neph-

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• neb-

Prefix

neph-

1. not, non-, un-
   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 7^b9

     .i. a n-dliged n-ísin neph-accomoil in[n]a teora lit[er] i [n-]oen-sil[laib]

     i.e. that law of not joining three letters in one syllable

   • c. 775, “Táin Bó Fraích”, in Book of Leinster; republished as Ernst Windisch, editor, Táin bó Fraích, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1974, line 323:

     "Do·géna nephthecht dia cungid. Ní thaibrea th'anmain forru," ol sí.

     You shall not go seek them. You wouldn't give your life for them," she said.

Derived terms

Old Irish terms prefixed with neph-

Descendants

• Middle Irish: nem-
  • Irish: neamh-
  • Manx: neu-
  • Scottish Gaelic: neo-

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
neph- also nneph- after a proclitic ending in a vowel	neph- pronounced with /n(ʲ)-/	unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 nem”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language