brèagha

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Middle Irish bregda (“Bregian, fine”), from Brega (“Bregia, country around the Hill of Tara”), possibly from Old Irish brí (“hill”), from Proto-Celtic *brixs (“hill”). Cognate with Irish breá (archaic breagha, breaghdha). Possibly related to brìgh (“sense; strength; significance”).

Pronunciation

• (Lewis) IPA^(key): /ˈb̥ðia.ə/^[1]
• (Uist, Barra) IPA^(key): /ˈb̥ɾʲia.a/^[2]

Adjective

brèagha

1. fine, handsome, beautiful

Declension

First declension; forms of the positive degree:

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	brèagha	bhrèagha	brèagha
Genitive	bhrèagha	bhrèagha	brèagha
Dative	bhrèagha	bhrèagha	brèagha
Vocative	bhrèagha	bhrèagha	brèagha

Declension of brèagha

Comparative/superlative: brèagha

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
brèagha	bhrèagha
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• MacBain, Alexander, Mackay, Eneas (1911) “brèagha”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language‎, Stirling, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 bregda”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Matasović, Ranko (2009) “brig-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 77
• “Breagha” in Index to Keating, Geoffrey (1902) Patrick Dinneen, editor, The history of Ireland‎, London, pages 184–185
• note 11 in Ua Laoghaire, Peadar (1895 December) “Séadna”, in Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge‎, volume 6, number 8, Dublin, page 134

1. Oftedal, M. (1956) A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap
2. John MacPherson (1945) The Gaelic dialect of North Uist (Thesis)‎, Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh