Middle Irish
| Middle Irish Gaoidhealg |
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|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | [ˈɡɯːʝeɫɡ] | |
| Spoken in: | Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man | |
| Language extinction: | Evolved into Early Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx about the 12th century | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Goidelic Middle Irish |
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| Writing system: | Latin | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | mga | |
| ISO 639-3: | mga
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Middle Irish (Irish: An Mheán-Ghaeilge) is the name given by historical philologists to the form of the Irish language from the 10th to 12th centuries; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old English and early Middle English.[1][2] The modern Goidelic languages Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx are all descendants of Middle Irish.
At its height, Middle Irish was spoken throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man; from Munster to the North Sea island of Inchcolm. Its geographical range made it the most widespread of all Insular languages before the late 12th century, when Middle English began to make inroads into Ireland, and many of the Celtic regions of northern and western Britain.
Few mediaeval European languages can rival the volume of literature extant in Middle Irish. Much of this survival is due to the tenacity of a few early modern Irish antiquarians, but the sheer volume of sagas, annals, hagiographies (etc) which survive shows how much confidence members of the mediaeval Gaelic learned orders had in their own vernacular. Almost all survives from Ireland, however very little from Scotland or Man. The Lebor Bretnach, the "Irish Nennius", survives only from manuscripts preserved in Ireland; however, Thomas Owen Clancy has recently argued that it was written in Scotland, at the monastery in Abernethy.[3]
References
- ^ Mac Eoin, Gearóid (1993). "Irish", in in Martin J. Ball (ed.): The Celtic Languages. London: Routledge, 101–44. ISBN 0-415-01035-7.
- ^ Breatnach, Liam (1994). "An Mheán-Ghaeilge", in in K. McCone, D. McManus, C. Ó Háinle, N. Williams, and L. Breatnach (eds.): Stair na Gaeilge in ómós do Pádraig Ó Fiannachta (in Irish). Maynooth: Department of Old Irish, St. Patrick's College, 221–333. ISBN 0-901519-90-1.
- ^ Clancy, Thomas Owen (2000). "Scotland, the ‘Nennian’ recension of the Historia Brittonum, and the Lebor Bretnach", in in Simon Taylor (ed.): Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland, 500-1297. Dublin & Portland: Four Courts Press, 87–107. ISBN 1-85182-516-9.
See also
| Irish linguistics | |
|---|---|
| History of the language · Primitive Irish · Old Irish · Middle Irish · Early Modern Irish · Modern Irish |  |
| Connacht Irish · Munster Irish · Newfoundland Irish · Ulster Irish | |
| Initial mutations · Morphology (declension, verbs) · Phonology · Syntax · Orthography · Ogham · Gaelic script | |
| Scottish Gaelic linguistics |
|---|
| Manx linguistics |  |
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|---|---|---|
| Primitive Irish | Old Irish | Middle Irish | Manx language | ||
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