Vortrag
Innovating a verbal ending
Middle Irish -abair
The development from Old to Middle Irish features a near-complete overhaul of the verbal system. Among the many changes, the appearance of the all-new verbal ending -abair (2nd pl. ind. pret. act.) is particularly striking because it seems to have originated from the 2nd plural possessive pronoun. This paper will trace the complex development from possessive pronoun to verbal ending via the copula and a new paradigm of infixed pronouns.