Old Irish
Sign in to saveAlso known as Old Gaelic, goídelc, Old Irish language, Old Gaelic language, Early Irish
oldest widely attested Goidelic Celtic language (c. 600 – c. 900); extinct language with ISO 639-3 code sga
Key facts
- Pronunciation
- [ ˈɡoːi̯ðʲelɡ ]
- Region
- Ireland, Isle of Man , Wales , Scotland , Devon , Cornwall
- Era
- 6th–10th century; evolved into Middle Irish by around the 10th century
- Language family
- Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Goidelic Old Irish
- Early form
- Primitive Irish
- Writing system
- Latin , Ogham
- Iso 639 2
- sga
- Iso 639 3
- sga
- Glottolog
- oldi1246
- Linguasphere
- 50-AAA-ad
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- historical language
- Subclass of
- Irish
- Image
- Clo gaelach vocals.png
Show 9 more facts
- P10369
- Android
- writing system
- Latin script
- number of speakers, writers, or signers
- 0
- topic's main category
- Category:Old Irish
- linguistic typology
- fusional language
- start time
- 0600-00-00
- end time
- 0950-00-00
- P8168
- David Arroyo
via Wikidata · CC0
~24 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (endonym: Goídelc; Irish: Sean-Ghaeilge; Scottish Gaelic: Seann-Ghàidhlig; Manx: Shenn Yernish or Shenn Ghaelg), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from c. 600 to c. 900. The main contemporary texts are dated c. 700–850; by 900 the language had already transitioned into early Middle Irish. Some Old Irish texts date from the 10th century, although these are presumably copies of texts written at an earlier time. Old Irish is forebear to Modern Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
Old Irish is known for having a particularly complex system of morphology and especially of allomorphy (more or less unpredictable variations in stems and suffixes in differing circumstances), as well as a complex sound system involving grammatically significant consonant mutations to the initial consonant of a word. Apparently, neither characteristic was present in the preceding Primitive Irish period, though initial mutations likely existed in a non-grammaticalised form in the prehistoric era.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Old Irish” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.