ar son

See also: arson

Irish

Etymology

Disputed; there are two Old Irish nouns son, one meaning ‘sound; word, name’ (a borrowing from Latin sonus), and one meaning ‘prosperity, well-being’ (cognate with sona (“happy”) and sonus (“good fortune”)). The connection with sonus was rejected by the Lexique étymologique de l'irlandais ancien, its authors unconvinced on semantic grounds. The Dictionary of the Irish Language associates the preposition with the first of these, suggesting the original meaning ‘at the sound of, by the word/name of’. Dinneen’s and Ó Dónaill’s dictionaries, on the other hand, associate it with the second, suggesting the original meaning ‘for the well-being of’. Randall Gordon, in his study of Old Irish verbal nouns, associates the phrase with neither word and proposes his own etymology connecting it with Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- (“to reach, attain”), from which imresan (“contention”) is also derived.^[1] Cognate with Scottish Gaelic airson in any case.

Pronunciation

(Munster) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠɔnˠ/
(Connacht) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠɔnˠ/, /ɛɾʲˈsˠʊnˠ/
(Munster) IPA^(key): /ɛɾʲˈsˠʌnˠ/

Preposition

ar son (plus genitive or possessive determiner, triggers no mutation)

for, for the sake of (because of)
on behalf of (speaking or acting for)

Inflection

Inflection of *ar son*
	Person:		simple	emphatic
singular	first		ar mo shon	ar mo shonsa
	second		ar do shon	ar do shonsa
	third	m	ar a shon	ar a shonsan
	third	f	ar a son	ar a sonsa

plural	first		ar ár son	ar ár son-na
	second		ar bhur son	ar bhur sonsa
	third		ar a son	ar a sonsan

References

^ Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, page 480

Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 son (‘sound, word, name’)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “son”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 673
Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “son”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

[1] Gordon, Randall Clark (2012) Derivational Morphology of the Early Irish Verbal Noun, Los Angeles: University of California, page 480

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