#forainm

[ly0nstea]

Irish grammar spotlight/An spotsolas gramadach Gaeilge - pronouns/forainm

Me - Mé (May)

You(Sg.) - Tú (Too)

He/It - Sé (Shay)/É (ay)

She - Sí (She)/Í (ee)

We - Sinn(shin)/Muid (mwid)

You (Pl.) - Sibh (Shiv)

They (Sg./Pl.) - Siad (She-id)/Iad(ee-id)

Possessive forms/Cinéalacha Sealbhach

My - Mo (muh)

Your (Sg.) - do (duh)

His/Her/Its - A (Ah)

Our - Ár (our)

Your (Pl.) - Bhur (Vur)

Their (Sg./Pl.) - A (Ah)

[toinghaeilge]

Infixes in Old Irish

We’ve previously discussed prefixes and suffixes, but affixes also include infixes: adding or changing the middle of a word to alter its meaning.

Aside from informal use (e.g. im-fucking-possible), there are no true infixes in English. However, here is one example that behaves like it has an infix:

stood stand

Other exceptions are found only in chemistry and pharmacology.

Nasalisation and Urú

Infixes in Proto-Indo-European often trigger nasalisation. This is equivalent to the Irish urú (i + Dún ar Aill → i nDún ar Aill) and the English (stood → stand; in- + balance → imbalance).

Post: Eclipses

Fellow descendants of Proto-Indo-European, Latin and Ancient Greek, follow the same nasalisation:

victus (conquered) vincō (I win)

élǎbon (I took) lambánō (I take)

In Old Irish

Back to Irish, infixes typically appear with pronouns. Think of it like the Munster Irish suffixes déan + -aim; snámh + -aimid:

do gníu I do

da gníu I do it

It may also appear in a relative clause:

dod gníu which I do

Note: Although they appear as infixes and follow the same patterns, these are technically prefixes. This is because they precede the root (gníu in the above example).

[toinghaeilge]

God’s Pronouns

I don’t know how applicable this will be, but it’s interesting to know, I suppose. 

From Graimear Gaeilge na mBraithre Criostai (1960) Baile Atha Cliath: Mac an Ghoill & a Mhac, p.26. §3.5:

Ní úsáidtear ceannlitir de ghnáth i gcás forainmnigh a thagraíonn do Dhia: is tú mo Dhia; maithfidh sé ár bpeacaí dúinn; go dtaga do ríocht; ina aingil agus ina naoimh.

In English, we capitalise the pronouns ‘He’ and ‘Him’ when referring to God. However, Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí points out that this is not done in Irish, citing the following examples:

Is tú mo Dhia you are my God

Maithfidh sé ár bpeacaí dúinn he will forgive our sins (to us)

Go dtaga do ríocht your kingdom come

ina aingil agus ina naoimh In his angels and in his saints

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The Neuter Pronoun

You’ve probably seen the form ‘sea or is ea by now. This is where you’ll most often see the now-archaic neuter pronoun ea (archaic spelling eadh). The neuter pronoun ea regularly referred to non-humans, regardless of their grammatical gender.

Today, remnants of the neuter pronoun remain largely in placenames and tied with the copula. Examples include is ea (meaning ‘yes’; ‘it is so’) and ní hea (meaning 'no’; ‘it isn’t’).

An ea? Is it so?

Más ea even if it is so

Imreoir an-iomaíoch is ea é Literally, A very aggressive player it is that he is He is a very aggressive player

Eadhon

Eadhon is the contraction of eadh and ón. It is the emphatic form of ea. You may see it in older literary texts, where it means “namely”, equivalent to the Latin id est, or i.e. You can see eadhon in my list of shorthand words.

Amhlaidh

Amhlaidh is a contraction of amhail (meaning “like”) and eadh. It means “thus” or “so”. You may see it in certain set phrases, such as:

Tá sin amhlaidh So it is

Bíodh amhlaidh So be it

Gurab amhlaidh duit The same to you

Is amhlaidh can also be used like is ea:

Is amhlaidh agamsa é It’s the same for me

Is amhlaidh is fearr é All the better

[toinghaeilge]

Multiple Pronouns: You and What Army?

The order of pronouns in a sentence are as follows:

First person (plural and singular)

Second person (plural and singular)

Other

You may want to recap on the subject form versus the object form:

Tú vs. Thú

With multiple pronouns in a sentence, the subject form (mé, tú, sé, sí, siad) follows immediately after the verb. All pronouns afterwards follow the object form (mé, thú, é, í, iad). Féin also follows all pronouns when multiple parties are sharing a verb. For example,

Tiocfaidh sé féin agus iad féin Himself and themselves will come

Tiocfaidh sé agus tiocfaidh siad He will come and they will come

Note: When the emphatic form is used for comparison and contrast, féin isn't necessary.

[toinghaeilge]

Dialects: Dia Dhaoibh, Y’all

We often see this second person singular greeting written as both Dia Duit and Dia Dhuit, but which comes from what dialects and what are the rules behind them?

In this post, I’ll just be discussing do + tú or do + any pronouns in general, not just Dia Dhuit as a phrase.

Ulster

Duit in Ulster comes without a séimhiú, no matter the circumstance. You may also note that Dia Duit as a phrase is very rarely used in Ulster.

Connacht

According to Ó Siadhail, in the Cois Fairraige dialect, dhuit, dhom, dhaoibh and all other do prepositional pronouns always take séimhiú, regardless of their environment (compare Munster Irish below, where duit follows a consonant while dhuit follows a vowel).

It can be written either way, but is always pronounced as though there is a séimhiú. The ‘dh’ makes a ‘y’ sound (you can read more about the sounds in Introduction to Connacht Irish.)

Munster

Just like our post on tú vs thú, Munster Irish takes the same rule of vowel = add a séimhiú. This applies to [do + pronoun] and after some words ending with ‘R’s: For example, you might see the following in Munster Irish:

Tabhair dhom é Seo dhuit é

In Munster, the greeting Dia Dhuit would then be strictly written and spoken with the séimhiú (as opposed to the above in Connacht where it can be written either way). When spoken, the ‘dh’ makes a ‘g’ sound (you can read more about the sounds in Introduction to Munster Irish.).

Because of this rule, cad is ainm duit would thus not take a séimhiú: because duit immediately follows a consonant.

Standard Irish (An Caighdeán Oifigiúil)

Standard Irish takes the Ulster rule of never spelling it with the séimhiú, but is not insistent on pronunciations either way: both are accepted.

[toinghaeilge]

Tú vs. thú

This post covers the usage of subject vs. object forms of pronouns.

Subject forms: Mé, tú, sé, sí, muid, siad and their emphatic equivalents

Object forms: Mé, thú, é, í, muid, iad and their emphatic equivalents

The Action Party

Tú or tusa is used as the actor or subject, while thú or thusa is used as the object. To illustrate:

Cloisfidh tú é Cloisifdh sé thú

Notice that the actor (subject form) always follows the verb.

An exception would be if the verb is autonomous: no party is specified to be acting. You can read in depth about deriving impersonal verb forms in this post. For example, one cleans it:

Glantar é One cleans it

The impersonal verb, glantar, is followed by the object form é.

The Copula

Tú or tusa follows immediately after the copula form:

Is tusa a thuigeann mé

Verbal Noun

In the first point, with you as the object, we used thú over tú. However, with the verbal noun, this would be tú.

tú a chloisint

Tú and tusa are also used after agus and with certain prepositions such as idir and gan.

Recap:

Subject form

As the actor (cloisfidh tú)

Directly following the copula (is tusa a thuigeann mé)

Verbal noun (tú a chloisint)

After agus (mise agus thusa)

Certain prepositions (idir tusa agus eisean, gan tusa)

Object form

As object (cloisifdh sé thú)

Not directly following the copula (cé as thú?)

Munster Irish

Munster tends to use thú after words ending in a vowel, and when it appears outside of that it is considered an archaic form.

Note: As a point of interest, Scottish Gaelic uses only the lenited versions: thu and thusa (no fada!).

Try it

Translate the following:

1. I'll see you again. 2. You're killing yourself. 3. I don't understand you.

Hover below for answers

1. Feicfidh mé arís thú. 2. Maróidh tú thú féin. 3. Ní thuigim thú.

Multiple Pronouns: You and What Army?

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Multiple People

When someone has something, it is, for example,

Tá airgead ag Pól.

However, when it comes to multiple people, it is

Tá airgead ag Pól agus ag Síle.

Which is to say, we can’t say the money is ‘at Pól and Síle’ as we do in English, we say ‘at Pól and at Síle’. One way of seeing it is as though the preposition is attached to the pronoun.

Likewise, this would apply to any preposition where we have people as a collective.

Rithfidh mé leatsa agus le Padraig amárach.

An exception would be if we can pluralise the object — Here, it is obvious that "in their sleeping" is plural:

Tá Seán agus Máire ina gcodladh.

Try it

Translate these:

1. They are sitting in the car. 2. She had ribbons and paint. 3. I bought food for the cat and the dog.

Hover below for answers

1. Tá siad ina suí sa charr. 2. Ribíní agus dáth aici. 3. Cheannaigh mé bia don chat agus don mhadra.