Affection (linguistics)
Encyclopedia
In Celtic
linguistics, affection (also known as vowel affection or infection) is the change in the quality of a vowel under the influence of the vowel of the following, final syllable. The vowel triggering the change may or may not still be present in the modern language.
The two main types of affection are a-infection and i-infection. i-infection is an example of i-mutation
, and may be compared to Germanic umlaut
. More rarely, the term "affection" (like "umlaut") may be heard applied to other languages, and is then a synonym for i-mutation generally.
, affection can be seen most clearly in the inflections of nouns and verbs.
Many nouns form their plurals by adding an
A slightly irregular example is:
Thus the singular contains the original vowel, while the plural has a shifted form caused by the /i:/ vowel of the original suffix, which has long since disappeared.
In verbs, it is the citation form
which contains the shifted vowel, giving the illusion that the
This may be compared to the Germanic phenomenon of Rückumlaut. In fact, of course, notwithstanding the conventions of dictionary citation, it is the form with the
As Gaelic spelling is very conservative, affection is neatly displayed in the written form. In spoken Gaelic the effect is often no longer heard as fronting, but may have other results. For example, in cait the
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
linguistics, affection (also known as vowel affection or infection) is the change in the quality of a vowel under the influence of the vowel of the following, final syllable. The vowel triggering the change may or may not still be present in the modern language.
The two main types of affection are a-infection and i-infection. i-infection is an example of i-mutation
I-mutation
I-mutation is an important type of sound change, more precisely a category of regressive metaphony, in which a back vowel is fronted, and/or a front vowel is raised, if the following syllable contains /i/, /ī/ or /j/ I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or...
, and may be compared to Germanic umlaut
Germanic umlaut
In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
. More rarely, the term "affection" (like "umlaut") may be heard applied to other languages, and is then a synonym for i-mutation generally.
Scottish Gaelic
In GaelicScottish Gaelic language
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....
, affection can be seen most clearly in the inflections of nouns and verbs.
Many nouns form their plurals by adding an
- cat ('cat') → cait ('cats')
A slightly irregular example is:
- cù ('dog') → coin ('dogs')
Thus the singular contains the original vowel, while the plural has a shifted form caused by the /i:/ vowel of the original suffix, which has long since disappeared.
In verbs, it is the citation form
Citation form
In linguistics the citation form of a word can mean:* its canonical form or lemma: the form of an inflected word given in dictionaries or glossaries, thus also called the dictionary form....
which contains the shifted vowel, giving the illusion that the
- cuir ('put') → cur ('putting')
This may be compared to the Germanic phenomenon of Rückumlaut. In fact, of course, notwithstanding the conventions of dictionary citation, it is the form with the
As Gaelic spelling is very conservative, affection is neatly displayed in the written form. In spoken Gaelic the effect is often no longer heard as fronting, but may have other results. For example, in cait the