Iranians, Indians, Germans
and Celts - Peoples of direct linguistic Descent. Paper VI
Eastern Tribes
Iran
India
Northern Tribes
Balts
Slavs
Western Tribes
The Achaemenid Persian Empire
The Alans
(B) The Teutoni
The Indo-European language or languages are characterised by the
use of noun declensions, with eight cases or less. Adjectives and
articles agree with the noun in case. Verbs are inflected to show
tense, in the Active and Passive Voices and in the nna and subjunctive
moods.
Indo-Europeans used the name ‘Arya’, meaning ‘house-owner’ or ‘noble’.
To identify the tribes which brought these languages west to Conemara
and east to Bangladesh, the records made by Greek and Roman historians,
at the start of the last millennium, are the most useful. Deciphered
archaeological inscriptions too supply vital but limited information.
Eastern Tribes
Tribes, on the eastern edges of the Kurgan homeland, lived in Eurasia
around 3,500 BC. They belonged to the Andronovo cultures, which spread
to historical Transoxania at the end of the Eneolithic era. Those
who went south became Indo-Iranians, around 2,500 BC. Some 500 years
after this, they proceeded further into Eastern Iran and Afghanistan.
The tribes which remained in the Kurgan homeland were nomadic Indo-Iranians,
whose language and customs were tied to those of the ancient Persians
and Indians. These tribes, Scythians and Samartians, were the ancestors
of the developed Indo-European culture. When they migrated from the
homeland, they carried their religious beliefs, mythological histories,
agricultural methods, horse-breeding and fighting skills both east
and west.
The Saka (the Iranian name for Scyths) entered India. There, the
Vedic period lasted from 1500 to 400 BC. The language was then codified
and called Sanskrit. Vulgar languages (prakit) continued to develop,
nonetheless, to provide the modern Northern Indian languages.
The aboriginal, Dravidian tongues are spoken in the South of the
Sub-continent.
Under pressure from Altaic Turks and Mongols, a grouping of Indo-Europeans
retreated eastwards from the steppes into the Chinese Tarim Basin
and Transoxania. These latter entered India as the Kushans in the
first century AD.
Several related Iranian languages show the extent of the Iranian
spread: Persian, Kurdish and Ossetian in the Caucasus. Well known
Iranian tribes were the Iazyges and the Alans, who penetrated western
Europe.
Iran
The first Indo-Iranian settlement, Iran-Vij, the location of which
is shrouded in the mists of time, formed the capital of the last Indo-Iranian
king. The western Proto-Iranians and the eastern Indo-Aryans spread
apart probably around 1800 BC. Stories about King Yama foretell of
the migrations to the Iranian Plateau and later into India. Folklore,
the Rg Veda and the Avesta describe the advanced culture, which Indo-Iranians
carried from the steppes.
When the Proto-Iranians (formed from elements of the nomadic Saka/Sythian
tribes), settled on the Iranian Plateau, they formed three main tribes:
the Medes (northwest), the Persians (south, southwest) and the Parthians
(east, northeast). Earlier civilisations of the Mitanni and the Kassites
were absorbed in the process.
The Iranians co-operated with the local tribes to repulse attacks
from the Sumerians and Babylonians. They formed an association of
local independent chieftains. The Iranians slowly evolved into a position
of leadership in their new homeland.
Confederations consisting of Aryian and non-Aryan tribes were forming
new kingdoms, the earliest of which was Media.
Such an arrangement mirrors the formation of the historical Gaeltacht
over Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. By 1200BC, however, whilst
exchanging blows with Elam, Babylon and Assyria, the Iranians learned
to form powerful unifying kingdoms. This was something the Gael could
not do (mainly for geographical reasons). The first of the great Iranian
kingdoms was Media.
India
Before the arrival of the Arya, the highly developed Harappan culture
flourished along the Indus River in Pakistan. There were two great
cities, Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. The people spoke ancient Dravidian,
but little of the scripts found have been deciphered. Excavations
suggest that Harappans lived peaceful lives and did not have social
classes.
Trade in gold, silver copper and turquoise was conducted with Mesopotamia,
southern India, Afghanistan and Persia. Agricultural crops included
wheat, barlkey, peas, melons and sesame. The use of cotton for cloth
production was invented. Pottery in human and animal form was fashioned.
The elephant was domesticated.
The Harappan civilisation went into decline around 2000 BC. From
contacts with BMAC (Bactrian-Margiana Archaeological Complex) traders,
Indo-Aryan clans drifted slowly into the Indus Valley. Recent evidence
suggests that the Indus Valley inhabitants had largely dispersed before
the nomadic Indo-Aryans arrived.
A decline in food production appears to have resulted from climatic
influence on the annual swelling of the Indus. Earthen defences were
overcome and topsoil erosion resulted from the ensuing flooding. The
direction of the river flow became uncertain.
The Dravidian people sought refuge in the fertile northeast. As indicated
in the later Vedas and in the Mahabharata, those who remained mixed
with the newcomers but kept up their cultural practices – so influencing
the future culture of South Asia. This essentially peaceful assumption
of leadership mirrors what happened in Iran and in Ireland.
Northern Tribes
The Kurgans pushed from the Upper Dnieper, the Upper Volga and Oka
rivers into Central Russia (today’s Byelo-Russia and greater Russia).
Here they became Proto-Slavs, with influences from the comb-marked
and Pitted-ware peoples.
From the lower Dniepr, they went into Europe and to the Baltic coasts,
to become the ancestors of the Balts.
In the eastern Baltic, the Globular Amphora hybrid of Funnel-Beaker
and Kurgan elements gave way (after several centuries) to the Corded
Ware or Battle Axe culture. This last was itself a Kurgan derivative
with elements from the funnel beaker and Bell-Beaker folk. In the
Upper Volga Basin, the new culture spread to sites classified as the
Fat’janovo culture of Greater Russia.
Balts
The Balts were a branch of the Indo-European family which settled
between the lower vistula and the upper Daugava and Dnieper. Living
in relative peace, their languages contain certain features of the
original PIE.
At the start of the Mesolithic period, and at the end of the Ice
Age, archaeological and archeogenetic studies put the prehistoric
cradle of the Balts by the Baltic Sea, in Central Europe. They expanded
eastwards to the Volga. The contiguous Slavic cradle lay in the Danubian
Krakowian sector. Following the Avar invasion of Europe, the Slavonic
tribes moved to the Dnieper region (6th century) and assimilated the
western Balts.
Using etymological studies of river names, Marija Gimbutas derived
a proto-Baltic homeland – north of a line stretching eastwards to
Warsaw, Kiev and Kursk, northwards to Moscow and westwards north of
Riga. In the first millennium AD, the tribes settled between the Vistula
and the Daugava. They became the ancestors both of the western - Prussians,
Yotvingians, Gallindians - and eastern tribes - Semigallians, Curonians,
Lithuanians and Latvians/Latgalians. These latter two have survived
to the present day.
Contrary to linguistic analysis, genetics show the closest relatives
of the modern Balts not to be Russians and Poles but Estonians and
the Mari. This may indicate that the Balts were originally of Finno-Ugric
origin.
The Balto-Slavic Battle Axe people formed a spur to the north-west.
Indigenous non-Kurgans were sparse and had no great cultural impact:
they were takers of cultural advances. A secondary spur, the Corded
Ware culture, moved on to Germany, home of the developing Funnel Beaker
people.
Slavs
The Slavic people comprise the Czechs, Poles, Slovaks in the west,
Belarussians, Russins Ukrainians and Rusins in the east and Macedonians,
Slovenians, Bosnians, Croats, Serbs and Montenegrans in the south.
In the earliest documents in Old Slavonic (9th century), the term
‘slovĕne’ is used. ‘Slovo’ means word. ‘Slovĕne’ would then mean the
‘people who speak’.
Indo-European groups, which remained in the Indo-European homeland
after the migrations west and east, became speakers of the ‘satem’
Balto-Slavic. The two halves of this then differentiated, 5 – 6 centuries
before Proto-Slavic itself split into dialects.
The genetic haplogroup R 1a (Y-DNA) has the highest frequency in
Poland (60%), in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia (50%). Mass migrations
westwards after the Last Glacial Maximum is though to have been the
cause. Germany has an 8% frequency, which is in line with the culturalboundary
between Slav and German.
Certain western (Lech) Slavs – Sorbs and Polabians – lived in Germany.
These tribes would add to the R 1a minority. Non-Slavic Swedan/Norway
have 18-24% R 1a. This would suggest that the mobile Vikings were
related to the (Lech) Ludzie. The Slavs did not understand German
and called them ‘mutes’ (niemci).
The haplogroup I/M170 (Y-DNA) is abundant in the Balkans and western
Caucasus (50%) and in non-Slavic areas (Sardinia, Adriatic islands).
It is found in northern Iran but not India. It is thus not Slavic
but is characteristic of Slavicised aboriginals..
The location of the Proto-Slavic people may be considered to be the
same of Indo-Europeans generally. However, Slavic migrations came
later and were less extensive.
In 98 AD, Tacitus referred to Magna Germania as the lands of the
Elbe, Oder and west of the Vistula. Tacitus, Pliny the elder, and
Ptolemy mention a tribe of the Venedes (or Vandals), east of the Vistula.
The Slavs stayed between the Vistula and the Dnieper until 50 BC.
Then they expanded to the Elbe (Labe) river and the Adriatic. In the
early 6th century BC, Byzantrine records refer to Slavs under the
names Ventets, Ants and Sklavens, descending from the Black Sea, the
Danube and the Carpathians.
The first clearly Slavonic archaeological cultures are the Prague-Korchak
and Pen’kovo cultures (6-7th century AD). They are linked directly
to the Kiev culture (2 – 5th century AD). Slavs migrated extensively
in and around the original Indo-European homeland, north of the Black
Sea. They stayed in the region and mixed with cultures, which entered
the steppe corridor.
Siberian and Eastern European Huns, Avars, Bulgars and Magyars necessitated
the westward movement of Germans and Celts in the 5th and 6th centuries
AD. The Slavs occupied lands, between the Oder ans the Elbe, left
by the retreating tribes. The Slavs also went southwards to Bohemia,
Moravia, Austria and the Balkans (the Panonian plain). They went northward
too, by the Dnieper. These substantive migrations led to the formation
of the first Slavic states in the 7th century AD.
However, northern and southern Slavs were separated by Romanian and
Bulgarian expansions. (The Turkic Bulgars were Slavicised later.)
The Croats, originally from the Sea of Azov, had the same fate too
losing their unique Indo-Iranian tongue almost completely. The Illyrians
held on to their heritage, protected by the mountainous territory
in which they lived.
The Croats merged with elements of the Alans. The Serbs assimilated
with the Serboi, a Sarmatian tribe, and later with Celtic remnants.
The Proto-Slavs occupied southeastern Poland and northeastern parts
of the Ukraine around 1500BC. The tribes stayed in the ‘Slavic Cradle’
for centuries, speaking a common language. It produced many variants,
most of which have disappeared. Linguistic differences between today’s
Slavic groups reflect the admixture of aboriginal cultures in the
different destinations after the mass migrations.
As Slavic words for beech, larch, and yew are of German origin, this
points to the ancestral Slav homelands as being in the pripet Marshes
of northeastern Ukraine. The Polish historian, Jan Peisker said: “the
Slav was the son and product of the marsh”. The harsh marsh environment
stunned the growth of civilisation but allowed for social equality
and democracy. The centralisation of power was limited, as it was
in Ireland and originally in Iran.
In 1300 BC, an early Slav culture in Lusatia (Silesia) prospered
and spread out. The fortified village of Biskupin (450 BC) was a peak
in Proto-Slavic culture. Indo-European Scythians, migrating west after
400 BC, destroyed the village.
Despite marauding onslaughts, the Slavs did not move around nor mix
extensively with other populations but stayed in their ancestral homeland
for 2000 years. The Asiatic Huns finally caused the great mass migrations
west, east and south, from the ‘Slavic Cradle’, lasted from the 3rd
to the 7th century AD.
Uncontested, the Slavs went into the lands abandoned by Vandals,
Visigoths and Ostrogoths who had gone to take on Rome. When the Huns
from Central Asia arrived in 370AD, they scattered the Slavs. After
the fall of the Hun empire in 453 AD, the Slavs poured back south
to the Black Sea and to the north of the Danube and the Balkans. The
Slovaks did not move during all the strife and to this day still live
close to the centre of the ‘Slavic Cradle’, speaking the language
closest to Old Slavonic.
Western Tribes
(A) The Cimmerians
The Cimmerians were equestrian nomads who, according to Herodotus,
lived in the Ukraine in the 8th century BC, where they have been associated
with the Catacomb culture. Assyrian records place them in Azerbaijan
in 714 BC.
Cimmerians may have had an Iranian ruling class. [In Ireland, in
Gaelic times, a powerful clan would have had lesser clans to performing
specific duties, eg medicine.] They came under pressure from the Srubna
culture, which arrived from the East, and were forced slowly to retreat.
This process was brought to rapid completion, some hundreds of years
later, by the marauding Scythians.
Assyrians record the Cimmerians as ‘Gimirri’, a people which lived
in a state called Mannae. The tribe conquered Phrygia in 695 BC and,
in 679 BC, they took Cappadocia. In 652 they captured Sardis, the
capital of Lydia, bringing terror to the Greeks. There, however, the
victors are thought to have suffered from the Plague. Remnants of
the tribe may have remained in Cappadocia. Frankish traditions put
them at the mouth of the Danube.
The names of a few kings are known, possibly indicating a language
intermediate between Iranian and Thracian:
Dug-dam-me - he was a nomad king. In Ossetian, related to Iranian,
‘tux-domaeg’ means ‘ruling with strenght’.
Sandarsatra was the name of his son.
What in known about ancient tribes are the records of contemporary
historians who depended upon their best sources at the time. There
is other evidence to show that the influence of certain tribes, even
though they may have eventually disappeared, was great even beyond
their assumed borders.
Small bands of warriors were always ready to go their own way and
to seek their fortune in faraway places. There would often leave a
lasting impression. The Armenian city of Gyamri is perhaps the legacy
of minor migrations in the 8th century.
The Celtic Cimbri lived for a while in northern Germany, before going
to fight the Romans. The tribe went to Gaul with Helvetian and Teutonic
allies, where they suffered crushing defeat at the hands of the Romans.
The tribe then disappeared as a cultural entity. Farther west, however,
Cymru was adopted as the name of a country. The name of nearby anglicised
Cumbria underscores the unwritten influence of these people. The meaning
of the ancient word, ‘companions’, is reflected in modern, related
Welsh. The overall influence of the Cimmerians is thought to have
triggered the cultural changes which brought Europe from the Bronze
Age (3000 – 100 BC) into the Iron age.
The Scythians
To the west, north of the Caspian Sea, lay the Srubna culture, associated
with the Cimmerians and Saka/Scythians, who feature in recorded history
as nomadic horsemen. Assyrian records in the 9th century BC, show
them proceeding across the Caucasus into Anatolia and then Assyria.
The associated Thracians and Sigynnae migrated west, and were identified
as Iranian by both Herodotus and Strabo. These treks exemplify how
migrations, such as those of Indo-Iranians to South Asia, are not
simple, straight-line movements.
The Scythians are first described in the ‘Histories’ of Herodotus
around 440BC. These horse-riding Indo-European nomads occupied the
Pontic Steppe. They are known for exquisite gold artefacts found in
burial ounds in the Ukraine and south Russia.
Scythians spoke an Iranian tongue. They comprised the Auchatae, Catiaroi,
Traspian and Paralatae tribes.fff This last, the ruling tribe or ‘Royal
Scythes’, governed a vast swathe of land from the Ukraine to Russia
and to Central Asia. Herodotus notes that the Scyth nation was bested
in battle by the Massagetae and must retreat across the Araxes river
into Cimmaria. They suppressed the autochthous Cimmerian tribe, which
was slowly assimilated by their closely related Sarmatians.
Around 770 BC, Scythians and Mannaens attached Assyria unsuccessfully.
Assyrian and Babylonian texts therefafter mention Scyths in connection
with Media. During the Achaemenid period, Greek sources locate them
again in the steppe region between the Dnieper and the Don rivers.
King Darius the Great of Persia attacked the Scythians in 512 BC
from the western Danube front. In one of the most unique military
events of all time, he was not engaged by the Scythians and proceeded
as far as the Volga without meeting resistance. For hundreds of years
the Scythians prospered: they grew and exported grain and wheat to
Greece, as well as cheese and foul. The slave-trade was another lucrative
activity, which they controlled.
Strabo records a misadventure by the Scythians in 339 BC against
Macedonia. They were attempting to expand from between the Danube
and the Maeotian marshes. The Celts moved to dislodge the weakened
scythians from the Balkans. In southern Russia, the Sarmatians slowly
assimilated them. The Scythian people, in the Crimea, set up a new
kingdom stretching to the Dnieper. It lasted unmolested until the
5th century AD when the Goths sacked the
In the 2nd century BC, Indo-Scythians migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana
and Arachosia. The Kushan tribes, which lived in Xiongnu (Gansu) before
the Huns, displaced the Indo-Scythians from Central Asia. They fled
to Pakistan and Kashmir around 85 BC, where they overcame the Indo-Greek
kingdom. The expanding Kushan power, however, again clashed with them.
Remnants held sway, in northern India, until the 5th century AD.
Scythian influence was waning. The Goths displaced the related Sarmations.
In the 2nd century AD the Turkic migrations assimilated the Iranian
Saka and pushed the eastern Iranian dialects to extinction.
The Achaemenid Persian Empire
The Achaemenid period (559-338 AD) was the first real Persian Empire.
It spread from Greater Iran to Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Anatolia (NW Turkey), Trace (upper Balkans) and the Black Sea coasts.
To the southwest, it covered Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan,
Israel and Levant, Syria, Egypt and Libya. The empire was the largest
in classical antiquity. The Medes founded the first empire of Greater
Iran. The name of the Achaemenid Empire refers to a small tributary
state which rebelled to conquer the older Medean Empire.
The Alans
The Alans were Iranian nomads, related to the Sarmatians. The name
Alan, like Iran (as used by the descendents of the Alans in Ossetia)
are Iranian forms of Arian. This name was was generally used by Indo-Iranians
and their descendents. Ammianus Marcellinus wrote: “Almost all of
the Alans are tall and good-looking. Their hair is generally blond
and their eyes are frighteningly fierce.” He considered them to be
descended from Massagetae. Late Sarmatian sites were identified with
Alans. An Iranian group, they entered the Sarmatian lands from the
1st to the 2nd century AD
A group of western Alans, following defeat by the Huns in 370 AD,
fled west to the Vandals and the Suebi. Some settled in Gaul, as indicated
by placenames in Brittany. Others followed the Vandals into Iberia
and proceeded with them into North Africa, only to disappear from
subsequent record.
Northern Alans moved into Poland from the Black Sea to merge with
the Slavs as ancestors of the Serbs and Croats. In 620, the Romans
invited these two tribes to the Balkans to engage the Turkic Avars.
Serbs who remained in Germany are called Sorbs.
Eastern Alans, who remained under Hunnic rule, were the ancestors
of the Ossetians. They were forced into the Caucasus by expanding
Mongols in the mid-400s AD.
The Massagetae
The Massagetae were an Iranian people, mentioned by Herodotus. They
were a Scythian offshoot, originating from Uzbekistan. They worshipped
one god (the Sun). They practiced horse-sacrifice. They are thought
to be the ancestors of the Alans.
(B) The Teutoni
As the pioneering Celtic star waned, in the 4th century BC, the related
Germans began to take centre stage. Celts in their homeland were readily
assimilated in the cognate culture. Germans spread from northern Germany
and the Baltic region to the east, west and south. In the 1st century
BC, they come into recorded history in Caesar’s ‘Commentaries’. Vandals
to the west and Ostrogoths to the east commenced serious combat with
the Romans.
The Vandals
These were Germanic tribes from between the Vistula and Oder in the
3rd century BC. In 270 AD, they invaded Panonia and Dacia and proceeded
to devastate the Balkans. They migrated to the western Mediterranean
and Africa. They disappear from record after 534 AD.
The Goths and the Huns
The successful Huns eventually forced western Visigoths to enter the
Roman Empire, which they did following negotiation. However, in 410,
conflict erupted and Rome was sacked – for the first time in nearly
800 years. With Rome itself preparing to go into history, the Ostrogoths
came from the Ukraine to take most of Italy, Greece and the Balkans.
The Vandals took the north African possessions and retreating elements
of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes wrested England (Angle-land) from
the Celts.
Other Germanic tribes included the Alemanni, Angles, Saxons, Burgundii,
Lombards, Goths (east Germans) and Scandinavians. Later, the Chamavi
are placed near Holland and the Franks in eastern France.
The Suebi
This tribe and their allies gave their name to Swabia. Swabian identity
is still a matter of pride in Germany. Lesser tribes included the
Marcomanni, Alemanni, and Quadi.
The Marcomanni
This tribe lived north of the Danube. In 180 AD, Marcus Aurelius triumphed
over them. Their language probably came from the dialect continua
between the German and the Celt. The tribe took refuge in the lands
of the Celtic Boii (Cattle Herders) and were later called the Boiarii
– ancestors of the Bavarians. Interestingly, the Aryan Celtic influence
is evident both in the names of the tribe and of their Roman conqueror:
the Irish ‘marcach’ means ‘horseman’.
The Quadi
This tribe was Germanic and orinaated from north of the Main river.
Towards the end of the 1st century BC, they occupied Slovakia and
northern Hungary. With the Marcomanni, they devastated the Balkan
peninsula. They joined up with the Vandals, who were proceeding towards
Italy, after which they disappear from record.
The anglicised name (Mac)Quaide come from the Irish name ‘Mac Uaid’.
It comes from the Old German ‘vald’ meaning ‘to rule’. Forms of the
name predate the Norman influence and again point in the direction
of a product of Celtic-German dialect continua.
The Heruli
. The tribe then settled in Austria. .
The Heruli were Germanic nomads in the 3rd to the 5th century BC.
They were banished from southern Sweden by the Dani. In the 3rd century
AD, from Jutland, the Heruli joined the Goths in the Maeotian Marshes
at the confluence of the Tanais (Don) and the Sea of Azov (ancient
Scythia) to counter the Huns. The Heruli fought on foot but, when
going into battle, they could run at great speed.
After the fall of the Huns in 454, the Heruli established themselves
in southern Slovakia. The name disappears, in the 6th century, After
the Lombards had destroyed the kingdom The kingdom was overcome and
the remnants of the tribe went with the Lombards into Italy or sought
refuge with the Gepids. The Gothic Gepidae had moved from the Baltics
into Hungary. They suffered a series of military defeats, In 566 AD,
following an onslaught from the combined Lombards and Avars, this
tribe too disappears from the pages of history.The Romans allowed
the arrivals to resettle depopulated areas in Moravia, near Belgrade,
in 512. Again unable to repulse attack, Heruli remnants fled back
to Scandinavia and faded from record.
Persian and Irish – linguistic Connections
Shared Roots in Vocabulary
Special words
Irish Farsi
Gaeltacht (Gaelic homeland, Paitacht (capital city - two syllables:
pai tacht
area of Gaelic authority) = near dais = area of king’s authority)
Éireann (land), Ir (hero), aire (leader) Iran (the Ayrian land)
- all related to Old Turkic ‘arya’ or
‘house-owner’ (ie Ayrian)
Fenius Farsa (first Irishman in mythology – Persian Fenius)
Numerals
In the numbers 1-10, the q/p divide is evident in the number five:
aon dó trí ceathar cúig sé seacht ocht naoi deich
yek do se chahar panj shesh haft hasht noh nah dah
Other vocabulary
Modern Irish has the masculine and feminine genders, having lost the
neuter of Old Irish. Farsi has lost all three genders.
abha ( f, river. Pronounced ‘au’ ab (water – pronounced ‘au’ in SW
Luristan)
in Donegal)
Ainm (m, name) nam (name – epenthetic vowel between ‘n’
and ‘m’)
ar (on) ru (on)
ara (truly!) ari (yes)
arán (m, bread) nan (bread; dental exchange)
athair (m, father) pedar (father, loss of ‘p’, lenition of ‘d’)
bac (m, obstacle) bak (fear)
barr (m, top) bala (high)
beag (a, small) bache (child)
bod (m, lout) bod (master)
borradh (v, to surge) bote (shrub; dental exchange)
bother (road – two syllables: bó thar = rah (path; metathesis)
cow path)
bráthar (m, brother) baradar (brother)
breith (v, to bring) bordan (to carry; consonant cluster)
dair (f, oak) daracht (tree; ch in Scotts ‘Loch’)
cac (m, excrement) chaq (fat
cad (what?) che (what?)
cé (who?) ki (who?)
dán (m, poem) danai (wise man)
do (to) tu (to, into)
daor (m, condemned person, dard (pain)
a, expensive)
doras (m, door) dar (door, tree product)
dorcha (a, dark) tarik (dark)
duine (m, person) tan (person)
gasúr (m, young boy) pesaru (little boy, p/q change)
gorm (blue, associated with garm (warm)
warm, eg blue sky)
fál (m, a stone which gave a royal fal (omen)
omen; feara Fáil/Páil - men of Ireland)
gadaí (m, thief) gada (beggar)
gadhar (m, mastiff) gav (cow, four-legged beast)
gearán (m, complaint) gele (complaint, dental exchange)
gorta (m, famine) gorosne (hungry, dental exchange)
guí (f, prayer) gui (one would say)
guth (m. voice. ‘guf’ in Mayo) gush (ear)
gualainn(f, shoulder) kul (shoulder)
is (is) ast (he is)
labhairt (v, to speak) lab (lip)
marbh (a, dead) mordan (v, to die)
margadh (m, market) markaz (centre)
máthair (f, mother) madar (mother)
nimh (f, poisen) nish (sting. v/f to sh – see ‘guth’)
nua (a, new) nou (new)
péas (m, police) pasban (police. Two syllables: watch keeper)
sámh (a, serene) saf (pure)
sár (m, highest degree of anything, sar (leader)
eg prince)
sean (a, old) senn (age)
seanachaí (m, story-teller) shenidan (v, to listen)
tafann (m, barking) tufan (big noise)
taobh (f, side) taraf (side)
tú (thou) tu (thou)
