ABSTRACT

Auraicept na nÉces appropriates Latinate grammatical concepts to vernacular language and is the earliest preserved text from the medieval West to do so. It enhances the Babel narrative to strengthen the status of Irish and consequently stands out from the Hiberno-Latin grammars that date from roughly the same period. The present article challenges the traditionally accepted date (c.700) of this text and suggests a date in the ninth century. The mytho-grammatical profile of Auraicept na nÉces might either be seen as a vernacular continuation of developments in Hiberno-Latin grammatical writing, or the result of myth channelled into the text through glossing or through a merger of separate compositions. An understanding of textual development is crucial to assessment of the function of myth in the text and its place in the history of linguistic thought. A calibrated date therefore has considerable implications for Early Irish intellectual and literary history at large.

摘要

Auraicept na nÉces 将拉丁文的语法概念运用到白话语言中，并且是中世纪西方这样做的最早保存文本。它增强了巴别塔叙事以加强爱尔兰语的地位，因此从大致可追溯到同一时期的 Hiberno-Latin 语法中脱颖而出。这篇文章挑战了传统上接受的文本日期 ( c .700)，并提出了一个 9 世纪的日期。Auraicept na nÉces的神话语法简介可能被视为冬眠-拉丁文语法写作发展的白话延续，或者是通过修饰或通过合并不同的作品将神话引入文本的结果。对文本发展的理解对于评估神话在文本中的功能及其在语言思想史上的地位至关重要。因此，校准日期对整个早期爱尔兰知识分子和文学史具有相当大的影响。