Old Irish edit

Etymology edit

Formed with dí- +‎ fo-. The verb stem cannot be nigid directly, since it would have resulted in a *do·fuinig via raising and palatalization of the -n-. Uhlich believes that the lack of palatalization arose under influence of related verbal nouns like fonach.[1]

Uhlich assumes that the verbal nouns were formed from an o-grade stem *noig-. Given how root-based neuter o-stem nouns are generally formed with the e-grade and zero-grade and not the o-grade, Gordon instead believes that the verbal noun's stem was either e-grade *nēg- or zero-grade nig-.[2] Díunach itself gives no indication of which, since palatalization would have been lost anyway due to syncope of the o in fo-. Both fonach and funech exist in Early Irish, meaning they are of no help either in finding out which stem grade the verbal nouns originally used.

Verb edit

do·fonaig (verbal noun díunach or díunag)

  1. to wash away

Inflection edit

Mutation edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ Uhlich, Jürgen (1995) “On the Fate of Intervocalic *-ṷ- in Old Irish, Especially between Neutral Vowels”, in Ériu[1], volume 46, Royal Irish Academy, →ISSN, →JSTOR, retrieved August 26, 2022, pages 11–48
  2. ^ Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, page 260

Further reading edit