breth

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

breth

1. Alternative form of bredthe

Etymology 2

Noun

breth

1. Alternative form of breeth

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• brith

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *britis. The declension switched from i-stem to ā-stem by analogy with bert (“bundle”), which is the foundation of the verbal nouns of all derivatives of beirid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʲr͈ʲeθ/

Noun

breth f (genitive brithe, nominative plural bretha)

1. verbal noun of beirid: carrying, bearing
2. judgement

Inflection

Etymologically this should be an i-stem with nominative singular brith. This alternative nominative singular is known to exist, but only an ā-stem inflection is attested.

Feminine ā-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	brethL, brithL	brithL	brethaH
Vocative	brethL, brithL	brithL	brethaH
Accusative	brithN	brithL	brethaH
Genitive	britheH	brethL	brethN
Dative	brithL	brethaib	brethaib
Initial mutations of a following adjective: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• brithem
• tairmbreth

Mutation

Mutation of breth

radical	lenition	nasalization
breth	breth pronounced with /β(ʲ)-/	mbreth

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “breth”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language