bethu

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• beothu, bethad

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *biwotūts (compare Welsh bywyd), from *biwos from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”) (compare Latin vīta, Ancient Greek βίοτος (bíotos), Old Church Slavonic животъ (životŭ, “life”), Lithuanian gyvatà (“life”), Sanskrit जीवित (jīvitá), Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬌𐬌𐬊 (gaiio, “life”) accusative 𐬘𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬙𐬎𐬨 (jiiātum)), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʲeθu/

Noun

bethu m

1. life
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 3^c2

     tri chretim i nÍsu ꝉ isin beothu i táa Ísu iar n-esséirgu

     through belief in Jesus or in the life in which Jesus is after resurrection

   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 15^b28

     A mbás tíagme-ni do·áirci bethid dúibsi .i. is ar bethid dúibsi tíagmi-ni bás.

     The death to which we go causes life to you pl, i.e. it is for the sake of life to you that we go to death.

Declension

Masculine t-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	bethu	—	—
Vocative	bethu	—	—
Accusative	bethaidN, bethu	—	—
Genitive	bethad	—	—
Dative	bethaidL, bethu	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Middle Irish: betha
  • Irish: beatha
  • Manx: bea
  • Scottish Gaelic: beatha

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
bethu	bethu pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/	mbethu
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “betha”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language