Primitive Irish

Infobox Language
name=Primitive Irish
states=Ireland, western Great Britain, the Isle of Man
familycolor=Indo-European
fam1=Indo-European
fam2=Celtic
fam3=Insular Celtic
fam4=Goidelic
iso2=cel
script=Ogham
extinct=Evolved into Old Irish about the 6th century AD
notice=nonotice

Primitive Irish is the oldest known form of the Goidelic languages, known only from fragments, mostly personal names, inscribed on stone in the ogham alphabet in Ireland and western Great Britain up to about the 6th century.

Characteristics

Transcribed ogham inscriptions, which lack a letter for the /p/ phoneme, show Primitive Irish to be similar in morphology and inflections to Gaulish, Latin, Classical Greek and Sanskrit. Many of the characteristics of modern (and medieval) Irish, such as initial mutations, distinct "broad" and "slender" consonants and consonant clusters, are not yet apparent.

More than 300 ogham inscriptions are known in Ireland, including 121 in County Kerry and 81 in County Cork, and more than 75 found outside Ireland in western Britain and the Isle of Man, including more than 40 in Wales, where Irish colonists settled in the 3rd century, and about 30 in Scotland, although some of these are in Pictish. Many of the British inscriptions are bilingual in Irish and Latin, but none show any sign of the influence of Christianity or Christian epigraphic tradition, suggesting they date before 391, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire; only about a dozen of the Irish inscriptions show any such sign.

The majority of ogham inscriptions are memorials, consisting of the name of the deceased in the genitive case, followed by "MAQI, MAQQI", "of the son", and the name of his father, or "AVI, AVVI", "of the grandson", and the name of his grandfather: for example "DALAGNI MAQI DALI", " [the stone] of Dalagnas son of Dalas". Sometimes the phrase "MAQQI MUCOI", "of the son of the tribe", is used to show tribal affiliation. Some inscriptions appear to be border markers. [Rudolf Thurneysen, "A Grammar of Old Irish", Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946, pp. 9-11; Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, "Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200", Longman, 1995, pp. 33-36, 43; James MacKillop, "Dictionary of Celtic Mythology", Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 309-310]

Transition to Old Irish

Old Irish, written from the 6th century on, has most of the distinctive characteristics of Irish, including "broad" and "slender" consonants, initial mutations resulting from the loss of inflectional endings, and consonant clusters created by the loss of unstressed syllables, along with a number of significant vowel and consonant changes including the presence of the letter "p".

As an example, a 5th century king of Leinster, whose name is recorded in Old Irish king-lists and annals as "Mac Caírthinn Uí Enechglaiss", is memorialised on an ogham stone near where he died. This gives the late Primitive Irish version of his name (in the genitive case), as "MAQI CAIRATINI AVI INEQUAGLAS".John T. Koch, "The conversion and the transition from Primitive to Old Irish", "Emania" 13, 1995] Similarly, the Corcu Duibne, a people of County Kerry known from Old Irish sources, are memorialised on a number of stones in their territory as "DOVINIAS". [Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, "Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200", Longman, 1995, p. 44] Old Irish "fili", "poet", appears in ogham as "VELITAS". [Rudolf Thurneysen, "A Grammar of Old Irish", p. 58-59] In each case the development of Primitive to Old Irish shows the loss of unstressed syllables and certain consonant changes.

These changes, traced by historical linguistics, are not unusual in the development of languages but appear to have taken place unusually quickly in Irish. According to one theory given by John T. Koch, these changes coincide with the conversion to Christianity and the introduction of Latin learning. All languages have various registers or levels of formality, the most formal of which, usually that of learning and religion, changes slowly while the most informal registers change much more quickly, but in most cases are prevented from developing into mutually unintelligible dialects by the existence of the more formal register. Koch argues that in pre-Christian Ireland the most formal register of the language would have been that used by the learned and religious class, the druids, for their ceremonies and teaching. After the conversion to Christianity the druids lost their influence, and formal Primitive Irish was replaced by Latin, the language of the new learned class, the Christian monks. The vernacular forms of Irish, i.e. the ordinary Irish spoken by the upper classes (formerly 'hidden' by the conservative influence of the formal register) came to the surface, giving the impression of having changed rapidly; a new written standard, Old Irish, established itself.

Possible external influences

Before Gaelic dialects evolved in Ireland, some allege that the inhabitants spoke "Ivernic", particularly in Munster. It receives its name from a Gallo-Belgic group known as the Iverni (later "Érainn"), attested in Ptolemy's 2nd century "Geography".

This hypothesis may be supported by what seems to be a brief mention of such a language in the 9th-century Irish dictionary "Sanas Cormaic", under the names "Iarnnbélrae", "Iarnbélrae", and "Iarmbérla", which, if treated as Old Irish, means "Iron-speech". The early 20th century Gaelic scholar T. F. O'Rahilly proposed that this language, which he called Ivernic, was the source for these loanwords. [T. F. O'Rahilly in "Ériu" 13, 1942] If such a language existed, its speakers were eventually absorbed into the Goidelic-speaking population, and by the time the Vikings had established Limerick in about 850, only the Goidelic language Irish was spoken. [T. F. O'Rahilly, "Early Irish History and Mythology". Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946, 1957, 1964, 1971, 1976, 1984, 1999.] However, most linguists now explain these Brythonic loanwords as borrowings directly from Welsh, noting that ogham inscriptions attest to an early Irish presence in Wales.

Cormac mac Cuilennáin, king and bishop of Cashel in Munster in Ireland, born 836, died 908, wrote a large Glossary which said that the "Iron-speech" was "dense and difficult" and had recently died out and that two words of it were remembered: "ond" = "stone" and "fern" = "anything good". [Croman mac Nessa, [http://groups.msn.com/CromansGrove/ivernianheritageversion5.msnw"Ivernian Heritage: The Érainn and Their Legacy,"] , 2001/2002]

ee also

* Ogham
* Ogham inscription
* Old Irish
* Brythonic languages

References