ad K. McCone, Pretonic preverbs and the absolute verbal endings in Old Irish, in Ériu 30 (1979), pp. 1-34.

Consideration of the concept ‘morphological zero grade’.

The distinction between the two kinds of fer midboth described in Críth Gablach: unnecessary to distinguish between ‘compurgation’ and ‘preserving statement’.

Analysis of content and style of devotional stanzas appended to 20 dinnshenchas poems; use of Rí, Coimdiu, Dúilem, Fer adressing the Deity. Concludes that Cuán ua Lóchán (†1024) is the author. [1.] Introduction; [2.] ‘Loch Dergderc’ (beg. Inlinnse luaidim cach lá), `Áth Luain’ (beg. A ḟir théit i mag Medba), ‘Carn Furbaide’ (beg. Atá sund Carn uí Chathbath); Saltair na Rann; [2.] ‘Cleitech’ (beg. Cleitech in druí díles daith); [3.] ‘Crechmael’ (beg. In dremsa nach duairc oc dáil); [4.] ‘Es Ruaid I’ (beg. A ḟir dodechaid atuaid); [5.] ‘Lia Nothain’ (beg. Atá sunn fo choirthe chruaid), ‘Sliab Betha’ (beg. Atchíu lecht deoraid do chéin), ‘Druim Cliab’ (beg. Sunna ro boí Caurnan cas), ‘Cerna’ (beg. Cia bem sunn 'nar suide sel), ‘Loch nÉrne’ (beg. Loch nÉrne, ard a oscur), ‘Ard Macha’ (beg. In mag imriadat ar n-eich), ‘Temair III’ (beg. Temair togha na tulach); [6.] ‘Dubthir’ (beg. Dubthir Guaire, gním dia fail), ‘Nemthenn’ (beg. Dreco ingen Chalcmaíl chruaid), ‘Mag Luirg’ (beg. Is eol dam im threbthas tó); [7.] ‘Mag Muirisce’ (beg. A ḟir a Muirisc na marc); [8.] ‘Loch Néil’ (beg. Luaidim Loch Néil, násad nglé); [9.] ‘Benn Ḟoibne’ (beg. Eol dam co soirbe sercaig); 10. The rime dil: -ḟir and ‘Mag nAí' (beg. A ḟir, dia téis i Mag nAí); [11.] A poet’s enthusiasm for his subject.

[1.] general usage; [2.] Use of plural forms (units of measurement, set phrases); [3.] Irregularities of mutation. Also on the lenition of déag and fichead.

1. The metrical Banshenchas (composed by Gilla Mo-Dutu Ó Caiside in 1147); 2. The prose Banshenchas (archetype composed c. 1147-69). MB found in 4 MSS: TCD 1339 (H 2.18; LL), RIA D ii 1 (Bk of Uí Mhaine), NLI G 3, RIA 23 P 2 (Bk of Lecan); 8 copies of PB found in MSS: RIA 23 P 2 (Bk of Lecan), RIA 23 P 12 (Bk of Ballymote), RIA D ii 1 (Bk of Uí Mhaine), Brussels 2542-3, NLS Adv. 72.1.7, TCD H 3. 17.

Analysis of alliterative patterns in roscad beg. Fo chen a Chonaill cháin Chuirc.

Lecc diice (duice, doice) (occurring in legal texts, such as Gúbretha Caratniad §15 and the legal commentary at CIH i 145.10-37, of which an English translation is given here) refers to ‘a physical defect which made a woman incapable of intercourse’; diice may, as suggested by R. Thurneysen (in ZCP 16 (1927), pp. 217-218 [Best² 2157]), represent do-ícce ‘incurability’ or, posssibly, an abstract based on diic, diing ‘difficult’.

Lat. lodix glossed with Ir. sléic (means ‘pumice’, possibly related to slíachtaid ‘smoothes’), ruamnae (earlier form of rúamna ‘colouring matter, redish colour’), diol (‘fillet, diadem’): all exx. of ornamentum muliebre. Also suggests Ir. slíogadh ‘smoothing, polishing’ derives from ON slíkja ‘to smoothe’, although slíocadh forms may have been influenced by Engl. slick ‘to slick, polish, smooth’.

ad E. G. Quin, in Ériu 31 (1980), pp. 146-149 and L. Bieler and J. Carney, in Ériu 23 (1972), pp. 1-55. Suggests a revised translation: ‘It is usual, then, for clever competitors to allow the field to overtake them and when a tiring (or easy) pace is expected (by the field) they (the clever ones) make after them (go into the attack, Carney) and are soon well ahead of them’.

Ní-s tairchet ‘he cannot conduct them’ (CGH 93).

Provides emended translations of a number of texts based on C. O’Rahilly's interpretation of cadessin as an intensive / emphatic form (Táin bó Cúailgne: recension I (Dublin, 1976) p. 255).

Restores ‘linking alliteration’ by transposing lines 6 and 7 in poem beg. Glass úar errach aigide (as ed. by K. Meyer, in Ériu 7 (1914), p. 4 (Best² 1173), thus rendering D. Greene's emendations unnecessary (in A golden treasury of Irish poetry (1967), p. 141 [BILL 5542]).

1. Forleitheadas: Plunkett glosses Lat. faex as ‘Clann Thomáis Mhic Lóbais’; 2. sladuighe satha: vs. N. J. A. Williams, PCT, p. 151 n. 936: should be translated as ‘hive-robber, drone’ (cf. ladrann saithe); 3. ruisín vs. N. J. A. Williams, PCT 188 s.v.: refers to ‘lunch, etc.'; cf. T. de Bhaldraithe, in Ériu 31 (1980), pp. 169-171.

On the use of adverbs as verbs.

‘Man / warrior of the pair’: diad related to dïas ‘two persons’. Also suggests i ndiaid may represent ‘in (its) pairing’ rather than ‘in(to) (its) end’ (cf. i ndiad).

*H_een ‘therein, thereat’: i^N ‘in which’ without surface relative, and its relation to anticipatory use of and / ann in sentences beginning is and / ann.

ad D. Greene, in Ériu 23 (1972), pp. 232-234. Discusses relevance of Lugthiach and Cassial.

On the failure of lenition following neuter pl. -a.

ad S. Kavanagh, in Celtica 12 (1977), p. 12. Retains S. Kavanagh's reading but subjects it to a different analysis: reads dús inét imt(h)echt and translates ‘if perchance I may obtain a journey’.

On preterite forms of the verb fo(a)id ‘spends the night’.

An alphabetical list of researchers in the field of Gaelic language, literature and history, along with their main research interests (early 1980s).