Phonological history of Old Irish

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Old Irish was affected by a series of phonological changes that radically altered its appearance compared with Proto-Celtic and older Celtic languages (such as Gaulish, which still had the appearance of typical early Indo-European languages such as Latin or Ancient Greek). The changes occurred at a fairly rapid pace between 350 and 550 CE. [1]

Contents

Summary of changes

The original 20-letter Ogham alphabet used to write Primitive Irish. All Ogham letters without Forfeda - Ubersicht aller Ogham-Zeichen ohne Forfeda.jpg
The original 20-letter Ogham alphabet used to write Primitive Irish.

A capsule summary of the most important changes is (in approximate order): [2] [3]

  1. Syllable-final *n (from PIE *m, *n) assimilated to the following phoneme, even across word boundaries in the case of syntactically connected words.
    • Voiceless stops became voiced: *mp*nt*nk > /bdɡ/.
    • Voiced stops became prenasalised /ᵐb,ⁿd,ᵑɡ/. They were reduced to simple nasals during the Old Irish period.
    • Before a vowel, /n-/ was attached to the beginning of the syllable.
  2. Lenition of all single consonants between vowels. That applied across word boundaries in the case of syntactically connected words.
    • Stops became fricatives.
    • *s became /h/ (later lost unless the following syllable was stressed).
    • *w was eventually lost (much later).
    • *m became a nasalised continuant (/w̃/; perhaps [w̃] or [β̃]).
    • *l*n*r remained, but the non-lenited variants were strengthened to /LNR/ (see Old Irish phonology).
  3. Extensive umlaut ("affection") of short vowels, which were raised or lowered to agree with the height of following Proto-Celtic vowels. Similarly, rounding of *a to /o/ or /u/ often occurred adjacent to labial consonants.
  4. Palatalization of all consonants before front vowels.
  5. Loss of part or all of final syllables.
  6. Loss of most interior vowels (syncope).

They led to the following effects:

Syncope in detail

In more detail, syncope of internal syllables involved the following steps (in approximate order):

Changes to Proto-Celtic stressed short vowels

During the Old Irish period, six extra letters (forfeda) were added to the Ogham script to represent sounds that were not present in Primitive Irish. All Ogham letters including Forfeda - Ubersicht aller Ogham-Zeichen einschliesslich Forfeda.jpg
During the Old Irish period, six extra letters (forfeda) were added to the Ogham script to represent sounds that were not present in Primitive Irish.

All five Proto-Celtic short vowels (*a, *e, *i, *o, *u) survived into Primitive Irish more or less unchanged in stressed syllables.

During approximately A.D. 450-550 (just before the Old Irish period, c. 600-900), however, there occurred several vowel-changes (umlauts). Former vowels are modified in various ways depending on the following vowels (or sometimes surrounding consonants). The mutations are known in Celtic literature as affections or infections such as these, the most important ones: [4] : 46–50, 57 

  1. i-affection: Short *e and *o are raised to i and u when the following syllable contains a high vowel (*i, *ī, *u, *ū). It does not happen when the vowels are separated by voiceless consonants or certain consonant groups.
  2. a-affection: Short *i and *u are lowered to e and o when the following syllable contains a non-high back vowel (*a, *ā, *o, *ō[ clarification needed ]).
  3. u-infection: Short *a, *e, *i are broken to short diphthongs au, eu, iu when the following syllable contains a *u or *ū that was later lost. It is assumed that at the point the change operated, u-vowels that were later lost were short *u while those that remain were long *ū. The change operates after i-affection so original *e may end up as iu.

Nominal examples (reconstructed forms are Primitive Irish unless otherwise indicated):

Before i-affection occurred, there was also a lowering of initial-syllable Proto-Celtic e to a before palatalized reflexes of *g, *gʷ, unless a /j/ followed them in the next syllable in Primitive Irish (no matter the /j/'s origin) which would instead lead to i-affection to i. For instance, Proto-Celtic *legeti-s "(s)he lies" vs. *legonti-s "they lie" vs. *legyom "lying" led to a three-way split in Old Irish laigid, legait, and lige respectively. [5] : 111 

Verbal paradigm example:

formPronunciationMeaningPrim IrishPost-PIEComments
Absolute 1sgbiru/bʲiru/"I carry"*berūs*bʰerō + -si-affection
Absolute 2sgbiri/bʲirʲi/"you (sg.) carry"*berisis*bʰeresi + -si-affection (unstressed *-es- > *-is- in Primitive Irish, also found in s-stems)
Absolute 3sgbeirid/bʲerʲəðʲ/"he carries"*beretis*bʰereti + -sUnstressed i = /ə/ with surrounding palatalised consonants; see #Orthography
Conjunct 1sg·biur/bʲĭŭr/"I carry"*beru < *berū*bʰerōi-affection + u-affection
Conjunct 2sgbir/bʲirʲ/"you (sg.) carry"*beris < *berisi*bʰeresii-affection (unstressed *-es- > *-is- in Primitive Irish)
Conjunct 3sgbeir/bʲerʲ/"he carries"*beret < *bereti*bʰeretii in ei signals palatalisation of following consonant; see #Orthography

The result of i-affection and a-affection is that it is often impossible to distinguish whether the root vowel was originally *e or *i (sen < *senos and fer < *wiros have identical declensions). However, note the cases of nert vs. fiurt above for which i-affection, but not a-affection, was blocked by an intervening rt.

Complications of u-infection

The result of u-infection of *a eventually reduced to /u/ during the Old Irish period. It does not share its later evolution with original *au, which instead became ó (or broken into úa) in Old Irish. [6]

In addition, the u-affection of a when the u preceded a palatalized consonant originally turned the a into an /œ/, whose spelling varied among au, ai, i, e, and u depending on the scribe. /œ/ then spread to various terms prefixed with ar- "fore-" and ad- "ad-". [6]

Stressed front vowels in hiatus

Stressed short front vowels in hiatus underwent a loop throughout Primitive Irish and early Old Irish in which they would repeatedly switch between i and e. McCone outlines the loop as follows: [5] : 109, 130 

  1. Primitive Irish *e before a hiatus (i.e. over *ɸ or *y between two vowels) raised to *i before a non-front vowel.
  2. Primitive Irish *i before a hiatus then underwent a-affection normally, lowering it down to *e.
  3. In early Old Irish, stressed *e before a hiatus raised again to i if the hiatus avoided syncope. If syncope had removed the hiatus, the e was not raised.

Examples of words that went through this loop include:

Short vowels before nasals and stops

Proto-Celtic *a before nasals followed by a stop manifested as the allophone [æ] in the prehistory of Irish.

Short vowels [æ] and *e, and *i regularly became e before nasals followed by originally voiceless stops, which then lengthened to é in stressed syllables.

But a different development of [æ] occurred before nasals followed by voiced stops. According to Schrijver, this [æ] became i when affected by i-affection and a when it was not. [7] McCone however instead believes that i was the default outcome of [æ] before voiced nasals unless a-affection applied, lowering it down to a. [5] Some examples of these developments include:

Additionally, [æ] and *e were also raised to i when followed by a nasal, a voiced stop, and then either *e or a word-final *a followed by a nasal, despite those vowels not triggering i-affection.

Rounding of vowels by labiovelars

In Primitive Irish, *a and *i were rounded to o and u respectively when preceded by Celtic labiovelars *kʷ and *gʷ or a consonant cluster containing them. The rounding of *i also required the following consonant to be palatalised. This rounding occurred after i-affection as ·guid "prays" (< *gʷedyeti) faced rounding even though the rounded vowel was originally an *e. [8] Since ·cren "buys" (< *kʷrinati) faced no rounding even though its stressed vowel was originally an *i, the rounding may also have taken place after a-affection as well, [5] : 118  but Schrijver does not find the evidence for that to be reliable. [7]

Examples of this rounding process include:

Original *a preceded by a labiovelar consonant and followed by *n and an originally voiceless stop was rounded and then broken into Old Irish óe, oí/oi̯/. [9]

Compensatory lengthening before fricatives

After a-affection occurred in Primitive Irish, dental and velar fricatives were dropped when immediately preceding a sonorant consonant, but transformed the preceding vowel into a long vowel or a diphthong. This development affected both stressed and unstressed syllables. [5] : 122–123 

Old Irish outcomes of compensatory lengthening by fricatives
Proto-Celtic etymonPrimitive IrishOld IrishMeaningComments
*ɸetnos*eθnén"bird" (nominative singular)*e before a lost fricative became é before non-palatal sonorants but diphthongised into éu before palatal sonorants.
*ɸetnī*eθʲnʲéuin"bird" (genitive singular)
*agrom*aɣrár"slaughter, carnage"The outcome of Primitive Irish *aɣ before a sonorant contrasts with the outcome of *axr.
*dakru*daxrdér"teardrop"Special outcome of Primitive Irish *axr.
*kenetlom*kʲenʲeθlcenél"tribe, people"Fricative-induced lengthening also applied to unstressed syllables.
*kuklowe*koxlowecúalae"(s)he heard"ó created by this compensatory lengthening may break into úa. Also demonstrates how a-affection occurred before this lengthening.
*kikrīsonti*kixrīsod(ara)·chíurat"they will perish"*i before a lost fricative diphthongised into íu.

Proto-Celtic long vowels and diphthongs

Proto-Celtic long vowels and diphthongs develop in stressed syllables as follows:

Proto-Celtic archaic Old Irishlater Old IrishExample(s)
*īírí (gen. ríg) "king" (cf. Latin rēx, Sanskrit rājan-)
rím "number" (cf. Old English rīm, Latin rītus "rite")
*āámáthir "mother" (cf. Latin māter)
dán "gift" (cf. Latin dōnum)
*ūúcúl "back" (cf. Latin cūlus "ass, buttocks")
*ai/ai/ (spelled áe or aí)merged (both spellings used)cáech "one-eyed" < PC *kaikos < PIE *keh₂i-ko- (cf. Latin caecus "blind", Gothic háihs "one-eyed")
*oi/oi/ (spelled óe or oí)oín, óen "one" < PIE *oinos (cf. archaic Latin oenos)
*ei > ēéía [* 1] ·tíagat "they go" < archaic ·tégot < PIE *steigʰ- (cf. Ancient Greek steíkhein "to walk", Gothic steigan 'to go up') [4] : 36 
é [* 2] ·téig "you go", also from PIE *steigʰ-
*au (+C) [* 3] > ōóúaúaithed, úathad "singleness" < PC *autīto- < IE *h₂eu "again" + *to- "that" (cf. Ancient Greek autós "self")
*eu/ou (+C) [* 3] > ōnúa, núë "new" < archaic núae < PC *noujos (cf. Gaulish novios) < IE *neu-io-s (cf. Gothic niujis)
túath "tribe, people" < PC *toutā < IE *teutā (cf. Gothic þiuda)
rúad "red" < PC *roudos < PIE *h₁reudʰ- (cf. Gothic rauþs)
*au (not +C) [* 4] áuóó "ear" < archaic áu, aue < PC *ausos < IE *h₂eus- (cf. Latin auris)
nó "ship" < archaic náu < PC *nāwā < PIE *neh₂u- (cf. Latin nāvis)
*ou (not +C) [* 4] óu > áubó 'cow' < archaic báu < early archaic bóu (c. a.d. 700) < PC *bowos (gen.sg.) < PIE *gʷh₃-eu-

The Old Irish diphthongs úi, éu, íu stem from earlier sequences of short vowels separated by *w, e.g. drúid- "druid" < *dru-wid- "tree-knower".

Most instances of é and ó in nonarchaic Old Irish are due to compensatory lengthening of short vowels before lost consonants or to the merging of two short vowels in hiatus: cét/kʲeːd/ 'hundred' < Proto-Celtic kantom (cf. Welsh cant) < PIE *kṃtóm.

Changes to Proto-Celtic consonants

Facsimile of Folio 53 from the Book of Leinster. Book of Leinster Facsimilepage55.jpg
Facsimile of Folio 53 from the Book of Leinster.

Overview

See Proto-Celtic for various changes that occurred in all the Celtic languages, but these are the most important:

From Proto-Celtic to Old Irish, the most important changes are these:

Basic outcomes and consonant mutation

In the onsets of stressed syllables, Proto-Celtic stops, *m, and *s were preserved. On the other hand, *y and *ɸ were always lost. But in other situations, inherited consonants often mutated into different consonants entirely. The two major mutations are lenition and nasalization. These mutations not only operated between word boundaries (as a synchronic grammatical process well-known in Insular Celtic languages) but also word-internally.

Lenition

When lenition applied, stop consonants and /m/ became fricatives. Lenition applied to a consonant when it was either between two vowels, or in syllable codas immediately after a vowel. The lenition mutations did not all arise in one wave of sound change; instead, there were three phases of lenition. [5] : 81–91, 96–97 

  1. The first wave of lenitions was that of voiced stops and /m/, which can even be posited at the Proto-Celtic level.
  2. The second wave of lenition was that of the coronal sonorants (*l, *n, and *r) and *s, which can be traced to at least the Insular Celtic level, since Welsh also mutates coronal sonorants.
    • Unlike the lenition of stops, the "lenited" outcomes are original and the "unlenited" outcomes come from the fortition of the "lenited" sonorants.
    • Lenition of /s/ to /h/, while being another mutation of Insular Celtic date grammaticized in Goidelic, failed to be grammaticized in the Brittonic languages.
  3. The last of the lenitions was that of voiceless stops. Given that Brittonic lenitions of these stops produced voiced stops, instead of the Goidelic voiceless fricatives, this lenition can only be dated to early Primitive Irish or a proto-stage immediately before it.

Nasalization

On the other hand, nasalization of a consonant was triggered by following a nasal consonant.

  • Voiceless stops became voiced stops with the trigger nasal lost.
  • In front of voiced stops, both the stop and nasal coexisted in earlier Old Irish but the nasal came to absorb the stop in later Irish.
  • *w uniquely turned into a voiced labial fricative when nasalized.
  • Other sonorants and *s surface, after nasalization, with the same outcomes as if unlenited.

This mutation gave rise to the eclipsis mutation in modern Irish.

Table of basic consonant outcomes

Below is a table of basic Old Irish reflexes of Proto-Celtic consonants, including unmutated and mutated outcomes.

Basic outcomes of Proto-Celtic consonants in Old Irish
(ignoring palatalization)
Proto-CelticOld Irish outcome
UnlenitedLenitedNasalized
*tt/t/th/θ/t/d/
*k, *kʷc/k/ch/x/c/ɡ/
*bb/b/b/β/mb/m(b)/
*dd/d/d/ð/nd/n(d)/
*g, *gʷg/ɡ/g/ɣ/ng/ŋ(ɡ)/
*ɸ(lost)
*ss/s/s/h/ word-initially,
lost word-internally		s/s/
*y(lost)
*wf/f~ɸ/(lost)f/v~β/
*mm/m/m/β̃/m/m/
*n(n)n /N/n/n/(n)n /N/
*l(l)l /L/l/l/(l)l /L/
*r(r)r /R/r/r/(r)r /R/

Initial clusters

Old Irish preserves, intact, most initial clusters unlike many other Indo-European languages.

Preserved initial clusters: [4] : 128–140 

Modified initial clusters: [4] : 123–139 

Palatalization

The palatalized consonants arose in multiple stages. [3] [5] : 115–119  In theories of palatalization, the front vowels are Proto-Celtic e, ē, i and ī.

First palatalization

The first palatalization affected single consonants and sequences of a nasal consonant followed by a homorganic voiced stop. The palatalization depended on not only the vowel after the consonant, but also the vowel before the consonant. The following Proto-Celtic vowel setups were eligible for the first palatalization:

  • Any consonant followed by i or ī, with two main exceptions:
    • If the vowel before the consonant is ā and the sequence after is not -iy-.
    • If the consonant is not coronal and the vowel before it is a stressed rounded vowel.
  • A consonant entirely surrounded by any of the following vowels: e, ē, i, ī.

The first palatalization must have occurred before a-affection, because otherwise the presence of palatalization of the genitive singular of ā-stems (ending in *-iyās > *-iyāh > *-eyāh > -e) would be dependent on root shape, yet only nigh-inevitable palatalization is actually attested in such forms.

Demonstrations of the first palatalization include:

Old Irish first palatalization
EnvironmentOld Irish formMeaningProto-formsPalatalized?Comments
*eCebeirid"carries"*bereti-YesLed to alternation between palatalization and non-palatalization in many S1/B I verbs
laigid"lies (physically)"*legeti-YesLowering of root vowel from e to a before lenited palatalized g occurred after the first palatalization, and in this case was in fact triggered by it
*aCecanaid"sings"*kaneti-NoLed to all present forms of canaid to not be palatalized except in the conjunct third-person-singular, which was affected by the second palatalization
*āCi, *āCī usuallymáthair"mother"*mātīrNoNo palatalization in *āCī if no *y follows
*āCiyáithe"sharpness"*ātiyāYesBut *āCiy leads to palatalization except if analogically removed (as is the case in W2/A II verb paradigms)
*oCi, *uCi, etc.umae"bronze"*omiyomNoNo palatalization by *i/ī of non-coronal consonants after a rounded vowel
do·lugai"forgives"*dī-logītiNo
*oTi, *uTi, etc.tuirem"recounting"*torīmāYesPalatalization of coronal consonants preceded by a rounded vowel and followed by *i/ī
VCCVáram"counting"*adrīmāNoNo palatalization over consonant clusters not consisting of a nasal followed by a homorganic stop, even if the cluster itself fails to survive into Old Irish.
erbaid"entrusts"*erbyeti-No
VNDVsluindid"signifies"*slondīti-YesConsonant clusters consisting of a nasal followed by a homorganic stop are subject to the first palatalization according to the same rules as their corresponding lone intervocalic consonants.
cingid"steps"*kengeti-Yes
ungae"ounce"Latin unciaNo

Second palatalization

After the first palatalization, another palatalization ensued. Final-syllable Primitive Irish front vowels, after merging into a "palatal schwa", forced the palatalization of any consonants preceding them except the consonant cluster cht/xt/, which could never be palatalized. Greene labels this stage the second palatalization, while McCone treats this as a substage of the first palatalization.

Third palatalization

The third palatalization entailed any front vowel in a second or fourth syllable of a Primitive Irish word causing the palatalization of the preceding consonants. Like with the final-syllable palatalization, these front vowels were generally assumed to merge into a palatalizing schwa before causing palatalization.

The following Primitive Irish vowels merged into the palatalizing schwa in second or fourth non-final syllables: [10]

  • Front vowels *e, *ē, *i and *ī
  • *u before a palatalized consonant
  • *ō and *a before a palatalized *s, via an intermediate raising to *u

Other vowels were reduced to non-palatalizing schwas. After syncope regularly removed these vowels, the palatalization (or lack thereof) tended to spread across the resulting consonant cluster.

However, if syncope results in a sonorant becoming surrounded by a consonant before it and a consonant after it, the effects of the third palatalization (or lack thereof) are often overridden by a special set of sound laws, presumed to be caused by the stranded sonorant assuming the role of syllable nucleus until epenthesis occurs before the sonorant. [11]

Counterintuitive Old Irish outcomes of syncope and (non-)palatalisation
Original Primitive Irish syllableOld Irish outcomeExamples
CRECCəRʲCʲ·comainsea/ˈkoṽənʲsʲa/ ("spurns") < *kom-ni-stāyeti
CRACʲCəRʲCʲingainnti/ˈiŋɡəNʲtʲi/ ("unusualness") < *in-gnātiyā
CERCCəRCsonartu/ˈsonərtu/ ("stronger, firmer") < *su-nertyūs
C(C)Eh < C(C)EsCCcuccu/ˈkuku/ ("to them") < *kʷunkʷe sūs
impu/ˈimpu/ ("around them") < *ambi sūs
intaml-/ˈintəṽl-/ (prototonic stem of in·samlathar "imitates, emulates") < *ande-samal-

Dissimilatory deletion of lenited consonants

Lenited fricatives and /l/ straddling the boundary between a stressed syllable and an unstressed one tend to disappear if there is a homorganic consonant near the end of the next syllable. If a non-front vowel comes into contact with a front vowel after it due to this deletion, the two vowels fuse into a diphthong like oí or aí. Otherwise a hiatus between the two vowels may be formed instead. [12]

For the purposes of this sound law, /h/ is treated as if homorganic with s, due to its general origin in lenitions of Proto-Celtic *s.

Some examples of this sound law are given below:

This deletion and diphthong formation happened before syncope. [5] : 124  As a demonstration, coímthecht ended up syncopating its etymon's third syllable instead of the usual second. This can be explained by the first and second syllables fusing into one syllable due to dissimilatory deletion, making the etymon's third syllable the second syllable at the time of syncope.

Intervocalic clusters

Many intervocalic clusters are reduced, becoming either a geminate consonant or a simple consonant with compensatory lengthening of the previous vowel. During the Old Irish period, geminates are reduced to simple consonants, occurring earliest when adjacent to a consonant. By the end of the Old Irish period, written ll mm nn rr are repurposed to indicate the non-lenited sounds /LmNR/ when occurring after a vowel and not before a consonant.

Cluster reduction involving *n:

Cluster reduction involving *s*z:

Lenited stops *x*ɣ*θ*ð generally disappear before sonorants *r*l*n*m, with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. Many examples occur in reduplicated preterites or words with consonant-final prefixes (such as ad-): [4] : 79 

However, *θr, *βr, *βl survive: críathraid "he perforates" < PCelt *krētrāti-s; gabur "goat" < PCelt *gabros (cf. Welsh gafr); mebul "shame" < PCelt *meblā (cf. Welsh mefl).

Any /h/ that ends up in an intervocalic consonant cluster for any reason triggers the devoicing of adjacent consonants in the cluster. [5] : 130 

Reduction of *-ssiy-

Sequences of *-ssiy- in Primitive Irish are reduced to simple *-ss- if the vowel preceding the sequence is unstressed. [13] : 266–267 

*w

Proto-Celtic *w had a complex series of outcomes in Old Irish. [2] : 60–61  [14]

MacNeill's law

MacNeill's law refers to a sound law before and during the Old Irish period causing the loss of lenition of n and l in final unstressed syllables even though they are etymologically expected to be lenited in that position. Newly word-final n and l became unlenited nn and ll when the unstressed syllables containing them began in r, n, l, /v(ʲ)/, or /m(ʲ)/. [15] : 39–44  [16] A vowel between the trigger consonant and the affected l or n must also be present for the law to apply. [5] : 134  However, MacNeill's law often failed to apply if this vowel had been inserted by anaptyxis in the first place instead of coming from an earlier Proto-Celtic vowel. [17]

MacNeill's law in action
EtymonEarly Irish formMeaningMacNeill's law applicable?Comments
*anmanāanmann"names"YesMacNeill's law applies after /m/.
*kolanīcolainn"flesh, body"YesMacNeill's law applies after l.
*ΦīweryonosÉrenn"Ireland" (genitive singular)YesMacNeill's law applies after r.
com- + láncomlann"complete"YesDemonstrates a contrast where the root word lán "full", which lacks MacNeill's law as it is a stressed syllable, undergoes MacNeill's law as derivation moves the morpheme to an unstressed syllable.
*oɸibelāoíbell"spark"YesMacNeill's law applies after /v/.
*gablāgabul"fork"NoMacNeill's law tends to fail to apply if the vowel between the b/v/ and the l did not originally exist in earlier Celtic and was only inserted in early Irish to break up a newly word-final consonant cluster.
*andelomindel(l)"arrangement"MaybeMacNeill's law may have been still synchronically active in Early Irish, continuing to operate as the -nd- consonant cluster reduced to -nn- (and thus became a trigger) over the Old Irish period.

Destruction of final syllables

Proto-Celtic final syllables were often reduced or deleted by Old Irish times.

Raising of unstressed -es-

Unstressed Proto-Celtic -es- became -is- early on if immediately followed by a vowel. The resulting -is- triggers i-affection on preceding stressed syllables as it evolved into *-ih- and then *-iy- in Primitive Irish before either remaining as -i or undergoing a-affection to -e by Old Irish. This raising of *-es- occurred before the early deletion of final *-i. [5] : 99–100  McCone lists the following examples of this raising:

Deletion of final *-i

The absolute-conjunct distinction in Old Irish non-prefixed verbs is generally explained via the apocope of final *-i in multiple Indo-European primary person-number endings that ended in *-i. This normally happens in the conjunct forms, while in the absolute forms the apocope was blocked due to a succeeding enclitic element. [13] : 106–109  Contrast:

The identification of the enclitic that was used to create Old Irish's absolute verb forms has been subject to controversy. At first, Warren Cowgill and Frederik Kortlandt supposed that the protective enclitic was a particle derived from *est(i) "is". The current mainstream explanation, pioneered by Peter Schrijver in the 1990s, identifies this particle as derived from *éti "beyond", cognate to Latin et "and". Kim McCone on the other hand refuses to identify any specific particle responsible.

The environment of final i-deletion is also controversial. McCone believes that all final *-i was lost by default, while Schrijver limits the apocope to just after *t, *s and also *k. [18]

Final-syllable syncope between coronal continuants

After the lenition of post-vocalic consonants in unstressed syllables and the apocope of -i, an early Primitive Irish syncope occurred to vowels between two dental fricatives or two rhotics in final unstressed syllables preceded by another unstressed syllable. [5] : 105–106  For dental fricatives, the result of their collision due to the syncope was originally /t/ but would then become /d/ due to a later voicing in the same environment as the syncope. [19] On the other hand, collision of two rhotics over this syncope would result in unlenited rhotic rr. Unlike the main early Irish syncope, this syncope could never palatalise the resulting consonant produced by the collision of involved continuants, no matter what vowel was between them. Instances of this syncope include:

General final-syllable reductions in Primitive Irish

McCone envisions the evolution of final syllables across Primitive Irish into Old Irish as follows. [5] : 120–121 

Proto-Celtic unstressed long vowels were shortened unless protected by a following Primitive Irish final *-h, whether that *-h came from a final -s (as in several nominal inflectional endings) or -ti (as in 3rd-person singular present forms of verbs). These shortened long vowels included the feminine ā-stem nominative singular ending *-ā and the masculine and neuter o-stem ending *-ī.

Then, absolutely word-final -h, vowels, and nasals caused initial mutations if possible, possibly by resegmentation onto the following word. Any remaining final-syllable short vowels, -h, and nasals after this stage are deleted, while remaining final long vowels (which were subsequently shortened in Old Irish) remained. It is also apparent in Ogham inscriptions that final-syllable Proto-Celtic *o had become *a by Primitive Irish before its loss.

In the following table, the cover symbol C refers to any consonant.

Evolution of pre-Old Irish final syllables
Proto-Celtic endingPre-Irish stagesOld Irish outcomeFunction
-Cos-Cah (no mutation)-Cnominative singular ending of masculine o-stems and neuter s-stems, genitive singular ending of consonant stems
-Com-Can (triggers nasalization)-Cnominative and accusative singular ending of neuter o-stems, accusative singular of masculine o-stems, genitive plural for all declension classes
-Cā-Ca (with shortening, triggers lenition)-Cnominative singular ending of feminine ā-stems
-Cās-Cāh (without shortening)-Canominative plural of feminine ā-stems
-Cams-Cās > -Cāh (without shortening)-Caaccusative plural of consonant stems
-Cāti-Cāt (special loss of final -i in verbs) > -Cāθ > -Cāh (without shortening)-Caconjunct 3rd-person singular ending for the presents of A I verbs
-Cai-Cī > -Ci (with shortening, triggers lenition)-Cʲdative singular of ā-stems
-Cis-Cih-Cʲnominative singular for i-stems
-Cīs-Cīh (without shortening)-C(ʲ)inominative plural for i-stems
-Cī-Ci (with shortening)-Cʲgenitive singular ending of o-stems, nominative plural of masculine o-stems, nominative singular of feminine ī-stems
-Cūs-Cūh (without shortening)-Cuaccusative plural ending for masculine o-stems
-Cūi-Cū > -Cu (with shortening, triggers lenition)-(u)Cdative singular for o-stems
-Cus-Cuh-(u)Cnominative singular for u-stems
-Cous-Cōs > -ōh (without shortening, no mutation)-Cogenitive singular ending of u-stems

Anaptyxis before final sonorants

After the general final-syllable deletion processes, newly word-final consonant clusters ending in sonorant consonants like liquids and nasals in early Irish that were not simplified with compensatory lengthening gained a schwa between the sonorant and the rest of the cluster. The schwa was often rendered with rounded vowel letters like o or u in early texts if next to a labial consonant. [5] : 127  For instance:

Voicing of obstruents in unstressed syllables

Voiceless obstruents, including voiceless stops and voiceless fricatives, were often voiced word-initially and word-finally in unstressed syllables. Each type of voiceless obstruent however had different triggers for them being voiced. These voicings occurred around AD 700. [5] : 132–134  These voicings are collectively labelled McCone's law by David Stifter after their main formulator Kim McCone. [16]

Dental obstruent voicing

Dental obstruents /t,θ/ were voiced in word-initial and word-final unstressed syllables, in addition to between two unstressed syllables. This wave of voicing is also believed to underlie the voicing of t- to d- in proclitics. [19]

  • ro·slogeth > ro·slogad "has been swallowed"
  • díltuth > díltud "denial"
  • ·comalnathar varied with ·comalnadar "fulfils" (conjunct)

Voicing of f to /v/

Happening along with the voicing of dental obstruents was the voicing of f to /v/, spelled b. The voicing of f has been believed to occur in near-identical environments to the voicing of dentals. Schrijver and McCone think the voicing of f could also happen word-finally in stressed syllables as well, but Stifter is not confident in the evidence. [17]

  • *weswā > *wefa > *wef > feb "excellence" (but Stifter thinks it may have spread from its use as a conjunction)
  • *swesros > for, far varying with bar, bor "your (pl.)"

Voicing of /xʲ/

Palatalised voiceless velar fricatives /xʲ/ became their voiced counterparts /ɣʲ/ word-finally and between unstressed vowels.

  • dásachtaich > dásachtaig "madmen" (nominative singular dásachtach)
  • sóinmiche > sóinmige "prosperity"

This voicing of palatalised velar fricatives created paradigmatic alternations in noun declension where final unpalatalised voiceless velar fricatives alternated with palatalised voiced velar fricatives. Occasionally, nouns originally ending in non-palatal /ɣ/ in their paradigms had those unpalatalised voiced velar fricatives analogically devoiced to /x/, for instance in tech < teg < *tegos "house".

Loss of intervocalic -s-

Intervocalic single Proto-Celtic *-s- was lenited to -h- and then lost in the following manners: [6]

Changes to vowels surrounding former intervocalic -s- or glides

Vowels surrounding a former intervocalic -s-, a glide *w or *y, or both underwent special changes by Old Irish.

In unstressed syllables, such vowels generally fused into /e/. [5] : 131–132 

Changes to proclitics

Proclitics that precede a stressed syllable undergo special sound changes during the Old Irish period.

Initial consonants

Initial s was deleted in proclitics. [4] : 111 

Initial t in pretonic position was voiced to d-. [5] : 132–133 

Vowels

Long vowels merged with their corresponding short vowels in proclitics. [4] : 33 

This was followed by o merging with u, with the resulting vowel spelled with both u and o in Old Irish. [5] : 135 

At the same time, e became a in proclitics, except for e before *nt which instead merged with i with the spelling vacillating between e and i. [20]

Depalatalisation

Palatalisation was generally lost in proclitics. [5] : 135 

Examples of changes

The following are some examples of changes between Primitive Irish and Old Irish.

Primitive IrishOld IrishMeaning
inigena [4] : 18 ingendaughter
qrimitir [4] : 137 cruimtherpriest
maqqi [4] : 181 maiccson (gen.)
velitas [4] : 58 filedpoet (gen.)
Lugudeccas [4] : 98 Luigdechgenitive of Lug(u)id (name)
Anavlamattias [4] : 192–193 Anfolmithegenitive of Anblamath (name)
Coillabotas [4] : 42 Coílbadgenitive of name

Allomorphy

These various changes, especially syncope, produced quite complex allomorphy, because the addition of prefixes or various pre-verbal particles (proclitics) in Proto-Celtic changed the syllable containing the stress: According to the Celtic variant of Wackernagel's law, the stress fell on the second syllable of the verbal complex, including any prefixes and clitics. By the Old Irish period, most of this allomorphy still remained, although it was rapidly eliminated beginning in the Middle Irish period.

Among the most striking changes are in prefixed verbs with or without pre-verbal particles. With a single prefix and without a proclitic, stress falls on the verbal root, which assumes the deuterotonic ("second-stressed") form. With a prefix and also with a proclitic, stress falls on the prefix, and the verb assumes the prototonic ("first-stressed") form. Rather extreme allomorphic differences can result:

Example differences between deuterotonic and prototonic forms of various verbs. Stress falls directly after the center dot or hyphen. [4] : 68 
Earlier formDeuterotonicMeaningPrototonicMeaning
*ess-bero(n)t < PIE *-bʰerontias·berat/as-ˈbʲerəd/they sayní-epret/Nʲiː-ˈhebrʲəd/they do not say
*cum-uss-anacon·osnahe restsní-cumsanahe does not rest
*de-ro-uss-scochido·rósc(a)ihe surpassesní-derscaigihe does not surpass
*de-lugi < PIE *-logʰeyetido·lug(a)ihe pardonsní-dílg(a)ihe does not pardon
*de-ro-gn...do·rónahe may doní-dernahe may not do

The following table shows how these forms might have been derived:

Possible derivation of some verbal forms
"they say""they do not say""he rests""he does not rest""he surpasses""he does not surpass"
Post-PIEeks bʰerontinē eks bʰerontikom uks h₂eneh₂tinē kom uks h₂eneh₂tidē pro uks skokeyetinē dē pro uks skokeyeti
Proto-Celticeks ˈberontinī ˈeks-berontikom ˈuks-anātinī ˈkom-uks-anātidī ˈɸro-uks-skokītinī ˈdī-ɸro-uks-skokīti
Early Irishess-es ˈberontní-s ˈess-berontkon-es ˈuss-anátní-s ˈkom-uss-anátdí-s ˈro-uss-skokítní-s ˈdi-ro-uss-skokít
Nasal assimilationess-es ˈberoddní-s ˈess-berodd————
Lenitiones-eh ˈberodNí-h ˈes-berodkon-eh ˈus-anáθNí-h ˈkow̃-us-anáθdí-h ˈRo-us-skoxíθNí-h ˈdi-ro-us-skoxíθ
Palatalizationes-eh ˈbʲerodNʲí-h ˈes-bʲerod—Nʲí-h ˈkow̃-us-anáθdʲí-h ˈRo-us-skoxʲíθNʲí-h ˈdʲi-ro-us-skoxʲíθ
Hiatus reduction————dʲí-h ˈRós-skoxʲíθNʲí-h ˈdʲi-rós-skoxʲíθ
Umlaut (vowel affection)——kon-eh ˈos-anáθNʲí-h ˈkuw̃-us-anáθ—Nʲí-h ˈdʲe-rós-skoxʲíθ
Shortening of absolutely final vowel——————
Loss/assimilation of final consonant(s)es-e bʲ-ˈbʲerodNʲí h-ˈes-bʲerodkon-e h-ˈos-anáNʲí k-ˈkuw̃-us-anádʲí R-ˈRós-skoxʲíNʲí d-ˈdʲe-rós-skoxʲí
Mora reduction in unstressed final voweles bʲ-ˈbʲerod—kon h-ˈos-anaNʲí k-ˈkuw̃-us-anadʲí R-ˈRós-skoxʲiNʲí d-ˈdʲe-rós-skoxʲi
Consonant assimilationes ˈbʲerodNʲí h-ˈebʲ-bʲerod————
Syncopees ˈbʲerodNʲí h-ˈebʲbʲrodkon h-ˈosnaNʲí k-ˈkuw̃sanadʲí R-ˈRósskxʲiNʲíd-ˈdʲersskoxʲi
Further consonant assimilation—Nʲí h-ˈebʲbʲrʲodkon ˈosna—dʲí R-ˈRósskiNʲíd-ˈdʲerskoxʲi
Unstressed vowel reductiones ˈbʲerədNʲí h-ˈebʲbʲrʲəd—Nʲí k-ˈkuw̃sənadi R-ˈRósskiNʲí d-ˈdʲerskəxʲi
Prepositional modificationas ˈbʲerəd———do R-ˈRósski—
Geminate reduction (non-vocalic-adjacent); sandhi geminate reductionas·ˈbʲerədNʲíh-ˈebrʲədkon·ˈosnaNʲí-ˈkuw̃sənado·ˈRóskiNʲí-ˈdʲerskəxʲi
Fricative voicing between unstressed syllables—————Nʲíd-ˈdʲerskəɣʲi
Old Irish pronunciationas·ˈbʲerədNʲí-h-ˈebrʲədkon·ˈosnaNʲí-ˈkuw̃sənado·ˈRóskiNʲí-ˈdʲerskəɣʲi
Old Irish spellingas·beratní-epretcon·osnaní-(c)cumsanado·rósc(a)iní-(d)derscaigi

The most extreme allomorphy of all came from the third person singular of the s-subjunctive because an athematic person marker -t was used, added directly onto the verbal stem (formed by adding -s directly onto the root). That led to a complex word-final cluster, which was deleted entirely. In the prototonic form (after two proclitics), the root was unstressed and thus the root vowel was also deleted, leaving only the first consonant:

Examples of extreme allomorphy of 3rd person singular s-subjunctive, conjunct [21]
Present IndicativePresent Subjunctive
Positive (Deuterotonic)Negative (Prototonic)Positive (Deuterotonic)Negative (Prototonic)
Primitive IrishOld IrishPrimitive IrishOld IrishPrimitive IrishOld IrishPrimitive IrishOld Irish
"he refuses"*uss ˈbond-et(i)as·boind*nís ˈuss-bond-et(i)ní op(a)ind/obənʲdʲ/*uss 'bod-s-tas·bó*nís ˈuss-bod-s-tní op/ob/
"he remains over"*di ˈwo-uss-ret-et(i)do·fúarat*nís ˈdi-wo-uss-ret-et(i)ní díurat*di ˈwo-uss-ret-s-tdo·fúair*nís ˈdi-wo-uss-ret-s-tní diúair
"he repeats, amends"*ad ˈess-reg-et(i)ad·eirrig*nís ˈ*ad-ess-reg-et(i)(ní aithrig?? >) ní aithirrig*ad ˈess-reg-s-tath·e(i)rr*nís ˈad-ess-reg-s-tní aithir
"he can"*con ˈink-et(i)com·ic*nís ˈcom-ink-et(i)ní cum(a)ic > ní cum(u)ing, ní cumaing*con ˈink-s-tcon·í*nís ˈcom-ink-s-t, *nís ˈcom-ink-ā-tní cum, ní cumai
"it happens"*ad ˈcom-ink-et(i)(ad·cum(a)ic >) ad·cumaing*nís ˈad-com-ink-et(i)(ní ecm(a)ic >) ní ecmaing*ad ˈcom-ink-ā-tad·cumai*nís ˈad-com-ink-ā-tní ecm(a)i

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ When followed by an unpalatalized consonant in Old Irish.
  2. ↑ When followed by a palatalized consonant in Old Irish.
  3. 1 2 When followed by a consonant in Old Irish.
  4. 1 2 When not followed by a consonant in Old Irish. This includes words originally followed by *s, which was lost by Old Irish times.
  5. ↑ Originally a neuter proterokinetic noun of the form *gʷenh₂ (nom. sg.), *gʷneh₂s (gen. sg.). The original PIE nominative is still preserved in poetic or legal Old Irish béN "woman" (still neuter) < Proto-Celtic *ben < PIE *gʷenh₂. The normal Old Irish nominative is benL (feminine) < Proto-Celtic *benā < *ben + normal feminine *-ā. No other IE language preserves the original neuter gender.

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References

  1. ↑ Ranko Matasović (2007). "Insular Celtic as a Language Area". In Tristram, Hildegard L.C. (ed.). The Celtic Languages in Contact Papers from the Workshop Within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies, Bonn, 26-27 July 2007. Bonn: Potsdam University Press. p. 108. ISBN   9783940793072 . Retrieved 18 August 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Kortlandt, Frederik (2007). Italo-Celtic Origins and Prehistoric Development of the Irish Language. Leiden Studies in Indo-European. Rodopi. ISBN   978-90-420-2177-8 . Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Greene, David (1973). "The Growth of Palatalization in Old Irish". Transactions of the Philological Society. 72 (1): 127–136. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1973.tb01017.x.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940). A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by Binchy, D. A; Bergin, Osborn. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN   1-85500-161-6.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 McCone, Kim (1996). Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change. Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics. Maynooth: Department of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College. ISBN   978-0-901519-40-5.
  6. 1 2 3 Qiu, Fangzhe (September 18, 2019). "Old Irish aue 'descendant' and its descendants" (PDF). Indogermanische Forschungen. 124 (1). Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 343–374. doi:10.1515/if-2019-0013. ISSN   1613-0405. S2CID   208141257.
  7. 1 2 Schrijver, Peter (1991). "The Development of Primitive Irish aN before Voiced Stop". Ériu. 42. Royal Irish Academy: 13–25. JSTOR   30007533 . Retrieved May 31, 2022.
  8. ↑ Schrijver, Peter (1999). "Vowel Rounding by Primitive Irish Labiovelars". Ériu. 50. Royal Irish Academy: 133–137. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30007731 . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  9. ↑ Schrijver, Peter (1993). "On the Development of Vowels Before Tautosyllabic Nasals in Primitive Irish". Ériu. 44. Royal Irish Academy: 33–52. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30006876 . Retrieved September 24, 2022.
  10. ↑ Griffith, Aaron (2016). "On the old Irish third palatalisation and the 3sg. present of the copula". Ériu. 66 (1). Royal Irish Academy: 39–62. doi:10.1353/eri.2016.0010. ISSN   2009-0056.
  11. ↑ Griffith, Aaron (2007). "The Effect of Syncope with Subsequent Anaptyxis on Consonant Quality in Old Irish" . Ériu. 57. Royal Irish Academy: 35–47. doi:10.1353/eri.2007.0010. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   20696349 . Retrieved August 19, 2022.
  12. ↑ Schrijver, Peter (1993). "Varia IV. OIr. dëec, dëac". Ériu. 44. Royal Irish Academy: 181–184. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30006888 . Retrieved June 25, 2022.
  13. 1 2 McCone, Kim (2006). The Origins and Development of the Insular Celtic Verbal Complex. Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics. Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland. ISBN   978-0-901519-46-7.
  14. ↑ Uhlich, Jürgen (1995). "On the Fate of Intervocalic *-ṷ- in Old Irish, Especially between Neutral Vowels". Ériu. 46. Royal Irish Academy: 11–48. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30007872 . Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  15. ↑ Stüber, Karin (1998). The Historical Morphology of N-stems in Celtic. Maynooth studies in Celtic linguistics. Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. ISBN   978-0-901519-54-2 . Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  16. 1 2 Stifter, David (October 23, 2017). "68. The phonology of Celtic". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter. pp. 1188–1202. doi:10.1515/9783110523874-023. ISBN   9783110523874.
  17. 1 2 Stifter, David (2019). "An apple a day…". Indogermanische Forschungen (in German). 124 (1). Walter de Gruyter GmbH: 171–218. doi:10.1515/if-2019-0006. ISSN   1613-0405. S2CID   208141167.
  18. ↑ Schrijver, Peter (1994). "The Celtic Adverbs for 'Against' and 'With' and the Early Apocope of -I". Ériu. 45. Royal Irish Academy: 151–189. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30007718 . Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  19. 1 2 McCone, Kim (1981). "Final /t/ to /d/ after Unstressed Vowels, and an Old Irish Sound Law". Ériu. 32. Royal Irish Academy: 29–44. ISSN   2009-0056. JSTOR   30007453 . Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  20. ↑ Lash, Elliott (2017). "A quantitative analysis of e/i variation in Old Irish etar and ceta". Ériu. 67. Royal Irish Academy: 141–167. doi:10.3318/eriu.2017.67.3. ISSN   0332-0758. S2CID   171844008.
  21. ↑ Fortson 2004, p. 324.
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