Introduction to Primitive Irish and Gaelic dialects

Joss Gospatrick

Examples of Proto-Celtic – Proto-Irish - Irish

*makkwos​ ​– *​​maccwoh​ ​- mac

*wîros​ ​– *​​wiroh​ - fear
*wlatis​ – *​​wlatih​ ​ - ​flath
*koxsâ​ – *​koxsá​ cos
*enter ​– *​enter​ - ​eadar
*wlikwos​ ​– *wlicwoh​ –​ fliuch
*yawankos​ –​ ​*y​ owancoh​ – ​óg

The same words in Primitive Irish:

macc ah
ẇirah
ẇlatih
koxsa
eṅter
ẇlicuh/​vlicuh/ẇlic uh
j̊oẇaṅcah

original Proto Celtic o-stem examples

ẇirah– man

nominative ẇirah ẇirí

accusative
genitive ẇirí ẇiran
dative ẇirú ẇirab’
vocative ẇir(e) ẇirúh
intrumental ẇirú? ?
locative ẇirei? ?

macc ah –​ son

nominative macc ah macc í

accusative
genitive macc í macc an
dative macc ú macc ab’
vocative macc e/i macc úh
instrumental macc ú? ?
locative macc ei? ?

broccah –​ badger

nominative broccah broccí

accusative
genitive broccí broccan
dative broccú broccab’
vocative brocce broccúh
instrumental broccú*
locative broccei*

súlih - i​ -stem noun

nominative súlih súlíh

accusative
genitive súleih súlom
dative súlei/súlé súlibah
vocative súli
instrumental súli súlibih
locative súli

. Note: some of the above examples are not certain.

aẇih – ​descendent. ​tírah​ – ​land. ​Luguh​ – ​Lugus (deity). ​cattuh​ –​​ battle. ​c rimitir​ – ​priest.
srutah​ – ​stream. ​anm C atrici​ – ​the name of Patrick. ​ẇlic uh - ​wet. ​ad tixtat’ – ​to possess.
bundah​ – ​bottom. ​letah​ – ​side. ​ad beret’ –​ to carry ẇ ​ issuh –​​ knowledge, Irish: ​fios​​. ​atír​ – ​father.
ceṅtom – ​first. ​ad g anát’ – t​ o wound, Old Irish: ​gonaid.​ ​brátír​ – ​brother. ​caicah​ – ​blind, ​ai​​ is
perhaps somewhere between [e:] and [ai]. ​ad stá​ ​- to stand (later became ​tá​).​ẇiduh – ​wood,
Irish: ​fiodh​​. ​iscaẇa, escaẇa – ​bog. ​ad c iho – ​to see. ​ẇerga - anger, Old Irish: ferg, modern
Irish: ​fearg​​.ẇ​ oh’ssamuh, – relief, Irish: ​faoiseamh​​. d​ íaḋcor’ – difficult, Irish: ​deacair​​. ​gaitah –
wind, Irish: ​gaoth​​. a​ d ẇoglaṅhmaṅ
-​ t​ o learn, Irish: ​foghlaim​​. ​aliah ​– ​other, Irish: ​eile​​. ẇ​ roicah – heather, Irish: ​fraoch​​, Old Irish:
fróeċ, froí​ ċ​. ​ad gabit’ – ​to give, Irish: ​gabh​​. ​ad delwát’ ​-​ t​ o form, to shape, Irish: ​dealbh ​(a
photo, image). ​ad márat’ ​-​ ​to make learger, increase. ​ad ríma – ​to number. ​coldah – f​ orest.

Examples of Ogham Irish inscriptions with their Primitive Irish form:

​​ ​​  
ANM COLMAN AILITHIR
anm Colman ailahtírah
'The name Colman, a/the pilgrim

The word 'ALITHIR' appears in Old Irish as a​ iliṫre. This word basically means 'other-land-er', it
appears in Scottish Gaelic as ​eilthir​​. This inscription is from Maumanorig in County Kerry, and
appears to show the beginning of lenition.

​​ ​​  
LIE LUGNAEDON MACCI MENUEH
lieh Lug’naidon Macc í Menueh
the stone of Lugnaedon, son of Limenueh

This stone was found on Inchagoill Island, off County Galway.

​​ ​​  
SVAQQUCI MAQI QICI
sẇacc uci macc í c icí
… son of…

The Primitive Irish language evolved into Old Irish, although nobody is sure how exactly
because the Primitive Irish language is so different and more archaic than the Old Irish which
appeared shortly afterwards. One possibility is that Primitive Irish was already an archaic
language when the Ogham texts were written on stone, the colloquial form of the language may
have already been Old Irish.

Old Irish became Middle Irish, which eventually became the basis of Classical Gaelic, the
written register which became the basis of written Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

Irish and Scottish Gaelic are very close languages but differ in some important features. Both
Irish and Scottish Gaelic also have dialects which can be quite different to one another,
sometimes people have suggested that if Gaelic originally considered one language, has been
divided into Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic, then why aren't the Ulster Irish, Argyle Gaelic and
Northern Gaelic dialects also separate languages? The main dialect areas are discussed below.

Irish Gaelic is divided into three main dialects, those of Ulster, Connaught and Munster. Irish
dialects preserve features from classical Gaelic which have disappeared in Manx and Scottish
Gaelic, including a much more inflicted system of verbs with many different tenses. These
inflections are found all over Ireland but many parts of the older classical language are only used
in more archaic or literate speech, the only dialects to really have these features as still a part of
the everyday language are the Munster dialects. This is why Munster Irish was historically
considered the more proper form of Irish, this is of course completely subjective and carries no
truth because all dialects of Irish have diverged differently and Munster Irish phonology is
equally as divergent from the classical language.
Munster Irish has what can definitely be described as palatal d and t whereas other dialects,
especially Ulster, more often turn these sounds into something identical to the English ‘j’ and
‘ch’ sounds, but this is not from English influence. Munster Irish often misses out syllables
meaning that certain vowels are dropped, the dialects of Munster are in some ways more guttural
in their preservation of the [x] sound.
Connaught Irish is spoken in Western Ireland and isn't so different to the standard form of Irish
and both dialects seem to have either come from the same period or circumstances as the
common spoken Irish in Western Ireland. Connaught Irish also has numerous sound changes, the
dialects in Connemara are one of the main concentrations of Connaught Irish speakers but they
are actually quite different from the standard language, with unusual sound changes and a fast
rhythm of speech which can make them difficult to understand for other speakers who are not
exposed to these dialects.

Ulster Irish is fundamentally quite different from other speech registers of Irish and some have
described it as being a related language, definitely Irish but different in the way that South
Estonian has a somewhat different history and environment to Standard Estonian. Ulster Irish is
phonologically very different and often lacks the gutteral sound [x] and has developed new
vowel and consonant sounds not found elsewhere in Ireland. Ulster Irish is archaic in other ways
and carries more syllables in many of its words making it similar to the classical Gaelic
language.

Eastern dialects of Irish are now mainly extinct, but there was an East Ulster Irish which was
different to the West Ulster dialects that are still spoken by many. Some of the Eastern dialects to
the south had other unique things about them although they were perhaps closest to Munster
Irish, with some dialects sharing features with Connaught Irish.

Manx Gaelic was never written down and evolved separately, grammatically it is closer to
Scottish Gaelic and this probably originates in the medieval Norse-Gaels culture which Modern
Scottish Gaelic dialects have also been influenced by. Manx is also divergent from this dialect
group and is unusual for having further internal lenition and sounds such as [z]. It is also written
in a spelling based on English and Welsh spelling practices rather than a spelling based on
classical Gaelic.

In Scotland it is less easy to clearly separate one dialect from another, instead this will be
described as dialect traits, since there are few areas in Scotland which have all the traits of one
region and are isolated from other dialects. For example, Eastern Gaelic dialects have features
that set them apart, but many of these are also shared with Northern Gaelic dialects, but in other
ways Northern Gaelic can be more similar to Western Gaelic, so it is difficult to determine a
dialect area and instead it is easier to talk about features or traits which are more concentrated in
some areas than in others. Argyle Gaelic is actually several dialect traits which differ quite a lot
depending on the part of Argyle. A few examples of ‘isolated’ dialects include the Arran
subdialect of Argyle Gaelic, the Gaelic of St. Kilda, the Gaelic of Western Sutherland and the
related, but different dialect of Brora and Golspie in East Sutherland, although in Eastern
Sutherland a lot of dialect features seem to come together so that there is no single Eastern
Sutherland Gaelic for that entire region, some of the dialects outside Brora and Golspie are more
connected to Western dialects.
 Argyle dialects often turn the long ​à​ sound into an è, this is frequently heard on Arran. Eastern
dialects are more archaic in some ways but frequently drop syllables at the ends of words like
samhradh​​. Northern dialects frequently change long a into long o, written ​å​ in some places, as
well as cutting the final vowel off words. Western dialects are the only Scottish Gaelic dialects to
have really remained spoken, they can further be divided up into sub dialects. The dialects of the
Inner Hebrides are mutually intelligible but they diverge, for example the broad l sound on the
Isle of Eigg. Dialects in the Outer Hebrides tend to be more similar to one another, except for the
Lewis dialect which includes a large number of all Gaelic speakers. Lewis Gaelic is mutually
intelligible with other Hebridean dialects but it is surprisingly different from the others with a
more noticeable “Scandinavian” accent.

I myself am no expert in Gaelic dialects but a working knowledge of them was necessary to be
able to work on Primitive Irish, I want to thank all those native speakers who have helped to
explain the dialects to me and having devoted many hours of conversation to this.

References

. Proto-Celtic dictionary, University of Wales

www.wales.ac.uk
. Sengoidelc - Old Irish for beginners, by David Stifter