Irish Class, June 8, 2009

Rang Gaeilge, 8ú lá Mí na Mheiteamh

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Administrivia

• Next class 6/8 at Loring Park Dunn Bros.
• Last Spring class at Central 6/1
• Winona 7/17-19
• Irish Fair 8/7-9
• First Fall class at Central 9/14

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Prepositions and Mutations

From Initial Mutations:

• Lenition came about because long ago, the
  consonant was between two vowels. In many cases one of the vowels has disappeared, but the lenition
  remains. E.g. ar was once ara, hence ar char (see table).
  If the preposition ended in a consonant, the following consonant would not be changed. E.g.,
  ag páiste.

• Eclipsis came about when the preceding word ended in a nasal, /n/, /m/, /ŋ/.

le ← let. The t would be lenited between two vowels.
Hence we now have le hÚna.

leis an mbosca: leis is from
sindos in proto-Celtic.

roimh used to end in a vowel. The –i– is
for slenderization.

thrí ← thríde.  
thrí bhosca: The lenition is from the
e that is no longer there.

ón ← ó + an

faoin ← faoi + an

an–deas “very nice”. In Munster this is
ana dheas. The extra a forces lenition.

leis an bhfear “with the man”

*let sindom wirom	Proto-Celtic “with that man”
*les sindan wiran	primitive Irish
las in fer	Old Irish	fer /ver/. eclipsis is not written. We know it was eclipsed from poetry— rhyming, meter, alliteration, etc.
les in ver	Middle Irish	/ver/

gan is from proto-Celtic *cina.

Réamhfhocail — Prepositions

		singular indefinite	singular definite	plural indefinite	plural definite
ag	at	ag páiste	ag an bpáiste	ag páistí	ag na páistí
as	out of, from	as bosca	as an mbosca	as boscaí	as na boscaí
let	with	le bosca le hÚna	leis an mosca	le boscaí	leis na boscaí
ó	out of, from	ó bhaile	ón mbaile	ó bhailte	ó na bhailte
arv	on, to	ar chlár	ar an gclár	ar chláir	ar na cláir
roimhv	before	roimh bhalla	roimh an mballa	roimh bhallí	roimh na ballí
thrícv	through	thrí bhosca	thríd an mbosca	thrí bhoscaí	thrí na boscaí
faoi	under, about	faoi bhord	faoin mbord	faoi bhoird	faoi na boird
thar	past	thar fhear	thar an bhfear	thar fhir	thar na fir
de	of, from	de bhróg d’úll	den bhróg den t-úll	de bhróga d’úlla	de na bróga de na h-úa
do	for	do pheann d’am	don pheann don t-am	do phinn d’amanna	do na pinn do nah-amanna
in	in	i bpota	sa bpota	i gcathracha	sna cathracha
ganv	without	gan bhean gan bean eile	gan an bean	gan bhróga gan bróga nua	gan na bróga
goc go dt&iacute	toward, until	go Sasana go hEireann	go dtí an teach		go dtí na tithe
seachas	except	seachas fear	seachas an fear	seachas fir	seachas na fir
idir	between	idir bord idir fuinneog	idir an bord idir an fhuinneog	idir boird idir fuinneoga	idir na boird idir na fuinneoga

Notes

• Eclipsis with singular definite articles does not apply to nouns beginning with
  t-, d- & s-.
• Superscripts in the 1^st column refer to sounds that used to be part of the language but
  are now gone. c: consonant, v: vowel. Others (t, n)
  mean the specific letter given, e.g. le was once let.
• thríd is aspirated. Almost /s’ri:d’/ .

balla	wall	m4
clár	board, table, surface
cathair	city	f gs cathrach pl cathracha
cathaoir	chair	f gs -each pl -eacha
iomarca	too much of…	Followed by noun in the genitive
capall	horse	m1 pl capaill

We went through the whole table of prepositions with
capall. thrí chapall reminded me of
Mike Royko’s description of how American beer is made.

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References

• Initial Mutations
• Mary Roguski, “Tsk tsk… T before S”, An
  Gaeilgeoir, Bealtaine 2009
• Basic
  Irish, Chapters 9 and 23.

Additional links

• Gramadach na Gaeilge – Irish Grammar. This is
  an English translation of Gramadach na Gaeilge – Die Irische Grammatik.
  Apparently the German version is more up-to-date.
• Lots of other good stuff at Nualéargais