cobair

Old Irish

Etymology

Essentially com- prefixed to the stem of fo·reith (“to help”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈko.vərʲ/

Noun

cobair f (genitive cobrad)

1. help
   • 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. 16^a31

     .i. is gnáth do cobir cach lobir hi fochidib.

     i.e. He is wont to help every feeble one in [their] tribulations.

Inflection

Feminine t-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	cobair	—	—
Vocative	cobair	—	—
Accusative	cobraidN, cobrithN	—	—
Genitive	cobrad	—	—
Dative	cobraidL, cobrithL	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• cobraithir

Descendants

• Middle Irish: cobair
  • Irish: cabhair
  • Scottish Gaelic: cobhair
  • Manx: couyr

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cobair	chobair	cobair pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
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), “cobair”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language