lemlacht

Old Irish

Alternative forms

lemnacht (with dissimilation)

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *lemomlixtus, a compound equivalent to lem (“soft”) +‎ mlicht (“yield of milk”). DIL's identification of the second element as Middle Irish lacht (“milk”) cannot be correct, as the compound is also found in Breton livrizh and Welsh llefrith (“milk”), and -i- in Brittonic cannot be derived from *-axt- in any fashion.

The variant form lemnacht is due to dissimilation.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈl̠ʲe.β̃ləxt̪/
- (Blasse) [ˈl̠ʲe.β̃laxt̪]
- (Griffith) [ˈl̠ʲe.β̃ləxt̪]

Noun

lemlacht m

(fresh) milk

Inflection

Masculine u-stem
	singular	dual	plural
nominative	lemlacht	—	—
vocative	lemlacht	—	—
accusative	lemlacht^N	—	—
genitive	lemlachto^H, lemlachta^H	—	—
dative	lemlacht^L	—	—

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

^H = triggers aspiration
^L = triggers lenition
^N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

Middle Irish: lemnacht, lemlacht
- Irish: leamhnacht

Mutation

Mutation of *lemlacht*
radical	lenition	nasalization
lemlacht also llemlacht in h-prothesis environments	lemlacht pronounced with /lʲ-/	lemlacht also llemlacht

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