Primitive Irish

E4691

Primitive Irish is the earliest attested form of the Irish language, known primarily from Ogham inscriptions dating from the early centuries CE.


Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf Celtic language
Goidelic language
ancient language
associatedWithRegion Wales
southern Ireland
southwestern Britain
southwestern Ireland
attestedIn Ogham inscriptions
branchOf Goidelic languages
closelyRelatedTo Proto-Irish (reconstructed)
developsInto Old Irish morphology
Old Irish phonology
earliestAttestation Ogham inscriptions
evidenceType epigraphic evidence
followedBy Old Irish
follows Proto-Goidelic
graphemicSystem Ogham letter names based on trees and other terms
hasApproximateNumberOfInscriptions around 400 Ogham inscriptions
hasFeature conservative representation of Proto-Celtic phonology
early Goidelic sound changes
lack of extensive inflectional evidence
largely phonetic spelling in Ogham
limited attested vocabulary
hasWritingMedium edge of standing stones
stone monuments
ISOStatus has no separate ISO 639-3 code
languageFamily Celtic languages
Indo-European languages
lexifierOf later stages of the Irish language
mainContentOfInscriptions genealogies
personal names
notAttestedIn continuous manuscripts
partOf history of the Irish language
phonologicalFeature contrast between voiced and voiceless stops
preservation of final syllables later lost in Old Irish
primaryFunctionOfInscriptions commemorative
funerary
territorial markers
scriptDirection typically bottom-to-top
studiedInDiscipline Celtic studies
historical linguistics
subclassOf Old Irish language stages
timePeriod approximately 4th to 6th centuries CE
early centuries CE
usedIn Ireland
western Britain
writingSystem Ogham script
writingSystemType alphabetic script


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