núall

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *nowslom (“a cry, shout”), from Proto-Indo-European *newH- (“to cry, roar”) (compare Sanskrit नवते (návate, “to roar”) and Tocharian B nu- (“to roar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n͈uːa̯l͈/

Noun

núall n or m (genitive núaill)

1. a loud noise
   • c. 808, Félire Oengusso, Ep. 405; republished as Whitley Stokes, transl., Félire Óengusso Céli Dé: The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, Harrison & Sons, 1905:

     Ar écnairc ind ríg-sa fris·n-agar a nnúall-sa, fa·rith asint sním-sa, in pauperán trúag-sa!

     For the sake of the king to whom this cry was made, help him out of this sadness, this wretched pauper!

2. a cry of joy
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 51^c9

     is in núall do·ngniat hó ru·maith for a náimtea remib

     it is the cry that they make when their enemies are defeated by them

Declension

Neuter o-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	núallN	núallN	núallL, núalla
vocative	núallN	núallN	núallL, núalla
accusative	núallN	núallN	núallL, núalla
genitive	núaillL	núall	núallN
dative	núallL	núallaib	núallaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Masculine o-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	núall	núallL	núaillL
vocative	núaill	núallL	núalluH
accusative	núallN	núallL	núalluH
genitive	núaillL	núall	núallN
dative	núallL	núallaib	núallaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

• Irish: nuall

Mutation

Mutation of núall

radical	lenition	nasalization
núall also nnúall after a proclitic ending in a vowel	núall pronounced with /n(ʲ)-/	unchanged

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), “1 núall”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*now-slo-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 292