Old Irish/Morphology
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Stressed Short Monophthong Alterations in Nominal Roots
- Where raising occurs, e raises to i and o raises to u.
- Raising is blocked if the vowel is followed by a voiceless consonant.
- Raising is blocked if the vowel is followed by a consonant cluster, other than a nasal + plosive cluster.
- Where lowering occurs, i lowers to e and u lowers to o.
- Lowering of i to e was historically blocked by -nd in find.
- Where u-infection occurs, stressed a, e, i and o may diphthongise into au, eu, iu and ou respectively.
- Historically geminated -ss- blocked u-infection of stressed e in mes.
- Exceptionally, macc does not experience u-infection.
Masculine o-Stems
- The voc. sg. contains the reference root vowel. It is neither raised nor lowered.
- The gen. sg., prep. sg., nom. pl., acc. pl. and voc. pl. are all raised.
- All other forms are lowered.
- The prep. sg. is u-infected.
- Only stressed a is u-infected in the acc. and voc. pl.
Neuter o-Stems
- The gen. and prep. sg. are raised.
- All other forms are lowered.
- The prep. sg. is u-infected.
Chronological Background
- Unstressed long vowels were shortened, unless they were followed by /h/.
- Stressed interconsonantal /e, o/ raised to /i, u/ respectively (the following consonant must only be a voiced single consonant or a nasal + plosive cluster) when the following syllable consisted of a high monophthong: /i, iː, u, uː/.
- Stressed /a/ was diphthongised to /au̯/ when the vowel in the following syllable consisted of /u, uː/.
- Stressed and unstressed /e, i, o/ were diphthongised to /eu̯, iu̯, ou̯/ respectively when the vowel in the following syllable consisted of /u/, but not /uː/. The geminated /sː/ in /esːu/ blocked this diphthongisation of stressed /e/ but allowed it for unstressed /e, i/.
- Stressed and unstressed /i, u/ lowered to /e, o/ respectively when the following syllable consisted of non-high back monophthongs: /a, aː, o, oː/. The /n̪ːd/ in /in̪ːda/ blocked this lowering of /i/.
- Final /h/ shifted to the following word or disappeared altogether.
- Final short vowels disappeared (apocope).
- Final long vowels shortened.