mlegon

Old Irish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *mligonos, with an unusual *-o-nos ending only paralleled by the Proto-Germanic infinitive suffix *-aną.^[1] See fedan and orcun for similar, albeit feminine, formations.

Noun

mlegon m (genitive mleguin)

verbal noun of mligid: milking
- The Annals of Ulster from the Trinity College MS 1282, published in The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131) (1983, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Seán Mac Airt & Gearóid Mac Niocaill, AD 733
  Vacca visa est i n-Delggenis Cualann, se cossa lee, .i. da corp iar n-iarthur, oen-chenn sair; do·omlacht fo tri ol n-ais caich mbleguin.
  A cow was seen in Deilginis Cualann with six legs; i.e. with two bodies behind [and] a single head in front. An ól-measure of milk was taken from her thrice at each milking.
- c. 775, “Táin Bó Fraích”, in Book of Leinster; republished as Ernst Windisch, editor, Táin bó Fraích, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1974, line 367:
  Ni béo fri mblegon na mbó.
  I shall not be at the milking of the cows.

Inflection

Masculine o-stem
	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	mlegon	—	—
Vocative	mleguin	—	—
Accusative	mlegon^N	—	—
Genitive	mleguin^L	—	—
Dative	mlegun^L	—	—
Initial mutations of a following adjective: ^H = triggers aspiration ^L = triggers lenition ^N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

Descendants

Middle Irish: blegon
- Irish: bleán
- Scottish Gaelic: bleoghann
- Manx: blieaun

Mutation

Mutation of *mlegon*
radical	lenition	nasalization
mlegon also mmlegon after a proclitic ending in a vowel	mlegon pronounced with /β̃(ʲ)-/	unchanged

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

References

^ Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, page 112