Appendix:Old Irish class B I present verbs
Old Irish class B I verbs (Strachan's A1; McCone's S1a–c) are derived from Proto-Celtic simple thematic verbs ending in *-eti, from Proto-Indo-European thematic verbs in *-eti. They correspond to the Latin third conjugation and the Germanic strong verbs. The stem-final consonant is always non-palatalized outside of the second and third-person singular and second-person plural. Subclasses differ upon the palatalization of those three forms.
The three subtypes of B I verbs are:
- S1a verbs are typically exemplified with beirid. They palatalize the second-person singular, third-person singular, and second-person plural in both absolute and conjunct forms, and show alteration of the stem vowel through i- and u-affection. This is the typical kind of B I verb.
- S1b verbs have a root vowel in e or é and a root-final dental fricative. A typical example is reithid (“to run”) and its compounds. They may behave like S1a verbs when the root is stressed. But when the root is unstressed in a compound, S1b verbs lose their palatalization in the third-person singular and the root fricative becomes a final t /d/. This t often analogically spread to not only the other singular forms, but also formations where the root is stressed, such as what happened to ad·fét.
- S1c verbs are exemplified by canaid (“to sing”), and often have a root vowel in o or a. They do not palatalize the stem-final consonant except when it is word-final (in the third-person singular present conjunct and the second-person singular imperative).
- S1d is McCone's label for Thurneysen's class B III, and are discussed in a separate appendix. They are characterized by a nasal infix in the present stem that is absent in other stems, and can either have S1a or S1c-style palatalization patterns.
There are apparently no deponent verbs in this class; seichithir, which comes from Proto-Indo-European *sékʷetor and historically ought to be in this class, has shifted to class A II.
B I verbs take either a t-preterite typically when the root ends in a liquid and a suffixless preterite (usually with either root reduplication or the vowel being replaced by á) elsewhere, with only three exceptions, ibid (“to drink”), ar·neat (“to expect, await”) and ad·cumaing (“to strike”) taking the s-preterite.
See Category:Old Irish class B I present verbs for a list of verbs belonging to this class.
Basic pattern[edit]
The basic pattern is shown by class S1a verbs and by most class S1b verbs in which the stem vowel is stressed. Two important differences between this class and all other conjugation classes are: (1) that the first-person singular present conjunct form is endingless (with u-coloring of the stem vowel where possible) rather than -u/-im, and (2) that the passive singular present and imperative forms have no -th- before the -a(i)r. A sample verb for class S1a is beirid (“to carry, bear”). The endings are as follows:
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | biru* | biri* | beirid | bermai | beirthe | berait | berair | bertair |
| Conjunct | ·biur† | ·bir* | ·beir | ·beram | ·beirid | ·berat | ·berar | ·bertar |
| Relative | beires | bermae | bertae | berar | bertar | |||
| *With i-affection (/e/ is raised to /i/) †With u-affection (/e/ is diphthongized to /iu̯/). | ||||||||
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·beirinn | ·beirthea | ·beired | ·beirmis | ·beirthe | ·beirtis | ·beirthe | ·beirtis |
| 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beir | beired | beram | beirid | berat | berar | bertar |
Some verbs have different vowels than the basic pattern, but the endings are the same.
One subclass consists of verbs like laigid (“to lie down”) and saidid (“to sit down”), which change historical e to ai when the stem-final consonant is palatalized:
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | * | saidi | saidid | sedmai | saidithe | sedait | sedair | sedatair |
| Conjunct | * | ·said | ·said | ·sedam | ·saidid | ·sedat | ·sedar | ·sedatar |
| Relative | saides | sedmae | setae† | sedar | sedatar | |||
| *Not attested in this subclass. The historically expected forms are absolute sidu and conjunct ·siud, though (·)saidiu and/or (·)saidim, with the endings of class B II and the weak verbs, are also entirely possible. †Implied by the Middle Irish form sedda. | ||||||||
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·saidinn | ·saidithea | ·saided | ·saidmis | ·saidithe | ·saiditis | ·saidthe | ·saiditis |
| 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| said | saided | sedam | saidid | sedat | sedar | sedatar |
Another subclass consists of verbs like ibid (“to drink”) and lingid (“to leap”), in which the stem vowel is i, which is lowered to e when the stem-final consonant is nonpalatalized:
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | ibiu | ibi | ibid | ebmai | ibthe | ebait | ebair | ebtair |
| Conjunct | * | ·ib | ·ib | ·ebam | ·ibid | ·ebat | ·ebar | ·ebtar |
| Relative | ibes | ebmae | ebtae | ebar | ebtar | |||
| *Not attested in this subclass. The historically expected form is ·iub, though ·ibiu and/or ·ibim, with the endings of class B II and the weak verbs, are also entirely possible. | ||||||||
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·ibinn | ·ibthea | ·ibed | ·ibmis | ·ibthe | ·ibtis | ·ibthe | ·ibtis |
| 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ib | ibed | ebam | ibid | ebat | ebar | ebtar |
Another subclass consists of verbs in which the stem vowel is éi, which is diphthongized to ía when the stem-final consonant is nonpalatalized. A regular example is réidid (“to ride”), but what is much more widely attested are the regular forms of the irregular verb téit (“to go”), which use the stem téig-.
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | tíagu | téigi | réidid | tíagmai | téigthe | tíagait | tíagair | tíagtair |
| Conjunct | ·tíag | ·téig | ·réid | ·tíagam | ·téigid | ·tíagat | ·tíagar | ·tíagtar |
| Relative | réides | tíagmae | tíagtae | tíagar | tíagtar |
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·téiginn | ·téigthea | ·téiged | ·téigmis | ·téigthe | ·téigtis | ·téigthe | ·téigtis |
| 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| réid | réided | tíagam | réidid | tíagat | tíagar | tíagtar |
See Appendix:Old Irish delenition for the change of ending-initial ⟨th⟩ to ⟨t⟩ after certain consonants, as seen in S1b compound verbs.
S1b conjugation[edit]
This subclass consists of B I verbs whose present stem ends in /θ(ʲ)/ or /ð(ʲ)/ and which end in nonpalatalized /d/ in the third-person singular present indicative conjunct. Some of these verbs, such as reithid and feidid, follow the basic pattern outlined above when the stem vowel is stressed (third-person singular conjunct forms ·reith /ˈr͈ʲeθʲ/ and ·feid /ˈfʲeðʲ/), but when the stem vowel is unstressed, the final consonant becomes /d/ (spelled ⟨t⟩). This happens when the verb has two (or more) preverbal prefixes, as the stress always falls after the first preverbal prefix. Some examples:
- ar·coat < ar-com-feid
- do·cuat and ·dichet < dí-com-feid
- ·tuidchet < to-dí-com-feid
- do·adbat < to-ad-*féid (from Proto-Celtic *wēdeti)
- as·indet < ess-ind-*féid
- do·etarrat < to-etar-reith
- ar·neat and ·airnet < ar-ni-said
In many cases, this /d/ ⟨t⟩ has spread beyond its original location and can be found after a stressed stem vowel or in first- or second-person singular forms:
- ad·fét < ad-*féid
- as·indiut (first-person singular present) < ess-ind-*féud
- do·adbit (second-person singular present) < to-ad-*féid
- ar·nëut (first-person singular present) < ar-ni-*siud
Synchronically, do·infet (conjunct ·tinfet), whose first-person plural form is attested as do·infedam, belongs here too, as the first-person plural form shows that the stem-final consonant is /ð/. Historically, however, the stem comes from Proto-Celtic *swizdeti, whose -zd- is expected to give /d/ in Old Irish, which means the /d/ of the third-person singular is phonologically regular, and the /ð/ of the first-person plural has arisen by analogy with verbs like ones above whose stem historically ends in /ð/.
The /d/ of the third-person singular conjunct originated in prototonic forms like *·andewēðeθ, where a regular rule of syncope produced *·andewēðθ, which underwent delenition to *·andewēdd.[1][2][3]
S1c conjugation[edit]
A sample verb of this subclass is canaid (“to sing”). The endings are as follows (note that several of the endings are delenited after the root-final n):
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute | canu | can[a]i | canaid | canmai | cantae | canait | canair | cantair |
| Conjunct | ·cun* | ·cain | ·cain | ·canam | ·can[a]id | ·canat | ·canar | ·cantar |
| Relative | canas | canmae | cantae | canar | cantar | |||
| *With u-affection. | ||||||||
| 1st sg. | 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ·canainn | ·canta | ·canad | ·canmais | ·cantae | ·cantais | ·cantae | ·cantais |
| 2nd sg. | 3rd sg. | 1st pl. | 2nd pl. | 3rd pl. | Passive singular | Passive plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cain | canad | canam | canaid | canat | canar | cantar |
Further reading[edit]
- McCone, Kim (1997) The Early Irish Verb (Maynooth Monographs 1), 2nd edition, Maynooth: An Sagart, →ISBN, pages 29–31
- Strachan, John, Bergin, Osborn (1949) Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, →ISBN, pages 34–43
- Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2003) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, pages 353–54, 360, 371, 373, 376–78
References[edit]
- ^ Meid, Wolfgang (1972) “On two points of Celtic morphology”, in Études Celtiques, volume 13, pages 346–52
- ^ Cowgill, Warren (1980) “The etymology of Irish guidid and the outcome of *gʷh in Celtic”, in Manfred Mayrhofer, Martin Peters and Oskar E. Pfeiffer, editors, Lautgeschichte und Etymologie: Akten der VI. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Wien, 24.–29. September 1978., Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag., page 58
- ^ Stüber, Karin (1998) The Historical Morphology of n-stems in Celtic (Maynooth Studies in Celtic Linguistics; III), Maynooth: The Department of Old Irish, National University of Ireland, →ISBN, page 126