Old Irish class B V verbs (Strachan's A2; McCone's S3 with i vocalism) are derived from Proto-Celtic verbs ending in *-nuti, from Proto-Indo-European athematic verbs with a nasal infix before w (singular *-né-w-ti, plural *-n-w-énti). They correspond to Ancient Greek verbs ending in -νυμι (-numi) and to Sanskrit class 5 verbs (e.g. शृणोति (śṛṇoti, “to hear”), which corresponds to Old Irish ro·cluinethar (“to hear”)). The stem-final n is always non-palatalized, and exists only in the present stem; there is no n in the future, subjunctive, or preterite stems of these verbs.
The inflection is almost identical to that of class B IV; the difference is that the root vowel in most cases is i, showing that the vowel after the n must have been u in Proto-Celtic.
No absolute forms are attested.
Basic pattern
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A sample verb of this subclass is ·gnin (found in ad·gnin/as·gnin/in·gnin (“to know”)). The endings are as follows (note that several of the endings are delenited after the root-final n):
Present indicative
| 1st sg.
|
2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| ·gninaim, ·gniniu
|
·gninai
|
·gnin
|
·gninam
|
·gninaid
|
·gninat
|
·gnintar
|
·gnintar
|
Imperfect indicative
| 1st sg.
|
2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| ·gninainn
|
·gninta
|
·gninad
|
·gninmais
|
·gnintae
|
·gnintais
|
·gnintae
|
·gnintais
|
Imperative
| 2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| gnin
|
gninad
|
gninam
|
gninaid
|
gninat
|
gninar
|
gnintar
|
Deponent pattern
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A sample verb of this subclass is ro·finnadar:
Present indicative
| 1st sg.
|
2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| ro·finnur
|
ro·fintar
|
ro·finnadar
|
ro·finnammar
|
ro·finnaid
|
ro·finnatar
|
ro·fintar
|
ro·finnatar
|
Imperfect indicative
| 1st sg.
|
2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| ro·finnainn
|
ro·finta
|
ro·finnad
|
ro·finnaiais
|
ro·finnaatar
|
ro·fintais
|
ro·fintar
|
ro·finnatar
|
Imperative
| 2nd sg.
|
3rd sg.
|
1st pl.
|
2nd pl.
|
3rd pl.
|
Passive singular
|
Passive plural
|
| fintae
|
finnad
|
finnamar
|
finnaid
|
finnatar
|
fintar
|
fintar
|
Further reading
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- McCone, Kim (1997) The Early Irish Verb (Maynooth Monographs 1), 2nd edition, Maynooth: An Sagart, →ISBN, page 31
- Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2017) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, pages 357, 379
