Miscellanea Linguistica Hibernica

Abstract

infix usually3 occurs in the form ara'chrin 'perishes (it)'. Similar to ara-chrin and to the other verbs of this group is apparently ar-clich 'wards off, parries'. Although so far this fact has not been noted, it likewise seems to infix a meaningless neuter pronoun in the following two passages from the oldest recension of Tain B6 Cdailnge: 1. Ara-c[h]lich-som connach-rdncatdr 'He wards (it) off so that they did not attain him'. Since all three MSS of the oldest recension read ara-clich-som (-sium),4 the a after ar is well established. Hence, to emend ara-clich-som (-sium) to arus-clich-som (-sium) 'he wards them off' would imply that the archetype already contained this mistake. Indeed, the only objection to interpreting the second a of ara as a neuter infix of the third person singular is that the ensuing consonant is unlenited. The scribes, however, often omit marks of lenition over consonants so that the objection is not necessarily a decisive one. 2. In tan batir he-seom ule do-bi[d]ctis in poll, ara-chliched-som connd-tiged cid den-liathrdit ind 'When they all were shooting at the hole, he used to ward (it) off so that not even one ball went into it'. Just as in the preceding passage, so here too all three MSS read ara.5 Furthermore, two of them have a lenited c.6 The reading ara-chliched-som, therefore, is sound. As in the case of the previous passage, one likewise might emend ara-chliched-som to arus-cliched-som 'he used to ward them off', but such an emendation involves again the assumption of an archetypal error which, though always possible, is nevertheless unlikely. With respect to this verb, several other instances of ara instead of ar are recorded. In most of these cases ara functions as the dissyllabic preverbal form