Appendix:Old Irish s subjunctive verbs

The s-subjunctive is generally used in verbs whose root ends in a coronal or velar obstruent or in /n͈/; there are also traces in a few other verbs. It is characterized by the suffix -s-, which assimilates to an r or l that immediately precedes it and to which most other consonants themselves assimilate.

The endings are essential identical to those of the s-future; the past subjunctive has the same endings as the s-conditional. The s-subjunctive is also commonly found in the same verbs as the the s-future; the two can be distinguished by the fact that the future shows reduplication and the subjunctive does not.

See Category:Old Irish s subjunctive verbs for a list of verbs that take the s-subjunctive.

The root vowel is generally lengthened when it is anything other than short e, and sometimes lengthened (to ía or é) when it is.

In the following cases. the s has assimilated to a preceding r or l:

• orcaid → orr- (from *orx-s- from *h₃erg-s-)
• ·ceird → ·cerr- (from *ker-s- from *kerd-s-)
• mligid → mell- (from *melx-s- from *h₂melǵ-s-)

The forms shown below for guidid (“to pray”) are constructed on the basis of attested endings.

The deponent endings are those of the s-conditional.

• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, translation of Handbuch des Alt-Irischen (in German), →ISBN, §§ 613–32, pages 387–95; reprinted 2017
• Strachan, John, Bergin, Osborn (1949) Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, →ISBN, pages 49–51
• McCone, Kim (1997) The Early Irish Verb (Maynooth Monographs 1), 2nd edition, Maynooth: An Sagart, →ISBN, pages 33–35