breth
Middle English
Noun
breth
- Alternative form of bredthe
Noun
breth
- Alternative form of breeth
Old Irish
Alternative forms
- brith
Etymology
From Proto-Celtic *britis.[1] The declension switched from i-stem to ā-stem by analogy with bert (“bundle”), which is the foundation of the verbal nouns of all derivatives of beirid.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bʲr͈ʲeθ/
Noun
breth f (genitive brithe, nominative plural bretha)
- verbal noun of beirid: carrying, bearing
- judgement
Inflection
Etymologically this should be an i-stem with nominative singular brith. This alternative nominative singular is known to exist, but only an ā-stem inflection is attested.
| Feminine ā-stem | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | brethL, brithL | brithL | brethaH |
| Vocative | brethL, brithL | brithL | brethaH |
| Accusative | brithN | brithL | brethaH |
| Genitive | britheH | brethL | brethN |
| Dative | brithL | brethaib | brethaib |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
| |||
Derived terms
- brithem
- tairmbreth
Mutation
| Old Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
| breth | breth pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/ | mbreth |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||
References
- Matasović, Ranko (2009), “*briti-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 79
Further reading
- G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “breth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language