Graiméar na Gaedhilge/Part III Chapter IV
CHAPTER IV.
THE PRONOUN.
Personal Pronoun.
528. The personal pronouns agree with the nouns for which they stand in gender, number and person: as, He is a big man. Is mór an fear é. They are big men. Is mór na fir iad.
529. A personal pronoun which stands for a noun the gender of which is different from its sex, agrees in gender with the sex of the noun; as, Is maiṫ an cailín í. She is a good girl. Is olc an ċoṁursa é. He is a bad neighbour.
530. In Irish we have no neuter pronoun corresponding to the English “it;” hence, in translating “it,” we must determine the gender of the Irish noun (masculine or feminine) and then use sé (he) or sí (she) accordingly:[1] as, It is terrible weather. Is caillte an aimsir í. Is to-day Friday? An í an Aoine atá againn? Dob í an ḟírinne í. It was the truth. Tá an casúr agam, ní ḟuil sé trom. I have the hammer, it is not heavy.
531. The pronoun tú, thou, is always used to translate the English “you” when only one person is referred to; as, How are you? Cionnas tá tú? What a man you are! Naċ tú an fear!
532. The personal pronouns, whether nominative or accusative, always come after the yerb; as, molann sé ṫú, he praises you.
533. The disjunctive forms of the personal pronouns are used immediately after the verb IS in any of its forms expressed or understood; as, is é an fear láidir é. He is a strong man. An é a fuair é? Was it he who found it? Naċ í d’ inġean í? Is she not your daughter?
534. A personal pronoun which stands for a sentence, or part of a sentence, is third person singular, masculine gender. An rud aduḃairt mé, is é adeirim arís. What I said, I repeat.
535. The accusative personal pronoun usually comes last in the sentence or clause to which it belongs: as, D’ḟág sé ar an áit sin iad. He left them at that place. Rug sé leis míle eile é. He brought it with him another mile. D’ḟágas im ḋiaiḋ é. I left it after me.
Relative Pronoun.
536. The relative particle follows its antecedent and precedes its verb: as, an fear a ċodlóċas, the man who will sleep.
537. The relative particle, whether expressed or understood, always causes aspiration: as, an fear ḃeas ag obair, the man who will be at work.
538. The relative when preceded by a preposition causes eclipsis (unless the verb be in the Past Tense). When the relative a signifies “all that” or “what” it causes eclipsis: as, an áit i n‑a ḃ‑fuil sé, the place in which he is; a ḃfuil i mBaile-Áṫa-Cliaṫ, all that is in Dublin.
539. When the relative is governed by a preposition and followed by a verb in the Past Tense, the relative combines with ro (the old sign of the Past Tense), and does not eclipse: an áit ar ṫuit Aoḋ, the place where (in which) Hugh fell.
540. The eight verbs which do not admit of the compounds of ro being used before them (see par. 279) form an exception to the last rule: as, an tír i n‑a dtáinig sé the country into which he came.
541. In English, when the relative or interrogative pronoun is governed by a preposition, the pronoun very often comes before the governing word: as, What are you speaking about? The man that he gave the book to is here. In colloquial Irish it is a very common practice to separate the relative particle from the preposition which governs it ; but instead of using a simple preposition at the end of the sentence, as in English, we use a prepositional pronoun. Thus we can say—an fear ag a ḃfuil an ḃó, or more usually, an fear a ḃfuil an ḃó aige,[2] the man who has the cow; an fear ar ḋíolas an capall leis, or an fear ler ḋíolas an capall, the man to whom I sold the horse.
542. The forms darb or darab, darḃ, lerḃ, marḃ, &c., are compounds of a preposition, relative particle; “ro,” the sign of the Past Tense; and ba or buḋ the Past Tense of is.
- darḃ = do + a + ro + ba = to whom was.
- lerḃ = le + a + ro + ba = with or by whom was.
as, bean darḃ ainm Briġid, a woman whose name was Brigid.
543. As the accusative case of the relative particle has exactly the same form as the nominative, the context must determine, in those tenses in which the verb has no distinct termination for the relative, whether the relative particle is the subject or object of the verb; an fear a ḃuail Seaġán, may mean, The man whom John struck, or The man who struck John.
Translation of the Genitive Case of the English Relative.
544. The Irish relative has no inflection for case; hence, in order to translate the English word “whose” when not an interrogative, we must use one of the prepositions (ag, do, i) + relative particle + possessive adjective (before the noun).
- The man whose son was sick.
| an fear | dá agá i n‑a |
raiḃ a ṁac tinn. |
but dá, agá, or ’gá, i n‑a are often shortened to a, go, and ’na; hence the above sentence in colloquial Irish would be —
| an fear | a go ’na |
raiḃ a ṁac tinn. |
- The woman whose son is sick visited us yesterday.
| an ḃean úd | go ’ġá &c. |
ḃfuil a mac tinn ṫáinig sí ar ċuairt indé ċugainn. |
545. To translate the English relative pronoun when governed by an active participle, we employ a somewhat similar construction; as—
- The hare that the hounds are pursuing.
- An girrḟiaḋ go ḃfuil na gaḋair ar a lorg (or ar a ṫóir, or ag tóraiġeaċt air).
- The man whom I am striking.
- An fear atá agam ’á (d’á, ġá) ḃualaḋ. 546. The relative a meaning all that, what, may itself be genitive; as, trian a raiḃ ann, a third of what were there. “Beir beannaċt óm ċroiḋe ċum a maireann ar ḃánċnoic Éireann óiġ.” “Bear a blessing from my heart to all those who live on the fair hills of Holy Ireland.”
The relative a in this sentence is genitive case being governed by ċum (see par. 603).
- Notes