lachu

See also: Lachu and łachu

Old Irish

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lek- (“to jump, hop, scuttle (> fly)”), and if so cognate with Lithuanian lak (“to fly”), but cognates are few and there is significant semantic distance. An onomatopoeic derivation is also likely.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈl̪a.xu/

Noun

lachu f (genitive lachan, nominative plural lachain)

1. duck
   • c. 900, Sanas Cormaic, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, Corm. Y 829

     lacha .i. lichiu quam aliæ auess

     duck, which is wetter than other birds

Inflection

Feminine n-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	lachu	lachainL	lachain
vocative	lachu	lachainL	lachnaH
accusative	lachainN	lachainL	lachnaH
genitive	lachan	lachanL	lachanN
dative	lachainL, lachuL	lachnaib	lachnaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Derived terms

• lachnach (“abounding in ducks”)

Descendants

• Irish: lacha
• Manx: laagh
• Scottish Gaelic: lach

Mutation

Mutation of lachu

radical	lenition	nasalization
lachu also llachu in h-prothesis environments	lachu pronounced with /l-/	lachu also llachu

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

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