Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/53

Rh

In Gaelic, only the stress accent exists, and it is placed always on the first syllable. The accent of the Old Gaelic was likewise on the first syllable, save in the case of the verb. Here in the compound&shy;ed verbs the stress accent rested on, as a rule, the second syllable; but the imper&shy;ative placed the accent on the first syllable, and this also took place after the negative and inter&shy;rogative particles and after the conjunc&shy;tions gu’n and na’n (da’n). Thus faic, see thou, is for f‑aid‑c, with accent on the prepo&shy;sition ad, for it is imper&shy;ative; the future chì stands for the old present at-chí, videt, where the accent is on the root cí. Again in cha’n fhaca the negative brings the accent on the prefix ad, that is, f‑ad-ca. When the accent is on the prefix, its ending consonant and the initial consonant of the root coalesce and result in a preserved G. inter&shy;vocalic consonant, but the root suffers trun&shy;cation: when the accent is on the root, these conso&shy;nants are aspirated, and the root is preserved. The ten irregular verbs in G. present suffi&shy;cient illus&shy;trations of this rule. The prepo&shy;sition con, when accented, was always con, when un&shy;accented it was com (comh). In the un&shy;accented syllables, long vowels become short (àireamh from *ád-rîm, anail for O. Ir. anál), and in many cases change complete&shy;ly their grade, as from small to broad (e.g. còmhnadh, O. Ir. congnam, from gnìomh, and the compounds in ‑radh and ‑lach).

Word-building consists of two parts—composition and deriva&shy;tion. The first deals with the compound&shy;ing of separate words; the second deals with the suffixes (and prefixes) that make up the stem of a word from its root.

(1) The compound may be two stems welded together: righ-theach, palace, *rîgo-tegos, “king’s house”; righ-fhàidh, royal prophet—“king who is a prophet”; ceann-fhionn, white-headed, penno-vindo‑s; ceithir-chasach, four-footed; dubh-ghlas, dark-blue; crannchur, lot, “casting the lot.” These are the six leading relation&shy;ships brought out in compounds. In Celtic the first stem is nearly always in o‑, as Teuto-bōdiaci, G. sean-mhathair (but Catu-slôgi, Mori-dûnum, G. Muirgheal). Consider the following compounds: iodhlann, mìolchu, òircheard, buarach, cèardach, clogad, bàthach, eilthire, gnàth-fhocal, moirear, leth-chas, leth-trom, etc.

The following are common prefixes: ath‑, re‑, ath-ghlac, re-capture; ban‑, she, ban-altrum, bantrach; bith‑, ever‑, bith-bheò, bith-bhuan; il‑, iol‑, many; ion‑, fit; sìr‑, sìor‑, ever‑, fìr‑, fìor‑, very, saobh‑, pseudo‑.