Editing Primitive Irish (section)

==Transition to Old Irish==
[[File:Book of Ballymote 170v.jpg|thumb|Folio of [[Auraicept na n-Éces]] contrasting Ogham and Latin scripts.]]
[[Old Irish language|Old Irish]], written in the [[Latin alphabet]], has its earliest recorded texts possibly in the late 6th century; this is the traditional date of composition for the ''Amra Coluim Chille'', a poetic [[elegy]] to [[Columba|St Columba of Iona]] by St Dallán Forgaill, the first identifiable author in the Irish language. This work, however, survives only in heavily annotated manuscripts from a later time, in an old-fashioned form of the Irish language bearing little similarity to formal Old Irish.<ref>Koch 1995, p. 41</ref><ref>Richter 2005, p. 54-55</ref> The first texts which are widely accepted to have been written in Old Irish date from the 7th century, at the inception of a national textual tradition which was cultivated alongside that of [[Latin]] by the [[Catholic Church]] in Ireland, and which supplanted the archaic literary traditions.<ref name=":2">Koch 1995, p. 39-40</ref>

The radical changes that characterize the transition from Primitive Irish to Old Irish are not uncommon in the development of other languages, but appear to have occurred rapidly in the case of Irish. [[John T. Koch]], an American [[Celtic studies|Celticist]], theorized that these changes coincide with the [[History of Christianity in Ireland#Introduction of Christianity|conversion of the island to Christianity]] and the introduction of Latin as a literary language. The Irish language would then have derogated from the formal register of the language used by [[druid]]s in their ceremonies and teachings. Koch believed that with the decline of [[paganism]] and the corresponding loss of influence by the druids, the language of the Irish Christian nobility would have supplanted the ancient Primitive Irish register of the pagan priests, eclipsing it completely in the 7th century. This would give the impression of rapid linguistic development, while actually representing a shift in literature to a vernacular [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] which had previously been obscured by the conservative influence of the druidic language.<ref name=":2" /><ref>Koch 2006, p. 989</ref> This new phase of the language shows influence from Latin, the latter having been introduced to [[Protohistory of Ireland|pre-Christian Ireland]], which influence became more pronounced following [[Saint Patrick|St Patrick]]'s ministry.

=== Features ===
Primitive Irish has a [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] similar to other [[Indo-European languages]], however it did not display the most distinctive characteristics of [[History of the Irish language|other phases of the language]] including [[Velarization|velarized]] ("broad") and [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] ("slender") consonants (such consonant alterations may have existed, but they would have been [[Allophone|allophonic]]), [[Irish initial mutations|initial mutations]], some loss of [[Inflection|inflectional endings]], but not of [[Grammatical case|case marking]], and [[consonant cluster]]s.<ref>Koch 2006, pp. 986-988</ref> Old Irish does carry with it these distinctive features, as well as the loss of grammatical [[suffix]]es, the introduction of the letter ''p'' through [[loanword]]s and proper names,<ref>McManus 1991, pp. 37, 40</ref><ref>McManus 1983, p. 48</ref> the simplification of the inflectional system,<ref name=":3">McManus 1991, p. 84</ref> the alteration of some [[Vowel length|short vowels]] through [[vowel harmony]],<ref name=":4">Koch 1995, p. 42</ref> and, most notably, [[Elision|vowel elisions]] which resulted in distinctive consonant clusters.<ref name=":4" /><ref>Koch 2006, p. 986</ref>

This last phenomenon, especially marked in the genesis of Old Irish proper, began with an application of [[secondary stress]] to the third syllable of most words with four or more syllables, and also to the fifth syllable of words with six or more, in addition to the [[Stress (linguistics)|primary stress]], which fell on the first syllable, as is typical of [[Celtic languages]].<ref name=":4" /><ref>Schrijver 2015, pp. 196-197</ref> This caused [[apocope]] of (final) syllables, [[Syncope (phonology)|syncope]] of stressless (internal) syllables, and the shortening of all [[Vowel length|long vowels]] in non-initial syllables, around 500 AD and the middle of the 6th century, respectively.<ref name=":4" /><ref>Jackson 1954, pp. 142-143</ref><ref>McManus 1991, p. 88</ref> This loss of vowels caused consonant clusters to develop.

As an example, a 5th-century [[List of kings of Leinster|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 {{sc|MAQI CAIRATINI AVI INEQAGLAS}}.<ref name="koch">{{Cite web |last=Koch |first=John |title=The Conversion of Ireland and the Emergence of the Old Irish Language, AD 367–637 |url=https://www.academia.edu/7012591}}</ref> 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 {{sc|DOVINIAS}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ó Cróinín |first=Dáibhí. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31608471 |title=Early medieval Ireland, 400-1200 |date=1995 |publisher=Longman |isbn=0-582-01566-9 |location=London |pages=44 |oclc=31608471}}</ref> Old Irish {{lang|sga|filed}}, "poet (gen.)", appears in ogham as {{sc|VELITAS}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thurneysen |first=Rudolf |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31459157 |title=A grammar of Old Irish |date=1993 |publisher=School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |isbn=1-85500-161-6 |edition=Rev. and enl. ed. with suppl |location=[Dublin] |pages=58–59 |oclc=31459157}}</ref> In each case the development of Primitive to Old Irish shows the loss of unstressed syllables and certain consonant changes.

Gradually, the grammaticalization of consonant mutations introduced a new characteristic that Irish would eventually share with all other modern Celtic languages.<ref>Conroy 2008, p. 3</ref> Old Irish phonetic conditions generated different [[Allophone|allophonic]] mutations over time, and with the [[Diachrony and synchrony|diachronic]] loss of the conditions which caused the mutations, those mutations became the only way to distinguish between different grammatical forms. Thus, the mutations became [[Phonemic contrast|differentiated phonemes]] with their own [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphosyntactic]] functions. For example, in the Primitive Irish phrase {{Sc|SINDHI MAQQI}} ("of the son", {{Sc|sindhi}} being a form of the [[Article (grammar)|definite article]]), originally pronounced {{IPA|ˈsɪndiː ˈmakʷiː|lang=pgl}}, the initial {{Sc|M}} would have [[Lenition|lenited]] to {{IPA|/β̃/}} due to the influence of the {{Sc|-i}} ending of the preceding word. The variation in the pronunciation of the word would not have caused a difference in meaning; it would be allophonic. In a later stage of the language, the Primitive Irish word {{Sc|sindhi}} became Old Irish {{lang|sga|in}}, losing the final vowel which caused the lenition. However, in the Old Irish phrase {{lang|sga|in maicc}} ("of the son"), the ''m'' is still lenited, so the pronunciation would be {{IPA|/ɪn β̃ak/}}. The lenition was 'reinterpreted' as being caused by the fact that {{lang|sga|maicc}} follows the definite article {{lang|sga|in}}, a rule of morphosyntax (grammar) rather than [[phonology]]. What was originally a phonological feature of the language therefore became [[Grammaticalization|grammaticalized]].<ref name=":3" /><ref>Conroy 2008, p. 6</ref>