breth

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Middle English

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Etymology 1

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Noun

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breth

  1. Alternative form of bredthe

Etymology 2

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Noun

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breth

  1. Alternative form of breeth

Old Irish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Proto-Celtic *britis.[1] The declension switched from i-stem to ā-stem by analogy with bert (bundle), which is the foundation of the verbal nouns of all derivatives of beirid.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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breth f (genitive brithe, nominative plural bretha)

  1. verbal noun of beirid: carrying, bearing
  2. judgement

Inflection

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Etymologically this should be an i-stem with nominative singular brith. This alternative nominative singular is known to exist, but only an ā-stem inflection is attested.

Feminine ā-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative brethL, brithL brithL brethaH
Vocative brethL, brithL brithL brethaH
Accusative brithN brithL brethaH
Genitive britheH brethL brethN
Dative brithL brethaib brethaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

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Mutation

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

References

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  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*briti-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 79

Further reading

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