Bibliography

Stifter, David, “Old Irish etymology through the ages”, Language and History 63 (2020): 24–46.

  • journal article
Citation details
Contributors
Article
“Old Irish etymology through the ages”
Periodical
Language and History 63 (2020)
Language and History 63 — The history of linguistic ideas in medieval Ireland and Wales: proceedings of the 2018 Colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society in memory of Professor Anders Ahlqvist (2020).
Volume
63
Pages
24–46
Description
Abstract (cited)
The etymological study of Early Irish began in the Old Irish period (c. 700‒900 a.d.), under the influence of Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, and, because of its flexible hermeneutic potential, it enjoyed great popularity in the middle and early modern periods. It is only with the rise of modern comparative linguistics, especially of Indo-European linguistics in the second half of the 19th century, that the art of Irish etymology attained scholarly rigour. Over the past 150 years, paradigm shifts in Indo-European studies (laryngeal theory, accent/ablaut classes of inflection, derivational morphology) and the development of modern technology (digitisation of texts, e.g. eDIL, ISOS) have repeatedly changed the methods and the course of Irish etymological studies. The impact of some of these external factors will be illustrated with examples.
Subjects and topics
Headings
etymology Old Irish
Approaches
historical and comparative linguistics
Language
Lexical itemSingle words, morphemes or phrases.
Old Irish ubullOld Irish caura, cáeraOld Irish *cóennae
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2020, last updated: February 2021