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Part of
Historical Linguistics 2015: Selected papers from the 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Naples, 27-31 July 2015
Edited by Michela Cennamo and Claudia Fabrizio
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 348] 2019
► pp. 11–26

Chapter 1
Old Irish consonant quality re-examined

According to Pedersen (1913) and Thurneysen (1946) Old Irish had three different consonant qualities: i-colored/palatalized (before original front vowel), u-colored/labiovelarized (before original u-vowel), and neutral (elsewhere). The first two are normally indicated by preconsonantal i and u respectively, functioning as diacritics.
Greene (1962, 1973, 1976) rejects this view, claiming that systems with three different consonant qualities are rare; “u-color” has little functional load; later Irish only distinguishes i- and neutral quality; and u constitutes the second element of a true diphthong.
None of these arguments and claims are cogent. Rarity does not equal impossibility; functional load is an unreliable criterion; many languages have all three “colors”; orthography and the parallel evidence of Avestan argue for treating u as marker of labiovelarization; Greene’s “diphthongal” account is historically problematic; and finally, certain phonological and analogical changes can only be explained by accepting an account that interprets u as marker of labiovelarization.
Keywords: Old Irish, palatalization, labiovelarization, interpretation of orthographic evidence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Greene’s typological argument and the issue of functional load
  • 3.Greene’s “diphthongs”: Graphemics and historical linguistics
  • 4.Cluster assimilation and “labiopalatalization”
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 10 September 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.348.01hoc
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