Particles containing ro. Personal Pronouns Possessives and Pronominals
by Myles Dillon
W e have seen (p. 33) that nior and ar are the negative and interrogative particles with a past tense. These forms contain an old particle ro which was used with the past tense of verbs in the earlier language, and has been ousted by do. With the negative interrogative particle nd (see p. 26) it makes ndr, and with the conjunctions go "that" and nd "that not" it makes gur and ndr respectively. Thus do bhuail se "he struck"; niov bhuail se "he did not strike"; ar bhuail se? "did he strike?"; ndr bhuail se? "did he not strike?"; gur bhuail se "that he struck"; ndr bhuail se "that he did not strike". Note that these particles containing ro aspirate the initial of the verb. VOCABULARY baile mor town bainim (bwinim) I cut (hay) bo f. cow caithim (kohim) I spend creidim (kredim) I believe cruim (krooim) / milk diolaim (deelim) I sell fanaim (fonim) / stay, re- main mias (meeas) f. dish olaim (olim) I drink poll (poul) m. hole sceal (shgeeal) m. story Exercise 16 Put the following into the negative, the interrogative and the negative interrogative. 1. Do chaitheas. 2. D'fhanamair. 3. D'olais. 4. Do dhioladar. 5. D'fheach se. 6. Do bhaineadar. 7. D'iarr sibh. 8. Do thuigis. 47 48 IRISH Exercise 17 Translate into Irish. 1. The children did not believe the story. 2. Did they under- stand the story? No. 3. Did she not wash the dishes? Yes. 4. I did not write the letter. 5. Did you drink the milk? 6. You did not milk the cow. 7. Did they not sell the horses? 8. Did we shut the windows? 9. They did not spend the money. 10. Did he stay in the town? 11. Did they not look at the paper? 12. Did the child fall into the water? 13. We did not cut the hay yet. Personal Pronouns The personal pronouns are: Singular Plural 1 me sinn 2 tu sibh 3 se, si siad There are also emphatic forms: Singular Plural 1 mise sinne 2 tusa sibh-se 3 seisean, sise siad-san For the 2 sg. and 3 sg. and pi. there are special forms thu, 1 e (m.) z (f.), iad which are used as object of a transitive verb. Thus buailim e "I strike him"; buaileann se me "he strikes me"; buailimid iad "we strike them"; buaileann tu sinn "you (sg.) strike us"; buailid sibh "they strike you". Note that a pronoun as object tends to stand at the end of the sentence: do chailleadar inne sa bhaile mhor e "they lost it yesterday in town". 1 Colloquially short forms tu, thu occur, the aspirated form com- monly after a vowel: do chonac tu "I saw you"; do chonaic se thu "he saw you". LESSON VII 49 The possessive adjective is declined as follows: Singular Plural 1 mo (asp.) ar (eel.) 2 do (asp.) bhur (eel.) 3 am. (asp.); a (eel.) af. mo and do drop the o before a vowel, and the d of do is changed to t: m'athair "my father", t'athair "your father". Prepositions ending in vowels, except do "to" and de "from", prefix n to possessive a: ina "in his, her; their"; lena "with his, her, their", ona "from his, her, their", with aspiration, no change, or eclipsis according as a is masc, fern., or plural. Do and de with possessive a make da. The noun following a possessive may take an emphatic particle which varies for person and number: mo mhac-sa "my son"; do thigh-se "your house"; a hinion-sa "her daughter"; a bpdirc-sean "their field". These particles may also be added to verbs: brisim-se "I break"; teimid-ne "we go". "This"and "that" are expressed by the enclitics so, seo and san, sin respectively, added to a definite noun: an maide seo "this stick"; an bhrog son "that shoe". "That" (more remote) may also be ud 1 : an cnoc ud thall "that hill yonder". The word fein means "self: me fein "myself; sinnfein "ourselves". It may follow a noun preceded by a possessive adjective: dr dtalamh fein "our own land"; or a verb: beimid fein ann "we shall be there ourselves"; or it may qualify a noun (or an adverb) in the sense "even": ta an 2 1 After a pronoun the form is siud. 2 The article is used in Irish, as in French, where it is not used in English, cf. la viande est chere "meat is expensive". Singular 1 -sa, -se 2 -sa, -se 3 m. -san, -sean Plural -na, -ne -sa, -se -san, -sean f. -sa, -se 50 IRISH mhoinfein gann i mbliana "even turf is scarce this year"; do bhios ag caint leis inniufein "I was talking to him even today"; mar sin fein "even so". Cuid "share" is used with a possessive when the thing possessed is a quantity of something: a chuid airgid "his money", mo chuid coirce "my oats", a gcuid oibre "their work". VOCABULARY ag gearan (ig gi-raan) com- plaining beile (beli) f. a meal Baile Atha Cliath (blaa- kleea) Dublin buainim (booanim) / reap cailin (ka-leen) m.girl caithfead (kohad) / must cuid (kid) f. share; ar gcuid coirce our oats dicheall (deehal) m. one 's best effort fado (fo-do) long ago gadhar (gayar) m. dog hata (hota) m. hat imeacht (i-macht) going away ithim (ihim) / eat lamh (laav) f. hand mac (mok) m. son 6 chianaibh (cheeaniv) a while ago pioc (pyuk) nothing (with neg.) sa bhaile (sa-vali) at home stol (sdol) m. stool Exercise 18 (i) 1. Brisimid iad. 2. Do cheil se e. 3. Ligeann se isteach sinn. 4. Ar chuir se amach sibh? 5. Do chailleamair iad. 6. Ar bhuail se thu? 7. Nior chreideamair i. 8. D'fhag si ann me. (ii) 1. Ta mo leabhar-sa caillte, ach ta do leabhar-sa thall ar an stol. 2. Bead-sa ag imeacht amaireach. 3. An mbeir fein ag dul go Baile Atha Cliath? Ni bhead. 4. Ta mo mhac breoite agus caithfead fanuint sa bhaile. 5. Dheineas-sa mo dhicheall ach nior dheineadar-san pioc. 6. Ta do lamha salach agus ta mo lamha-sa salach leis. 7. Do bhi na cailini tuirseach agus bhi na garsuin fein ag gearan. 8. Nar chuir se amach na gadhair fos? 9. Nior chuir, ach cuirfead-sa 1 1 See Lesson IX. LESSON VII 51 amach anois iad. 10. D'itheamair-ne ar mbeile 6 chianaibh, agus beidh bhur gcuid-se faar. 11. Ta m'athair i gCorcaigh ach ta t'athair-se sa bhaile. Exercise 19 (i) My hat; your stick; his shoes; her box; our books; your (pi.) father; their children. I believe you. Did you believe her? He put them out and he let me in. Did they leave you (pi.) there? We lost it (m.). He believes us. (ii) 1. My house is here, and his house is over there (thall) on the hill. 2. He did his best, but you did nothing. 3. Her shoes are new and my shoes are worn out. 4. Our books are lost; where are your books? 5. We will be going away tomorrow, but you will be staying here. 6. They had (use ithim) their dinner a while ago. 7. Have you had yours (use cuid) yet? 8. 1 shall be going to Cork and she will be staying in Dublin. 9. We reaped our oats yesterday. 10. Did you (pi.) reap yours (say "your own share") yet? 11. She believed the story, but I did not believe a bit (say "nothing") of it. .