One after cmix. On the usage of Roman numerals in the early medieval Irish glosses

Abstract

The present study investigates a specific form of linguistic contact found in the early medieval Irish glosses: the usage of Roman numerals in these texts. A corpus of bilingual (Irish and Latin) and monolingual Irish glosses, established with the Corpus Palaeohibernicum—a lexicographic database including Old and Middle Irish texts—is examined to see how Roman numerals were treated in an Irish speaking environment. It will be shown that, although the corpus is rather small, valid conclusions may be drawn from it, illuminating another facet of the puzzle of early medieval language contact.