Thesaurus Indogermanischer Text- und Sprachmaterialien
Ogam-Inschrift: CIIC-Nr. 001
Ogam Inscription: CIIC no. 001
Original location: Inchagoill Island
County: Galway
Surroundings: Temple area
Year of discovery: 0
Actual location: =
Illustrations:
Actual reading:
Latin Transcription: lie luguaedon | macci menueh
Direction of reading: fu-fu
Other readings, history, comments etc.:
Location and history:
In Macalister, CIIC, there is no indication of the present localization; but according to Mr. P.H. Higgins, Oughterard (personal communication on 5.4.1996), the stone is still on the site, i.e., "at a little distance in front of" a "small church called Templepatrick, situated on the island of Inis an Ghoill Chraibhthigh .. now Inchaguile, in Lough Corrib" (Petrie, TRIA 20, 1845, 162 ff.). The name means "the island of the devout foreigner" according to O'Flaherty (Petrie ib.).
Size according to Macalister, CIIC: 2'4" x 0'10" x 0'6".
Published illustrations:
- Petrie, TRIA 20, 1845, 164 (woodcut);
- Macalister, CIIC 1, 2 (draft).
lie lugnaedon macc lmenueh
"The stone of LUGNAEDON son of LIMENUEH".
The "devout foreigner" the island took its name from "was at least a cotemporary of the Irish apostle, and not improbably even his nephew": cf. the Vita tripartita, Part II, c. 50, which relates about "Gallic disciples and followers" of St. Patrick, living in "Oran, in Magh Aoi"; among these was one "Lugnat, or Lugnadan" who is stated to have been St. Patrick's cotemporary or even nephew and to whom a church in the near-by Lough Mask is dedicated. In the Book of Lecan, fol. 43a, and in the Book of Ballymote, fol. 117b, St. Lugna "is set down as the luamaire, or pilot, of St. Patrick". Liemania filia Calphurni, St. Patrick's sister, might have been his mother.
Lie Luguaedon macci menueh
Petrie's reading has been "greatly invalidated" by "subsequent drawings and rubbings", so that it can no longer be upheld. According to the text which was "well re-produced" in Sir William Wilde's "Lough Corrib", 2nd ed., p. 136, the first name is "some form of Lugud, either a diminutive, or, as Stokes regards it, a genitive in agreement with macci. - "It may be, after all, that this inscription has been conceived according to a method of which Ogham texts seem to furnish examples". - Menueh, in any case, must be regarded as a singular proper name, standing alone".
Lie Luguaedon macci Menueh
"The Oghmic form maqi once occurs in a non-Oghmic Irish inscription, which exists on Inchaguile, Lough Corrib. This exhibits the later pronunciation of the word."
lie Luguaedon macci Menueh
This is the "oldest funeral inscription in Roman letters" in Ireland. -eh might "perhaps" stand for -§s, i.e. the ending of the gen.sg.fem. [This proposal is no longer upheld in the Engl. edition, par. 177, p. 111.]
"Menueh = Menvech > [!] *M¼nÑv¨cÑs".
MENUEH is written for what "in the earliest ogham orthography would have probably been written *Menu-viccas, .. the H being meant for CH". For MENU- cp. "one of the Drumloghan stones" {272} which contains "a name similarly declined, MANU; cp. also the inscription at Knockshanawee {115}.
Lie Luguaedon Macci Menueh
The "much-discussed inscription of Inchaguile" is noteworthy because of "the use of postfixed -i as an index of palatalisation". - "The genitive Menueh should be equivalent to *Menuech, a compound of which the second element is the same as ogham -vic-, -vec-. The first element may be the same as in Menraige, Adamnan's mocu Min.
LIE LUGUAEDON MACCI MENUEH
The inscription is written in "an early stage of development of Half-Uncial script - not quite emancipated from the formality of the Roman alphabet". Originally it must have had an Ogham inscription aside, running "Luguaedon Maqi Menvi (or perhaps Menui)". The attested MENVEH stands for Ogham *MENVI because the final -I was "misread" by the "transliterator"; cp. misreadings like -OH- for -U- and -OHA- for -E- in Brash, OIM 122 and 137. "The name Menvi in form and accidence resembles Medvvi at Rathcroghan" {12}. As against Thurneysen's explanation of "the final H .. as representing the -s of the genitive feminine ending -es, it has to be stated that "we might in that case have expected other examples to have come to light by now". - For the "chair-like shape" of the stone cp. Arraglen {145} and Crehanagh {304}; "the `hermit' himself may quite possibly have destroyed the Ogham, while preserving its memorial character". - "While we may regret the loss of the only known Ogham inscription in this county [i.e., Galway], it is a happy chance that the first monument of the kind which comes under our notice makes it clear that Ogham, like Runic writing, was a `mystery'."
[NB: According to Macalister, the shape itself originated in the destruction of the Ogham inscription; but this is highly improbable if compared with the stones at Arraglen {145} and Crehanagh {304} where the inscription follows just the edge that emerged by the assumed destruction.]
lie Luguaedon macci Menveh
This is the oldest inscription in Latin letters in Ireland; it has to be dated about the middle of the 6th century. The form macci is due to an artificial archaizing, comparative to the archaizing in Ogham inscriptions as assumed by Mac Neill. - As against Macalister's hypothesis of a former Ogham inscription, it has to be stated that the existence of lie remains unique and would not have to be expected in an Ogham inscription. - [p. 178 s.v. MENVEH:] The interpretation offered by Mac Neill is more probable than Thurneysen's who proposed to regard this as a genitive of *Menw¦, although persons with metronymic names are known from the literature. The formant *-vech represents the more archaic Oghamic -vecas, -vicas.
[NB. Note that the same opinion was first published by Mac Neill in PRIA 27/C, 1909 as well as Macalister in PRIA 32, 1914.]
The first compound member has, in accordance with Mac Neill, to be identified with the god or goddess Men whose name is connected with O.Ir. min "thin, small", I.-E. *men.
Additional note Gippert (1996):
For the representation of -ch- by Latin -H- as assumed by McNeill cp. the rendering of *broch- as BROHO- in the Pentrefoelas stone {401}.
Additional literature:
- JRSAI 31, 1901, 241 (Fahey);
- JRSAI 36, 1906, 1 (Joyce);
- JRSAI 36, 1906, 297 (Macalister).
Last changes of this record: 14.04.97
Copyright Jost Gippert, Frankfurt a/M 1996. No parts of this document may be republished in any form without prior permission by the copyright holder.