to -e- can then be accounted for by assuming derivation from the plural/collective *enīkʷā (note that 🇨🇬 is a plurale tantum).

To get around these phonetic problems, can be reconstructed instead, with a derivation *h₁én-h₃ekʷ-, which brings its own host of morphological and phonetic problems:
 * 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 would thus have no phonetic source for intiial in-, since there is no high vowel ahead to raise original en- in Matasović's reconstruction.
 * Compound formations usually have their second member in the zero grade, not the e-grade, in Indo-European.
 * The proposed vowel-harmonization of *enokʷom to *enekʷom is unprecedented in Celtic.

Noun

 * 1) face

Derived terms

 * *eɸi-enīkʷom

Descendants

 * (in the personal name )
 * (in the personal name )