Old Irish

Not to be confused withPrimitive Irish.

Old Irish,also calledOld Gaelic(Old Irish:Goídelc,Ogham script:ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ;Irish:Sean-Ghaeilge;Scottish Gaelic:Seann-Ghàidhlig;Manx:Shenn YernishorShenn Ghaelg), is the oldest form of theGoidelic/Gaelic languagefor which there are extensive written texts. It was used fromc.600 toc.900. The main contemporary texts are datedc.700–850; by 900 the language had already transitioned into earlyMiddle Irish.Some Old Irish texts date from the 10th century, although these are presumably copies of texts written at an earlier time. Old Irish is forebear toModern Irish,ManxandScottish Gaelic.

Old Irish
Old Gaelic
Goídelc
Pronunciation	[ˈɡoːi̯ðʲelɡ]
Region	Ireland,Isle of Man,Wales,Scotland,Devon,Cornwall
Era	6th–10th century; evolved intoMiddle Irishby around the 10th century
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Goidelic Old Irish
Early form	Primitive Irish
Writing system	Latin,Ogham
Language codes
ISO 639-2	sga
ISO 639-3	sga
Glottolog	oldi1246
Linguasphere	50-AAA-ad

Old Irish is known for having a particularly complex system ofmorphologyand especially ofallomorphy(more or less unpredictable variations in stems and suffixes in differing circumstances), as well as a complexsound systeminvolving grammatically significantconsonant mutationsto the initial consonant of a word. Apparently,neither characteristic was present in the precedingPrimitive Irishperiod, though initial mutations likely existed in a non-grammaticalised form in the prehistoric era.

Contemporary Old Irish scholarship is still greatly influenced by the works of a small number of scholars active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such asRudolf Thurneysen(1857–1940) andOsborn Bergin(1873–1950).

Notable characteristics

Notable characteristics of Old Irish compared with other oldIndo-European languages,are:

• Initial mutations, including lenition, nasalisation and aspiration/gemination.
• A complex system of verbal allomorphy.
• A system ofconjugated prepositionsthat is unusual in Indo-European languages but common to Celtic languages. There is a great deal of allomorphy here, as well.
• Infixed or prefixed object prepositions, which are inserted between the verb stem and its initial prefix(es). If a verb lacks any such prefixes, a dummy prefix is normally added.
• Special verbal conjugations are used to signal the beginning of arelative clause.

Old Irish also preserves most aspects of the complicatedProto-Indo-European(PIE) system of morphology. Nouns and adjectives aredeclinedin three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter); three numbers (singular, dual, plural); and five cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, dative and genitive). MostPIE noun stem classesare maintained (o-,yo-,ā-,yā-,i-,u-,r-,n-,s-, and consonant stems). Most of the complexities ofPIE verbal conjugationare also maintained, and there are new complexities introduced by varioussound changes(seebelow).

Classification

Old Irish was the only known member of theGoidelicbranch of theCeltic languages,which is, in turn, a subfamily of the widerIndo-European languagefamily that also includes theSlavonic,Italic/Romance,Indo-AryanandGermanicsubfamilies, along with several others. Old Irish is the ancestor of all modern Goidelic languages:Modern Irish,Scottish GaelicandManx.

A still older form of Irish is known asPrimitive Irish.Fragments of Primitive Irish, mainly personal names, are known from inscriptions on stone written in theOghamAlpha bet. The inscriptions date from about the 4th to the 6th centuries. Primitive Irish appears to have been very close toCommon Celtic,the ancestor of allCeltic languages,and it had a lot of the characteristics of other archaic Indo-European languages.

Sources

Relatively little survives in the way of strictly contemporary sources. They are represented mainly by shorter or longerglosseson the margins orbetween the linesof religiousLatinmanuscripts,most of them preserved in monasteries in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and Austria, having been taken there byearly Irish missionaries.Whereas in Ireland, many of the older manuscripts appear to have been worn out through extended and heavy use, their counterparts on the Continent were much less prone to the same risk because once they ceased to be understood, they were rarely consulted.

The earliest Old Irish passages may be the transcripts found in theCambrai Homily,which is thought to belong to the early 8th century. TheBook of Armaghcontains texts from the early 9th century. Important Continental collections of glosses from the 8th and 9th century include theWürzburgGlosses (mainly) on thePauline Epistles,theMilanGlosses on a commentary to thePsalmsand theSt GallGlosses onPriscian's Grammar.

Further examples are found atKarlsruhe(Germany), Paris (France), Milan,FlorenceandTurin(Italy). A late 9th-century manuscript from theabbey of Reichenau,now inSt. Paul in Carinthia(Austria), contains a spell and four Old Irish poems. TheLiber Hymnorumand theStowe Missaldate from about 900 to 1050.

In addition to contemporary witnesses, the vast majority of Old Irish texts are attested in manuscripts of a variety of later dates. Manuscripts of the later Middle Irish period, such as theLebor na hUidreand theBook of Leinster,contain texts which are thought to derive from written exemplars in Old Irish now lost and retain enough of their original form to merit classification as Old Irish.

The preservation of certain linguistic forms current in the Old Irish period may provide reason to assume that an Old Irish original directly or indirectly underlies the transmitted text or texts.

Phonology

Consonants

Theconsonantinventory of Old Irish is shown in the chart below. The complexity of Old Irish phonology is from a four-way split of phonemes inherited from Primitive Irish, with both afortis–lenisand a "broad–slender" (velarisedvs.palatalised) distinction arising from historical changes. The sounds/fvθðxɣhṽnlr/are the broad lenis equivalents of broad fortis/pbtdkɡsmNLR/;likewise for the slender (palatalised) equivalents. (However, most/ffʲ/sounds actually derive historically from/w/,since/p/was relatively rare in Old Irish, being a recent import from other languages such as Latin.)

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	broad	m	N n		ŋ
	slender	mʲ	Nʲ nʲ		ŋʲ
Plosive	broad	p b	t d		k ɡ
	slender	pʲ bʲ	tʲ dʲ		kʲ ɡʲ
Fricative	broad	f v	θ ð	s	x ɣ	h
	slender	fʲ vʲ	θʲ ðʲ	sʲ	xʲ ɣʲ	hʲ
Nasalized fricative	broad	ṽ
	slender	ṽʲ
Approximant	broad		R r
	slender		Rʲ rʲ
Lateral	broad		L l
	slender		Lʲ lʲ

Some details of Old Irishphoneticsare not known./sʲ/may have been pronounced[ɕ]or[ʃ],as in Modern Irish./hʲ/may have been the same sound as/h/or/xʲ/.The precise articulation of the fortissonorants/N/,/Nʲ/,/L/,/Lʲ/,/R/,/Rʲ/is unknown, but they were probably longer,tenserand generally more strongly articulated than their lenis counterparts/n/,/nʲ/,/l/,/lʲ/,/r/,/rʲ/,as in the Modern Irish and Scottish dialects that still possess a four-way distinction in thecoronalnasalsandlaterals./Nʲ/and/Lʲ/may have been pronounced[ɲ]and[ʎ]respectively. The difference between/R(ʲ)/and/r(ʲ)/may have been that the former weretrillswhile the latter wereflaps./m(ʲ)/and/ṽ(ʲ)/were derived from an original fortis–lenis pair.

Vowels

Old Irish had distinctivevowel lengthin bothmonophthongsanddiphthongs.Short diphthongs weremonomoraic,taking up the same amount of time as short vowels, while long diphthongs were bimoraic, the same as long vowels. (This is much like the situation inOld Englishbut different fromAncient Greekwhose shorter and longer diphthongs were bimoraic and trimoraic, respectively:/ai/vs./aːi/.) The inventory of Old Irish long vowels changed significantly over the Old Irish period, but the short vowels changed much less.

The following short vowels existed:

	Monophthongs		Diphthongs
Close	i	u	ĭu
Mid	e	o	ĕu	(ŏu)1
Open	a,(æ~œ?)		ău

¹The short diphthongŏulikely existed very early in the Old Irish period, but merged with/u/later on and in many instances was replaced with/o/due to paradigmatic levelling. It is attested once in the phrasei routhby theprima manusof theWürzburg Glosses.

/æ~œ/arose from the u-infection of stressed/a/by a/u/that preceded a palatalized consonant. This vowel faced much inconsistency in spelling, often detectable by a word containing it being variably spelled with⟨au, ai, e, i, u⟩across attestations.Tulach"hill, mound" is the most commonly cited example of this vowel, with the spelling of its inflections includingtulachitself,telaig,telocho,tilchaib,taulichandtailaig.This special vowel also ran rampant in many words starting with the stressed prefixair-(from Proto-Celtic*ɸare).

Archaic Old Irish (before about 750) had the following inventory of long vowels:

	Monophthongs		Diphthongs
Close	iː	uː	iu	ui
Mid	e₁ː,e₂ː1	o₁ː,(o₂ː?)2	eu	oi,(ou)3
Open	aː		ai,au3

¹Both/e₁ː/and/e₂ː/were normally written⟨é⟩but must have been pronounced differently because they have different origins and distinct outcomes in later Old Irish./e₁ː/stems from Proto-Celtic *ē (< PIE *ei), or fromēin words borrowed from Latin./e₂ː/generally stems fromcompensatory lengtheningof short *e because of loss of the following consonant (in certain clusters) or a directly following vowel inhiatus.It is generally thought that/e₁ː/was higher than/e₂ː/.Perhaps/e₁ː/was[eː]while/e₂ː/was[ɛː].They are clearly distinguished in later Old Irish, in which/e₁ː/becomes⟨ía⟩(but⟨é⟩before a palatal consonant)./e₂ː/becomes⟨é⟩in all circumstances. Furthermore,/e₂ː/is subject tou-affection, becoming⟨éu⟩or⟨íu⟩,while/e₁ː/is not.

²A similar distinction may have existed between/o₁ː/and/o₂ː/,both written⟨ó⟩,and stemming respectively from former diphthongs (*eu, *au, *ou) and from compensatory lengthening. However, in later Old Irish both sounds appear usually as⟨úa⟩,sometimes as⟨ó⟩,and it is unclear whether/o₂ː/existed as a separate sound any time in the Old Irish period.

³/ou/existed only in early archaic Old Irish (c.700 or earlier); afterwards it merged into/au/.Neither sound occurred before another consonant, and both sounds became⟨ó⟩in later Old Irish (often⟨ú⟩or⟨u⟩before another vowel). The late⟨ó⟩does not develop into⟨úa⟩,suggesting that⟨áu⟩>⟨ó⟩postdated⟨ó⟩>⟨úa⟩.

Later Old Irish had the following inventory of long vowels:

	Monophthongs		Diphthongs
Close	iː	uː	iu,ia	ui,ua
Mid	eː	oː	eu	oi?1
Open	aː

¹Early Old Irish/ai/and/oi/merged in later Old Irish. It is unclear what the resulting sound was, as scribes continued to use both⟨aí⟩and⟨oí⟩to indicate the merged sound. The choice of/oi/in the table above is somewhat arbitrary.

The distribution of shortvowelsinunstressedsyllablesis a little complicated. All short vowels may appear in absolutely final position (at the very end of a word) after both broad and slender consonants. The front vowels/e/and/i/are often spelled⟨ae⟩and⟨ai⟩after broad consonants, which might indicate a retracted pronunciation here, perhaps something like[ɘ]and[ɨ].All ten possibilities are shown in the following examples:

Old Irish	Pronunciation	English	Annotations
marba	/ˈmarva/	kill	1sg.subj.
léicea	/ˈLʲeːɡʲa/	leave	1 sg. subj.
marbae	/ˈmarve/([ˈmarvɘ]?)	kill	2 sg. subj.
léice	/ˈLʲeːɡʲe/	leave	2 sg. subj.
marbai	/ˈmarvi/([ˈmarvɨ]?)	kill	2 sg.indic.
léici	/ˈlʲeːɡʲi/	leave	2 sg. indic.
súlo	/ˈsuːlo/	eye	gen.
doirseo	/ˈdoRʲsʲo/	door	gen.
marbu	/ˈmarvu/	kill	1 sg. indic.
léiciu	/ˈLʲeːɡʲu/	leave	1 sg. indic.

The distribution of short vowels in unstressed syllables, other than when absolutely final, was quite restricted. It is usually thought that there were only two allowed phonemes:/ə/(written⟨a, ai, e, i⟩depending on the quality of surrounding consonants) and/u/(written⟨u⟩or⟨o⟩). The phoneme/u/tended to occur when the following syllable contained an *ū inProto-Celtic(for example,dligud/ˈdʲlʲiɣuð/"law" (dat.) < PC *dligedū), or after a broadlabial(for example,lebor/ˈLʲevur/"book";domun/ˈdoṽun/"world" ). The phoneme/ə/occurred in other circumstances. The occurrence of the two phonemes was generally unrelated to the nature of the corresponding Proto-Celtic vowel, which could be any monophthong: long or short.

Long vowels also occur in unstressed syllables. However, they rarely reflect Proto-Celtic long vowels, which were shortened prior to the deletion (syncope) of inner syllables. Rather, they originate in one of the following ways:

• from the late resolution of ahiatusof two adjacent vowels (usually as a result of loss of *s between vowels);
• fromcompensatory lengtheningin response to loss of a consonant (cenél"kindred, gender" < *cenethl;du·air-chér"I have purchased" < *-chechr,preterite ofcrenaid"buys");
• from assimilation of an unstressed vowel to a corresponding long stressed vowel;
• from late compounding;
• from lengthening of short vowels before unlenited/m,N,L,R/,still in progress in Old Irish (compareerríndem"highest" vs.rind"peak").

Stress

Stress is generally on the first syllable of a word. However, in verbs it occurs on the second syllable when the first syllable is aclitic(the verbal prefixas-inas·beir/asˈberʲ/"he says" ). In such cases, the unstressed prefix is indicated in grammatical works with a followingcentre dot(⟨·⟩).

Orthography

As with mostmedieval languages,theorthographyof Old Irish is not fixed, so the following statements are to be taken as generalisations only. Individualmanuscriptsmay vary greatly from these guidelines.

The Old IrishAlpha betconsists of the following eighteenlettersof theLatin Alpha bet:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u,

in addition to the fivelongvowels,shown by anacute accent(´):

á, é, í, ó, ú,

thelenitedconsonants denoted with asuperdot(◌̇):

ḟ, ṡ,

and theeclipsisconsonants also denoted with a superdot:

ṁ, ṅ.

Old Irishdigraphsinclude the lenition consonants:

ch, fh, th, ph, sh,

the eclipsis consonants:

mb, nd, ng;ṁb, ṅd, ṅg,

thegeminatives:

bb, cc, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, tt,

and thediphthongs:

aé/áe/aí/ái, oé/óe/oí/ói,

uí, ía, áu, úa, éu, óu, iu, au, eu,

ai, ei, oi, ui;ái, éi, ói, úi.

The following table indicates the broad pronunciation of various consonant letters in various environments:

Broad consonant phonemes
Letter	Word-initial			Non-initial
	unmutated	eclipsed	lenited	single	geminate
b	/b/	⟨mb⟩/m/	/v/		⟨bb⟩/b/
c	/k/	/ɡ/	⟨ch⟩/x/	/k/,/ɡ/	⟨cc⟩/k/
d	/d/	⟨nd⟩/N/	/ð/		—
f	/f/	/v/	⟨ḟ/fh⟩//	/f/	—
g	/ɡ/	⟨ng⟩/ŋ/	/ɣ/		—
h	See explanation below
l	/L/	—	/l/		⟨ll⟩/L/
m	/m/	—	/ṽ/		⟨mm⟩/m/
n	/N/	—	/n/		⟨nn⟩/N/
p	/p/	/b/	⟨ph⟩/f/	/p/,/b/	⟨pp⟩/p/
r	/R/	—	/r/		⟨rr⟩/R/
s₁	/s/	—	⟨ṡ/sh⟩/h/	/s/	—
s₂1	/s/	—	⟨f/ph⟩/f/		—
t	/t/	/d/	⟨th⟩/θ/	/t/,/d/	⟨tt⟩/t/

Angle brackets⟨⟩here indicate graphemic differences to the unmutated consonant.

A dash (—) here indicates that the respective consonant is not subject to eclipsis. These consonants are:r, l, n, s

¹Thes₂arises from older*swor*sɸwhich is lenited to/f/.In Old Irish there are only several words containings₂:sïur::fïur,phïur,sister;sesser:: mórfesser,six persons / seven (lit. great six) persons; or in reduplicated verbsdo·seinn:: do·sephainn,pursue.

When the consonantsb, d, gare eclipsed by the preceding word (always from a word-initial position), their spelling and pronunciation change to:⟨mb⟩/m/,⟨nd⟩/N/,⟨ng⟩/ŋ/

Generally, geminating a consonant ensures its unmutated sound. While the letter⟨c⟩may be voiced/ɡ/at the end of some words, but when it is written double⟨cc⟩it is always voiceless/k/in regularised texts; however, even final/ɡ/was often written "cc", as inbec / becc"small, little" (Modern Irish and Scottishbeag,Manxbeg).

In later Irish manuscripts, lenitedfandsare denoted with the letterh⟨fh⟩,⟨sh⟩,instead of using a superdot⟨ḟ⟩,⟨ṡ⟩.

When initialsstemmed from Primitive Irish*sw-,its lenited version is⟨f⟩[ɸ].

The slender (palatalised) variants of the 13 consonants are denoted with/ʲ/marking the letter. They occur in the following environments:

• Before a writtene, é, i, í
• After a writteni,when not followed by a vowel letter (but not after the diphthongsaí, oí, uí)

Although Old Irish has both a sound/h/and a letterh,there is no consistent relationship between the two. Vowel-initial words are sometimes written with an unpronouncedh,especially if they are very short (the Old Irishprepositioni"in" was sometimes writtenhi) or if they need to be emphasised (the name of Ireland,Ériu,was sometimes writtenHériu). On the other hand, words that begin with the sound/h/are usually written without it:a ór/ahoːr/"her gold". If the sound and the spellingco-occur,it is by coincidence, asní hed/Nʲiːheð/"it is not".

Stops following vowels

The voiceless stops of Old Irish arec, p, t.They contrast with the voiced stopsg, b, d.Additionally, the lettermcan behave similarly to a stop following vowels. These seven consonants often mutate when not in the word-initial position.

In non-initial positions, the single-letter voiceless stopsc, p,andtbecome the voiced stops/ɡ/,/b/,and/d/respectively unless they are written double. Ambiguity in these letters' pronunciations arises when a single consonant follows anl, n,orr.The lenited stopsch, ph,andthbecome/x/,/f/,and/θ/respectively.

Non-initial voiceless stops⟨c⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨t⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
macc	/mak/	son
becorbecc	/bʲeɡ/	small
oporopp	/ob/	refuse
bratt	/brat/	mantle
brotorbrott	/brod/	goad
Lenited consonants⟨ch⟩,⟨ph⟩,⟨th⟩
ech	/ex/	horse
oíph	/oif/	beauty
áth	/aːθ/	ford

The voiced stopsb, d,andgbecome fricative/v/,/ð/,and/ɣ/,respectively—identical sounds to their word-initial lenitions.

Non-initial voiced stops⟨g⟩,⟨b⟩,⟨d⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
dub	/duv/	black
mod	/moð/	work
mug	/muɣ/	slave
claideb	/klaðʲəv/	sword
claidib	/klaðʲəvʲ/	swords

In non-initial positions, the lettermusually becomes the nasal fricative/ṽ/,but in some cases it becomes a nasal stop, denoted as/m/.In cases in which it becomes a stop,mis often written double to avoid ambiguity.

Non-initial consonant⟨m⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
dám	/daːṽ/	company
lomorlomm	/Lom/	bare

Stops following other consonants

Ambiguity arises in the pronunciation of the stop consonants (c, g, t, d, p, b) when they followl, n,orr:

Homographs involving⟨l⟩,⟨n⟩,⟨r⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
derc	/dʲerk/	hole
derc	/dʲerɡ/	red
daltae	/daLte/	fosterling
celtae	/kʲeLde/	who hide
anta	/aNta/	of remaining
antae	/aNde/	who remain

Afterm,the letterbis naturally a stop/b/.Afterd, l, r,the letterbis fricative/v/:

Consonant⟨b⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
imb	/imʲbʲ/	butter
odb	/oðv/	knot(in a tree)
delb	/dʲelv/	image
marb	/marv/	dead

Afternorr,the letterdis a stop/d/:

Consonant⟨d⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
bind	/bʲiNʲdʲ/	melodious
cerd	/kʲeRd/	art, skill

Aftern, l,orr,the lettergis usually a stop/ɡ/,but it becomes a fricative/ɣ/in a few words:

Consonant⟨g⟩
Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
long	/Loŋɡ/	ship
delgordelc	/dʲelɡ/	thorn
argatorarggat	/arɡəd/	silver
ingen	/inʲɣʲən/	daughter
ingen	/iNʲɡʲən/	nail, claw
bairgen	/barʲɣʲən/	loaf of bread

The consonantsl, n, r

The lettersl, n, rare generally written double when they indicatetense sonorantsand single when they indicatelax sonorants.Originally, it reflected an actual difference between single and geminate consonants, as tense sonorants in many positions (such as between vowels or word-finally) developed from geminates. As the gemination was lost, the use of written double consonants was repurposed to indicate tense sonorants. Doubly written consonants of this sort do not occur in positions where tense sonorants developed from non-geminated Proto-Celtic sonorants (such as word-initially or before a consonant).

Old Irish	Pronunciation	English
corr	/koR/	crane
cor	/kor/	putting
coll	/koL/	hazel
col	/kol/	sin
sonn	/soN/	stake
son	/son/	sound
ingen	/inʲɣʲən/	daughter
ingen	/iNʲɡʲən/	nail, claw

Geminate consonants appear to have existed since the beginning of the Old Irish period, but they were simplified by the end, as is generally reflected by the spelling. Eventually, however,ll, mm, nn, rrwere repurposed to indicate nonlenited variants of those sounds in certain positions.

Vowels

Written vowelsa, ai, e, iin poststressed syllables (except when absolutely word-final) all seem to represent phonemic/ə/.The particular vowel that appears is determined by the quality (broad vs. slender) of the surrounding consonants and has no relation to the etymological vowel quality:

Preceding consonant	Following consonant	Spelling	Example
broad	broad	⟨a⟩	dígal/ˈdʲiːɣəl/"vengeance" (nom.)
broad	slender (in open syllable)	⟨a⟩
broad	slender (in closed syllable)	⟨ai⟩	dígail/ˈdʲiːɣəlʲ/"vengeance" (acc./dat.)
slender	broad	⟨e⟩	dliged/ˈdʲlʲiɣʲəð/"law" (acc.)
slender	slender	⟨i⟩	dligid/ˈdʲlʲiɣʲəðʲ/"law" (gen.)

It seems likely that spelling variations reflectedallophonicvariations in the pronunciation of/ə/.

History

Main article:Phonological history of Old Irish

Old Irish underwent extensive phonological changes fromProto-Celticin both consonants and vowels.Final syllables were lost ortransphonologizedas grammatical mutations on the following word. In addition, unstressed syllables faced various reductions and deletions of their vowels.

Grammar

Main article:Old Irish grammar

Old Irish is afusional,nominative-accusative,andVSOlanguage.

Nounsdeclinefor 5cases:nominative,accusative,genitive,prepositional,vocative;3genders:masculine, feminine, neuter; 3numbers:singular,dual,plural.Adjectivesagreewith nouns incase,gender,andnumber.Theprepositional caseis called thedativeby convention.

Verbsconjugatefor 3tenses:past,present,future;3aspects:simple,perfective,imperfective;4moods:indicative,subjunctive,conditional,imperative;2voices:active,andpassive;independent,anddependentforms; andsimple,andcomplexforms. Verbs displaytense,aspect,mood,voice,and sometimesportmanteauforms throughsuffixes,orstemvowel changes for the former four.Procliticsform a verbal complex with the core verb, and the verbal complex is often preceded by preverbalparticlessuch asní(negative marker),in(interrogative marker),ro(perfective marker).Direct objectpersonal pronounsoccur between thepreverband the verbalstem.Verbsagreewith theirsubjectinpersonandnumber.A single verb can stand as an entire sentence. Emphatic particles such as -sa and -se are affixed to the end of the verb.

Prepositionsinflectforpersonandnumber,and different prepositionsgoverndifferentcases,sometimes depending on thesemanticsintended.

See also

• Early Irish literature
• Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Auraicept na n-Éces
• Goidelic substrate hypothesis

Bibliography

• Beekes, Robert (1995).Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction.
• Fortson, Benjamin W. IV (2004).Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction.
• Green, Antony (1995).Old Irish Verbs and Vocabulary.Somerville, Massachusetts: Cascadilla Press.ISBN1-57473-003-7.
• Kortlandt, Frederik Herman Henri (2007).Italo-Celtic Origins and the Prehistory of the Irish Language.Leiden Studies in Indo-European. Vol. 14. Rodopi.ISBN978-90-420-2177-8.
• Lehmann, R. P. M.;W. P. Lehmann(1975).An Introduction to Old Irish.New York: Modern Language Association of America.ISBN0-87352-289-3.
• Matasović, Ranko (2011).Problems in the Reconstruction of Proto-Celtic(PDF).Pavia Summer School in Indo-European Linguistics.
• McCone, Kim (1987).The Early Irish Verb.Maynooth: An Sagart.ISBN1-870684-00-1.
• McCone, Kim (2005).A First Old Irish Grammar and Reader.Maynooth: Department of Old and Middle Irish, National University of Ireland.ISBN0-901519-36-7.
• O'Connell, Frederick William (1912).A Grammar of Old Irish.Belfast: Mayne, Boyd & Son.
• Quin, E. G. (1975).Old-Irish Workbook.Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.ISBN0-901714-08-9.
• Ringe, Don (2006).From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
• Sihler, Andrew (1995).New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin.Oxford University Press.
• Stifter, David (2006).Sengoídelc: Old Irish for Beginners.Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.ISBN0-8156-3072-7.
• Strachan, John (1949).Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses.Revised byOsborn Bergin(Fourth ed.). Dublin: Royal Irish Academy.ISBN0-901714-35-6.
• Thurneysen, Rudolf(1946).A Grammar of Old Irish.Translated byD. A. BinchyandOsborn Bergin.Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.ISBN1-85500-161-6.
• Tigges, Wim; Feargal Ó Béarra (2006).An Old Irish Primer.Nijmegen: Stichting Uitgeverij de Keltische Draak.ISBN90-806863-5-2.

External links

• An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic LanguageMacBain, Alexander Gairm Publications, 1982
• Old Irish dictionaryArchived30 April 2016 at theWayback Machine
• Old Irish Onlineby Patrizia de Bernardo Stempel and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at theLinguistics Research Centerat theUniversity of Texas at Austin
• eDIL(digital edition of theDictionary of the Irish Language)
• glottothèque - Ancient Indo-European Grammars online,an online collection of introductory videos to Ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen