Weak Plurals and Irregular Nouns
by Myles Dillon
ALESSON XIX l Passive-Impersonal Forms of Regular Verbs First Present Past Imperfect Future Conditional Present Subjunctive Past Subjunctive Imperative duntar do dunadh 1 do duntai dunfar do dunfai duntar duntai duntar Conjugation buailtear do buaileadh 1 do buailti buailfear do buailfi buailtear buailti buailtear Present Past Imperfect Future Conditional Present Subjunctive Past Subjunctive Imperative (a) Second Conjugation (b) cruinnitear do cruinniodh 1 do cruinniti cruinneofar do cruinneofai cruinnitear cruinniti cruinnitear osclaitear do hoscladh 1 do hosdaiti osclofar do hosclofai osclaitear osclaiti osclaitear In every tense of the verb there is a passive and impersonal form which has neither person nor number. There is thus 1 The ending -{e)adh is here pronounced -ag in Cork and -ach in Kerry. 109 110 IRISH only one form for each tense. As the form occurs in both transitive and intransitive verbs, it is best described as passive-impersonal. Buailtear e (z) "he (she) is struck"; buailtear iad "they are struck"; do buailti e (z, iad) "he (she, they) used to be struck"; buailfear e (f, iad) "... will be struck"; do buailfi e (z, iad) ". . . would be struck"; do buaileadh e (f, iad) ". . .was struck 1 . But the verb teim "I go" also has these forms: teitear ann gach Domhnach "people go there every Sunday"; do teiti go minic annfado "long ago people used often to go there", and so on for any intransitive verb, as occasion may arise. Even the verb td has impersonal forms: tdthar ag deanamh bothair nua "they are making a new road, "a new road is being made" 2 ; sara mbeifi ag magadh fe "lest people should make fun of him"; ni mar a siltear a bitear "things are not as they seem". This form corresponds to the English use of "one" (French on, German man) in "one likes", "one fears", "one sees", "one sleeps", etc.: teitear i dtaithi or gach rud leis an airnsir "one gets accustomed to anything with time." Note that the initial consonant of the passive-impersonal is not aspirated after rel. a, nor in the imperf., past and conditional after do (which may be omitted) and that an h- is prefixed to initial vowels. The negative particle before the past tense is nior which behaves like do: do holadh arfad e "it was all drunk"; do hiti an iomad "too much used to be eaten"; nior holadh e "it was not drunk"; ni hiti e "it used not to be eaten"; do hiosfai e "it would be eaten". After ni aspiration is now the common usage: ni bhuailtear, ni bhuailti, ni bhuailfear, ni bhuailfi; and colloquially it may be heard in the other positions. Six of the eleven irregular verbs form the preterite passive in -thas: 1 Note form of pronoun. 2 The commoner construction here, however, is td bothar nua da dheanamh, where bothar is the subject, and an agent may be expressed with the preposition ag: td bothar nua da dheanamh acu "they are making a new road" (Lesson XXVTI). LESSON XIX ill chim "I see" gheibhim "I get" teim" I go" tagaim "I come" cloisim "I hear" taim "lam" Pret. pass. Absolute Dependent chonaictheas fuarthas chuathas thanathas chualathas bhiothas facthas rabhthas With facthas, fuarthas and rabhthas the particles an, go, nd and m do not take ro (cf. p. 89), and facthas suffers aspiration, fuarthas eclipsis after ni (cf. p. 85). This preterite passive must be distinguished from the 1 sg. preterite of the active voice, where the ending is -as (not -thas). VOCABULARY beithioch (be-heech) m. beast; such a thing; a leitheid the pi. beithigh (be-heeg) like of it cattle magadh (moga) fe mocking, breag (breeag) f. a lie to mock, make fun of Cill Mo Bin (keelma-vee) maraim (mo-reem) I kill Kilmovee mar ba cheart properly diobhail (dee-vaal) f. harm pairc (paark) f. field duradh (doorag) leo they were told ead (eead) m. jealousy eagla: le heagla go for fear that, lest Gaeltacht (galtacht) f. the Irish-speaking country glacaim (glokim) le / accept go brach (ga-braach), go deo (ga-dyo) ever (in the future) leathar (lahar)m. leather leann (len) m. learning leitheid (li-hed) f. the like; plur (ploor) m. flour riamh (reeav) ever (in the past) saraim (saa-reem) I contra- dict, prove wrong seanfhocal (shanakal) m. proverb seipeal (she-pel) m. chapel stroinseir (sdron-sher) m. stranger tabhairne (taarni) m. public- house teacht (tacht) vn. coming thios (hees) below, down thuas (hooas) above, up ualach (ooalach) m. burden 112 IRISH Exercise 43 A. 1. Duntar an doras gach trathnona. 2. Do buailti iad. 3. Raghfar. 4. Gheofai an t-airgead. 5. Do briseadh na huibhe. 6. Deintear aran de phlur. 7. Buailtear an coirce le suiste. 8. Do crudh na ba. 9. Chonaictheas na daoine. 10. Do scaoilti amach iad. B. 1. Do scaoileadh amach na ba agus tugadh isteach na capaill as an bpairc. 2. Cathain a cuirfear na muca go dti an t-aonach? 3. Teiti go Cill Mo Bhi chun an Aifrinn fado, ach ta seipeal againn ar an mbaile seo anois. 4. Ni fhacthas a leitheid riamh. 5. Duradh leo dul chun cainte leis an stroinseir. 6. Cad 'na thaobh nar hinseadh dom go rabhais anso? 7. Da gceilfi an fhirinne, b'fheidir go neosfai breag. 8. D'fhan se sa bhaile sara mbeifi ag magadh fe. 9. Duradh leis na paisti gan dul i n-aice na habhann. 10. Do hiarradh orthu teacht abhaile chun a ndinneir. 11. Tar eis mo dhichill ni bhitear buioch diom. 12. Is seanfhocal e: "an te ata thuas oltar deoch air agus an te ata thios buailtear cos air." 13. Ni feidir an seanfhocal do sharu. Exercise 44 A. 1. It was sold. 2. They were bought. 3. We would be killed. 4. She was not seen. 5. The money was lost. 6. The books will be found. 7. (People) came. 8. The dogs were let loose. B. 1. Shoes are made of leather. 2. They used to be made of wood long ago. 3. People sometimes go to the public-house after the fair. 4. Those men were never seen before that. 5. We were told to come here after dinner. 6. When will those cattle be sold? 7. If you do that, people will say that it was through jealousy you did it. 8. Why are people always com- plaining? 9. If the story had been told properly there would lave been no harm in it. 10. The like of it will never be seen again, 11. They say that "learning is no burden to a man". 12. When were you told that? 13. It is a proverb that is often heard in the Gaeltacht. LESSON XIX 113 Exercise 45 Exercise in Irregular Verbs 1. They shall see. 2. You (pi.) saw. 3. I would see. 4. We shall go. 5. They came. 6. Would you (sg.) go? 7. Did he say? 8. We shall come. 9. They would not see. 10. You (sg.) would say. 11. They said. 12. I shall hear. 13. Did you (pi.) hear? 14. I do not see. 15. We get. 16. We got. 17. Do you (sg.) get? 18. I shall get. 19. I shall not get. 20. They said that you would not get it, but I hear that you will. .