breth

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

breth

Alternative form of bredthe

Etymology 2

Noun

breth

Alternative form of breeth

Old Irish

Alternative forms

brith

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *britis.^[1] The declension switched from i-stem to ā-stem by analogy with bert (“bundle”), which is the foundation of the verbal nouns of all derivatives of beirid.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bʲr͈ʲeθ/

Noun

breth f (genitive brithe, nominative plural bretha)

verbal noun of beirid: carrying, bearing
judgement

Inflection

Etymologically this should be an i-stem with nominative singular brith. This alternative nominative singular is known to exist, but only an ā-stem inflection is attested.

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	breth^L, brith^L	brith^L	bretha^H
Vocative	breth^L, brith^L	brith^L	bretha^H
Accusative	brith^N	brith^L	bretha^H
Genitive	brithe^H	breth^L	breth^N
Dative	brith^L	brethaib	brethaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

Mutation

Mutation of *breth*
radical	lenition	nasalization
breth	breth pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/	mbreth

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*briti-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 79

breth

Contents

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

Etymology 2

Noun

Old Irish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Inflection

Derived terms

Mutation

References

Further reading