Note 409 — APPENDIX C EXCURSUS

There are three cases (Zimmer, ib. 24-26):

1. Long ō instead of long ā: e.g. trindōit (= trinitatem); altōir (= altāre); caindlōir (candelarius); notlaic (nātalicia); popa (papa). If the Latin forms had come directly to Ireland, the ā would have been preserved; ō for ā is characteristically British.

2. c for p: casc (pascha); crubthir (presbyter). Words of this kind must have been “interpreted to the Irish by British mouths,” for if they had been borrowed from Latin, p would have been preserved. The motive for the change of British p to c in the loan-words was the observed fact that in native words Gaelic c corresponded to British p (representing the velar q). The treatment of Patrick’s name is a significant instance. From its British form we get in Irish Coithrige, from its Latin form Patraicc. Caille, a veil (caillech, a nun), is supposed to be another case (= pallium). Mr. Nicholson suggests that it is Celtic, = capillia (Keltic Researches, p. 104).

3. sr for fr, sl for fl: e.g. slechtan (flectionem), srogell (flagellum). In case of a direct borrowing, sr, sl would have been kept; but coming through British they were treated on the analogy of Irish sruth = Br. frut.