Cases of the Noun
by Myles Dillon
I n Irish the noun has four distinct cases: nominative-accu- sative, genitive, dative and vocative. This may cause you some difficulty, as there is only one extra case left in English, the genitive singular in -s, as in "my father's hat", "the man's stick", "the girl's frock", and in English it is usually possessive. You have seen how the genitive singular is formed in the two classes of nouns in Lesson I, and in Irish the genitive is used not only for possession but also as an adjective, and in other ways. For example adhmad means "wood" and bosca adhmaid means "a wooden box"; slinn "slate": ceann slinne "slate roof; im "butter": punt ime" a pound of butter". The genitive plural in these two classes is the same as the nom. sg. But in addition to the genitive, there is a dative case for what is called in English the indirect object. In the sentence: "the man gives the boy an apple," we say that "boy" is the indirect object, and it is marked in English by its position before the object. Its position is fixed unless indeed you bring in the preposition and say "gives an apple to the boy", which is not the normal phrase. In Irish you must use a preposition, and there is a separate form for the second declension in the singular, and for all nouns in the plural. The dat. sg. of the second declension is formed by dropping the -e of the genitive; the dative pi. has the ending -(q)ibh\ Finally there is a vocative case, used of a person spoken to, and the vocative of the first declension has the same form as the genitive in the singular, and a separate form in the plural. x The dative plural is now becoming a literary form and the nomina- tive plural serves as dative in conversation, and is often so used in the lessons. 35 36 IRISH In the second declension it is the same as the nominative. But it is preceded (as in Arabic) by a vocative particle a (asp.): a mhic "my boy!" (lit. "O son!"), a ghrd "my love!" With proper names: Sean "John" a Shedin. Tomas "Thomas" a Thomdis, Mdire "Mary" a Mhdire. Now we can tackle these two declensions in fall, and the two paradigms should be learned by heart: First Declension (m.) an bad "the boat" Sg. PL N-Acc. an bad the boat na baid the boats Gen. an bhaid of the boat na mbad of the boats Dat. don bhad to the boat dosna badaibh to the boats Voc. a bhaid abhada Second Declension^.) an chloch "the stone" Sg. PL N-Acc. an chloch the stone na clocha the stones Gen. na cloiche of the stone na gcloch of the stones Dat. don chloich to the stone dosna clochaibh to the stones Voc. a chloch a chlocha Simple prepositions take the dative case (except gan "with- out" and idir "between", which take the nom.-acc; chun "towards", timpeall "around" and trasna "across", which were originally nouns and take the genitive): ag at ar (asp.) upon de (asp.)yrom i (eel.) in do (asp.) to le with fe (asp.) under 6 (asp.]/rom The prepositions de, do and/e elide the a of the article: den, don, fen. With the article all prepositions cause eclipsis, except den, don which aspirate; z and le with the article make LESSON III 37 insan, insna and leis an, leisna respectively, 1 but insan is commonly reduced to sa (asp.). Note that the definite article may not be doubled: hata anfhir "the man's hat" (not an hata anfhir, see p. 79). VOCABULARY adhmad (aymad) m. wood bacach (ba-koch) lame bainim (bwinim) de / take from bord (bord) m. table brisim (brishim) I break briste (brishdi) broken buartha (booarha) troubled capall (kopal) m. horse casog (ka-sog) f. coat ceann (kyaun) m. head cos (kos) f. leg deisithe (deshihi) mended frama (fraama) m. frame gloine (glini) f. glass laidir (laadir) strong mala (maala) m. bag, sack pairc (paark) f. field urlar (oor-laar) m. floor Exercise 8 1. Ta capall an tsagairt bacach. 2. D'fhagadar bosca adhmaid ar an urlar. 3. Ta casog an gharsuin ana-mhor. 4. Do chailleadar mala airgid ar an mbothar agus taid siad buartha bronach 2 . 5. D'fhag si buideal bainne agus gloine uisce ar an mbord. 6. Bhriseadar an fhuinneog le clochaibh. 7. Ta na cearca ag an bhfuinneoig. 8. Ta an gadhar fen mbord. 9. Ta seomra na ngarsun dorcha. 10. Do dhunamair fuinneog an tseomra. 11. Ar bhainis an t-airgead den ghar- sun? Do bhaineas. 12. Fagann na fir na capaill sa phairc. Exercise 9 I. The dog's leg is broken. 2. He reads the boy's books. 3. We put (past) the money under the stone. 4. The cat is under the 1 ag, de, do,fe and 6 with the pi. article make agesna, desna, dosna, fesna and osna in Munster, but these forms may be regarded as colloquial. 2 Note that agus is not used between two adjectives. 38 IRISH window and the dog is at the door. 5. Have you lost (say "did you lose?") the priest's money? 6. He put a glass on the table. 7. The men break stones on the road. 8. The man is at the head of the table. 9. The horses run round the field. 10. He took the books from the boys. n.We left the window of the room open. 12. The frame of the window has been (say "is") mended. .