Old Irish and Slavic Prefixed Verbs and the Function of Prefixes
Authors: Josephson Folke 
Published: November 2021

The long chain of verbal prefixes which is common in the Old Irish glosses is a phenomenon which has parallels in Slavic. The normal order of Old Irish prefixes is known. Violations of that order can be observed. The prefixes are homonymous with prepositions and thus have a local meaning. The exact function of the prefixes in the chain is, however, not always obvious. Some prefixes are telic and have a weakened local meaning. The reason for the order in which the prefixes occur has not been well explained. It is often difficult to determine where a certain prefix was placed when it was added to a preexisting shorter group of prefixes.

Ro, con and ad can be infixed (in some cases prefixed) to indicate that an act or a state is seen as completed (perfective or perfect) or where ro and con indicate possibility or ability. The question can arise whether a certain prefix is of local or ‘aspectual’ nature. Doubling of prefixes occurs as in comtherchomracc ‘assembly’. In do·é-com-nacht ‘has bestowed’ ‘perfectivizing’ con- has been infixed into a pre-existing do·ind-naig. In·r-úa-lad ‘I have entered’ shows a similar process but with the ‘perfectivizing’ ro- in a different position. -r-ind·úa-lad (Ml 93cl4) ‘thou hast entered’ shows that this is not the only possible order.

Multiple prefixes in Slavic were recently discussed by Filip (2003) who drew attention to the problematic nature of the function of prefixes as grammatical (inflexional) markers of perfective aspect. She also discussed their behaviour as directional prefixes. Most of her examples are from Czech and contain two (or three) prefixes. We shall draw attention to the prefixed verbs of Bulgarian which has longer chains of prefixes. It will therefore be interesting to compare Bulgarian with Old Irish. Many questions concerning these chains are similar to those that arise in the analysis of the OI chains of prefixes both in regard to function and position in the chain. The different position of 'aspectual' prefixes in Slavic and Irish should be observed. In this paper I shall mainly treat the functional properties of the prefixes.

Bulgarian pridobivam is not too difficult to analyze. Izpoprebivam is more complicated as it shows actional iz- and the likewise actional po- in the initial position which is natural for such prefixes in Slavic languages. Izponaprikàzvam shows four prefixes though the very common combined prefix izpo- has been analyzed as being one entity. Nevertheless, po- seems to have kept its distributive meaning. Doubling of prefixes is found in Bulgarian.

Filip (2003) considers the prefixes to be derivational morphemes, but does not see them as formal markers of perfectivity. The action of a prefixed verb may be quantized, telic or bounded. Böttger (2004) discusses grammatical and lexical derivation, grammaticalization and the Russian prefixes po-, zu- and ot- in a diachronical perspective. We shall discuss these theories and their applicability to OI and Bulgarian. The “directional and measurement usages” of Slavic and Irish prefixes will finally be compared with the functions of the Hittite enclitic directional particles.