OIr. biid < *bhuH-ye/o- and “hiatus” verbs
Nicholas Zair
Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics,
Oxford University
It is generally agreed that the Celtic consuetudinal present (Old Irish biid, Middle Welsh byd “(s)he
is wont to be”, Gaulish biiete “you (pl) are wont to be”) reflects PIE *bhuH-ye/o-, as found also in
Latin fīō “I become”, Oscan fiíet “(s)he becomes”, Attic Greek φῡομαι “I grow”, Old English bīađ
“(s)he is”, Albanian -bin “I sprout” (LIV 98-101).
However, the evidence of the Brittonic languages is for a preform *bĭye/o-, while Irish probably
requires a stage *bīye/o-, and Gaulish provides no method of distinguishing the two. The purpose of
this paper is to suggest a new explanation of the developments involved: regular sound change gave
Insular-Celtic *bĭye/o-, followed by analogical readjustment to fit a new class of so-called “hiatus”
verbs which developed within the history of Primitive Irish.
Schrijver (2003: 75-78) observes that forms like OIr. 1pl. absolute bímmi must reflect *bīyomosi
not *bĭyomosi, since the latter ought to have given xbemme by regular lowering of *-ĭ- before *-aor *-o-. He concludes that the Proto-Celtic form must have been *bīye/o- and that a secondary
shortening of long vowels in hiatus occurred in British Celtic to give *bĭye/o-. He derives *bīye/ofrom *bhuH-ye/o- by the same process that gave Lat. fīō, Osc. fiíet.
There is evidence against this position in both Irish and the Brittonic languages. OIr. dé “smoke,
vapour” < *dĭäts, gen. sg. diad < *dĭätos is usually taken to reflect *dĭyot-, derived from a verb
*dhuH2-ye/o- (IEW 263; Watkins 1966: 104; de Bernardo Stempel 1999: 158-9; Schrijver 1995:
292). Short *-ĭ- is guaranteed by the lowering seen in dé, which is regular from *dĕ. Schrijver's
explanation would lead us to expect xdí. Evidence in the Britonnic languages includes the long
vowels found in W. pridd, Breton pri “clay” < *kwrīyot- (cf. Lat. crēta “clay”), and MW mwy
“greater, more” < *māyōs (Schrijver 1995: 90, 221, 292, 300).
An alternative explanation by McCone (1991: 122) starts from a form *bwĭye/o- < *bhwiHe/o- <
*bhuHye/o- by metathesis, but metathesis is not well motivated, since the only accepted
Zair
2
environment is *-CHIC- > *-CIHC1- (Winter 1965: 192; Mayrhofer 1986: 173-175).
I suggest a Proto-Celtic sound change *CIHy- > *CIy-, analogous to *CRHy- > Proto-Celtic *CRy(de Bernardo Stempel 1987: 47; McCone 1996: 53): OIr. ·gainethar “(s)he is born” < *ganyetor <
*g¹yetor < *ĝ¹H1-ye-tor (cf. Skt. jāyate). Hence *bhuH-ye/o- > *buye/o- and *dhuH-ye/o- >
*duye/o-. This was already proposed for dé by Irslinger (2002: 61 fn. 76).
A change to *bwiye/o- may be part of a general Celtic (re-)syllabification of similar sequences
(Schumacher 2004: 246) : OIr. scé “thornbush, whitethorn”, MW. ysbyddad “hawthorn”< *skwĭyat< *skuyat-; OIr. gniid “makes, does” < *gnĭyeti < *gnyeti. With loss of *-w- after *b-, the resulting
*biye/o- would give the attested Britonnic and Gaulish forms. Alternatively, it may be possible to
envisage a Proto-Celtic sound change whereby *-ŭy- gave *-ĭy- directly.
Rather than the ad hoc partial contractions posited by McCone (1996: 140, 142) to explain Irish
*bī-, it seems better to appeal to paradigmatic levelling and analogy. Old Irish developed a distinct
class of “hiatus” verbs from a variety of sources, e.g. biid, gniid, baid < *bā(y)eti “dies”, raid
“rows” < *rāyeti. Through the operation of Primitive Irish sound laws (shortening in hiatus,
lengthening of vowels in open monosyllables and the raising of *-ĕ- to -ĭ- in hiatus) the paradigms
of biid and baid would have been very similar. The differences between them were removed by
adjusting the paradigm of the biid type to match those of the baid type. For example, 1pl. abs.
*bemme was remodelled to bímmi after bámmi < *bā(y)omosi.
This analysis allows us to derive biid from the expected Proto-Indo-European form *bhuH-ye/o- by
way of Proto-Celtic *bŭye/o- and Insular-Celtic *bĭye/o-. This was then adjusted analogically in
Primitive Irish to fit into an emerging class of present stems created by regular sound changes. The
Proto-Celtic stage at which the root of the present stem was *bŭ- was the basis for the remodelling
of other forms based on this root, e.g. the past participle *bŭto- (OIr. pret. pass. ro·both ).
1 C stands for any consonant, H for any laryngeal, I for *-i- or *-u-, and R for a nasal or liquid.
Zair
3
References
de Bernardo Stempel, Patrizia (1987). Die Vertretung der indogermanischen liquiden und nasalen Sonanten
im Keltischen. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.
----- (1999). Nominale Wortbildung des älteren Irischen: Stammbildung und Derivation. Tübingen: Max
Niemeyer.
IEW: Pokorny, Julius (1959). Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch. Bern and München:
Francke Verlag.
Irslinger, Britta Sofie (2002). Abstrakta mit Dentalsuffixen im Altirischen. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
LIV: Rix, Helmut & Martin Kümmel. (2001). Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben2. Wiesbaden: Ludwig
Reichert.
Mayrhofer, Manfred (1986). Indogermanische Grammatik I/2: Lautlehre. Heidelberg: C. Winter.
McCone, Kim (1991). The Indo-European Origins of the Old Irish Nasal Presents, Subjunctives and
Futures. Innsbruck, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.
----- (1996). Towards a Relative Chronology of Ancient and Medieval Celtic Sound Change. Maynooth:
Department of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College.
Schrijver, Peter (1991). The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
----- (1995). Studies in British Celtic Historical Phonology. Amsterdam; Atlanta: Rodopi.
----- (2003). “Athematic i-presents: the Italic and Celtic evidence”, Incontri Linguistici 26, 59-86
Schumacher, Stefan (2004). Die keltischen Primärverben: ein vergleichendes, etymologisches und
morphologisches Lexikon. Innsbruck: Innsbrucker Beiträge zür Sprachwissenschaft.
Watkins, Calvert (1966). “The Indo-European Word for 'Day' in Celtic and Related Topics”, Trivium 1, 102120
Winter, Werner (1965). "Tocharian Evidence" in Werner Winter (ed.), Evidence For Laryngeals. The
Hague and London: Mouton, 190-212