Lesses 4^^- bwtf &f»ff*r "&<h$oi
Lesson 1
The map to the left illustrates the areas in Western Europe where Celtic languages were spoken at the end of the 19'h century. In the meantime these areas have shrunk dramatically.
Key to the map:
1. Irish, 2. Scots Gaelic, 3. Manx, 4. Welsh, 5. Cornish (not spoken anymore at that time), 6. Breton
Illustration 1.13: The modem Celtic languages around 1901)
1.4.1. The Gaelic languages
Primitive Irish is an archaic stage of Irish, written in the peculiar Ogam alphabet. As the Ogam alphabet was in use during a decisive period of the development of Irish, a lot of sound changes are directly observable on Ogam inscriptions. That is. in older inscriptions inflectional endings ultimately going back to PIE are still written, whereas in later inscriptions these endings have been lost. Ogam inscriptions practically only consist of personal names in the genitive case.
Irish, Scottish Gaelic and A/am form the Goidelic branch of Illustration 1.14: Poncelrism Celtic. All three languages are 'Gaelic' To avoid confusion it is best to refer to every language bv its individual name. Up until late medieval times there existed only one literary standard. After Ireland had fallen under English dominion Scottish Caelic and Manx started to develop standards of their own. The orthography of Scottish Gaelic is very similar to that of Irish, but Manx is written with English orthography! This can obscure important phonological distinctions of the language (e.g., the distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants).
All Goidelic languages are minority languages in their respective countries and are in a very weak and vulnerable state. Despite being the first official language of Ireland, Irish as an everyday language is spoken only in a few remote areas, mainly on the west coast of the island. Approximately 2% of the Irish population regularly speaks Irish. Only in the last years has Irish become available on modern mass media like television. Scottish Gaelic is spoken mainly on the north western islands off the Scottish mainland. About 1% of the Scottish population speaks Gaelic. In Nova Scotia (Canada) a few Gaelic speaking villages used to exist, but the language has now ceased to be spoken. Manx was spoken on the Isle of Man and died out in the 1960s. Today efforts are made to revive the language.
Illustration 1.15: Fest-Noz Brezhoneg
I ,-.Min 1
1.4.2. The British languages
Welsh (Cymric), Comish and Breton make up the British branch of Celtic. All three are closely related to one another, with Cornish and Breton being especially close. Cumbric, which died out some time in the Middle Ages, was spoken in North England and South Scotland and must have been very close to Welsh. Nearly nothing has come down to us of Cumbric. Perhaps Pictish, a language known from a handful of unintelligiable, early medieval inscriptions from Scotland, was a British language as well, but this is absolutely unclear.
All British languages are minority languages in their respective countries. Welsh has about 600,000 speakers, a quarter of the population of Wales. In recent years it has been possible to halt the former rapid decline of speakers and the numbers have started to rise slightly again. Welsh is also spoken in a few villages in Patagonia (Argentina). Despite being situated on the European continent, Breton is called an Insular Celtic language, because the language was brought to Brittany by refugees from Britain in the early middle ages. Breton has about 250,000 speakers, most of whom are over 60 years of age. Because of France's francocentric language policy Breton is doomed to death in a few decades. Cornish died out in the late 18* century. This century efforts have been made to revive the
language. A few hundred people speak it as their everyday language, several hundred more know the language, but they are divided into three different standards.
1.5. What is Old Irish?
The period of the 8"' and 9,h centuries in Irish language history is called Old Irish. Our first extant manuscripts containing Irish language material date from ca. the end of the 7,h century and the beginning of the 8,h century. The Irish literary tradition probably started at least a century earlier, bul no manuscripts from that time have come down to us. Those texts written in the 7* century that have survived (e.g., many law texts like Crith Gablach) are to be found in much later manuscripts from the early modern times.
The earliest Old Insh texts in contemporary manuscripts have mainly survived not in Ireland, but in monasteries on the European continent. For the most part these texts do not contain narrative or poetic literature, but consist of very short interlinear glosses and translations of Latin texts: the Pauline epistles (Wb. = WUrzburg glosses, middle of the 8lh century), a commentary on the psalms (Ml. - Milan glosses, beginning of the 9"' century) and the Latin grammar of Pris-cianus (Sg. = St. Gall glosses, middle of the 9lh century). From Vienna stem two very short collections of glosses on the Easter calculation (Vienna Bede) and on Eutychius. In the library of the monastery of St. Paul im Lavanttal the very famous Reichenau Codex2 (9th century) is kept, which contains five Old Irish poems, among them the popular poem on the scholar and his cat Messe ocus Pangur Ban. All these texts are collected in the Thesaurus Palaeohibemicus (Thes.). Rudolf THURNEYSEN's Grammar of Old Irish (GOI), which is the foundation of all modern hand-
; This codex can be found online at: http://ww\v.rz.uni-pot.sdanvde/u/!ingtri/schulheft/index.html
9
Lesson 1
books of Old Irish, is based on the language of the Old Irish glosses. This is basically the language you will learn in this course.
Because even in that corpus linguistic variation can he observed, the language of basically the 8lK century is called Classical Old Irish, while that of especially the end of the 9* century Late Old Irish. The language prior to that period, that is from the 7'h century or perhaps even earlier, shows decisively older linguistic traits and is therefore called Early Old Irish. The period from the 10h to the 12* century is labelled Middle Irish. The language of that period shows a great amount of grammatical simplification in comparison to Old Irish, but also an amount of linguistic variation, which points to the state of a language in transition to a different grammatical system. Modem Irish then (ca. from 1200 onwards) is again a language with a fixed and standardized grammar.
The language encountered in Old Irish texts shows a surprisingly high degree of uniformity, with hardly any dialectal distinctions discernible, although these certainly must have existed at the time. From this it would seem that Old Irish was a literary language whose standard was taught to the Irish "men of writing' in school, much as standardized Latin was taught to Continental pupils as a language of literary communication, long after Classical Latin had ceased to be a spoken language of the people. One may wonder if Classical Old Irish was ever spoken as such, or whether it was solely a written standard.
What makes the study of Old Irish maybe a bit more difficult than that of other languages? Apart from the intricacies of the grammar (e.g., it is sometimes hardly possible to recognize the underlying word in a given grammatical form), there are other factors that contribute to the difficulties one encounters when reading Old Irish texts. Most of the texts are not to be found in manuscripts of the time they were originally composed, but in much later copies. Copying, on the one hand, always leads to orthographic mistakes. On the other hand, the language of the scribes was younger than that of the texts they were copying; this often lead to "automatic corrections,' when the scribes replaced older, obsolete grammatical forms with more familiar ones. I hus the texts changed over the course of time, and often they show an intricately intertwined mixture of Old. Middle and Modern Irish grammatical forms. Additionally, the orthography of Irish changed over the course of time, too, so that you may find in a manuscript one word written in Old Irish, the next in Modern Irish spelling and the third in a completely odd attempt at combining different standards.
You won't, however, encounter difficulties of the latter tvpe in the present book. What 1 will be using is an idealized grammar of Old Irish in a purity that probably never existed in reality, spelled in a normalized orthography, that today is usually used for modem editions. But you should be aware of the fact that as soon as you start to work with real Irish texts and with manuscripts, you will meet with trouble.
Lesson 2
2.1. The writing of Old Irish
In the course of history three different writing systems were used for Irish:
1. the Ogam alphabet
2. the Go Gaelach ("Irish type'—a variant of the Roman alphabet)
3. and the Roman alphabet.
2.2. Ogam
The oldest writing system is Ogam (Modern Irish spelling Ogham), most probably developed in Ireland itself or in the multicultural environment of southwest Britain during the later centuries of Roman rule. Ogam is a monumental script consisting of strokes and notches engraved on the edges of standing stones {Ogam stones). The extant inscriptions either served a funeral function or denoted land possession. Maybe Ogam was also used on wooden sticks for other purposes but nothing of that sort has remained in the archaeological record and the odd references in Irish sagas to that practice need not necessarily be taken at face value. Ogam was in use from the 4"' to the 6,h/7,h century. Occasional references in popular books to Ogam inscriptions from North America are pure phantasy.
In medieval manuscript tradition names for the Ogam letters have come down to us. Often tree names are used for the names, but many of these arboreal identifications are more than dubious (a detailed discussion in McMANUS 1991: 36 ff.). Not all original phonological values of the Ogam letters are absolutely clear: values given in brackets in ill. 2.1 represent the certain or possible original value (cf. McMANUS 1991:1-41).
		Group I			Group II
T	B	Beithe (Birch)	X	H (P/J?) hll'ath (Whitethorn. Fear?)	
T	L	Luis (Rowan-tree)	A	D	Dair (Oak)
III	F(V)	Fern (Alder)	JIL	T	Tinne (Holly?)
W	S	Sail (Willow)	JUL	C	Coll (Hazel)
irar	N	Nin (Ash-tree?)	inn	Q	Cert (Bush?)
Illustration 2.1a: The Ogam alphabet
ID
11
Lesson 2
		Group IU			Group IV
	M	Muin (Vine)		A	Ailm (Pine-tree)
t	G	Gort (Ivy)		O	Onn (Ash-tree)
#	NG (G«)	nGetal (Killing)	—	U	Ur (Heath)
§	Z (ST?)	Strait (Sulphur)	—	E	Edad (Aspen?)
MIL fist	R	Ruis (Elder-tree)	—	I	Idad (Yew Tree?)
Illustration 2.tb: The Ogam alphabet
111. 2.2 gives a typical example of an Ogam inscription, found at the northwest end of Mount Brandon (Dingle Peninsula, Co. Chiarrai) [CIIC 145, p. 140]. The Ogam inscription reads as follows (from left to right):
' ilii .....
In Roman transliteration (Ogam inscriptions are always transliterated in uppercase!):
QR1M1TIR RON[A]NN MAQ COMOGANN 'of the priest Ronan, the son of Comgah'
Since the inscription shows linguistically young, i.e., Archaic Irish forms (loss of final syllables, raising of e > i before a following i, loss of g between vowel and n with compensatory lengthening), it must be from a relatively late date, perhaps the later 5th or 6lh century, but no absolute dating is possible. In earlier inscriptions the mentioned sound changes would not have taken place yet; at a Primitive Irish stage the inscription would probably have looked like "QREMITERI RONAGNI MAQ1 COMAGAGNI. Into classical Old Irish the inscription would translate as *cruimthir Rdnain maiee Comgain.
Illustration 2.2: Ogam stone, CIIC 145. Reprinted by permission of Four Courts Press
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Lesson 2
2.3. C16 Gaelach
In medieval times a special Irish writing style developed from the Roman semi-uncial scipt. At the early modern period with the invention of the printing press this Irish type was standardized as Clo Gaelach 'Irish type' for the printing of the Irish language. The Clo Gaelach is basically identical with the Roman alphabet, except for the shapes of a few letters (g, lowercase r and s). The Clo Gaelach was in use until the 1950s. In secondhand book shops you can find many books in this type, and the type is still often used to give public inscriptions a kind of old Irish flair. Older editions of Old Irish texts, especially from the 19lh century, are also printed in C16 Gaelach.
a b	c	p	e	V	5	h	1
a b	c	d	e	{	g	h	i
1 111	n	0	P	%v		t	u
1      m      n o Illustration 2.3: Clo Gaelach, the basic			P set of letters	r	s	t	u
The Clo Gaelach is a reduced variant of the Roman alphabet and basicallv consists of 18 letters. But in addition some of the letters can be combined with the diacritics <'>■ and <•>. Moreover there is one special sign <7> for "and." The diacritic <> marks the length of a vowel, never the word accent (which in Old Irish basically is fixed on the first syllable). The name for the length mark in Irish is sineadh l'ada. The diacritic <> is the lenition mark, which in modern orthography is expressed by an <h> following the letter. The transliteration below is in modern Irish orthography.
Abe
ä     bh ch
Ö p s,f ö     ph sh
dh
th
e
e
ii ü
F 5 1 ™ fh    gh     i mh
7
agus
Illustration 2.4: The diacritics of the Clo Gaelach
1 *<* and '>' are the brackets used to indicate graphemes, i.e., the basic, distinctive written signs.
13
83
Lesson 2
This is a detail of page 113 of the famous manuscript Book of Leinster (Lebor Laig-nech or LL = TCD MS 1339), written in the 12lh century. You'll find the complete page at: http://www.isos.dcu.ie/tcd/tcd_ms_ 1339/jpgs/l 13.jpg
Illustration 2.5: portion of LL 20b. Reprinted by permission of the library of Trinily College Dublin
2.4. The Roman alphabet
Since the introduction of literacy into Ireland in the early Middle Ages Irish was, apart from Ogam inscriptions, written in the Roman alphabet, though in a special character that gradually developed into the Cld Gaelach. In the course of the reform of 1953, when a new Irish standard language ('An Caighdean Oifigiuit) was created, the C/o Gaelach was abolished as the official Irish script and the standard Western European Roman alphabet with certain adaptations was again adopted. Old Irish texts have been printed using the Roman alphabet since last century.
The orthographic conventions for Irish (Old and Modern) are very different from usual' writing rules for European languages and will be dealt with in the following lesson.
Lesson 3
3.1. The phonological system of Old Irish in comparison
honemes are the basic sounds of a language that make distinctions between words. Thus it is easilv comprehensible that the difference between the two German words <haus> 'house' and <maus> 'mouse' lies in the two initial sounds /h/1 and /m/, which proves that the two are independent phonemes. But often phonemes of one language are not perceived as different sounds in another. For example /s/ and /z/ are two different phonemes in English, i.e., they make lexical distinctions: /su:/ (spelled <sue>) is something other than /zu:/ (spelled <zoo>), whereas in German they are merely variants of one another: /sone/ and /zone/ are only different pronunciations of the same word <sonne> 'sun.' In this case we say that /s/ and /z/ are allophones in German. The phonological system of a language is the whole complex of its phonemes and their interrelations. Traditionally these phonemes are grouped according to certain phonetic features. Every language, and even every dialect of a language, has its own, individual phonological system that distinguishes it from other languages. Old Irish possesses an extremely high number of phonemes in comparison to other European languages. Old Irish has an especially high number of consonantal phonemes.
In nearly no alphabetically written language is there a correspondence in the number of phonemes and graphemes. In most cases the number of phonemes exceeds the number of gra-phemes bv far. liul Ihere is hardly another language where the dilference between phonemes and graphemes is as blatant as in Old Irish. Eighteen letters are used to express 66 sounds, which means that on an average every letter has more than 3 meanings, depending on the position in the word or sentence and depending on the surrounding letters.
In the following table (illus. 3.1) a few languages are compared as regards [he numbers of their phonemes and the numbers of letters used in their respective orthographic systems. The phonemes are further separated into consonants, vowels and diphthongs. Sometimes letters may have both consonantal and vocalic values, as in English where <y> can be a consonant as in <year> or a vowel as in <by>. This is indicated by a number after a '+' in the fourth column.
Note:
1. if graphemes for long vowels marked with the smeadh fada (which is not obligatory in Old Irish) are counted separately from short vowel graphemes, one arrives at 23 graphemes (13/10). If one adds the letters with the punctum dclens, which was not used in the earliest Old Irish period and prevailed only in Modern Irish, one arrives at 32 graphemes (22/10).
2. In THURNEYSEN's phonological system of Old Irish (GO! 96 ff.), which has velarization ('u-quality') as a third series of consonantal quality beside palatalization and non-palatalization, and gemination as a further mutation beside lenition, nasalization and aspiration, there is a record number of nearly 100 phonemes in Old Irish. A phoneme system of that type is tvpo-logically very improbable, however, and THURNEYSEN's system is generally not used any more today.
14
1 Two slashes '/ /' indicate phonemes. I will nuke heavy use of phonological transcriptions in this book.
15
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
language	phonemes total	cons. / vowels / diphthongs	letters total	consonant / vowel graphemes	
Old Irish	66	42 /11 /13	18	13/5	
Modem Irish	52	37/11/4	18	13/5	
Scottish Gaelic	67	38/19/10	18	13/5	
North Welsh	54	26/13/15	22	14+2 / 5+2	
Russian	51	40/6/5	33	21+2/10	
English	44	24/12/8	26	20+1/5+1	
German	40	22/15/3	30	21/9	
Latin	31	17/10/4	23	17+2/4+2	
PIE	40	25/11/4	-	-	
Illustration 3.1: The phonological system of Old Irish in comparison with other European languages
3.2. The phonological system of Old Irish
The following illustration lists all phonemes of Old Irish. At the same time it presents the phonological transcription of Old Irish that 1 will use in this book.
1. vowels:
1.1. short vowels i u
9
a
o
1.2. long vowels
1 a
e o a
1.3. diphthongs:	ai	ay (oy)	ay (oy)
	°i	ey	ey
	<ui)	■y	'y
	ia	ua	
2. consonants: 2.1. sonorants:
2.1.1. unlenited, non-palatalized:	m	n	0	I	i
2.1.2. unlenited. palatalized:	m'	n'		r'	r
2.1.3. lenited, non-palatalized:	H	v		P	X
2.1.4. lenited, palatalized:	H'	v'		P'	V
occlusives (and fricatives):					
2.2.1. unlenited, non-palatalized:	b	d	g	P	t
2.2.2. unlenited, palatalized:	b-	d'	4	P'	t'
2.2.3. lenited, non-palatalized:	P	5	7	f/<P	8
2.2.4. lenited, palatalized:	p-	5'	t	m	0'
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2.3. sibilants (and aspirates):
23.1. unlenited, non-palatalized: s
2.3.2. unlenited, palatalized: s'
2.3.3. lenited, non-palatalized: h
2.3.4. lenited, palatalized: h'
Illustration 3.2: The phonological system of Old Irish
3.2.1. Vowels
3.2.1.1. The vowels are pronounced with their classical European quality, not with their English quality.
3.2.1.2. /a/ schwa is a murmured sound without a distinct quality that in Old Irish appears only in unaccented syllables. Short vowels are sometimes marked by a special diacritic, e.g., /a/.
3.2.1.3. Sometimes you can find long vowels represented by the vowel followed by a colon, e.g., I'v.j. Early Old Irish apparently had two allophones of long e, namely closed /£/ and open /£/, which behaved differently in certain contexts. But for simplicity's sake 1 will render bolli with /e/ in my phonological transcriptions.
3.2.1.4. My rendering of the diphthong system draws an idealized picture valid onlv for the earliest period of Old Irish. Already in Classical Old Irish /oy/ and /ay/ had mostly developed into monophtongs If /ui/ ever existed as a separate diphthong different from /ojj, the two must have merged very early. The /ai/ and /ojj merged during the Old Irish period and eventually developed into a mid high monophthong which in modern orthography is spelled <ao> and <aoi>. The onlv Old Irish diphthongs still extant in Modern Irish are /ia/ and /ua/. All the other modem diphthongs, very numerous in modern Gaelic languages, developed later from other sound clusters.
The sign /[/ represents English consonantal <y>, German <j>, as in year or jahr. The /u/ represents English <w> as in water.
3.2.2. Consonants
Every Old Irish consonant (with the exception of /n/) can appear in four different forms, depending on the presence or absence of the two features palatalization and lenition. The difference that the various possibilities make can be demonstrated with some examples: /bal/ member,' /bal'/ 'members,' fbak/ situation (nom.),' /baX'/ 'situation (acc.);' or /roil/ 'road,' /rod'/ 'roads,' Early Old Irish /rcto/ fierce (sg.),' Early Old Irish /rorj'/ 'fierce (pi.).'
3.2.2.1. Palatalization means the pronunciation of a sound with the back of the tongue raised towards the palate (roof of the mouth). If you try to pronounce a /jj immediately following a consonant you produce its palatalized variant. Non-palatalization, on the other hand, is the 'normal' neutral pronunciation. In phonological transcriptions palatalization is usuallv marked by an apostrophe <'> after the palatalized consonant; non-palatalization remains unmarked. The Modern Irish term for non-palatalized consonants is leathan 'broad,' while palatalized consonants are called caol slender.'
In Irish the opposition between palatalized vs. non-palatalized extends to all consonants. In other languages (e.g., Romance and many Slavic languages) only some consonants are subject to
17
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
this opposition (e.g., in Spanish the opposition between <n> and <n>). Another language where the palatalization opposition extends to almost the whole system is Russian. In consequence the number of consonantal phonemes in Russian is nearly as high as in Old Irish (see illus. 3.1).
3.2.2.2. Lenition is a complex phenomenon in Old Irish (and in Insular Celtic as a whole), but basically it means the relaxed' pronunciation of a consonant. In Old Irish lenition means that the place of articulation of the consonant in question more or less stays the same, but in contrast to the unlenited pronunciation no perfect occlusion is reached during the articulation: the mouth is left open a little bit. In the end this can result in sounds that differ markedly from their unlenited variants.
3.2.2.3. Apt/ are pronounced, more or less like in English or Standard German, as voiceless stops with a slight aspiration, /b d g f m h/ are pronounced as in English and German, /P ip/ like English <v> and <f>. /s/ is pronounced as in English and German, but palatalized /s'/ is pronounced like English <sh> or German <sch>. /s/ and /s'/ are always voiceless in Irish. It is a matter of dispute if a palatalized variant of /h/ existed, but I set it up in this book for systematic reasons, /n/ is the product ol nasalization of /g/, and in Old Irish it is always followed by /g/. It is pronounced like <ng> in English <king>. but unlike in English or German the /q/-sound can also appear at the beginning of a word, e.g., a ngothae /a rjgoBe/ their voices.'
3.2.2.4. l-or the transcription of the lenited sounds I use Greek letters.
/u./ is pronounced like /B/, but with a nasal quality. In other publications you mav find this sound transcribed as /v/.
/v/' is more or less pronounieil like t lei'man or English single <n>. The unlenited Old Irish /n/, on the other hand, is pronounced somewhat stronger, probably taking a bit more time. In other publications you may find the unlenited sound transcribed as /n:/ or as /N/, with /n/ being used for the lenited variant.
/p/3 is pronounced with one flap ol the tip of the tongue. The unlenited Old Irish /r/ on the other hand is pronounced with a sequence of trills of the tongue. This opposition is similar to the one in Spanish between <r> in <pero> but' and <rr> in <perro> 'dog.' In other publications vou may find the unlenited sound transcribed as /r:/ or as /R/, with /r/ being used for the lenited variant.
/X/ is more or less pronounced like a German or English single <I>. The unlenited Old Irish /I/ on the other hand is pronounced somewhat stronger, probably taking a bit more time. In other publications you may find the unlenited sound transcribed as /I:/ or as /L/, with /l/ being used for the lenited variant.
/P/ is a labial sound as in Latin Vergilius. In other publications you may find this sound transcribed as /v/.
/S/ is pronounced somewhat like the English voiced <th> in <this, that, father>.' In other publications you may find this sound transcribed as /d/.
: this sign is a Greek <v> "ny"; do not confuse it with Latin <v> 'vet 3 This sign is a Greek <p> Tho'; do not confuse U with I jtin <p> 'pe'!
Mavbe, however, the hp of the tongue did not rest between the two rows of the teeth, but rather on the base of the upper teeth (alveols).
18
HI is pronounced like <g> in Dutch, Modern Greek or Ukrainian, like <g> intervocally in Spanish or <gh> in Arabic, that is, it is the voiced counterpart to German <ch>. Palatalized /y'/ is close to /if.
/cp/ is actually the same sound as /f/. It is only used sometimes for systematic reasons to represent ph. that is, lenited p
/8/ is pronounced somewhat like the English voiceless <th> in <thick, thin>.
Unpalatalized /%/ is pronounced like German <ch> in <ach, Bach>; palatalized /x'/ is pronounced like German <ch> in <ich, dich>. Sometimes /x/ is used to represent this sound.
3.3. Pronunciation rules
Until now we have been talking only about the abstract phonological system of Old Irish. Now we are turning our attention to the actual graphematic realization, that is the orthography and the pronunciation of written Old Irish.
The pronunciation rules of Old Irish are very complex. The pronunciation of vowels depends on whether they stand in accented or unaccented syllables, or whether they are simply used as markers for the palatalization or the non-palatalization of consonants, in which case they are not pronounced at all. The pronunciation of consonants is determined by their position at the beginning or inside the word, whether they stand in a consonant cluster or not, and by the quality of the preceding or following vowel. Moreover the syntactical position within the sentence has an impact on the realization of anlauting* consonants as well. But step by step now (from now on 1 won't put Old Irish graphemes between < > brackets any more, but I will print them in italics):
3.3.1. cp I
1. c, p, t are pronounced as voiceless stops /k p t/ in anlaut, with some aspiration as in English and standard C ierrnan, which, however, 1 won't mark in the phonological transcription: cor /kop/ 'the putting," pvll/pol/ hole,' to!/toX,/ 'wish.' Anlautingp appears only in loan words.
2. Between vowels and in auslaut after vowels they are pronounced as voiced stops /g b d/: bucac /buge/ 'softness,' boc /bog/ soft,' popul /pobuJ./ people,' cp /ob/ 'refusal.' t'otae /fode/ 'long,' /of /fod/ length.' In most consonant clusters in the interior of words they represent voiced sounds as well, but no absolute rule can be given for that: ecnae /egve/ wisdom,' -cipret /eb'p'ad/ 'they say,' céínae/k'edve/ the same.'
3. After r, /, n in the interior or in the auslaut of a word no rule can be given: derc /d'erk/ hole,' hut dere or derg /d'erg/ 'red,' ok /oik/ 'bad,' dele or delg /d'elg/ 'thorn;' cerfa /k'erta/ 'rights,' cartac /kapde/ 'they who love,' daltae /dalte/ fosterling,' celtae /k'elde/ 'they who hide,' anta /anta/ 'staying (gen. Sg.),' antae /ande/ 'they who stay.' Take special note of pairs such as the following: altac /alte/ '(s)he was reared' and sitae /aide/ 'they who rear.'
4. When written double c, p. t most often mean voiceless /k p t/ in the interior or in the auslaut of words. Unfortunately c, p, t may be written with single letters in these cases as well: macfc) /mak/ 'son,' boc(c) /bok/ 'he-goat,' af(f^ /at/ 'the swelling,' at(t)ach /atax/ refuge, the praying," sop(p) /sop/ "wisp, tuft.' And even more unfortunately cc, pp, tt may mean voiced /g b d/ as
"■ Note the following terms: anlaut means absolute word-initial position, inljut is word-interior position, and juslaut is absolute word-tinal position.
19
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
well: mace /mak/ 'son' and bratt /brat/ 'coat' have /k t/, but becc /b'eg/ 'small' and broff /brod/ 'goad, whip' have /g d/.
3.3.2. bd#
1. b, d. g are pronounced as voiced stops /b d g/ in anJauf. gel/g'eX/ 'bright,' bun /buv/ 'ground, base,' dul /duX/ the going.'
2 Between vowels and in auslaut after vowels they are pronounced as voiced fricatives /p 5 y/: fogu /toyu/ 'choice,' mug /muy/ 'slave,' ďubae /dufle/ 'sadness,' dub /du|3/ 'black,' mod /mo5/ 'manner, mode,' bádud /ba5u8/ 'the drowning.' In most word interior consonant clusters they are pronounced as voiced fricatives as well, although, as can be seen from the examples in 3.3.1.3, they can also stand for /b d g/, especially after r, /, n.
3. If written double bb, dd. ggmean voiced stops /b d g/, e.g., abb/ab/ 'abbot.'
4. After certain proclitic elements and in certain syntactical constructions initial b, d, g, p, t, c don't have theiT anlaut values, but those of word interior position. More will be explained about this in the chapter about mutations in lesson 4.
3.3.3. c/i ph th
1. ch, ph, th are the voiceless fricatives /x <p B/; ph is identical in pronunciation with f. ech /e%/ 'horse,* oiph /ojcp/ beauty,' áth /ad/ 'ford,' a chaff /a xat/ 'his cat,' in phian /iv cpiav/ 'the pain,' mo thech /mo fl'ex/ 'my house."
3.3.4. /
1. fis the voiceless fricative /f/: féil /feX'/ 'feast-day,' léicfid /1'eg'faS'/ 'he will let.' In certain syntactic constructions it means /p/ in an/aur; a reiV /a fJ'eX'/ 'their feast-day.' / (often, especially in old texts, also twithout the punctum detenu) represents the 'non-sound' / /: a téil, a íéil /a eX'/ his feast-day,' neimiirinnech, neimfirinnech /n'eu'Ip'an ax/ 'untruthful.'
3.3.5. s x
1. s is the voiceless sibilant /s/: sa// /saX'/ 'willow,' Zeis /Pes'/ with him.' In word-internal position especially after short vowels, /s/ can be written with double ss: leiss = leis /Pes'/ 'with him,' cossa = cosa /kosa/ 'feet.' S (often, especially in old texts, also s without the punctum delens) represents /h/: a šil. a s/7/a hU/ 'his seed, his offspring,' drochšúil, drochsúil /droxhrU'/ 'evil eye;' x and chs represent the consonant cluster /xs/: foxal, fochsal/foxsaX/ 'abduction.'
3.3.6. rln
1. In anlaut r. 1. n are pronounced as strong /r I n/: run /rnv/ 'secret,' /ebor/l'epap/ book,' noř /nod/ 'note.' The same is true for double rr, //, nn: con/kor/ crane,' coll /kol/ 'hazel,' cenn A'cn/ head,' a Wbuir /a I'ipup'/ 'her/their books,' a rrige /a r'lv'e/ 'the/her/their kingdom,' cenna /k'ena/ 'heads.' The same pronunciation is true most of the time for the position before t, d, s, 1, i, nand after s, I, r, n
2. Between vowels and in auslaut after vowels single r, f, n are pronounced as lenited /pXv/: torad /topaS/ 'fruit,' tola /tola/ 'desires,' cona /kova/ 'dogs (acc. pi.),' cor /kop/ 'contract,' col
20
/kol/ 'sin,' son /sov/ 'sound,* The same is true for anlauting r, I, n when preceded by leniting words: mo leborfmo X'epap/ 'my book,' dond not /dond voi/ to the boat.'
3.3.7. m
I. mm anlaut represents/m/: marb/marp/ 'dead.'
2 In the interior of words and in auslaut m is pronounced as the bilabial, nasal fricative /u/: dáma /daua/ 'companies,' dam /dap./ 'ox, stag.' The same is true for anlauting m when preceded by a leniting word: a máthair /a ua8ap'/ 'his mother.'
3. Double mm always represents /m/: móraimm /mopam'/ I praise,' lomma /loma/ plural of Awnm /lorn/ 'naked,' a mmáthair /a maOap'/ her/their mother.' Unfortunately, all these cases can be written with a single m as well: móraim /mopam'/ 'I praise,' loma /loma/ plural of lorn /lorn/ 'naked.' a máthair /a maeap'/ 'her/their mother.'
3.3.8. nd mb
1. In early Old Irish nd and mb stood for /nd/ and /mb/ (also in the beginning of words). But from late Old Irish onwards they were pronounced as /n/ and /m/ and are freely interchangeable with nn and mm in the manuscripts.
3.3.9. h
1. In the earliest sources of Old Irish h seems to be an empty letter, which means (hat it stands for nothing (except in the digraphs ch, ph. th, where it marks lenition). One theory says that the letter h before vowels in the anlaut of short words was used to make the word look bigger: e.g., hi /i/ 'in,' hi /l/ a deictic particle, huair /uap'/ hour, because.' Phonetic /h/ that results from lenition of s is written š or s a šúil, a suil /a huX'/. Phonetic /h/ that results from aspiration fh-mutarion') is usually not written: a ech /a h'ex/ 'her horse,' inna Éirerm /ina h'ep'an/ 'of Ireland;'' In later texts and manuscripts, however, written h usually does represent the sound /h/. though instances of cases like hi for /i/ also occur frequently.
3.3.10. Vowels
1. The short vowels a, e, i, o, u are pronounced with their own quality only in stressed syllables and in absolute auslaut that is in the last syllable if no other consonant follows: dam /dau/ 'ox, stag; fer/f'ep/ 'man," fir /f'ip'/ 'men,' tola /toXa/ 'desires,' subach /supax/ 'happy,' tiiafha /tuaBa/ 'tribes, nations," ceite /k'eX'e./ 'client,' cěili /k'eX'i/ 'clients; inna sulo /ina saXo/ 'of the eye,' a liru /a ipu/ 'oh men!'
2. In Old Irish all nouns and adjectives are stressed on the first syllable.7 Only some adverbs, e.g., those starting with in-, are stressed on the second syllable. Where necessary, the accent in
■ For a different opinion on the nature of Old Irish h in the earliest sources see: Peter Schrijver. On the Nature and Origin of Word-Initial H- in the Wurzburg Glosses,' triu 48 (1997), 205-227.
' This definition only hoKls true from a modem point of view of Old Irish parts of speech under the assumption that articles, prepositions and other particles are separate words of their own. It seems, however, that in earliest times Irish men of letters had a different concept of 'words.' Judging by the spellings found, for example, in the Old Irish glosses, it would emerge that anvthing that fell under one stress was conceived to belong to a single word. In the following two examples the stressed vowels have an understroke: "he imitates my manners' was spelled with two orthographic words in Wb. 9al5 insamlatharside mo£tesu.sa. whereas we would today write m-samhtharside mo besu-sa; or tresinfui! stqridi adopam cachdia forsindaltmr (Wb. 20dl3) 'through the spiritual blood which is offered every day
21
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
phonological transcriptions is represented by the acute <>: indiu /in'd'ry/ 'todav,' innuraid /inupaSV last year,' alaile /aXak'e/ 'the other, some.' Some word classes like prepositions, possessive pronouns and articles are unstressed. In compound verbs, which means verbs that consist of more than only the verbal root plus ending, at the beginning of the sentence the stress falls on the second element; in fact the second element is treated as the beginning of the word also in other respects. In this book the second element in the 'verbal complex' will be marked by a preceding mid-high dot <■>,-« the stress falls immediately after the dot: asbeir /as-b'ep'/ 'he says,' condidnderoimed /kond'ao n'd'ejpoiu'aS'/ 'so that he should protect him.'
3. In non-final unstressed syllables all short vowels except for u represent /a/ 'schwa,1 that is a short, murmured sound without full vocalic quality. How this schwa is spelled is determined bv the quality of the surrounding consonants:''
3.1. /CaC/: <CaC>
If both surrounding consonants are non-palatalized, schwa is spelled with a: tabart /ta(iart/ 'the giving.'
3.2. /CaC'/: <CaiC>or <CiC>
If the preceding consonant is non-palatalized and the following is palatalized, schwa is spelled with a/or /': formaitor (ormit/formod'/ 'envy.'
3.3. /CaC/: <CeC>
If the preceding consonant is palatalized and the following is non-palatalized, schwa is spelled with e: cpert /eb'ort/ 'the saying.'
3.4. /CaC'/: <CiC>
If both consonants are palatalized, schwa is spelled with ;': baitsid /bat's'ao'/ he baptizes.' Note the possibility of confusion with case 3.2.
Etymological spellings can overrule these rules. In the vicinity of labial sounds (m. b, p) schwa can be represented by o or u, e.g., the personal name Conchobor /kovxafiap/. Where u is found in an unstressed, non-final syllable it means that /u/ and not /a/ schwa is the sound to be pronounced in this syllable; iu in unstressed syllables stands for /u/ after a palatalized consonant, e.g.. fothugud/hrtuyuS/ the establishing,' leiciud/l'Og'uo/ the letting.'
4. The long vowels a, 6, i, 6, u are pronounced longer than their short counterparts. They always retain their own quality, irrespective of their position. For /e/ sometimes se or a? is written. Sometimes, especially in early texts, the length of a vowel can be indicated by the double spelling of the vowel, e.g., rii or rii /r'l/ king.' It seems as if at no stage of medieval Irish history the marking of vowel length by the sineadh fada <'> was obligatory; it could always be left out, leaving the vowel length orthographically unexpressed.
5. Diphthongs (not to be confused with the vocalic digraphs, see 3.3.10.6 below!) always retain their own quality. In normalized editions the diphthong /oj/ is written oiand oe, the diphthong
upon the altar' would break up into the following eight words tresin fuil storidi adoparar each diu forsind flftflfr in modem editions. If we based our phonological analysis of Old Irish accent rules on these spelling conventions, things would become much more complicated and we could in no way speak of regular initial stress in Old Irish. I A hyphen <-> is used by some scholars to indicate the same thing. In manv Old Irish text editions, however, and of course in the manuscripts themselves, the pre-accentual part of the verb may be separated from the accented part by a space, or the position of the stress may be not indicated orthographically at all: the verbal form is written as one word. y In this course C is used as cover symbol for all consonants.
/ai/ is written at and ae (note the position of the sineadh fadaVy. loech, Ioich /loijc/ 'warrior,' mail, mael /majA./ 'shorn, bald.' ae and 6e can only be used before non-palatalized consonants. The variants oi and at stand mostlv before palatalized consonants, but they may also be used before non-palatalized consonants.
The diphthongs /Ou/ and /au/ are written 6u and a"u, ao in normalized editions: bao /bay/ genitive singular of 'cow.'
The diphthong /eu/ is written eo, Gu, the diphthong /lu/ is written iu, the diphthong /ui/ is written uj: beo, beu /b'cy/ 'alive,' indiu /in'd'Iu/ 'today,' drui/druj/ 'druid.'
The diphthongs /ia/ and /ua/ are written ia and ua: grian /g'r'iav/ 'sun,' truag/truay/ 'sad.'
Never mistake a manual for real life! In the manuscripts the use and the position of the sineadh fada varies freely. To avoid confusion with the vocalic digraphs and with hiatus forms I will adhere to the normalized practice outlined above.
6. In addition to the diphthongs, which count as one syllable, in Old Irish so-called hiatuses exist. These are sequences of two vowels (mainly id, iu and io) that have to be pronounced as two syllables. They are recognizable in normalized orthography by the fact that unlike the corresponding diphthongs, no sineadh fada is written on them. In transcription they are represented by forms with <"> dieresis or fremd'0: disyllabic fiach /f'iax/ 'raven' (but monosyllabic fiach /f'iax/ 'a legal due), nie /n'ie/ 'nephew.' triu /f'r'iu f'r'ihu/ towards them.' Sometimes the dieresis is also used in text editions to indicate hiatus. Hiatuses fell together with their diphthongic counterparts rather early in the Gaelic language of Ireland, but they have mostly remained until todav in spoken Scottish Gaelic.
3.3.11. The marking of palatalization and non-palatalization
As stated in 2.7.4 above, every consonant in Old Irish can appear either palatalized or non-palatalized ('neutral'). In phonological transcriptions palatalization is marked with the apostrophe <'>;" but Old Irish orthography uses other means to express this distinction:
1. An anlauting consonant is palatalized if followed by one of the front vowels i, e, U er. sit /s'lX/ 'seed, offspring,' gilhe /g'ile/ boy, servant,' sel/s'eV a while,' dcr/d'op/ 'tear.'
2. The same is basically true for word interior consonants. In most cases a purely orthographic i that has no sound value is added before the consonant in question: bcrid and beirid/b'ep'ao'/ he carries,' ceieand ceile/k'sX'e/ 'client,' magen and maigen /maj'av/ field.'
3. In auslaul palatalization is indicated by a preceding i. which is purely orthographic and has no sound value; cf. the minimal pairs:
ben /b'ev/ 'woman' vs.    bein /b'ev'/ 'woman' archaic acc. sg
6r/Op/ 'gold' vs.    oir /Op'/ 'of the gold' gen. sg
gahil /ga$aX/ the taking'    vs.    gabail/gafJaA.'/ 'the taking' prep., acc. sg.
4. The use of i to indicate palatalization of a following consonant creates the non-diphthongic digraphs ai, ei, oi. ui. ai, ei, 6i, ui, which stand for the monophthongs /a e o u a e o a/ before a
10 The fonns with dieresis /3 A 0 ii/ in transcription have nothing to do with German umlaut! These letters onlv represent tautosyllabic /a a o u/ in Irish words after another vowel.
11 Of course the reverse is true as well: if in a phonological transcription no apostrophe <"> is written, the preceding consonant is not palatalized.
:2
23
Lesson 3
Lesson 3
palatalized consonant: gaib /gap'/ 'take!.' beir /b'ep'/ 'carry!,' oir /Op'/ 'of the gold,' diiin /duv'/ 'of the fort' etc. Real diphthongs are written ai, ae, of, de, ui (see 3.3.10.5. above). The diphthongs ai'and oi are usually used before palatalized consonants; ae and de are consistently used before non-palatalized consonants.
5. If followed by one of the back vowels a, o, u, i, 6, u, any consonant is non-palatalized. A consonant in auslaut is non-palatalized if no / precedes it.
6. To complicate matters, in unstressed word interior syllables i may follow directly a non-palatalized consonant or an a can be inserted before it: berid and beraid can both stand for /b'epoS'/ he may carry'12 (see 3.3.10.3 above).
7. In words of one syllable with ("or /as their vowel no distinction between palatalization or non-palatalization of the auslauting consonant can be made: mind /m'ind/ nom. sg. of 'diadem,' but mind /m'in'd'/ gen. sg. of 'diadem.' In later times and in Modern Irish orthography an o is written in such cases to indicate non-palatalization: mionn /m'in/.
8. In absolute auslaut the following conventions are used: -/' and -e mav follow directly a non-palatalized consonant, or a purely orthographical a can be inserted before them: dalle, daltae /dalte/ 'fosterling,' dalti. daltai /dalti/ 'fosterlings' (spellings like dalle or dalti are of course ambiguous, as they could theoretically also indicate a palatalized consonant before the e/i). -iu stands for a /u/ after a palatalized consonant: Laigniu, Lagniu /lay'v'u/ 'inhabitants of Leinster (acc. pi.);' -ea and -eo stand for /a/ and /of after palatalized consonants: doirsea, dorsea /dop's'a/ doors,' toimseo /tou's'o/ 'measure (gen. sg.).'
3.3.12. One final word
You'll find tables displaying the spellings of Old Irish phonemes in Appendix H.l and F.2. In the previous pages many subtleties of Old Irish orthography had to be silently passed over in order not to extend the length of the lesson. Certain aspects of the orthography changed over the centuries, and the scribes often confused old and modern spelling conventions, so that in the manuscripts you will hardly ever encounter texts that conform 100% to the rules laid out above. In reality Old Irish orthography is much more complicated, and the only way to come to terms with it is to read and read and read...
Illustration 3.3: A sheep alter having tried to master Old Irish orthography
3.4. Sample texts with phonological analysis 3.4.1 Seel lemm duib
The following is an Old Irish poem about the coming of winter in Old Irish orthography and a phonological transcription. 1 followed Gerard MURPHY (Early Irish Lyrics, Oxford 1956: 160) in the wording, but I adapted the orthography of the poem a little bit. The translation is rather free.
Scél lemm dúib	phonological transcription	News of Winter
Scél lemm dúib:	s'k'eX I'em dnp'	News for you.
dordaid dam.	dordaS' dap	hear stags bell.
snigid gaim,	s'n'iy'afi' gap'	winter snows,
■Huní: sam;	rofaB' sap	summer's gone.
gáeth ard liar,	gaj8 ard uap	wind, strong, cold.
isel grian.	ts'aX g'r'iav	sun is low,
gair a rith.	gap' a r'iB	short his course.
ruirthech rian;	rup'B'ox r'iav	heavy sea;
roruad rath,	ropuao ra8	fern rust-red,
rozletlí cruth.	rokTe8 kru6	lost its shape,
rogab gnáth	ro-gap guns	wild-goose cries
giugrann guth;	g'iUYpan gu6	usual cry;
rogab uacht	ro-gap uaxt	cold takes hold
etti en.	et'i h'ev	of birds' wings,
aigre ré:	a-r'p'e r'e	time of ice:
ě mo scél.	e mo s'k'ei.	that's my news.
3.4.2 The opening sentences of Scela Muicce Meic Dathd
The following passage is taken (again with some slight adaptations in spelling) from Rudolf THURNEYSEN's edition of Scela Mucce Meic Dathd The Tale of Mac Da Tho's Pig" (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Medieval and Modern Irish Series 6, Dublin 1935). The phonological transcription and the translation again are mine.
U Note: berid can stand tor beirid /b'ep'afi'/ "he carries' and beraid /b'epafi'/ 'he may carry'!
24
25
Lesson 3
Text:
Boí ri amrae for Laignib, Mac Dathó a ainm. Boí cú occo. Imdiched in cu Laigniu uili. Ailbe ainm in chon, ocus ba lán Ériu dia air-direus in chon. Doeth 6 Ailill ocus ó Meidb do chungid in chon. Immalle dano táncatar ocus techta Ulad ocus Chonchobair do chungid in chon chétnai. Roferad fáilte friu uili, ocus ructha cuci-sium isin mbrudin. Is si-sin in chóiced bruden roboí i nÉrinn isind aim-sir-sin, ocus bruden Da-Derg i crích Cua-lann ocus bruden Forgaill Manaich ocus bruden Maic Da-Réo i mBréfni ocus bruden Da-Choca i n-iarthur Midi.
Phonological Transcription:
boj rT aupe fop layVapV, mak da9o a an'm'. boj kn ogo. im'd'lx'aS in kn lay'v'u huVi. aX'B'e an'm' in xov, ogus ba lav ep'u d'ia ap'-5'ar'k'us in %ov. doe6 o aVal' ogus 0 p'eS'B' do xurj'g'afi' in xov. imol'e davb tavgadap ogus t'exta uXaS ogus xovxopap' do xurj'g'aS' in x°v xCdvi. rof'epaS fal't'e f'r'ihu huVi, ogus pugua kugi-s'uu. is'ov mbruS'av'. is s'l-s'iv' in X°ga5 BpuS'av ro-Boj i v'ep'an' is'and am's'ap'-s'iv', ogus BpuS'an da-6'erg i grtx' kua-\an ogus BpuS'av orgal' pavax' ogus BpuS'av \iak' 5a-p'cu i m'b'r'ef'v'i ogus PpuS'an da-Xoga i v'iapttup u'iS'i.
Translation:
There was a famous king over the Laigin (Leinster-mcn), Mac Da-Tho his name. He had a dog. The dog used to guard all Laigin. Ailbe the name of the dog. and Ireland was full of the dog's renown. There came (men) from Ailill and from Medb to ask for the dog. At the same time then they came and the messengers of the Ulaid (Ulster-men) and of Conchobar came to ask for the same dog. Welcome was given to all of them, and they were brought to him in the hostel. This is the fifth hostel that existed in Ireland at that time, and the hostel of Da-Derg in the district of Cualu and the hostel of Forgall Vlanach and the hostel of Mac Da-Reo in Breifne and the hostel of Da-Choca in the West of Mide.
3.5. Exercise
Now try your own luck in transcribing an Old Irish poem. It is the famous poem about the monk and his cat, found in a manuscript in the monastery of St. Paul im Lavanttal in Austria (Tries, ii 293.14-294.4). Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Do it like the monk and his cat Pangur: catch whatever comes into your net. And should nothing come into your net, just enjoy the poem.
Lesson 3
Illustration 3.4: Pangur H.in
Messe ocus Pangur bán
Meisse ocus Pangur Bán, cechtar nathar fría šaindán; bíth a menma-sam fri seilgg, mu menma céin im saincheirdd.
Caraimm-se fos, ferr cach clú, oc mu lebrán léir ingnu. Ní foirmtech frimm Pangur Bán, caraid cesin a maccdán.
Ó ru biam (scěl cen scís) innar tegdais ar n-óendís, táithiunn (díchi íchideclius) ní fristarddam ar n-áthius.
Gnáth húaraib ar gressaib gal glenaid luch inna lín-sam; os mé.dufuit im lín chéin
dliged ndoraid cu ndronchéill.
Fúachaid-sem fri frega fál a rose anglěse comlán. Fúachaimm chéin fri fégi fis mu rose réil, cesu imdis.
Failid-sem cu ndéine dul, hinglenluch inna gérchrub; hitucu cheist ndoraid ndil, os mé Cheine am faílid.
Cía beimmi ammin nach ré,
niderban cách a chéile. maith la cechtar nár a dán, subaigthius a óenurán.
Hé feisin as choimsid dáu in muid du-ngní cach óenláu.
Du thabairt doraid du glé fůr mu mud céin ani meisse.
The Scholar and his Cat
Myself and Pangur Bán. each of us at his own art. His mind is always turned to hunting, my own mind to my special trade.
I love it quiet, better than fame, while eagerly studying my book. Pangur is not envious of me, he loves his own childish art.
When we two are (no fatigue) alone in our house, we have something (unlimited sport) to point our attention to.
Regularly, after a violent rush,
a mouse clings to his net. And I, into my own net falls, a dark, but important statement.
Towards the wall he points his bright and penetrating glare. Towards the keenness of knowledge I point my own clear, but weak glare.
He rejoices in dashing around, when a mouse clings to his sharp claw; when I grasp a dark but dear problem, it is I myself who rejoices.
Though we are like this all time, no-one disturbes the other. Each of us loves his art, and is glad in it alone.
He himself is his master of the job he does each single day.
But to bring dark to light, in my own way, that's what I do.
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Lesson 3
3.6. Exercise
And now go ahead with a longer piece of prose. It tells about the arrival of the greatest hero of the Ulaid (inhabitants of the northern Irish province of Ulster) Cü Chulainn as a small boy of five years at the court of the province's king Conchobar mac Nessa. The passage is taken from John STRACHAN's Stories from the Tain (Dublin 1904), a beginners' reader in Old Irish saga texts. If you want to read the whole story of the Cattle Raid of Cüailnge, the translation of Thomas KINSELI.A (The Tain, Oxford University Press 1970) can be recommended. Try to analyze each word on its own.
'Altae-som em,' ol Fergus, 'la mäthair 7 la athair ocond Airgdig i mMaig Muirtheimni. Ad fessa do airscelae na maccraide i nEmain. Ar but tri cöecait mace and,' ol Fergus, 'oca clut-chiu. Is samlaid domeil Conchobar a flaith: trian ind lai oc deicsin na maccraide, a trial) n-aill oc imbirt fidchille, a trian n-aill oc öul chormae, conid-gaib cotlud de. Cfa beimmi-ni for longais riam, nf-fil i nEire öclaig bas amru,' ol Fergus.
Guidid Cü Chulainn dia mathair didiu a leiciud dochumm na maccraide. "Niregae," ol a mäthair, "condit-roib coimthecht di änrothaib Ulad." "Rochian lenim-sa anad fri sodain," ol Cü Chulainn. "Inchoisc-siu dam-sa ced leth at-ta Emain." "Farhuaid ammne," ol a mäthair, "7 is doraid a n-uide," ol si, "at-ta Sliab Füait etruib." "Dober indass fair," ol Cü Chulainn, "ammin."
Teit ass iarum, 7 a sciath süssen laiss 7 a bunsach 7 a lorg anae 7 a liathroit. Foceirded a bunsaig riam condagaibed ar loss resiu do-rotsad a bun for lär.
Teit cosna maccu iarum cen naidmm a föesma forru. Ar ni-teiged nech cuccu inna cluichemag con-arnastae a foesam. Nffitir-som a n-i-sin. "Non-saraigedar in mace," ol Follomon mace Conchobuir, "sech rafetammar is di Ultaib do." Arguntais dö. Maidid föo.
Fo-cerdat a tri coecta bunsach fair, 7 arsissetar isin sciath süssen uili leis-seom. Fo-cerdat dano a liathröiti uili fair-seom. Ocus nosgaib-seom each n-oin liathroit inna ucht. Fo-cerdat dano a tri coecta lorg n-anae fair. Araclich-som connachrancatar, 7 gabais airbir diib fria aiss.
Riastarthae imbi-seom i suidiu. Inda lat ba tindorcun as-n-ort each foiltne inna chenn lasa coimeirge conerracht. Inda lat ba oibell teined boi for each oenfinnu. l'adais indala süil connarbo letha indaas crö snathaite. Asoilgg alaili combo möir beolu fidchoich. Do-rig dia glainini corrici a äu. Asoilg a beolu coa inairdriuch combo ecnae a inchroes. Atrecht in lüan läith assa mulluch.
Benaid fona maccu iarum. Doscara cöecait mace diib resiu ristais dorus nEmna. Forrumai nönbar diib toram-sa 7 Chonchobar; baminar oc imbirt fidchille. Lingid-som dano tarsin fidchill i ndegaid ind nonbuir.
Gaibid Conchobar a rigid. "Ni maith ar-railter in maccrad," ol Conchobar. "Deithbir dam-sa, ä phopa Conchobuir," ol se. "Dosroacht do chluichiu 6m thaig 6m mäthair 7 öm athair, 7 ni maith rombatar friumm." "Cia th'ainm-siu?" ol Conchobor. "Setantae mace Sualtaim atomchomnaicc-se, 7 mace Dechtire do fethar-su. Nibu döig mo choinfere sund." "Ced naro-nass do foesam-so dano forsna maccu?" ol Conchobar. "Ni fetar-sa a n-[-sin," ol Cü Chulainn. "Gaib it lairn mo foesam airriu didiu." "Atmu," ol Conchobar.
La sodain doella-som forsin maccraid sechnön in tige. "Cid notai dano doib indossa?" ol Conchobar. "Coronastar a föesam-som form-sa dano," ol Cü Chulainn. "Gaib it laim didiu," ol Conchobar. "Atmu," ol Cü Chulainn.
Lotar uili isa cluichemag iarum, 7 ata-rechtatar in maicc-hi ro-slassa and. Fos-rathatar a muimmi 7 a n-aitti.'
Lesson 4
4.1. The initial mutations
One of the most striking features of ail Insular Celtic languages are the so-called mutations, the systematic changes in the aniaut of words, governed by the syntactical properties of the preceding word. Mutations seem to be an exclusively Insular Celtic morphonematic phenomenon: there is no certain evidence that Continental Celtic had anything of that kind. In the context of European languages initial mutations take up an 'exotic' position: no other European standard language has them, but, for example, in a number of dialects of Romance languages (Andal-usian, Sardian, etc) comparable phenomena occur.
To give you an impression of how mutations operate and what they can look like (observe only the changes in the aniaut of the following words, don't be worried about the changes in the interior and in the end): txh means 'horse,' bear means 'small.' With the article in, the nominative singular 'the small horse' is realized as intech becc /int e% beg/. In the genitive the whole phrase becomes ind eich bice /ind ex' B'ig'/—nothing has changed in the aniaut of eich, but the aniaut of becc /beg/ was lenited to bice /B'ig'/, due to the influence of the form eich. In the accusative the phrase becomes in n-ech mbecc /in n'e% m'b'eg/: an n was added to the aniaut of ech, and in a similar way becc was nasalized to mbecc /m'b'eg/, all these changes triggered by the preceding word.
Mutated forms are those forms that are actually encountered in the texts. If you want to look up a word in the dictionary you always have to look for the unmutated form.
4.2. The mutations of Old Irish
Old Irish has three different types of mutations (British languages can have even more):
1. Ienition (Mod. Ir. seimhiii)
2. nasalization ('eclipsis') (Mod. Ir. urn)
3. aspiration ('h-mutation')
Mutations usually affect words within a phrase (noun phrase, verbal phrase). Phrases are the constituent parts of the sentence, that is subject, object, prepositional phrase, verb, etc. To take an English example: in the sentence My big brother can see the small, spotted puppy happily playing in the blooming garden with a group of children, the subject phrase is 'my big brother,' 'the small, spotted puppy' is the object phrase, 'in the blooming garden' and with a group of children' are prepositional phrases and 'can see' is the verbal phrase.
Mutations usually, although not absolutely, have no effect across the phrase boundary. That means that, e.g.. the last word in a subject phrase would not affect the first word of an object phrase, even though the latter would immediately follow the first. In Early Old Irish mutational effects even across phrase boundaries may be encountered.