Metanalysis and phonaesthesia as sources of secondary initials in Irish
Metanalysis and phonaesthesia as sources of secondary initials in Irish

Summary/Abstract: The contention of the article is to account for the sources of three non-etymological initial consonants in Irish, i.e. n-, t-, and s-. It is shown that the initial n- and t-, originally belonging to the definite article, attach to vowel-initial words through the process of metanalysis. Non-historical s-, in turn, operates as a phonaestheme, a segment serving an expressive function, identified universally in Indo-European languages as pejorative.

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