Editing Openai/69186d20-2d14-8013-b9c6-c09000f173f6 (section)

=== Assistant: 2511141536ET ===
251114_1536ET

high level: Modern Irish present endings are basically worn-down Old Irish present/habitual endings, with later -ann/-íonn analogies and some rebracketing around the verb root. I’ll trace just enough history to make the pattern click.

I’ll focus on a class 1 verb like mol “praise” and a class 2 like inis “tell”, since labhraíonn follows the same pattern as class 2.

==== Take Old Irish present indicative of a typical verb mol- “praise” (simplified, independent forms): ====

: 

Key pieces:
* -im, -e, -id, -am, -id, -it endings (or variants)
* Root vowel often mutable; endings can have extra -n- in some classes.

There’s also a habitual present with its own set, but modern “present habitual -íonn/-ann” mostly comes from later generalization and analogy, not directly one Old Irish column.

==== Over time you get: ====
* Unstressed syllables reduced: vowels → /ə/ → dropped.
* Final -d, -t often weaken or vanish.
* Some person distinctions collapse; paradigms get analogically leveled.

So molaid > something like molann (with -ann from a different set) in many dialects; molae → a short 2sg form that eventually mostly dies in the standard; 1sg molaim stays pretty stable.

In parallel, a verbal noun + auxiliary construction for habitual turns into a new synthetic habitual in many dialects. That’s the ancestor of the modern -íonn/-ann pattern.

==== Standard Irish class 1 present habitual (what Duolingo just calls “present”): ====

: 

Observations:
* 1sg -a(i)m, 1pl -a(i)mid are direct descendants of Old Irish -im, -am/-ammi type forms. - Old molaim → modern molaim (almost unchanged). - A plural -mid ending is old, reattached more transparently to the stem.
* 2sg, 3sg, 2pl, 3pl all use analytic pronouns + a general stem form molann: - The synthetic endings lost their distinctiveness; speakers re-analysed the 3sg/habitual form molann as the “base” and simply add pronouns: - molann tú, molann sé, molann sibh, molann siad.

So the modern -ann is best thought of as:
* a generalized present/habitual stem ending, historically from Old Irish 3rd-person habitual/present with -ann/-aid etc., extended across persons once pronouns took over person-marking.

==== Now labhraíonn, inisíonn, etc. ====

Take inis “tell”:

: 

History is parallel:
* Old Irish had a present with -i-, -id, -im, etc. in “i-class” verbs.
* Over time you get a palatalizing -i- plus an -ann-like habitual → -íonn.
* 1sg and 1pl again preserve old synthetic endings in some form (-im, -imid).
'' Non-first persons use analytic pronouns + a general stem''íonn*.

So -íonn = (palatal vowel) + old habitual ending, generalized and levelled.

==== Notice the pattern: ====
* 1sg & 1pl keep personal endings: -im, -imid / -aím, -aímid.
* Other persons mostly use independent pronouns + fixed stem (molann, labhraíonn).

Reason:
* 1sg and 1pl retained clear distinct forms for a long time and were high-frequency enough to resist leveling.
* 2sg, 3sg, plurals lost contrastive endings in normal speech → people relied more on sé/sí/tú/sibh/siad, and the old synthetic endings got reanalysed away.

Same thing happens in a bunch of other languages (e.g., Romance keeping synthetic 1sg forms where others go analytic).

==== Using mol- as mnemonic: ====
# Old Irish (schematic): - molaim, molae, molaid, molam, molaid, molait
# Middle Irish: - forms like molaim, molaid, molann, molamaid etc.; final consonants start dropping; -ann from habitual present starts spreading.
# Early Modern Irish: - 1sg/1pl still synthetic: molaim, molaimid. - Other persons mostly molann + pronoun.
# Modern Standard Irish: - Class 1: molaim, molann tú, molann sé…, molaimid, molann sibh, molann siad. - Class 2: labhraím, labhraíonn tú… labhraímid, etc.

So: present endings evolved by erosion of full synthetic paradigms plus analogy from a habitual stem in -ann/-íonn, leaving 1sg/1pl as the main surviving true person endings.