Rules for Gender. Abstract Nouns. Nouns of Agency. Diminutives. The Dual Number. Prepositions.
by Myles Dillon
T LESSON XII In a general way, every noun meaning a male person or animal is masculine, and every noun meaning a female person or animal is feminine. But whereas in English things are generally neuter, there is no neuter gender in Irish. In this respect Irish is like French, and you have to learn the rules. The endings of words have much to do with gender, and we cannot depend on the meaning. We have had in Lesson I lists of nouns ending in broad consonants, of which the first contains only masculine nouns and the second only feminine. These are distinguished by their inflexion, and if you know that a noun forms the geni- tive singular by making the broad consonant slender, you can be sure that it is masculine. There are, however, certain endings which are regularly either masculine or feminine, and these must now be learned. 1. Abstract Nouns. Most abstract nouns are feminine. There are two common ways of forming an abstract noun from an adjective: (a) by adding -e, so that the form is the same as the gen. sg. fern, of the adj.: geal "white", gile "whiteness"; righin "slow", righne "slowness"; seimh "gentle", seimhe "gentleness"; gear "sharp", geire "sharp- ness"!; (b) by adding -acht, which is much the commoner: In a few instances where there are two forms, only this one may be used for the idiom with da illustrated on p. 84: e.g. binne, binneas "sweetness"; ciuine, ciuineas "quietness"; cruinne, cruinneas "exact- ness"; fuaire,fuacht "coldness". 70 LESSON XII 71 sdsta "satisfied", sdstacht "satisfaction"; milis "sweet", milseacht; luath "early" luathacht; misniuil "courageous", misniulacht "courage" (and so for all adjectives in -uil). Both these endings are feminine, and the second is also freely used to form nouns of action from nouns: coeltoir "musician", coeltoireacht "making music"; scealai "storyteller", scea- laiocht 1 "storytelling"; rogaire "rogue", rogaireacht "playing tricks"; meisceoir "drunkard", meisceoireacht "drunkenness". A third suffix forming abstract nouns is -as, and these are masculine: dona "bad", donas; maith "good", maitheas "goodness"; olc "bad", olcas "badness"; righin "slow", righneas "slowness"; most of these form the genitive in -is, but the genitive of maitheas (somet. f.) is maitheasa. 2. Nouns of Agency. There are three suffixes, -aire, -Sir and -z (formerly written -aighe), all masculine: (a) cocaire "cook", iascaire "fisherman", rogaire "rogue"; (b) rinceoir "dancer", ceoltoir "musician", cainteoir "speaker", Gaeilgeoir "one who speaks Irish", muilleoir "miller", feirmeoir "farmer", meisceoir "drunkard"; (c) ceannai "buyer", greasai "cobbler", scealai "storyteller", robdlai "robber". Even when used of a woman, these nouns are treated as masculine: rinceoir bred is ea z; cocaire maith is ea i; rogaire mor is ea z; without aspiration of the adjective. 3. Diminutives. The two masculine suffixes are -an and -in. There is some contrast between them, for the first is no longer productive, and is sometimes pejorative; the second is still productive and often expresses affection, (a) amaddn "fool"; balbhdn "a dumb man"; bochtdn "a pauper"; cisedn "basket". Diminutives in -an belong to the first declension (gen. sg. and nom. pi. in -din); (b) cailin "girl" (masc); boiscin "a little box" ;firin "a little man" (note the change of vowel fear, fir-); cruiscin "a little jug". Almost any noun may take this diminutive suffix, and words so formed belong to the fourth declension (indecl. in the sg., and nom. pi. in 1 In the new spelling -ocht after L The old spelling is sgealaigheacht. 72 IRISH -z). Some feminine nouns keep their gender even with the suffix: an bheainin chrionna "the little old woman". The feminine suffix is -6g. It is not used to make new diminutives. All words ending in -6g belong to the second declension (gen; sg. -oige, and nom. pi. -ogd): ciarog '"beetle"; ciotog "left hand"; fuiseog "lark"; fuinseog "ash tree"; grdinneog "hedgehog"; ordog "thumb"; putog "intestine". 4. Many names of trees and most river-names are feminine. Most names of countries are feminine and take the definite article: an Fhrainc "France" (compare "la France"); an Spdinn "Spain"; an Eilbheis "Switzerland"; an Ioddil "Italy"; an Ghearmdin "Germany". Sasana "England" is masculine and does not take the article. Alba "Scotland" and Eire "Ireland" take the article only in the genitive: na hAlban, na hEireann, but i nAlbain, i nEirinn. Applying these rules, classes, masculine and bo cow gairbhe roughness amhran song cumhracht/ragrance ciarog beetle crain sow tarbh Boinn Boyne dair oak gairdin garden ordog thumb dilsesLchtfaithfulness Exercise 28 arrange the following nouns in two feminine: deirge redness fuinseog ash fearulacht manliness ceannai merchant an Spainn Spain boiscin a little box giuis pine sicin chicken feirmeoir farmer robalai robber piseog superstition Sionainn Shannon The Dual Number Irish is peculiar in having a special form for the dual, that is for pairs of things. It occurs only with the numeral da LESSON XII 73 "two", and is the same as the dative singular. Therefore, it is the same as the nominative singular for masculine nouns, but not always for feminines. It is commonest with the names of things that go in pairs, arms, legs, eyes, ears, shoes, etc.: mo dhd chois "my two legs"; a dha shuil "his two eyes"; a dhd bhroig "his two shoes"; mo dhd Idimh "my two hands". The numeral da aspirates, and is itself usually aspi- rated unless preceded by the article, which has the singular form. "Two" of a number of objects is expressed as dhd cheann (contrast tri cinn "three") 1 : tabhair dom an da cheann son "give me those two". If the feminine possessive a "her" is used, the numeral usually remains aspirated, but the following noun is unaspirated: a dhd broig "her two shoes". The genitive dual is the same as the genitive plural. A dual noun takes the plural form of the adjective: an da chloich mhora "the two big stones"; an da lachain bhdna "the two white ducks". An interesting point is that singulatives are formed for these words that go in pairs, by prefixing leath- to the noun. Thus leath-ldmh "one hand", leath-shuil "one eye", leath- bhrog "one shoe". But these forms occur only when you want to specify one of the two things: ar leath-ldimh "one-armed"; ar leath-ghluin "kneeling on one knee"; leath-chupla "one of twins"; leath-taobh, Qeataobh) "one side"; leath-lai "one of the shafts (of a cart)", and so on. The point is that here the meaning is not "half an arm", "half a shoe", "half a knee", although leath- commonly has its true value, as in leath-ghloine "half a glass (of whiskey)", leath-phunt "half a pound", leath- mhile "half a mile", leath-phingin "halfpenny". Note the idiom: do chuir se leath-chluas airfein "he turned his head to listen" ("he gave ear"). Prepositions. We have seen (Lesson III) that simple prepositions take 1 ceann "head" is commonly used in this sense: td ceann desna leabhair caillte "one of the books is lost". 74 IRISH the dative case. The followii ag at ar (asp.) upon ar feadh (c. gen.) during as out of chun (c. gen.) towards cois (c. gen.) at de (asp.)yrom, of do (asp.) to fe (asp.) under, about gan (asp.) without go to (with place-names and some expressions of time) go dti to (of motion), till i (eel.) in i dtaobh (c. gen.) about idir (asp.) between g is a full list of prepositions: i gcoir (c. gen.)/or i n-aice (c. gen.) near i ndiaidh (c. gen.) after le with; le hais beside 6 (asp.)yrom os cionn (c. gen.) over, above; os comhair (c. gen.) in front of roimh (asp.) before tar eis (c. gen.) after thar across, over timpeall (c. gen.) around tri (asp.) through; trid an through the trasna (c. gen.) across urn (asp.) about The compound prepositions are ar feadh, go dti, i dtaobh, i n-aice, i ndiaidh, le hais, os cionn, os comhair, tar eis, of which go dti contains an old verbal form (lit. "till it come") and takes the nominative case. 1 The others take the genitive. If the word governed by the latter prepositions is a pronoun, it appears in the possessive: ina thaobh, about it; im aice, near me; id dhiaidh, after you; lendr n-ais, beside us; os a gcionn, above them. So also im thimpeall, around me. Note that chun, timpeal and trasna also take the genitive, chun and go dti serve also as conjunctions: chun gur thdnadar, go dti gur thdnadar "until they came", um is commonly used with the verb buail in the sense "to meet": do bhuail Sean umam "I met John"; and in expressions of time: um Chaise "at Easter"; um Nollaig "at Christmas"; um thrdthnona "in the evening"; um an dtaca so "by this time". But also cuir umat do chasog "put on your coat"; uime sin "on that account". 1 In Kerry go dti takes the dative, causing eclipsis after the article: go dti in mbdd "to the boat". LESSON XII 75 VOCABULARY amach (a-mdch) out, amach Horn out with me, I hastened out ar fad (er fod) altogether, entirely banc (bounk) m. bank breac (brak) m. trout casaim (kosim) / turn cead (kyad) m. permission do ghlaoigh ar (ghlag) called do chuas (chuaigh se) / {he) went (Lesson XIII) coinin (ka-neen) m. rabbit droichead (drohad) m. bridge drisiur (dri-soor) m. dresser rum beneath me giorracht (gya-rdcht) short- ness; dig dul i ngiorracht getting shorter halla (hola) m. hall i leataoibh (la-teev) to one side i n-aon chor (i-nachar) at all leimim (lemim) / leap lem chois along with me loch (loch) m. lake morthimpeall c. gen. (mooar- heempal) all around 6 chianaibh (o-cheeaniv) a while ago oifig an phoist (ofig a fwisht) f. post-office rince (reengki) m. dance saighdiuir (say-dyoor) m. soldier seipeal (she-pel) m. chapel soir (sir) eastwards seasaim (sha-seem) I stand siulaim (shoo-leem) I walk smm (sQQm)Isit do thainig se suas leis he overtook him do thanadar they came thios (hees) below ticead (ti-ked) m. ticket Exercise 29 A. 1. Mo dha chois. 2. A dha suil. 3. Do dha laimh. 4. A dha chluais. 5. Ta an fear bocht san ar leath-shuil, slan mo chomhartha. 2 6. D'fhan Sean leath-uair an chloig ar a leath-ghluin. 7. Do chuir an seanduine leath-chluas air fein. 8. Ta leath-lai briste sa trucail sin. 9. Do ghlaoigh a mhathair i leataoibh ar Shean. 1 'R' should be a trilled dental fricative, but some speakers use a glottal fricative, so the ghost of a 'g' may appear before the 'r'. 2 lit. "safe (be) my sign". This pious expression is used at the mention of any human deformity, and is usually rendered in English "God bless the mark!" 7 6 IRISH B 1 . l. Ta tithe mora sa bhaile mhor. 2. Ta an banc idir oifig an phoist agus an seipeal. 3. D'imigh na buachailli sios an tsraid i ndiaidh na gcailini, agus sheasaiodar ag doras an halla. 4. Ta fuinneoga arda ar an halla agus dha dhoras mhora. 5. Bhi an rince ar siul nuair a thanadar, agus cheannaiodar ticeadai 6 fhear an dorais. 6. Ni raibh se de chead ag aon duine 2 dul isteach gan ticead. 7. Do chonac ag dul abhaile iad 6 chianaibh. 8. Do ritheas as an seomra agus amach Horn ar an sraid. 9. Shiulaios trid an mbaile mor agus timpeall an locha soir go dti an droichead. 10. Do bhi mo ghadhar lem chois. 11. Sheasaios ag an ndroichead agus bhios ag feachaint ar na breacaibh san uisce thios fum. 12. Nior chuas trasna na habhann i n-aon chor. 13. Chasas thar n-ais tar eis tamaill. 14. Nuair a bhios ag siul abhaile trasna na bpairceanna, do leim coinin amach as poll agus do chuaigh an gadhar ina dhiaidh, ach nior thainig se suas leis. Exercise 30 A. 1. His two feet. 2. My two eyes. 3. Her two shoes. 4. The old soldier has (only) one arm. 5. It is better to have one eye than to be altogether blind. 6. That girl is a twin. B. 1. 1 hastened out of the house. 2. It was dark outside, for the evenings were getting short. 3. We walked across the fields and over the bridge. 4. There was an old man sitting near the bridge. 5. The dog ran all around the field after the rabbits. 6. Then I walked through the town to the post- office and came home without delay. 7. 1 met your brother in the street. 8. The girls went to the chapel a while ago (6 chianaibh). 9. Some (cuid) of the money is lost. 10. He took it from the table and put it into a box which was under the dresser. 1 If you are using the sound recording, you will notice that it does not match sentence 6 precisely. 2 Some words are run together, and often, a syllable or two are dropped in the process, so 'aon duine' may be spoken as 'aoine'. .