Appendix:Old Irish é future verbs

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The é-future verbs are a special class of a-future verbs in which the reduplicating vowel has been lengthened to é as a consequence of absorbing the following consonant. This pattern was reinterpreted as a replacement of the stem vowel with é and later became highly productive.

This future class is found predominantly in verbs belonging to one of the strong conjugation classes (B I to B V) whose root begins with a consonant and ends in r or l, as well as in gaibid and its derivatives. It is found in a few other verbs as well in Old Irish.

This é arose by regular phonological rule in cases where the verb root began with a velar stop (c or g) and ended in r, l or b:

  • célaid < *kexlaθi < *ki-kl-ās-eti-s (future of ceilid (to hide))
  • ·géra < *gʷeɣʷraθ < *gʷi-gʷr-ās-eti (future of (fo)·geir (to warm))
  • gélaid < *gʷeɣʷlaθi < *gʷi-gʷl-ās-e-ti-s (future of geilid (to graze))

In other cases, the é arose through dissimilatory loss of the second consonant followed by compensatory lengthening or simply by analogy.

See Category:Old Irish é future verbs for a list of verbs that take the é-future.

In Middle Irish, this pattern was extended to the highly productive verbal suffix -(a)igid (from Old Irish -(a)igidir), giving the future ending -éochaid. This in turn yielded the Early Modern Irish ending -óchaidh/-eochaidh (still found in Ulster), yielding in turn the modern standard Irish future ending -óidh/-eoidh of the second conjugation.

Endings

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The forms shown below for gaibid (to take) are constructed on the basis of attested endings.

Future
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
Absolute géba gébae gébaid gébaimmi gébaithe gébait gébaithir gébaitir
Conjunct ·géb ·gébae ·géba ·gébam ·gébaid ·gébat ·gébathar ·gébatar
Relative gébas gébaimme gébaite gébathar gébaiter
Conditional
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
·gébainn ·gébatha ·gébad ·gébaimmis ·gébaithe ·gébaitis ·gébaithe ·gébaitis

There are no deponent verbs that take the é-future.

Further reading

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