cethair

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *kʷetwores, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkʲeθirʲ/

Numeral

Old Irish cardinal numbers

<  3	4	5  >
Cardinal : cethair     Ordinal : cethramad     Male personal : cethrar

cethair (feminine cetheoir)

1. four

Inflection

Irregular numeral
Plural	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	cethair	cethéoir, cethéoraH	cethairL
Vocative
Accusative	cethriH	cethéoraH
Genitive	ceithreN	cethéoraN	ceithreN
Dative	ceithrib	cethéoraib	ceithrib
Notes	Initial mutations of a following noun: H = triggers aspiration L = triggers lenition N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• cethrar

Descendants

• Irish: ceathair, ceithre
• Manx: kiare
• Scottish Gaelic: ceithir

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cethair	chethair	cethair pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

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