abacc

Middle Irish

Etymology

Usually associated with Middle Welsh afanc (“dwarf; beaver”), from Proto-Celtic *abankos (“beaver, dwarf”), a derivative of *abū (“river”).[1] The meaning "dwarf" also appears in Old Breton abac. However, Proto-Celtic *nk should give Goidelic /ɡ/, not /k/.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈaβək/

Noun

abacc m

  1. dwarf

Descendants

  • Irish: abhac

Mutation

Mutation of abacc
radical lenition nasalization
abacc
(pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments) 		unchanged n-abacc

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Middle Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

  1. ^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 24

Further reading

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