bethu

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• beothu, bethad

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃-

Proto-Indo-European *-wós

Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós

Proto-Celtic *biwos

Proto-Celtic *-tūts

Proto-Celtic *biwotūts

Old Irish bethu

From Proto-Celtic *biwotūts (compare Welsh bywyd), from *biwos from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós (“alive”) (compare Latin vīta, Ancient Greek βίοτος (bíotos), Old Church Slavonic животъ (životŭ, “life”), Lithuanian gyvatà (“life”), Sanskrit जीवित (jīvitá), Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬌𐬌𐬊 (gaiio, “life”) accusative 𐬘𐬌𐬌𐬁𐬙𐬎𐬨 (jiiātum)), from *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʲe.θu/

Noun

bethu m

1. life
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 3^c2

     tri chretim i nÍsu ꝉ isin beothu i táa Ísu iar n-esséirgu

     through belief in Jesus or in the life in which Jesus is after resurrection

   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 15^b28

     A mbás tíagme-ni do·áirci bethid dúibsi .i. is ar bethid dúibsi tíagmi-ni bás.

     The death to which we go causes life to you pl, i.e. it is for the sake of life to you that we go to death.

Declension

Masculine t-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	bethu	—	—
vocative	bethu	—	—
accusative	bethaidN, bethu	—	—
genitive	bethad	—	—
dative	bethaidL, bethu	—	—

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

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

Descendants

• Middle Irish: betha
  • Irish: beatha
  • Manx: bea
  • Scottish Gaelic: beatha

Mutation

Mutation of bethu

radical	lenition	nasalization
bethu	bethu pronounced with /βʲ-/	mbethu

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

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “betha”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language