sonae

Old Irish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Old *sugnāwos etymology doesn't work because otherwise we'd expect a trace of the old *g.”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈso.ne/

Adjective

sonae

1. happy, fortunate

Usage notes

• The adjectives sonae and donae represent a pattern in Old Irish where words in which so- represents happy, good luck, and positive denotations while antonyms in do- represent sad, bad luck, or negative denotations.

Declension

io/iā-stem

singular	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	sonae	sonae	sonae
vocative	sonai
accusative	sonae	sonai
genitive	sonai	sonae	sonai
dative	sonu	sonai	sonu
plural	masculine	feminine/neuter
nominative	sonai	sonai
vocative	sonai sonu*
accusative	sonai sonu*
genitive	sonae
dative	sonaib

* when substantivized

Descendants

• Irish: sona
• Manx: sonney
• Scottish Gaelic: sona

Mutation

Mutation of sonae

radical	lenition	nasalization
sonae	ṡonae	sonae

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), “sona”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language