Weak Plurals and Irregular Nouns
by Myles Dillon
ALESSON XVIII The regular plurals in the last three declensions have been studied in connection with Lesson XI (Appendix pp. 193-6). Some plural endings have the advantage that they are dis- tinctive and cannot be confused with any form of the singular, because they are extra syllables. They have the further advantage that they remain in the genitive, -ibh being added for the dative case, insofar as the dative survives. These endings, which are regular for some declensions, tend to spread to others, and are called "weak" endings. (i) -tha (-ta), -the (-te) 1 This ending is regular in the third and fourth declensions. It has spread to nouns of the first and second, namely to some nouns ending in /, n, r: I seol "sail", pi. seolta; sceal "story", scealta; cuan "bay, harbour", cuanta; lion "net", Uonta; muileann "mill", muilte; glor "voice", glortha. And note cead "hundred", ceadta. II coill "wood", coillte; buion "group" "troop", buionta; pian "pain", pianta; slinn "slate", slinnte; speir "sky", speartha; tir "country", tiortha. (ii) (e)anna, -anta The ending -(ejanna is common to all declensions except the first. There is a form -anta which is to be distinguished from it. It occurs notably in words expressing time: bliain 1 After d, n, t, I, s the th becomes t. 102 LESSON XVIII 103 "year" pi. blianta; uair "time", uaireanta; am "time", amanta; Id "day", laetheanta; oiche "night", oicheanta. Note also aithne "commandment", aitheanta. (iii) -acha This ending is common to the third and fifth declensions, and it tends to spread to nouns of the first and second, and also within the others: I cldr "board", pi. cldracha; tobar "well", pi. toibreacha. II ait "place" pi. diteanna is normal, but diteacha is also used; craobh "branch", pi. craobhacha; preamh "root", pi. preamhacha. Note ainm "name", pi. ainmneacha. (iv) -1 This ending is regular in the third and fourth declensions, and has also spread as a weak ending. In the first declension cogadh "war" and margadh "market" which end phonetically in a short vowel (coga, maraga) form the pi. cogai, margai. And note leanbh "child", pi. leanai (old spelling leanbhai). Some nouns of the second declension which end in a slender consonant form this plural: abairt "saying, sentence", abairti; ordid "speech", ordidi; tuairim "opinion", tuairimi. Also pingin, stilling and seachtain except after numerals. In the spoken language, plurals in -iocha are often heard, where -acha has been added to -i, so that you have a double plural: crannaiocha "trees", beside crainn, crainnte. Many nouns have alternative plural forms: diteanna and diteacha are both common as plural of ait "place". In general it may be said that plural forms in Irish are much freer than in English. As pi. of ordid "speech", ordidi, ordideanna, orai- deacha, ordidiocha would all be understood, and none of them would be shocking to a native speaker. 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Similarly: bhiodar ina sui i dteannta a cheile agus iad ag caint "they were sitting together talking", where English has merely the participle in apposition. The same construction may have other shades of meaning, e.g. fuair se bds agus e cuiosach og "he died (while) fairly young"; ndfuil do dhothain cheana agat agus gan bheith ag lorg tuilleadh? "have you not enough already, without asking for more?" and clearly disjunctive, do labhair se Horn as Bearla agus qfios aige nd raibh aon Bhearla agam "he spoke to me in English though he knew I had no English". When the logical object of a verbal noun is a noun, it appears in the genitive case (except in the bracketed con- struction (see p. 79)): td se ag insint sceil "he is telling a story" (p. 44). When this object is a phrase, it is antici- pated by a proleptic possessive a preceding the verbal noun: ar mhiste afhiafrai dhiot cad e an t-aos tu? "Would it be any harm to ask your age?" (lit. "its asking"); is deacair a rd ce acu is fearr "it is hard to say which is best" (lit. "its saying"). VOCABULARY aithnim (an-heem) / recog- nise anios (a-nees) up bairille (borili) m. barrel buion (bweean) f. class ceist (kesht) f. question coir (kor) f. provision, favour- able wind craobh (krav)f. branch cro (kro)m. byre crochta (krochda) set (of sails), aloft cruach (krooach) f. rick cuan (kooan) m. harbour, Cuan Dor Glandore Har- bour cunamh (koonav) m. help cuntoir (koon-tor) m. assist- ant diol (deel) vn. selling io6 IRISH Dun na Sead (doona sheead) Baltimore eiri (ay-ree) m. rising; le heiri greine at sunrise fe cheann (fa-chyoun) within (of time) folair (falaar): ni folair one must (lit. it is not too much) gabhaim (goum) / take, I go; ghaibh se he went gaoth (gah) f. wind grian (greean)f. sun iarthar (eearhar) m. the west iascach (eegsgach) m. fishing, to fish la (laa) m. day leisce (leshgi) f. laziness, unwillingness; ta leisce air he is loth linn (leeng): le linn during lion (leen) m. net maircreal (mar-krel) m. mackerel mo, an mo? how many? (followed by a noun in the singular, p. 125) morthimpeall (moosr- heempal) all around Oilean Cleire (i-laan kleri) Cape Clear Island 6 Suilleabhain (o-soolavaan) 'Sullivan 6 Seaghdha (o-she) O'Shea paroiste (proshdi) f. parish post (post) m. post, position praghas (prays) m. price preamh (preeav) i. root (pi. preamhacha) scadan (sga-daan) m. herring scaoilim / let go, I let loose seol (shol) m. sail sliabh (shleeav) m. mountain stoirm (sderim) f, storm taobh (tav) m. side; taobh thall de beyond; taobh theas south; taobh istigh within tairgim (tarigim) / draw treo (tro) m. direction, place; 1 dtreo in order, ready tugaim fe ndeara / notice tuairim (tooarim) f. opinion Exercise 41 (Weak plurals, irreg. nouns and revision of irreg. verbs) 1. Nuair a chuaigh se amach ar maidin, do dhein se dear- mhad ar an ndoras a dhunadh. 2. Nior aithnios an maistir nuair a chonac ag an staisiun e. 3. Ni fhacais-se i n-aon chor e. 4. Do chuireas ceist chuige agus nior fhead se 1 a fhrea- gairt. 5. Cad d'fhiafrais de? 6. Do bhi ceisteanna agam le cur chuige mar gheall ar na scoileanna. 7. Deir daoine go bhfuil na buionta ro-mhor, agus nach folair duinn tuilleadh LESSON XVIII 107 muinteoiri a thabhairt isteach chun na hoibre a dheanamh. 8. An mo scoil ata ann? 9. Ta dha cheann, ceann i gcoir na mbuachailli agus ceann i gcoir na gcailini. 10. Is deacair muinteoiri d'fhail na laetheanta so. 11. Ta cairde agam-sa agus ba mhaith leo bheith ina muinteoiri. 12. Iarr orthu scriobh chum i n-ainm De, mar beidh postanna agam doibh. 13. Is olc an chomhairle comhairle mhna. 14. Do bhi ba agus caoirigh le diol againn an tseachtain seo ghaibh tharainn, agus bhi leisce ar mo mhnaoi iad a scaoileadh uaithi gan praghas maith d'fhail. 15. Cloiseann na mna an iomad scealta agus an iomad tuairimi. 16. Ta coillte breatha ar na sleibhte. 17. Do thit cuid desna crainn le linn na stoirme. 18. Ta na preamhacha anios as an dtalamh agus craobhacha briste ar chrainn morthimpeall orthu. 19. Chonaiceamair iad agus sinn ag teacht on mbaile mor. 20. Bionn baid iascaigh ag teacht isteach i gcuantaibh iarthair Chorcai le maircreil sa tsamhradh agus le scadain sa bhfomhar. 21. Bionn na seolta crochta orthu chun dul amach aris tar eis lae a chaitheamh i gCuan Dor no i nDun na Sead, agus na lionta i dtreo. Exercise 42 1. We went out in a fishing boat from Glandore yesterday. 2. There were three sails on her, and we had a fair wind. 3. She was south of Cape Clear Island within two hours. 4. The fishermen put out the nets, and then we ate supper. 5. We all slept until morning, and at sunrise they drew in the nets. 6. We had six barrels of herring to bring home. 7. There are three schools in this parish and six classes in each school. 8. Who are the teachers in the new school? 9. Michael O'Sullivan is the head-master, and he has James O'Shea as assistant. 10. Did you notice the big trees beside the road as you came from Mass? 11. Two of them fell last night and there are branches broken on the others. 12. We shall have firing (abhor tine) for the winter without buying 108 IRISH any coal. 13. Everyone has stories about the storm. 14. There are boats without sails in the harbours, 15. We shall get help from the neighbours to bring in the sheep. 16. The cows were in before the wind rose. 17. Where is the cow- byre? 18. It is beyond the turf-rick. .