melg
Old Irish
Etymology
From Proto-Celtic *melgos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ- (“milk”).[1] See also the related verb mligid.
Noun
melg n (genitive milge)
- (rare) milk
- c. 810, Florence Glosses on Philargyrus, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, p. 48, 20b
- bo-milge
- of cow-milk (glosses Latin sinum lactis .i. genus vasis)
- Synonym: lacht
- c. 810, Florence Glosses on Philargyrus, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, p. 48, 20b
Usage notes
This term was already falling out of use in the Old Irish period, being only attested in explanatory glosses.
Inflection
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | melgN | — | — |
| vocative | melgN | — | — |
| accusative | melgN | — | — |
| genitive | milgeL | — | — |
| dative | milgL | — | — |
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
- H = triggers aspiration
- L = triggers lenition
- N = triggers nasalization
Mutation
| radical | lenition | nasalization |
|---|---|---|
| melg also mmelg in h-prothesis environments |
melg pronounced with /β̃ʲ-/ |
melg also mmelg |
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) “*melgos-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 263
Further reading
- Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 melg”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language