Jump to content

Irish grammar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 101.166.150.53 (talk) at 00:44, 16 January 2013 (→‎Conjunctive forms: Style and clarity). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article discusses the grammar of the Irish language.

The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for a Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.

Syntax

Main article: Irish syntax

Word order in Irish is of the form VSO (verb–subject–object) so that, for example, "He hit me" is [Bhuail] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [hit-past tense] [sé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [he] [mé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [me].

One distinctive aspect of Irish syntax is the use of the copula (known in Irish as [an chopail] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). The copula is used to describe the permanent identity or characteristic of a person or thing (e.g. "who" or "what"), as opposed to temporary aspects such as "how", "where", "why" and so on. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs [ser] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [estar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Spanish and Portuguese (see Romance copula), although this is not an exact match.[citation needed]

Examples are:

  • [Is fear é.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He is a man." (Spanish [Es un hombre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Portuguese [É um homem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))
  • [Is fuar é.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He is a cold(hearted) person." (Spanish [Es frío] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Portuguese [É frio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))
  • [Tá sé/Tomás fuar.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He/Thomas is cold" (= feels cold). (Spanish [Tiene frío] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) – in this case Spanish uses 'tener' (to have) instead of 'estar' (to be), Portuguese [Está com frio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))
  • [Tá sé/Tomás ina chodladh.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He/Thomas is asleep." (Spanish [Él está durmiendo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Portuguese [Ele está dormindo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))
  • [Is maith é.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He is good (a good person)." (Spanish [Es bueno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Portuguese [É bom] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))
  • [Tá sé go maith.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He is well." (Spanish [ Él está bien] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Portuguese [Ele está bem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))

Nouns

Main article: Irish declension (nouns)

Irish is an inflected language, having, in its standard form, the following cases: common (the old nominative and accusative), vocative and genitive. In Munster dialects a dative form persisted, though this has been largely discarded by younger speakers. The present inflectional system represents a radical simplification of the grammar of Old Irish.

Irish nouns may be masculine or feminine (the neuter having disappeared). To a certain degree the gender difference is indicated by specific word endings, -án and -ín being masculine and -óg feminine. While it has disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is still to be seen in various place names in Ireland.

Articles

Main article: Irish declension (articles)

The Irish definite article has two forms: an and na. An may cause lenition, eclipsis, or neither. Na may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition with na is with the genitive singular of the word céad meaning first. An is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular, an with lenition is used with masculine nouns, na with feminine nouns. In the dative singular, an may cause lenition or eclipsis depending on the preposition preceding it and on regional norms (in Ulster usage, lenition is standard with all prepositions, while in other regions eclipsis is used with many). Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.

There is no indefinite article in Irish, You simply say the word for example: Tá peann agam. - "I have a pen", Tá madra sa seomra. - "There's a dog in the room".

Adjectives

Main article: Irish declension (adjectives)

Irish adjectives always follow the noun. The adjective is influenced by the case, number and gender of the noun preceding it.

  • An cailín beag
  • An bhean bhocht
  • Na buachailí óga

Comparative Adjectives

Comparative Adjectives in Irish have three forms; the "Bunchéim", the "Breischéim" and the "Sárchéim". The "Bunchéim" refers to ordinary adjectives for example; "tá an buachaill cairdiúil" meaning "the boy is friendly". The "Breischéim" refers to the comparative state for example; "tá an cailín níos cairdiúla ná an buaichaill" meaning "the girl is nicer than the boy". The "Sárchéim" refers to the superlative state for example "is é Seán an páiste is cairdiúla den triúr" meaning "Seán is the nicest child of the three".

Verbs

Main article: Irish conjugation

There are 2 conjugations, and also 11 irregular verbs (briathra neamhrialta). Tenses or moods are formed by inflecting the stem, and in the past and habitual past tenses and the conditional mood also by leniting any initial consonant. The inflected tense and mood forms are: present indicative; present habitual indicative (differs from present only in the verb bí "to be"); future indicative; past indicative; past habitual indicative; conditional; imperative; present subjunctive; past subjunctive. Verbs also have a verbal noun and verbal adjective, and continuous constructions similar to those using the English present participle may be formed from the verbal noun and an appropriate tense of bí. Examples of tense conjugations: (all third person forms without subject pronoun):

  • 1st conjugation - Fág - D'fhág (past) - Fágann (present) - Fágfaidh (future) - D'fhágfadh (conditional) - D'fhágadh (habitual past) - Fága (subjunctive) - Fágadh (imperative)
  • 2nd conjugation - Ceannaigh - Ceannaigh (past) - Ceannaíonn (present) - Ceannóidh (future) - Cheannódh (conditional) - Cheannaíodh (habitual past) - Ceannaí (subjunctive) - Ceannaíodh (imperative)
  • Irregular - Téigh - Chuaigh (past) - Téann (present) - Rachaidh (future) - Rachadh (conditional) - Théadh (habitual past) - Té (subjunctive) - Téadh (imperative)

There is no passive proper in Irish, but there is an impersonal form of the verb, termed the saorbhriathar or "free verb".

Verbs can be conjugated either synthetically (with the personal pronoun included in the verb inflection) or analytically (with the verb inflected for tense only and a separate subject). However, the official standard generally prescribes the analytical form in most person tense combinations, and the synthetic in some cases. The analytical forms are also generally preferred in the western and northern dialects, except in answer to what would in English be "yes/no" questions. For example, the following are the standard form, synthetic form and analytical form of the past tense of rith "to run":

Person Standard Synthetic Analytic
1st sing rith mé ritheas rith mé
2nd sing rith tú rithis rith tú
3rd sing rith sé rith rith sé
1st plural ritheamar ritheamar rith sinn / rith muid*
2nd plural rith sibh ritheamhar rith sibh
3rd plural rith siad ritheadar rith siad
Impersonal ritheadh ritheadh ritheadh
  • muid is non-standard but is the usual 1st person plural pronoun in the western and northern dialects.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns in Irish do not inflect for case, but there are three different sets of pronouns used: conjunctive forms, disjunctive forms, and emphatic forms (which may be used either conjunctively or disjunctively)

Conjunctive forms

The normal word order in Irish is verb–subject–object (VSO). The forms of the subject pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive:

Person Singular Plural
1st mé (muid)
2nd tú sibh
3rd masc. sé
fem. sí		 siad

The form [muid] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in the 1st person plural is not used in the standard language, but is very common in western and northern dialects. The standard and southern dialects have no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural but use synthetic verb endings instead.

Irish has no T–V distinction, i.e. it does not differentiate between formal and familiar forms of second person pronouns. The difference between [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [sibh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is purely one of grammatical number.

There is no equivalent to the English "it", either "sé" or "sí" are used depending on whether the thing the speaker is referring to is a masculine noun or a feminine noun.

Disjunctive forms

If a pronoun is not the subject or if a subject pronoun does not follow the verb (as in a verbless clause, or as the subject of the copula, where the pronoun stands at the end of the sentence), the so-called disjunctive forms are used:

Person Singular Plural
1st mé sinn, muid
2nd [thú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) sibh
3rd masc. é;
fem. í		 iad

In many dialects the form thú is either (a) archaic (replaced by tú) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel:[citation needed]

Standard
Buailim thú ("I hit you", present tense), Bhuail mé thú ("I hit you", past tense)
Dialect type (a)
Buailim tú, Bhuail mé tú
Dialect type (b)
Buailim tú, Bhuail mé thú

Intensive forms

Irish also has intensive pronouns, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.

Person Singular Plural
1st mise muidne, sinne
2nd t(h)usa sibhse
3rd masc. (s)eisean
fem. (s)ise		 (s)iadsan

The forms thusa, eisean and ise are disjunctive forms, while tusa, seisean and sise are conjunctive forms.

The word [féin] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (/fʲeːnʲ/ or /heːnʲ/) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.

Rinne mé féin é. "I did it myself."
Ar ghortaigh tú thú féin? "Did you hurt yourself?"
Sinn Féin is thus "We Ourselves"

Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns cause different initial consonant mutations.

The forms [a] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [ár] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) can also blend with certain prepositions:

de & do dá chara "from/to his friend"
dá feirm "from/to her farm"
dár n-athair "from/to our father"
dá n-athair "from/to their father"
faoi faoina chara "about his friend"
faoinár n-athair "about our father"
i ina feirm "in her farm"
inár bhfeirm "in our farm"
le lena n-athair "with their father"
lenár bpáiste "with our child"
ó óna bhean "from his wife"
ónár dtaighde "from our research"
trí trína cos "through her foot"
trínár dteach "through our house"

The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case:

  • Tá sé ag plé a rothair. "He's discussing his bicycle" (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)

Similarly, if the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, then it is a possessive pronoun:

  • [Tá sé á phlé.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He's discussing it." (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)

More examples:

  • [Tá sí do mo bhualadh.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "She's hitting me."
  • [Tá siad do do phlé.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "They are discussing you."
  • [Tá sé á pógadh.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "He's kissing her."
  • [Tá tú dár mbualadh.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "You're hitting us."
  • [Tá mé do bhur bplé.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "I'm discussing you(pl.)."
  • [Tá sibh á bpógadh.] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "You(pl.) are kissing them."

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce a question, e.g. the words who, what, which. The Irish equivalents are:

  • cé "who?, which?"
  • cad or céard "what?"
  • cá "which?"

Examples:

  • Cé a rinne é? "Who did it?"
  • Cé a chonaic tú? "Who did you see?"
  • Cé ar thug tú an leabhar dó? "Who did you give the book to?"
  • Cad atá ort? "What's wrong (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?")
  • Céard a dúirt tú? "What did you say?"
  • Cá hainm atá ort? "What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?")
  • Cá haois tú? "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")

Prepositions

As the object of a preposition, a pronoun is fused with the preposition; one speaks here of "inflected" prepositions, or, as they are more commonly termed, prepositional pronouns.

Numbers

Cardinal numbers

There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.

Disjunctive numbers

0 náid 13 a trí déag
1 a haon 14 a ceathair déag
2 a dó 20 fiche
3 a trí 21 fiche a haon
4 a ceathair 30 tríocha
5 a cúig 40 daichead
6 a sé 50 caoga
7 a seacht 60 seasca
8 a hocht 70 seachtó
9 a naoi 80 ochtó
10 a deich 90 nócha
11 a haon déag 100 céad
12 a dó dhéag 1000. míle

These numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms like [bus a trí déag] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "bus 13" or [seomra a dó] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "room 2".

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers

These numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g. [capall] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "horse"

1 aon chapall amháin;
capall amháin 		13 trí chapall déag
2 dhá chapall 20 fiche capall
3 trí chapall 21 capall is fiche
4 ceithre chapall 22 dhá chapall is fiche
5 cúig chapall 30 tríocha capall
6 sé chapall 40 daichead capall
7 seacht gcapall 50 caoga capall
8 ocht gcapall 60 seasca capall
9 naoi gcapall 70 seachtó capall
10 deich gcapall 80 ochtó capall
11 aon chapall déag 90 nócha capall
12 dhá chapall déag 100 céad capall

"One" as a pronoun is rendered with [ceann] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:

Tá cúig chapall agam; tá ceann acu breoite. "I have five horses; one of them is sick."

Human conjunctive numbers

These numbers are used to count nouns that refer to human beings, e.g. páiste 'child'

1 aon pháiste amháin;
páiste amháin 		7 seachtar páiste
2 beirt pháiste 8 ochtar páiste
3 triúr páiste 9 naonúr páiste
4 ceathrar páiste 10 deichniúr páiste
5 cúigear páiste 11 aon pháiste déag
6 seisear páiste 12 dáréag páiste

"One" as a pronoun is rendered with [duine] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:

Tá cúigear páiste agam; tá duine acu breoite. "I have five children; one of them is sick."
Tá seisear sa seomra. "Six people are in the room."

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: [trí pháiste déag, fiche páiste,] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) etc.

Ordinal numbers

1st an chéad chapall 13th an tríú capall déag
2nd an dara capall 20th an fichiú capall
3rd an tríú capall 21st an t-aonú capall is fiche
4th an ceathrú capall 22nd an dóú chapall is fiche
5th an cúigiú capall 30th an tríochadú capall
6th an séú capall 40th an daicheadú capall
7th an seachtú capall 50th an caogadú capall
8th an t-ochtú capall 60th an seascadú capall
9th an naoú capall 70th an seachtódú capall
10th an deichiú capall 80th an t-ochtódú capall
11th an t-aonú capall déag 90th an nóchadú capall
12th an dóú capall déag 100th an céadú capall

Phonology

Main article: Irish phonology

A notable feature of Irish phonology is that consonants (except /h/) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarized, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalized, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate).

Consonant phonemes
Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
Bilabial Labio-
velar 		Labio-
dental 		Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar 		Palatal Velar
broad slender broad broad slender broad broad slender slender slender broad
Plosives voiceless pˠ pʲ t̪ˠ tʲ c k
voiced bˠ bʲ d̪ˠ dʲ ɟ ɡ
Fricative/
Approximant 		voiceless fˠ fʲ sˠ ʃ ç x h
voiced w vʲ j ɣ
Nasal mˠ mʲ n̪ˠ nʲ ɲ ŋ
Tap ɾˠ ɾʲ
Lateral l̪ˠ lʲ
Vowel phonemes
Front Central Back
Close iː uː
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid eː oː
Mid ə
(only unstressed)
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a ɑː

Diphthongs: /iə/, /uə/, /əi/, /əu/.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Irish_grammar&oldid=533288191"