Old Irish

[Jim Rader]

[Steve Gustafson]:

> I know that literary Irish (and continental missionary Irish) monks
> delighted in a strange Latin jargon they called 'Hisperica famina," which
> actually meant 'Irish speech.'  (Famina for 'speech' is an interesting bit
> of etymologising in itself.)  They mixed up archaic or newly coined Latin
> words with bits of Greek and Hebrew.  This flourished in around the sixth
> century --- about the time of the earliest OIr. glosses, if I remember
> rightly.  St. Columba's -Altus prosator- is one of the best known, if
> relatively less extreme, examples of the style.

According to Michael Herren in the notes to his edition of the
_Hisperica famina_, <Hispericus> is a variant of post-classical Latin
<Hespericus>, "western," "Italian" (because Italy was west of Troy),
and hence "elegant" in Late Latin terms, referring to Roman as
opposed to provincial Latinity.  <Ausonicus> is used in the same
sense in the _Hisperica_.  <Hispericus> is not to be confused with
<Hibernicus>, "Hisperica famina" does not mean "Irish speech," and
any resemblance between the Latin of the _Hisperica_ and Old Irish
grammar is fortuitous.

Jim Rader