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Appendix:Old Irish class B III present verbs

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Old Irish class B III verbs (McCone's S1d) are inflected just like class B I, but the present stem always ends in ng, and the n disappears in the other stems. (There is one verb whose stem ends in nd, namely roindid (to redden).) These verbs are derived from Proto-Indo-European verbs with the nasal infix *-né-. They correspond to Latin verbs like tangō (perfect tetigī, past participle tāctus) and Sanskrit class 7 verbs like युनक्ति (yunakti) (perfect युयोज (yuyoja), past participle युक्त (yukta)).

There are apparently no deponent verbs in this class.

Because of a sound change in Proto-Celtic, the root vowel in this class is i rather than e when the following consonant cluster is palatalized, e.g. dingid, dringid. However, most verbs in this class actually have the root vowel o and often show a lack of palatalization of the stem-final consonant cluster (e.g. bongaid, tongaid).

See Category:Old Irish class B III present verbs for a list of verbs belonging to this class.

Basic pattern

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The basic pattern is shown by dingid (to thrust). The endings are as follows:

Present indicative
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
Absolute dingu* dingi* dingid dengmai dingthe dengait dengair dengtair
Conjunct ·diung ·ding* ·ding ·dengam ·dingid ·dengat ·dengar ·dengtar
Relative dinges dengmae dengtae dengar dengtar
*With i-affection (/e/ is raised to /i/)
†With u-affection (/e/ is diphthongized to /iu̯/).
Imperfect indicative
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
·dinginn ·dingthea ·dinged ·dingmis ·dingthe ·dingtis ·dingthe ·dingtis
Imperative
2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
ding dinged dengam dingid dengat dengar dengtar

An example of a verb with depalatalization is tongaid (to swear), in which the ng cluster is depalatalized whenever a vowel follows:

Present indicative
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
Absolute tongu tongai tongaid tongmai toingthe tongait tongair tongtair
Conjunct ·tung* ·toing ·toing ·tongam ·tongaid ·tongat ·tongar ·tongtar
Relative tongas tongmae tongtae tongar tongtar
*With u-affection.
Imperfect indicative
1st sg. 2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
·tongainn ·toingthea ·tongad ·toingmis ·toingthe ·toingtis ·toingthe ·toingtis
Imperative
2nd sg. 3rd sg. 1st pl. 2nd pl. 3rd pl. Passive singular Passive plural
toing tongad tongam tongaid tongat tongar tongtar

In a few cases, forms without n are found when the stem vowel is unstressed, e.g. ·eitig (third-person singular present prototonic) and ·eitegar (passive singular present prototonic) from as·toing (to refuse) or fo·coimlich (third-person singular present com-form) from fo·loing.

Further reading

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  • McCone, Kim (1997) The Early Irish Verb (Maynooth Monographs 1), 2nd edition, Maynooth: An Sagart, →ISBN, pages 29–31
  • Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, pages 355–56; reprinted 2017