sengofoelc OLD IRISH FOR BEGINNERS Irish Studies JAMES MACKILLOP, Series EditorAnglo-Irish Autobiography: Class, Gender, and the Forms of Narrative Fionn Mac Curshaill: Celtic Myth in English Literature JAMES MackILLOF Gender and History in Yeats's Lave Poetry ‘The Gonne-Yents Letters, 1893-1938 ANNA MacORIDE WIHITE and A. NORMAN JeRFARES, eds An Irish Literature Reader: Poetry, Prose, Drama, 2nd edition MAUREEN O°ROURKE MURPHY and JAMES atasxiLLOP Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History Irish Wome Sriters Speak Out: Voces from the Feld CAMTRIONA MOLONEY and HELEN THOMPSON, eds John Redmond and lrish Unity, 1912-10318 Joyce and Reality: The Empirical Strikes Back JON GoRDON Joyce and the City: The Significance of Space MICHAEL BEGNAL, ed. Prodigal Father: The Life of John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) Tas Irelands: Literary Feminisms North and South Twetieth-Cemtury Irish Drama: Mirror up ty Nation Writing Irish: Soeted Interviews with Irish Writes {rom the Irish Literary Supplement JAMES Po MYERS, IR, edLesson 1 1,1. The Celtic languages in the context of the Indo-European language family sh is part of the Celtic language family, which itself forms one of the twelve attested bran- ‘of the Indo-European linguistic family. The ancestor language called Proto-Indo-European (German: Urindogermanisch) originated most probably in the 4 or 3 millennium B.C, in north of the Black Sea (modern Ukraine). But by the end of the 3+ millennium 6.C. at the PIE had begun to split up into different branches, which must have been mutually idable as dialects at the beginning, but developed into separate languages in the course ‘Celtic branch shares some common traits with other Western Indo-European branches like ic or Italic. One of the most notable traits is the merger of the PIE velar and palatal is in one velar set (‘kentum-languages’) PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN (PIE) Kentuit-languages satemJanguages “Axarouan 7) Greek BaLTo-Siaviy GERMANIC Provo ARYAN fTocwma’ —Irauc ARMENIAN ALBANIAN} stavic Bavnie I Ceumic eee) Celtic) INDIC RaNtAn. fsnenaiGaue Celtic Insular C secon tiberian Cy Oy British ptepotic SW-British + Gaulish (Galatian) + Cuntbric Old Irish Old Weish a Commish Old Breton Middle Irish Lf \ Middle a Middle Cornish Middle Breton + Late C sbsh + Manx ree ScotfGaelic (Gzelg) Modern Welsh Neo-Cornish _ Modern Breton (Caiaiig na (Cymraeg) (Kemewek) (Brezhoneg) ma) Illustration 1.1: The Celtic languages and the Indo-European family tree; t~ extinct,Lesson 1 1.2. The classification of the Celtic languages ‘The classification of the attested Celtic languages in relation to one another is somewhat lematic. The Celtic languages used to be grouped into p-Celtie (Gaulish and British) and q (Goidelic) languages, depending on the reflex of the PIE phoneme *k" (PIE *k'stuores petuar., Cymir, pedwar, Olt. cethair). This resulted in a clear-cut differentiation between’ western-most group (Goidelic) and the rest. But with the deciphering of the Iberian script in 1920s, the discovery of the Celtiberian language in the 1950s and the discovery that it, t00, Goidelic had kept PIE *k’ unchanged (e.g, Cib. nekue ‘and not,’ cp. Latin neque) a new pi started to emerge. Today scholars tend to stress the non-trivial morphological, morphonoloy and syntactical similarities between Goidelic and British, grouping them together under label ‘Insular Celtic languages, with Lepontic, Gaulish and Celtiberian on the other forming a loose group of ‘Continental Celtic languages’ (the change *k"> p in Lepontic, Gat and British is now viewed as a trivial common innovation in the central area of Celtic guages’). In effect, at the moment two competing models of the Celtic languages’ family tree ist side by side (sce illustration 1.2). It must, however, be noted that, since the Continental C languages are only attested in ancient times (from the 6" century B.C. to approximately the 34 4 century A.D.), whereas the Insular Celtic languages are attested from early medieval ts until today, once existing linguistic correspondences between individual languages may hat been obscured by this chronological divergence, or once minor differences may have intensi so that in the end both models are built on a considerable amount of uncertainty. Kim McCone’s model: Proto-Celtic Karl Horst SCHMIDT’s model: Proto-Celti Ist Goidetic nie Brytho Goidelic British Gaulish Celtiberian Illustration 1.2: The two models of the Celtic family tree (from: Kim McCont, Towards a Relative Chronology af ‘Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change, Maynooth 1996, p. 67 and 104). Reprinted by permission of the author You will have noticed that I basically followed MCCONE’s model in my family tree (ill. 1.1). This is not to say that this model is the ‘correct’ one: it only means that at the moment MCCONF's ap- proach seems to account best for the given linguistic facts. But it may easily be that in the future new material (for example in the form of Continental Celtic inscriptions) will be discovered that will radically alter the situation. Maybe a completely different model will then be necessary. Family trees are a rather superficial means of describing the relationships between languages, because it is not possible to express mutual influences between languages. On maps, as in illustration 1.3, these interrelations can be more easily represented. “It is noteworthy that in Gaul itself not all areas seem to have undergone the sound change *k"> pz cp., for example, the ethnic names Sequan/and Quariates, which at least superficially show the sound 2f Lesson 1 13. The Continental Celtic languages and their attestation illustrates the maximum extent of the Celtic speaking world in antiquity. The Celtic languages are known to have been spoken at the time: 2. Transalpine Gaulish, 3. Cisalpine Gaulish, 4. Galatian, 5. Lepontic, 6. Lusitanian ,7. British, 8. Goidtelic, 9. Pictish (perhaps British), Gaulish Transalpine G.__yCisalpine G. lustration 1.3: Ancient Celtic languages of these languages extends over a period of roughly a thousand years: [=400 [300 | 200 100 [07] [ 4200 | +300 | +400] lustration 14: The Continental Celtic languages‘Lesson 1 1.3.1, Lepontic Lepontic inscriptions come from an afea of about 50 km around the Swiss town of Lepontic is often considered to be an early variant of Gaulish, But despite the extreme s Lepontic inscriptions, it can be demonstrated to be an independent language, and the a logical evidence suggests that Lepontic may have separated from the other Celtic languages even as early as the 13!" cen- tury B.C. Lepontic and cisalpine Gaulish (called Gaulish (Etr) in table 14) are written in the North Italian so-called Lugano al- pphabet which had been taken over from Hilstotion 1: Lepontc inscription onan uen fom Oma M Lugano alphabet tobe tead fom right to lett. Reprinted K the Etruscans. This alphabet makes RO ratomus.g (1987), 498 by permission of the editor 1 distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, transcription: LATUMARUI :SAPSUTAI : PE i UINOM : NASO} “for Latumaros and Sapsuta—Naxian wine’ 1.3.2. Gaulish and Galatian Gaulish was the language spoken in most of ancient Gaul (transalpine Gaulish’) and, after invasion of the Apennine Peninsula at the beginning of the 4 century 8.C., in Northern It (cisalpine Gaulish’). Many inscriptions have been found so far, some of the longest and valuable only in the past decades (e-g., Chamaligres, Larzac, Chateaubleau). The writing, used for Gaulish are the Greek, the Etruscan or North-Halian and the Roman alphabets. Little . known about the Celtic languages in Central Europe, but it is assumed that they were dialects, Gaulish and probably mutually intelligible. At least the personal and local names from t areas are similar to those of Gaul CEPOMAPOT) rein pptotin OVIAAONE OC a Ga NAMA ao BS a eee 2 aly smionn Sn Went on Illustration 1.6: Dedicatory inscription from Nimes in the Greek alphabet. Reprinted from Segomaros (‘big in victory’), son of Uillo, e aulish Inscriptions, Bae oot by ean ete nuthor citizen (2) of Namausos, dedicated this sanctuary for BelesamaBkIS OSB EGG * PPK EDRKOSKE KOKEO Kor KERR KISIOS.ARKATOKO}K} \TEREKOS,TOSO- ATOM.TEUOX ON.EU ton 1.8: Lead plate with magical inscription from 5 (Puy-de-Dome), excavated 1971. Reprinted on of CNRS Editions cription: fon uedifumi difiuion risun ‘mapon aruerifatin bptes snieddic sos brixtie anderon ion floron nigrinon adgarion aemili jpaterin claudion fegitumon caelion gn claudio pelign marcion uictorin asiatt addedil etic se coui toncnaman siiontio mefon pone se sit bue idollon reguc cambion exsops fmt tsoe cantirissu ison son t luge dessumm ifis luge mis luge dessumtis luxe Lesson 1 Ilystration 1.7: Lugane-alphabet, from a Latin-Gaulish bi- Fingual dedicatory inscription from Vercelli. Reprinted by permission of CNRS Editions translation: Akisijos Argantomaterekos (‘silver measurer?), gave this area (?) for gods and humans phonological transcription: akisiios argantomaterekos totsokonde (2) antom (?) deyoydonijon eu ws Algo) [oe oh pen Ite <4 Lapin Keone FP pth Sloan feng r Mmee ON eps 4 sy ore henlen detey PCr are ea dag ee Poet ald Ws Rew PSOne eis a ee astration 1.9: Facsimile of the Chamalidres inscription by R, MaRicHAt in Latin cursive. Reprinted by permission of CNRS Editions attempt at translation (very doubtful!) I pray with the (written?) force of interior (?) and sky gods to the son (or Maponos) of Aruernia us and them with the magic of the underworld , or women): C. Lucius Florus Nigrinus, the ad~ vocate, Aemilins Paterinus, Claudius Legitumus, Caelius Pelignus, Claudius Pelignus, Marcius Vic- torinus Asiaticus son of A@Gedillos and they who swear this oath. What was small will be whole, | will straighten the crooked, blind I will see. Swear at my right (?2), swear at my right, swear at my right.Lesson 1 Until the conquest by C. IULIUS CAESAR in the years 58-51 B.C. the Greek alphabet was used all writing purposes in Gaul. With some slight modifications (e.g., fax Gallicum) it was on way to develop into a national alphabet (see ill. 1.6). After the incorporation of Gaul into Roman Empire the Greek alphabet slowly went out of use for Gaulish and was ultimat replaced by the Roman alphabet (ill. 1.8 and 1.9). Galatian was spoken in Asia Minor (today Central Turkey). Because of its geographical ness it is often taken as a language of its own, though from al] that we know it must have been: dialect of Gaulish, brought to Asia Minor by Celtic invaders in the 3 century B.C. No Galati inscriptions have been found and we only know about the language from personal names odd references to isolated Galatian words in the works of Greek and Latin authors. Apparent Galatian was never put to writing by native speakers. . Celtiberian Lepontic and Gaulish (Galatian) share many features that make them look rather similar. Celt iberian on the other hand looks phonetically and morphologically decisively different. It seems to have separated from the other Celtic languages at an early stage. Celtiberian was recognized: to be a separate language only after its decipherment in the 40s of the 20" century. Some of the most important inscriptions were found in the past 30 years. As an example of a Celtiberian text you can see below side A of the bronze tablet number 1 from the Spanish town of Botorrita (Celtiberian and Latin: Contrebia Belaesca), usually just called Botorrita I (ill. 1.10). It probably deals with legislation concerning a temple district in Contrebia Belaesca, Under the picture you will find a transcription of side A in Roman letters. Occlusives are transcribed by means of the ‘archigrapheme, which means that Ta stands for /t4/ or /d8/, etc. mppswine sin phew # LON MPL KQAN UKM WE WM Dy MPQMA EHO’ MAD EMI FEN St BRT ocak En Re une eglent erie bore PW PEN STALE UCD TO Deel ex IPD EH MOL Sioa MP: EGS Me HM UE POQMNEN UN RIAD EYEE CGN PAL AND EBE EPR OPI ARM DAMEN HEN KM IA Ob SIRT DEERE OT Ty DopAonre Ber bsp hh per E PUP Ym EMER: A PAT OSHSDARIAT bra PIEMH Gone prem ary Rae tina Piea PE eXAET A OPN SMTA Acme Reon sefpap arg beh neh wane ALANS M SHN Ena RACER II? 75 Pom HWE cece PARDO NEN DMN SODA AY TES ELS EIGN PINE EIA LT! OSUEHT DIN XL SATE Cee eee Net naciaco FOP MOHM SEOOEEDLDPADYN ET ARALORM, yy no Nm DNB RASA TOWED VED SENS USA ES RS BORCH QED NPN ST MARIN RYE MDI EN SANMNOF AOS SUNT HH Ilustration 7.10: Celtiberian inscription on a bronze tablet, Botorrta J, found 1970; side A. Reprinted by permission of Museo de ZaragozaLesson 1 hes-ku-mesta-ka-m :to-ko-ito-sku-e:s-a-rni-ki-o () ku-e sua: kombacke-z : mebitosm / kue [] to-fuertawned: betom:mekwe: teuned:-etom: mekue: masnad: tizaunei: bite Ison sa-wku /(3)a-restalo: tama: uta:os-kue2: Slema:werzo-n bt :sibabur:§-bei-to-m: ko~ sstosm : ka-bi-ze-ti / (4) kacn-to-m [1] 5 a-ucm : to-kovi-esi : expe: usta: o-s-kwe-Z peetomauce :Ko-tui-neorm-ue / (5) mea-ka-s-i-[a?]-mare = a--Lasmeu-e = aem-bis-s-e-ti | Kasmra-n-o-m | US Oras: sues: Sako: kusta: bizetuz : hom / (6) as-ekacti:[abmbicti-n-ko-un-ei : tena: es fivemtara: tiis:maty-s:tinbitwee: me-ito: then-ka-ntam / (7) enc: os-acturz : o-m-wi thtass: b-z-orneti: s-0-m-ui: i-o-m :arznas: bon: Loom: kus-ta-kos / (8) arz-nas: kuetl: bas jars: wer-lato-se :te-n~ bi-secti:saem :tekametin-as: tate: some / (9) en-i-to-w Eeterankios:iste:esanckios uze:areitena: sarnikied:akaioa-ku-bos / (10) mebintor meust : as.2-e.th: ar atiometie :teeka-m-e-ta-m : (atu: bo-m = to-ko-ito-s-ku-e / (11) ekico-ku-e:aci-u-i-7-a-8 :ko-m-ba-l-kore-s a-be-i-tes bse br tz sabu-u u-bo-kum / the greatest part Celtiberian inscriptions Vameineere written in the Iberian script. This script alphabetic letters for vowels, sonorants. a = PE AX ON d sibilants, but only syllabic signs of the Consonant + Vowel for occlusives, with- © - % € @ 8 @ a distinction between voiced and voices 95 f* oP of} Y om W ‘consonants, From the time of the Roman apation inscriptions in the Roman alpha ° H xX X¥ Wo oa Pf exist as well. m+ hun lo A Ben a language known from a few in iptions in the Roman alphabet in Portugal, (juyaon Lun Mecharacesof 4s enerally not considered to be Celtic, but para-Celtic 1.4. The Insular Celtic languages and their attestation Insular Celtic languages are attested from the early and high Middle Ages onwards (not fing personal and local names in ancient Latin and Greek sources) 00 [500 [600 [700 | BOO | SON | 1000-100] 1200 1300] 1400 [1500 [7600] 700] TBOO]TSOO or Early Old Ir. Old Irish Midale_rish Class. Mod. Irish dialectal Mod. trish "SR aR a . an eoeeeveasea Old Welsh idle Welsh Mod, Welt SESE errmnad Sth a i ecnrcenrz eee ELSE Old Cornish Middle Com, Late Corn. Neo. oo tem nannomeaseot Soan e Ol_Breton Middle Breton Modern Breton Arca seer eR ER TEIN | ton 112: The Insular Celtic languagesLesson 1 The map to the left illustrates the areas in Wes Europe where Celtic languages were spoken att of the 19% century. In the meantime these areas shrunk dramatically. Key to the map: 1. Irish, 2. Scots Gaelic, 3. Manx, 4. Welsh, 5. (not spoken anymore at that time), 6. Breton Ilustration 1.13: The modern Celtic languages around 1900 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 deci- sive 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 PIF. are still writien, 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 Manx form the Goidelic branch of _ !tustration 1.14: Panceltism Celtic. All three languages are ‘Gaelic.’ To avoid confusion it is best to refer to every language its individual name. Up until late medieval times there existed only one literary standard. Ireland had fallen under English dominion Scottish Gaelic and Manx started to develop stand ards of their own. The orthography of Scottish Gaelic is very similar to that of Irish, but Manx written with English orthography! This can obscure important phonological distinctions of th language (¢.g., the distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized consonants) All Goidelic languages are minority languages in their respective countries and are in a weak and vulnerable state. Despite being the first official language of Ireland, Irish as an e day language is spoken only in a few remote areas, mainly on the west coast of the isla Approximately 2% of the Irish population regularly speaks Irish. Only in the last years has Iris become available on modern mass media like television. Scottish Gaelic is spoken mainly on t 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 lang has now ceased to be spoken. Manx was spoken on the Isle of Man and died out in the 19 Today efforts are made to revive the languageLesson 1 1.4.2. The British languages (Cymric), Cornish and Breton make up the British branch of Celtic. All three are closely to one another, with Cornish and Breton being especially close. Cumbric, which died out time in the Middle Ages, was spoken in North England and South Scotland and must have very ciose to Welsh. Nearly nothing has come down to us of Cumbric. Perhaps Pictish, a known from a handful of unintelligiable, early medieval inscriptions from Scotland, British language as well, but this is absolutely unclear. British languages are minority languages in their five countries, Welsh has about 600,000 speakers, a of the population of Wales. In recent years it has possible to halt the former rapid decline of speakers numbers have started to rise slightly again. Welsh spoken in a few villages in Patagonia (Argentina), ite being situated on the European continent, Breton an Insular Celtic language, because the language brought to Brittany by refugees from Britain in the middle ages. Breton has about 250,000 speakers, ‘of whom are over 60 years of age, Because of francocentric language policy Breton is doomed ina few decades. Cornish died out in the late 18!" _Mlustration 1.15: This century efforts have been made to revive the ge. A few hundred people speak it as their everyday language, several hundred more the language, but they are divided into three different standards. 1.5. What is Old Irish? fod of the 8% and 9% centuries in Irish language history is called Old Irish. Our first ‘manuscripts containing Irish language material date from ca. the end of the 7 century beginning of the 8 century. The Irish literary tradition probably started at least a earlier, but no manuscripts from that time have come down to us. Those texts written in century that have survived (e.g., many law texts like Crith Gablach) are to be found in ater manuscripts from the early modern times, Hiest Old trish texts in contemporary manuscripts have mainly survived not in Ireland, monasteries on the European continent. For the most part these texts do not contain nar- ‘or poetic literature, but consist of very short interlinear glosses and translations of Latin the Pauline epistles (Wb. = Wairzburg glosses, middle of the 8" century), a commentary on (ML = Milan glosses, beginning, of the 9 century) and the Latin grammar of Pris- (Sg. = St, Call glosses, middle of the 9 century). From Vienna stem two very short collec- Of glosses on the Easter calculation (Vienna Bede) and on Eutychius. In the library of the of St. Paul im Lavanttal the very famous Reichenau Codex? (9! century) is kept, contains five Old Irish poems, among them the popular poem on the scholar and his cat ‘ocus Pangur Bén, All these texts are collected in the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (Thes:) *THURNEYSEN's Grammar of Old Irish (GOI), which is the foundation of all modern hand- jendex can be found online at: http://www.1z.uni-potsdam de/u/lingtri/schulhett/index.htm 9Lesson 1 books of Old Irish, is based on the language of the Old Irish glosses. This is basically language you will learn in this course. Because even in that corpus linguistic variation can be observed, the language of basically the century is called Classical Old Irish, while that of especially the end of the 9 century Late Irish. The language prior to that period, that is from the 7% century or perhaps even earli shows decisively older linguistic traits and is therefore called Early Old Irish. The period the 10% to the 12! century is labelled Middle Irish. The language of that period shows a amount of grammatical simplification in comparison to Old Irish, but also an amount of guistic variation, which points to the state of a language in transition to a different grammati system. Modem Irish then (ca. from 1200 onwards) is again a language with a fixed and sta ardized 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 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 (eg,, 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 cor rections,” when the scribes replaced older, obsolete grammatical forms with more familiar ones. Thus 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 Trish 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 type in the present book. What I 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 modern 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. 10Lesson 2 2.1, The writing of Old Irish 3¢ of history three different writing systems were used for Irish: 1. the Ogam alphabet 2. the Cl6 Gaelach (Irish type’—a vi 3.and the Roman alphabet. iant of the Roman alphabet) 2.2. Ogam writing system is Ogam (Moder Irish spelling Ogham), most probably developed in ‘itself or in the multicultural environment of southwest Britain during the later centuries rule. Ogam is a monumental script consisting of strokes and notches engraved on the ‘standing stones (Ogam stones). The extant inscriptions either served a funeral function land possession. Maybe Ogam was also used on wooden sticks for other purposes of that sort has remained in the archaeological record and the odd references in Irish that practice need not necessarily be taken at face value. Ogam was in use from the 4" Y/P* century. Occasional references in popular books to Ogam inscriptions from North are pure phantasy. . manuscript tradition names for the Ogam letters have come down to us. Often tree used for the names, but many of these arboreal identifications are more than dubious | discussion in MCMANUS 1991: 36 ff.). Not all original phonological values of the é 18 ate absolutely clear; values given in brackets in ill. 2.1 represent the certain or pos- ] inal value (cf. MCMANUS 1991: 1-41). t Group I Group I B Beithe (Birch) 1H (P/)2) hath (Whitethorn, Fear?) L Luis (Rowan-tree) a D Dair (Oak) F(V) Fem (Alder) ao Tinne (Holly?) s Sail (Willow) toc Coll (Hazel) N Nin (Ash-tree?) aL Q Cert (Bush?) jon 2.18: The Ogam alphabet nLesson 2 Group Ill Group IV ¢ M Muin (Vine) = A Ailm Pines # G Gort (Ivy) ~ oO Onn (Ash-tree) ff NGG) nGetal (Killing) i Ur (Heath) Ae Z (ST?) Straif (Sulphur) — OE Edad (Aspen?) fe oR Ruis (Elder-tree) pe Idad (Yew Tree?) Ilustration 2.1; The Ogam alphabet Ill, 22 gives a typical example of an Ogam inscription, found at the northwest end of Brandon (Dingle Peninsula, Co. Chiarraf) [CIC 145, p. 140]. The Ogam inscription follows (from left to right): Af EE In Roman transliteration (Ogam inscriptions are always translitera uppercase!) QRIMITIR RON[AJNN MAQ COMOGANN ‘of the priest Ronan, the son of Comgan’ Since the inscription shows linguistically young, ie., Archaic Irish. (loss of final syllables, raising of e > i before a following i, loss between vowel and n with compensatory lengthening), it must be relatively late date, perhaps the later 5% or 6" century, but no abso dating is possible. In earlier inscriptions the mentioned sound ch would not have taken place yet; at a Primitive Irish stage the inscripti would probably have looked like ‘QREMITERI RONAGNI MA COMAGAGNI. Into classical Old Irish the inscription would translate *cruimthir R6ndin maice Comgain Illustration 2.2: Ogam stone, CIIC 145. Reprinted by permission of Four Courts Press 2Lesson 2 2.3. Clo Gaelach In medieval times a special Irish writing style developed from the Roman semi-uncial scipt. At he early modem period with the invention of the printing press this Irish type was standard- ged as Clé Gaelach ‘Irish type’ for the printing of the Irish language. The C6 Gaelach is ally identical with the Roman alphabet, except for the shapes of a few letters (g, lowercase r 3). The Clé Gaelach was in use until the 1950s. In secondhand book shops you can find yy books in this type, and the type is still often used to give public inscriptions a kind of old G m n ° Pe Ee Ri See, u Il om on o p rs tou Ilustration 2.3: Clo Gaelach, the basic set of letters he Cl6 Gaelach is a reduced variant of the Roman alphabet and basically consists of 18 letters. in addition some of the letters can be combined with the diacritics <>! and <>. Moreover is one special sign <7> for ‘and.’ The diacritic <’> marks the length of a vowel, never the ord accent {which in Old Irish basically is fixed on the first syllable). ‘The name for the length mark in Irish is sineadh fada. The diacritic <> is the lenition mark, which in modern ortho- POR Ce ome Ct ie See 4 bh ch dh 6 fh gh i mh 6 (ett! 3S) pees a 7 6 ph sh th «& agus Ilustration 2.4: he diacritics of the Clé Gaelach se the brackets used to indicate graphemes, ie, the basic, distinctive written signs. B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 12% century. You'll find the complete page at: http://www.isos.deu.ie/ted/ted_ms_ 1339/jpgs/113.jpg, Mlustration 2.5: portion of LL 20®, Reprinted by permission the library of Trinity College Dublin 2.4. The Roman alphabet Since the introduction of literacy into Ireland in the early Middle Ages Irish was, apart Ogam inscriptions, written in the Roman alphabet, though in a special character that graduall developed into the Cl6 Gaelach, In the course of the reform of 1953, when a new Irish sta language (‘An Caighdedn Oifigidif) was created, the Clé Gaelach was abolished as the offic 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.