Phonological and Morphological Developments in Gaelic

This page aims to explore various phonological and morphological developments across dialects of Modern Gaelic, and the historical structures whence they derive. In particular, the focus will often be on features of obscure interest where information in the academic realm is quite limited. Academic sources with such information will be referenced and presented in a bibliography under each relevant section.

The plan is to include the following features and even more over time:

• A Historical Representation of the Gaelic Article
• A Diachronic Overview of Gaoidhealg and Its Variants
• Vocative Inflections in Classical Gaelic
• Dual Inflections in Classical Gaelic
• Gaelic Plosive VOT and the Historical Development of Eclipsis
• Modern Reflexes of Medieval Vowels
• Consonant Clusters with Sonorants
• Unlenited Sonorants in Coda
• Proclitic Depalatalisation
• Forms with Vowel Hiatus
• Future/Conditional Verbal Morphology
• shid é < seo é

Nasal Raising

Summary of Nasal Raising Developments

• General Mechanism: A stressed vowel adjacent to a nasal consonant becomes nasalised and often raised. This contraction of the oral passage tends to occur across all Irish dialects, though it varies in prominence.
• Raising of ɛ to ɪ: The raising of ɛ to ɪ next to a nasal is widespread in Irish, appearing in words like nimh, minic, misde, mise, and others. This development began around five to six centuries ago. Borrowed words, such as printíseach, also display this change. Exceptions exist, like meil, which retains ɛ outside Connacht.
• Raising of ɔ to ʊ: Common examples include much for moch and cun for con. Older forms like comas and comann evolved into cumas and cumann. The use of chunnaic for chonnaic is documented as early as the sixteenth century.
• Raising of Long Vowels: In parts of Southern Ireland (notably Waterford, South Tipperary, and Kilkenny) and Connemara, oː has been raised to uː, as in nús from nós. Similarly, ɑː has shifted to ɔː, as in lán, lámh, máthair. These modifications are similar to patterns found in Scottish Gaelic. For the raising of ɔː to oː in Ulster Irish and Scottish Gaelic, see p. 176.
• Scottish Gaelic Comparisons: Scottish Gaelic exhibits similar modifications, with ɛ raised to ɪ, and ɔ raised to ʊ, as in chunnaic from chonnaic. Scottish aː, when nasalised, is raised to ɛː, unlike Irish ɑː which becomes ɔː.
• Manx Developments: Manx tends to retain ɛ where Irish underwent changes, such as in mennick and meshtey.
• Influence on ao: There was a general Gaelic development of the vowel ao of ɯː coming from ɤː as well as of ɨː from ɘː, driven by the tendency to raise vowel sounds under the influence of a neighbouring nasal consonant. This effect is noticeable in Scottish Gaelic where in Argyll, ao (ɤː) is not nasalised but raised to ɯː in certain words, such as naomh, maoth, maoin, and naoi, where the influence of neighbouring nasals is clear. In Arran and Cantire, ao has shifted to iː from eː under similar conditions. This suggests a broader raising pattern, initially occurring next to nasals but later generalised. Manx also shows a similar nasal raising to uː in words like naomh (now spelled noo in Manx).

Source: T. F. O'Rahilly, Irish Dialects Past and Present, 1932, pp. 33-34, 176-177, 194-196.