Texts
Seacht bpearsain fhichead uair mé
Incoming data
The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.
Irish bardic poem on the optative subjunctive (itche). It is atttested in a copy of Irish grammatical tracts III–IV.
Manuscript witnesses
Sources
Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.
[ed.] [tr.] Hoyne, Mícheál, “Seacht bpearsain fhichead uair mé: a poem on the optative subjunctive in a copy of Irish grammatical tracts III–IV”, Ériu 68 (2018): 99–127.
abstract:
This article concerns a rediscovered Classical Modern Irish poem on the optative subjunctive. In Classical Modern Irish most verbs are regularly preceded by gur (neg. nár) in the optative subjunctive (for example, gur léagha ‘may you read'), but 27 verbs take go (neg. ná) (for instance, go bhfionna ‘may you know'); the poem edited here lists the latter verbs based on information gleaned from Irish Grammatical Tracts III–IV. This article discusses the manuscript context of the poem, its relationship to IGT III–IV and the make-up of that tract, and the linguistic background to go/gur variation in the optative; it also presents a critical edition of the poem itself with an English translation.
