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De origine scoticae linguae (DOSL, also known as ‘O’Mulconry’s Glossary’) is an etymological glossary dating from around the late-seventh or early-eighth century. It discusses the origins of about 884 Irish words, very often deriving them from Latin, Greek or Hebrew. As such it represents the earliest etymological study of any European vernacular language. Despite this, however, the text has to date been almost completely ignored for its significance in the history of linguistics. This article analyses the authors’ methods, particularly with regard to the semantic and formal components of etymologies, and argues that the text shows considerable coherence, both internally and in relation to its sources and models in the Graeco-Roman linguistic tradition. It argues that DOSL is a serious work of scholarship that represents a milestone in the historical development of comparative linguistics.

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.

While the ‘grades’ of comparison is a familiar term, it is argued in this paper that a more thorough-going appreciation of a metaphor which originally had to do with steps allows us better to understand the development of the terminology of the grades of comparison as it moved from the Latin grammarians, especially Donatus and the commentators on his original work, into the medieval vernacular Irish and Welsh grammars. The architectural basis of the terminology, then, once identified, may help to clarify the use of such terms as Old Irish etargaire and how in Welsh grwndwal (lit.) ‘ground-wall’ came to be used of the positive form of the adjective.

The medieval Welsh bardic grammars, known as ‘Gramadegau’r Penceirddiaid,’ include an extensive system of classification to describe syllable and diphthong types. While much of the rest of the linguistic description in the bardic grammars is heavily Latinate, this section is apparently innovative and oriented towards the demands of bardic composition. The syllables and diphthongs section is extensively revised over the course of its transmission, and either expanded or contracted depending on the aims and purposes of its editors. This article examines the two earliest revisions, found in Peniarth MS 20 (c.1330) and Bangor MS 1 (mid-fifteenth century) as evidence of the changing function of the grammars over the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. A case is made for the increasing use of the grammars as practical pedagogical documents from the mid-fifteenth century.

Ogam is a writing system invented for the Irish language and originally used as a monument script in inscriptions on stone in Ireland and western Britain between the fifth (or late fourth) and the seventh centuries. Even though it was no longer used as a means of communication after the eighth century, it became an emblem of linguistic and cultural identity for medieval and early modern Irish scholars and poets because of its distinctive form, structure and letter names. The paper describes the characteristics of ogam as a script system and traces its place in medieval learned traditions about the origin and status of the Irish language and its alphabet, its use as a terminological tool for descriptions of Irish grammar and phonology, and its contribution to the construction of cultural memory and identity.

The peculiar method of ‘breaking the words’ (scinderatio fonorum) as defined by an obscure grammarian Virgilius Maro Grammaticus probably already by the seventh century CE, perhaps in Ireland, has so far been discussed only either as a strategy of mystical concealment or as poetic ornamentation of speech. This study discusses its application in education for sharpening the students' minds, which is actually explicitly listed by Virgilius himself as the first of its possible uses. Thus, ‘breaking the words’ is presented as a widespread social and cultural phenomenon rather than a bizarre occupation of particular elites. Concentrating on its link to memory and sketching out the appearance of strategies in line with scinderatio fonorum in treatises on the art of memory, in practical mnemonics, and in medieval manuscripts, the author reflects on the omnipresence, purposes and consequences of ‘making things difficult’, showing that the tricky relationship between mistake and meaning requires justifying every act of interpretation.