Bé

See also: Appendix:Variations of "be"

Irish

Etymology

From bé (“woman, maiden”), from Old Irish bé, from Proto-Celtic *ben, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʲeː/

Noun

Bé f (genitive singular Bé, nominative plural Béithe)

1. (Greek mythology) a Muse

   Na naoi mBéithe ― The nine muses

Declension

Declension of Bé (fourth declension)

bare forms case singular plural nominative Bé Béithe vocative a Bhé a Bhéithe genitive Bé Béithe dative Bé Béithe forms with the definite article case singular plural nominative an Bhé na Béithe genitive na Bé na mBéithe dative leis an mBé don Bhé leis na Béithe

Mutation

Mutated forms of Bé

radical	lenition	eclipsis
Bé	Bhé	mBé

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “Bé”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “Muse”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2024

Further reading

• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “Bé”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

Limburgish

Alternative forms

• bie, bij, bei (widespread variants)
• bien (West Limburgish)
• bui (Hees, Rosmeer)
• Bei (Krefeld)

Etymology

From earlier bei, from Middle High German bīe, from Old High German bīa, from Proto-Germanic *bijō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /be/, [bɪ]
• Homophone: bé (can be distinguished using tone)
• Hyphenation: Bé
• Rhymes: -e

Noun

Bé f (plural Béjje, diminutive Béttje)

1. (Eupen) bee

Derived terms

• Béjjekaare
• Béjjekörref
• Béjjeschtéëk
• Béjjewass