Multilingual Practices and Linguistic Contacts in Pre-Patrician Ireland and Late Roman Britain

The scope of this article is threefold. Firstly, such evidence of archaeological, toponymic and paleographic nature is studied in which one can find traces of contact between the Roman world and the island of Ireland in the pre-Patrician period. Secondly, the author looks at the question of linguistic borrowings into Early Irish from Latin in this period, paying particular attention to linguistic items connected with warfare, trade and commercial exchange. Thirdly, the reader’s attention is drawn to the instances, variations and general patterns of Irish/Latin code-mixing and diglossia in the earliest documents, such as the Leinster genealogies, the early sections of the glossaries and of the annals (c. 440-470 AD).