Fern do frestol na .u. consaine: perceptions of sound laws, sound change, and linguistic borrowing among the medieval Irish

Abstract

An entry in one of the medieval Irish glossaries draws attention to the correspondence between Irish f- and Latin u-: fé ab eo quod est uae. Ar is gnáth fern do frestol na .u. consaine la Góedelae ‘fé from uae. For f in Irish usually corresponds to consonantal u (sc. in Latin)’. The medieval Irish glossaries and other texts interested in language from medieval Ireland, such as Auraicept na n-éces, offer intriguing glimpses of scholars grappling with the issues of sound correspondences between languages and how to describe the changes involved when words are borrowed from one language to another often the relationship is described in terms of corruption but, when sufficient examples can be gathered together, further generalizations are offered. This chapter explores these issues and how the medieval Irish conceptualised the notions of sound change and sound laws.