𝗗𝗶Ⓐ𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 33
Part 3 of the saga of air- vs. er-/aur- etc.
The spelling variation ai/e/i/au/u in stressed syllables is also found in a number of nouns before other sounds. While the preverb air- etc. (discussed previously) is an esp. complicated case, its variation cannot be understood...
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𝗗𝗶Ⓐ𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 32
Part 2 of the saga of air- vs. er-/aur- (and the rest).
Some instances of the alternation between aur-, er-, ir- vs. air- (etc.) can be explained as the regular outcomes of sound change. The expected result of *are- is air-, which is found very often.
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Following this saga closely. Currently looking into the ai/au vowel (and other spelling variations) in environments NOT pertaining to air/aur/etc., e.g. audbart, aupaid, taulach, etc.
𝗗𝗶Ⓐ𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 31
The Celtic preverb *are- < PIE *pr̥h₂i- (notional meaning ‘before, in front of’, but with a much wider meaning than this in concrete formations) occurs as first compound element in many nouns and verbs. It is found in a wide variety of allomorphs that cannot be explained...
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Petar Coinín, in the forthcoming Old Irish translation by Francesco Felici... 🐇
Ceardlann Vicipéid: Bí an tEolas!
Bí an tEolas!
‘The Knowledge is resin!’
S: an tEolas ‘the Knowledge’
P: bí ‘pitch, resin’
...at from the wider perspective of the behaviour of anaphoric pronouns and their reduced phonology in enclisis in Old Irish in general.
In other news, a postdoctoral research position in the DiⒶgnostic project is currently advertised. More information at: my.corehr.com/pls/nuimrecr....
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Thank you! I'll use this as an opportunity to study the works of Kuno Meyer and Gerard Murphy on Gaelic metrical systems in more depth. Been meaning to do that for a while.
I was wondering myself which syllable—during the Old Irish period—would have held the stress, particularly if the etymological interpretation has the initial syllable as a prepositional component.
You mentioned it's found in poetic rhyme. Can you say which poem? I'd like to analyse the metre.
3/ This predates O'Donovan's similar descriptions (“A Grammar of the Irish Language”, 1845) by over 100 years, being some of the earliest detailed descriptions of Modern Irish pronunciation.
archive.org/details/TheC...
2/ Within, at the very end, is the English essay “The Elements of the Irish Language”, containing a description of the Irish alphabet and spelling conventions, alongside pronunciation of corresponding sounds.
1/ Andrew Donlevy (?1680/?1694–?1746/?1761; exact dates seem uncertain), published the bilingual “An Teagasg Críosduidhe do reir ceasada agus freagartha/The Cathecism or Christian Doctrine by way of question and answer” (1742; 3rd ed. 1848 is accessible).
𝗗𝗶Ⓐ𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 25
The DiⒶgnostic team wishes everyone a successful 2026!
We continue with proposed dialectal differences in Early Irish. The word for ‘house’ occurs in various forms in Irish sources. The nominative singular is simple: the oldest form was teg < *tegos, but it is most commonly...
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An article by Simon Rodway (University Aberystwyth) about his current project for a dictionary for early Celtic languages in Britain and Ireland.
Dictionary of of ancient Celtic from insular sources:
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Many congratulations, Simon and Sasha, and whoever else will be involved in this project!
"These disparate sources have never before been brought together in a way that offers such an insight into the nature of Celtic languages spoken in these islands at the dawn of the historical period."
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
manuscript of the Annals of Ulster, TCD MS 1282 (H. 1. 8) f. 31v ©TCD
🌲7️⃣🎁
Annals and Law
Dr Fangzhe Qiu worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the ChronHib project from 2015–20. His task was the digitisation of the Annals of Ulster, i.e., adding the annalistic entries for the years 554–950 into the CorPH database and analysing the word forms grammatically.
📖
Thanks to @silmeth.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy for the assistance on getting to the bottom of this
The Wiktionary references will be updated soon to reflect this
And Cleasby and Vigfusson are authoritative on the Old Norse meaning, suggesting that this is indeed the most likely etymology
cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/word/i-spen
Seems like MacBain might have been a source of information here, at least regarding the Scottish Gaelic cognate
en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Etym...
𝗗𝗶Ⓐ𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 20
With the DiⒶgnostic team filled for the moment, we are now making good progress with the project.
In news item 12 in August, I announced that Truc Ha Nguyen, a postdoctoral researcher in the project, was compiling a list of all Old and Middle Irish texts included in...
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This 2014 paper is likely the uncredited source of information for the 2021 Wiktionary edit. It's the only published research I could find on this word's etymology. The information seems reasonable enough, though no historical form is yet attested. But we have the Scottish Gaelic cognate “isbean”.
Congratulations!
I noticed that in the interpretive editions of inscriptions, where certain interpreted markings seem to be using digital characters that are not currently rendering for me on my phone, such as the i in maqi, and the c in mucoi, in the screenshot example.
Breaking news: The new, revised, updated Ogham in 3D website is now live:
ogham.celt.dias.ie
Choose "inscriptions" in the menu.
Nua-Chorpas na hÉireann results from texts by native speakers showing many instances of ‘gur ⟨name⟩ an t-ainm a bhí air’ and similar structures, eg. ‘gur John Paul a bhí ort’, ‘gur Micí is ainm dom’, ‘gur Máirtín a bhí ar fhear an phíopa’, ‘gur Bríd a tugadh ort’ without any pronoun after the copular forms.
One interesting rule of #Irish #grammar that many people struggle with, but it seems well alive in native Irish. A 🧵.
If a proper name (of person or place) is referring to the name itself, & not to a specific person, it’s treated as indefinite after the copula.
#Gaeilge #Gaelainn #gramadach
The most useful definition, it seems, lies in the diatopic distribution of isoglosses within a group of lects that share a common diachronic ancestry. Within such a spectrum, a dialect may be understood as the geographic convergence of isoglosses.
Since there are no precise, quantifiable parameters to determine where a dialect ends and a language begins, I have always found the concept of “dialect” to be somewhat imprecise.
🎆 LAUNCH 🎆
The team of the Glasgow-Maynooth OG(H)AM project have the pleasure of launching the revised & updated
𝗢𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝟯𝗗 database
Where: Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie
When: 12 Sept 2025, 15:30
@maynoothuniversity.ie @uofglasgow.bsky.social in collaboration with @scs-dias.bsky.social @dias.ie
This article looks at the history and development of Old Irish grammars: the pre-Thurneysian past, Thurneysen's Grammar of Old Irish and its central position in current Celtic Studies, and what future grammars will look like.
A preprint of the article: www.academia.edu/143690919/Wh...