The Celtic glosses are written in the text, but are generally indicated by perpendicular or horizontal strokes. For the most part the Celtic words stand out of construction in the sentence; sometimes they are obviously misplaced. They seem to have been originally notes and glosses on the text, which later copyists incorporated therein[1].
14. Codex Canonum Hibernicorum Camaracensis[2].
This is a manuscript of the eighth century[3], preserved in the public Library of Cambray, nr. 619. It consists of 72 leaves, and contains the text of the Irish Canons down to Lib. xxxviii. 18 med. It has been copied by a continental hand from a manuscript in the Irish character[4]. In the archetype there had been inserted by chance a leaf containing a fragment of an Irish homily. This was copied by the continental scribe along with the rest of the codex; the words are often wrongly divided, and there are many clerical errors resulting from the scribe’s unfamiliarity with the Irish script.
The Irish is very archaic, and dates from the second half of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century[5]. The following points may be noted. Internal ē has not yet become īa, e.g. fēda = later fíada; at the end of a word, however, it appears as ea, dea = later día. Similarly ō has not yet become ūa, e.g. ood = later úad. Unaccented ĕ is preserved in autrubert, le, nundem, and in the possessive pronoun, ine[6] chuis, ine lāim, ine mēraib, inae lobri, inae seth, inae dommetu, faire chomnessam; but a appears where no preposition precedes: a bees, a deserce, a fuil, and after fri: fria thola, fria tola; similarly are n‑indarbe, are n‑airema, aire sechethar, aure coicsa, but ara tinōla. Unaccented ŏ is preserved in fēdot, tuthēgot, tuesmot. Pretonic to- is preserved before verbal forms: tu-thēgot, tuesmot, tondecomnacuir, but before nouns we find du, do. In the article pretonic nd is preserved in dundaib, but has become nn in inna. A long vowel is often expressed by doubling, e.g. isee, bees, duun. Amail, intain appear, not amal, intan.
- ↑ Thurneysen, op. cit. 95.
- ↑ Ed. Zeuss, Gramm. Celt.² 1004, O’Curry, Bibliothèque de l’École des Chartes, iii. série, tome iii. 197 sq.; Zimmer, Gloss. Hib. 213 sq. A facsimile is given by C. P. Cooper in his Report on the Foedera, appendix A. The text is here published from photographs; the lines correspond to the lines of the original.
- ↑ The date is fixed by the closing words: Explicit liber canonum quem dominus Albericus episcopus urbis Camaracensium et Atrebacensium fieri rogauit. Deo gratias Amen. Albericus was bishop of Cambray and Arras from 763 till 790 a.d.; cf. Wasserschleben, Die Irische Kanonensammlung² xxx.
- ↑ Zimmer, Gloss. Hib. xix.
- ↑ Cf. Thurneysen, Celt. Zeitschr. i. 348 sq., iii. 53 sq.
- ↑ Noteworthy is n corresponding to nn in Wb.; cf. Pedersen, Aspirationen, 119.
