Irish morphology
Encyclopedia
This article discusses the grammar
of the Irish language
.
The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language
. Noun
s are declined for number
and case
, and verbs for person
and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender
. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for a Celtic language
, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected preposition
s and the initial consonant mutation
s. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.
One distinctive aspect of Irish syntax is the use of the copula (known in Irish as ). The copula is used to describe the permanent identity or characteristic of a person or thing (e.g. "who" or "what"), as opposed to temporary aspects such as "how", "where", "why" and so on. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs and in Spanish
and Portuguese
(see Romance copula
), although this is not an exact match.
Examples are: "He is a man." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is a cold(hearted) person." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He/Thomas is cold" (= feels cold). (Spanish – in this case Spanish uses 'tener' (to have) instead of 'estar' (to be), Portuguese ) "He/Thomas is asleep." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is good (a good person)." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is well." (Spanish , Portuguese )
Irish nouns may be masculine or feminine (the neuter having disappeared). To a certain degree the gender difference is indicated by specific word endings, -án and -ín being masculine and -óg feminine. While it has disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is still to be seen in various place names in Ireland.
has two forms: an and na. An may cause lenition
, eclipsis, or neither. Na may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition with na is with the genitive singular of the word céad meaning first. An is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular, an with lenition is used with masculine nouns, na with feminine nouns. In the dative singular, an may cause lenition or eclipsis depending on the preposition preceding it and on regional norms (in Ulster usage, lenition is standard with all prepositions, while in other regions eclipsis is used with many). Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.
There is no indefinite article in Irish, You simply say the word for example: Tá peann agam. - "I have a pen", Tá madra sa seomra. - "There's a dog in the room".
There is no passive proper in Irish, but there is an impersonal form of the verb, termed the saorbhriathar or "free verb".
Verbs can be conjugated either synthetically (with the personal pronoun included in the verb inflection) or analytically (with the verb inflected for tense only and a separate subject). However, the official standard generally prescribes the analytical form in most person tense combinations, and the synthetic in some cases. The analytical forms are also generally preferred in the western and northern dialects, except in answer to what would in English be "yes/no" questions. For example, the following are the standard form, synthetic form and analytical form of the past tense of rith "to run":
in Irish is verb–subject–object (VSO
). The forms of the subject
pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive:
The form in the 1st person plural is not used in the standard language, but is very common in western and northern dialects. The standard and southern dialects have no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural but use synthetic verb endings instead.
Irish has no T–V distinction, i.e. it does not differentiate between formal and familiar forms of second person pronouns. The difference between and is purely one of grammatical number
.
"Sé" and "sí" are used instead of it, depending on whether the thing you are referring to is a masculine noun or a feminine noun.
In many dialects the form thú is either (a) archaic (replaced by tú) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel:
Standard:Buailim thú ("I hit you", present tense), Bhuail mé thú ("I hit you", past tense)
Dialect type (a):Buailim tú, Bhuail mé tú
Dialect type (b):Buailim tú, Bhuail mé thú
s, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.
The forms thusa, eisean and ise are disjunctive forms, while tusa, seisean and sise are conjunctive forms.
The word (/fʲeːnʲ/ or /heːnʲ/) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.
"my" lenites; precedes vowels
"your (sg.)" lenites; precedes vowels
"his" lenites
"her" takes the radical of a consonant and adds an to a vowel
"our" eclipses
"your(pl.)" eclipses
"their" eclipses
The forms and can also blend with certain prepositions:
The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case: "He's discussing his bicycle" (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)
Similarly, if the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, then it is a possessive pronoun: "He's discussing it." (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)
More examples: "She's hitting me." "They are discussing you." "He's kissing her." "You're hitting us." "I'm discussing you(pl.)." "You(pl.) are kissing them."
Examples: "Who did it?" "Who did you see?" "Who did you give the book to?"
"What's wrong (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?") "What did you say?"
"What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?") "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")
These numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms like "bus 13" or "room 2".
"One" as a pronoun
is rendered with (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:
"One" as a pronoun is rendered with (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:
Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: etc.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the Irish language
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
.
The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
. Noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s are declined for number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
and case
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
, and verbs for person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for a Celtic language
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected preposition
Inflected preposition
In some languages, an inflected preposition, or conjugated preposition, is a word formed from the contraction of a preposition with a personal pronoun. For instance, in Scottish Gaelic, to say "before him," one can not say *, but , which historically developed from a fusion of pronoun and...
s and the initial consonant mutation
Irish initial mutations
Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions...
s. Irish syntax is also rather different from that of most Indo-European languages, due to its use of the verb–subject–object word order.
Syntax
Word order in Irish is of the form VSO (verb–subject–object) so that, for example, "He hit me" is [hit-past tense] [he] [me].One distinctive aspect of Irish syntax is the use of the copula (known in Irish as ). The copula is used to describe the permanent identity or characteristic of a person or thing (e.g. "who" or "what"), as opposed to temporary aspects such as "how", "where", "why" and so on. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs and in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
(see Romance copula
Romance copula
The copula or copulae in all Romance languages largely derive from the Latin verbs "to be" ; "to stand" ; and "to sit"...
), although this is not an exact match.
Examples are: "He is a man." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is a cold(hearted) person." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He/Thomas is cold" (= feels cold). (Spanish – in this case Spanish uses 'tener' (to have) instead of 'estar' (to be), Portuguese ) "He/Thomas is asleep." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is good (a good person)." (Spanish , Portuguese ) "He is well." (Spanish , Portuguese )
Nouns
Irish is an inflected language, having, in its standard form, the following cases: common (the old nominative and accusative), vocative and genitive. In Munster dialects a dative form persisted, though this has been largely discarded by younger speakers. The present inflectional system represents a radical simplification of the grammar of Old Irish.Irish nouns may be masculine or feminine (the neuter having disappeared). To a certain degree the gender difference is indicated by specific word endings, -án and -ín being masculine and -óg feminine. While it has disappeared from vocabulary, the neuter gender is still to be seen in various place names in Ireland.
Articles
The Irish definite articleDefinite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
has two forms: an and na. An may cause lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...
, eclipsis, or neither. Na may cause eclipsis, but the only instance of lenition with na is with the genitive singular of the word céad meaning first. An is used in the common case singular for all nouns, and lenites feminine nouns. In the genitive singular, an with lenition is used with masculine nouns, na with feminine nouns. In the dative singular, an may cause lenition or eclipsis depending on the preposition preceding it and on regional norms (in Ulster usage, lenition is standard with all prepositions, while in other regions eclipsis is used with many). Na is the only plural form of the article; it causes eclipsis in the genitive for both genders, and no mutation in other cases.
There is no indefinite article in Irish, You simply say the word for example: Tá peann agam. - "I have a pen", Tá madra sa seomra. - "There's a dog in the room".
Adjectives
Irish adjectives always follow the noun. The adjective is influenced by the case, number and gender of the noun preceding it.- An cailín beag
- An bhean bhocht
- Na buachailí óga
Comparative Adjectives
Comparative Adjectives in Irish have three forms; the "Bunchéim", the "Breischéim" and the "Sárchéim". The "Bunchéim" refers to ordinary adjectives for example; "tá an buachaill cairdiúil" meaning "the boy is friendly". The "Breischéim" refers to the comparative state for example; "tá an cailín níos cairdiúla ná an buaichaill" meaning "the girl is nicer than the boy". The "Sárchéim" refers to the superlative state for example "is é Seán an páiste is cairdiúla den triúr" meaning "Seán is the nicest child of the three".Verbs
There are 2 conjugations, and also 11 irregular verbs (briathra neamhrialta). Tenses or moods are formed by inflecting the stem, and in the past and habitual past tenses and the conditional mood also by leniting any initial consonant. The inflected tense and mood forms are: present indicative; present habitual indicvative (differs from present only in the verb bí "to be"); future indicative; past indicative; past habitual indicative; conditional; imperative; present subjunctive; past subjunctive. Verbs also have a verbal noun and verbal adjective, and continuous constructions similar to those using the English present participle may be formed from the verbal noun and an appropriate tense of bí. Examples of tense conjugations: (all third person forms without subject pronoun):- 1st conjugation - Fág - D'fhág (past) - Fágann (present) - Fágfaidh (future) - D'fhágfadh (conditional) - D'fhágadh (habitual past) - Fága (subjunctive) - Fágadh (imperative)
- 2nd conjugation - Ceannaigh - Ceannaigh (past) - Ceannaíonn (present) - Ceannóidh (future) - Cheannódh (conditional) - Cheannaíodh (habitual past) - Ceannaí (subjunctive) - Ceannaíodh (imperative)
- Irregular - Téigh - Chuaigh (past) - Téann (present) - Rachaidh (future) - Rachadh (conditional) - Théadh (habitual past) - Té (subjunctive) - Téadh (imperative)
There is no passive proper in Irish, but there is an impersonal form of the verb, termed the saorbhriathar or "free verb".
Verbs can be conjugated either synthetically (with the personal pronoun included in the verb inflection) or analytically (with the verb inflected for tense only and a separate subject). However, the official standard generally prescribes the analytical form in most person tense combinations, and the synthetic in some cases. The analytical forms are also generally preferred in the western and northern dialects, except in answer to what would in English be "yes/no" questions. For example, the following are the standard form, synthetic form and analytical form of the past tense of rith "to run":
| Person | Standard | Synthetic | Analytic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sing | rith mé | ritheas | rith mé |
| 2nd sing | rith tú | rithis | rith tú |
| 3rd sing | rith sé | rith | rith sé |
| 1st plural | ritheamar | ritheamar | rith sinn / rith muid* |
| 2nd plural | rith sibh | ritheamhar | rith sibh |
| 3rd plural | rith siad | ritheadar | rith siad |
| Impersonal | ritheadh | ritheadh | ritheadh |
- muid is non-standard but is the usual 1st person plural pronoun in the western and northern dialects.
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns in Irish do not inflect for case, but there are three different sets of pronouns used: conjunctive forms, disjunctive forms, and emphatic forms (which may be used either conjunctively or disjunctively)Conjunctive forms
The normal word orderWord order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
in Irish is verb–subject–object (VSO
VSO
VSO is a three-letter acronym with multiple meanings, as described below:* Voluntary Service Overseas, an international development charity* Valdosta Southern Railroad...
). The forms of the subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive:
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ||
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd | masc. fem. |
The form in the 1st person plural is not used in the standard language, but is very common in western and northern dialects. The standard and southern dialects have no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural but use synthetic verb endings instead.
Irish has no T–V distinction, i.e. it does not differentiate between formal and familiar forms of second person pronouns. The difference between and is purely one of grammatical number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
.
"Sé" and "sí" are used instead of it, depending on whether the thing you are referring to is a masculine noun or a feminine noun.
Disjunctive forms
If a pronoun is not the subject or if a subject pronoun does not follow the verb (as in a verbless clause, or as the subject of the copula, where the pronoun stands at the end of the sentence), the so-called disjunctive forms are used:| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ||
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd | masc. ; fem. |
In many dialects the form thú is either (a) archaic (replaced by tú) or (b) is only found after words ending in a vowel:
Standard:Buailim thú ("I hit you", present tense), Bhuail mé thú ("I hit you", past tense)
Dialect type (a):Buailim tú, Bhuail mé tú
Dialect type (b):Buailim tú, Bhuail mé thú
Intensive forms
Irish also has intensive pronounIntensive pronoun
- In English :An intensive pronoun is a pronoun used to add emphasis to a statement; for example, "I did it myself." While English intensive pronouns use the same form as reflexive pronouns, an intensive pronoun is different from a reflexive, because the pronoun can be removed without altering the...
s, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight or emphasis.
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ||
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd | masc. fem. |
The forms thusa, eisean and ise are disjunctive forms, while tusa, seisean and sise are conjunctive forms.
The word (/fʲeːnʲ/ or /heːnʲ/) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.
- "I did it myself."
- "Did you hurt yourself?"
- is thus "We Ourselves"
Possessive pronouns
The possessive pronouns cause different initial consonant mutations."my" lenites; precedes vowels
- "my friend"
- "my farm"
- "my father"
"your (sg.)" lenites; precedes vowels
- "your friend"
- "your farm"
- "your father"
"his" lenites
- "his friend"
- "his farm"
- "his father"
"her" takes the radical of a consonant and adds an to a vowel
- "her friend"
- "her farm"
- "her father"
"our" eclipses
- "our friend"
- "our farm"
- "our father"
"your(pl.)" eclipses
- "your friend"
- "your farm"
- "your father"
"their" eclipses
- "their friend"
- "their farm"
- "their father"
The forms and can also blend with certain prepositions:
| & | "from/to his friend" "from/to her farm" "from/to our father" "from/to their father" |
| "about his friend" "about our father" |
|
| "in her farm" "in our farm" |
|
| "with their father" "with our child" |
|
| "from his wife" "from our research" |
|
| "through her foot" "through our house" |
The object of a verbal noun is in the genitive case: "He's discussing his bicycle" (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)
Similarly, if the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, then it is a possessive pronoun: "He's discussing it." (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)
More examples: "She's hitting me." "They are discussing you." "He's kissing her." "You're hitting us." "I'm discussing you(pl.)." "You(pl.) are kissing them."
Interrogative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns introduce a question, e.g. the words who, what, which. The Irish equivalents are: "who?, which?" or "what?" "which?"Examples: "Who did it?" "Who did you see?" "Who did you give the book to?"
"What's wrong (with you)?" (lit. "What is on you?") "What did you say?"
"What's your name?" (lit. "Which name is upon you?") "How old are you?" (lit. "Which age are you?")
Prepositions
As the object of a preposition, a pronoun is fused with the preposition; one speaks here of "inflected" prepositions, or, as they are more commonly termed, prepositional pronouns.| 1 | "at me" | "at us" |
| 2 | "at you (sg.)" | "at you (pl.)" |
| 3 | "at him" "at her" |
"at them" |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | |
Cardinal numbers
There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.Disjunctive numbers
| 0 | 13 | ||
| 1 | 14 | ||
| 2 | 20 | ||
| 3 | 21 | ||
| 4 | 30 | ||
| 5 | 40 | ||
| 6 | 50 | ||
| 7 | 60 | ||
| 8 | 70 | ||
| 9 | 80 | ||
| 10 | 90 | ||
| 11 | 100 | ||
| 12 | 1000. |
These numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms like "bus 13" or "room 2".
Nonhuman conjunctive numbers
These numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g. "horse"| 1 | ; |
13 | |
| 2 | 20 | ||
| 3 | 21 | ||
| 4 | 22 | ||
| 5 | 30 | ||
| 6 | 40 | ||
| 7 | 50 | ||
| 8 | 60 | ||
| 9 | 70 | ||
| 10 | 80 | ||
| 11 | 90 | ||
| 12 | 100 |
"One" as a pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
is rendered with (lit. "head") when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:
- "I have five horses; one of them is sick."
Human conjunctive numbers
These numbers are used to count nouns that refer to human beings, e.g. páiste 'child'| 1 | ; |
7 | |
| 2 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 9 | ||
| 4 | 10 | ||
| 5 | 11 | ||
| 6 | 12 |
"One" as a pronoun is rendered with (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:
- "I have five children; one of them is sick."
- "Six people are in the room."
Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: etc.
Ordinal numbers
| 1st | 13th | ||
| 2nd | 20th | ||
| 3rd | 21st | ||
| 4th | 22nd | ||
| 5th | 30th | ||
| 6th | 40th | ||
| 7th | 50th | ||
| 8th | 60th | ||
| 9th | 70th | ||
| 10th | 80th | ||
| 11th | 90th | ||
| 12th | 100th |