breth

breth

1. alternative form of bredthe

breth

1. alternative form of breeth

• brith

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.

• IPA^(key): [bʲrʲeθ]

breth f (genitive brithe, nominative plural bretha)

1. verbal noun of beirid: carrying, bearing
2. judgement
3. reference [with fri ‘to’]

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.

• c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 23^c11

  Forsin testimin-so .i. a brith frisa ndliged remeperthe, et is fri Pól berir amal ṡodin, .i. is hed inso sís ro·chlos et ad·chess inna bésaib et a gnímaib. Aliter saigid inple⟨te⟩ gaudium rl.: is sí mo ḟáilte inso sí qua rl. in Christo. Bad hí Críst má beith nach fáilte dúibsi, et ní frissom amal ṡodin. […] Má nud·tectid na huili-se inplete .i. dénid a n‑as·berar frib.

  On this text, i.e. its reference to the above-mentioned rule, and [with reference] to Paul it is referred in that case, i.e. this below is what was heard and seen in his morals and deeds. Otherwise, it approaches implete gaudium etc.: this is my joy si qua etc. in Christo. Let it be in Christ if you pl have any joy, and [it refers] not to him in that case. […] If you have all these, implete i.e. do what is said to you.

• brithem
• tairmbreth

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “breth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language