Scottish Gaelic grammar

This article describes the grammar of the Scottish Gaelic language.

Grammar overview

The 10th-century Book of Deer contains the oldest known Gaelic text from Scotland, here seen in the margins of a page from the Gospel of Matthew.

Gaelic shares with other Celtic languages a number of interesting typological features:[1]

Tha taigh agam — "I have a house" (lit. "A house is at me")
Tha an cat sin le Iain - "Iain owns that cat" (lit. "Is the cat that with Ian")
Tha cat agadsa ach tha cù agamsa – "You have a cat but I have a dog"

Consonant mutations

Lenition and slenderisation (also referred to as palatalisation or "i-infection") play a crucial role in Scottish Gaelic grammar.[2]

Lenition (sometimes inaccurately referred to as "aspiration"), as a grammatical process, affects the pronunciation of initial consonants, and is indicated orthographically by the addition of an h:

Lenition is not indicated in writing for words beginning with l, n or r. Nor does it affect words that begin with either a vowel, or with sg, sm, sp, or st. In most cases, lenition is caused by the presence of particular trigger words to the left (certain determiners, adverbs, prepositions, and other function words). In this article, the leniting effect of such words is indicated, where relevant, by the superscript "+L" (e.g. glé+L "very").

Slenderisation, on the other hand, is a change in the pronunciation of the final consonant of a word, and it is typically indicated by the addition of an i:

In many cases slenderisation accompanies more complex changes to the final syllable of the word:

Slenderisation has no effect on words that end in a vowel (e.g. bàta "boat"), or words whose final consonant is already slender (e.g. sràid "street").

Most cases of slenderisation can be explained historically as the palatalizing influence of a following front vowel (such as -i) in earlier stages of the language. Although this vowel has now disappeared, its effects on the preceding consonant are still preserved.[3] Similarly, lenition of initial consonants was originally triggered by the final vowel of the preceding word, but in many cases, this vowel is no longer present in the modern language.[4]

Many word-final consonants have also disappeared in the evolution of Scottish Gaelic, and some traces of them can be observed in the form of prosthetic or linking consonants (n-, h-, t-, etc.) that appear in some syntactic combinations, for example, after some determiners (see below).[5]

Nouns

Gender and number

Gaelic nouns and pronouns belong to one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine. Nouns with neuter gender in Old Gaelic were redistributed between the masculine and feminine.

The gender of a small number of nouns differs between dialects. A very small group of nouns have declensional patterns that suggest mixed gender characteristics. Foreign nouns that are fairly recent loans arguably fall into a third gender class (discussed by Black), if considered in terms of their declensional pattern. It is arguable that feminine gender is under pressure and that the system may be becoming simplified with the feminine paradigms incorporating some typically masculine patterns.

Nouns have three grammatical numbers: singular, dual (vestigially) and plural. Dual forms of nouns are only found after the numeral dà (two), where they are obligatory. The dual form is identical in form to the dative singular; depending on noun class, the dual is therefore either the same in form as the common singular (the nominative-accusative, Class 1 nouns, Class 3 and Class 4 nouns), or have a palatalised final consonant in nouns of Class 2 and Class 5. Plurals are formed in a variety of ways, including suffixation (often involving the suffix -(e)an) and slenderisation. Pluralisation, as in Irish Gaelic and Manx, can vary according to noun class, however on the whole depends on the final sound of the singular form.

Three Grammatical Number Forms: Singular, Dual (Vestigial), Plural
Noun
Class		 Eisimpleirean - Examples
Class 1 aon òran, dà òran, trì òrain "one song (sg.), two songs (dual), three songs (pl.)"
Class 2 aon uinneag, dà uinneig, trì uinneagan "one window (sg.), two windows (dual), three windows (pl.)"
Class 3 aon ghuth, dà ghuth, trì guthan "one voice (sg.), two voices (dual), three voices (pl.)"
Class 4 aon bhàta, dà bhàta, trì bàtaichean "one boat (sg.), two boats (dual), three boats (pl.)"
Class 5 aon chara, dà charaid, trì càirdean "one friend (sg.), two friends (dual), three friends (pl.)"

Cases

Nouns and pronouns in Gaelic have four cases: nominative, vocative, genitive, and dative (or prepositional) case. There is no distinct accusative case form; the nominative is used for both subjects and objects. Nouns can be classified into a number of major declension classes, with a small number of nouns falling into minor patterns or irregular paradigms. Case forms can be related to the base form by suffixation, lenition, slenderisation, or a combination of such changes. See the example paradigms below for further details.

The case system is now under tremendous pressure and speakers exhibit varying degrees of paradigm simplification.

Prepositional or Dative

Nouns in the dative case only occur after a preposition, and never, for example, as the indirect object of a verb.

Vocative

Nouns in the vocative case are introduced by the particle a+L, which lenites a following consonant, and is elided (and usually not written) before a vowel. The vocative form of feminine singular nouns is otherwise identical to the nominative; additionally, masculine singular nouns are slenderised in the vocative.

Genitive

The genitive construction is sometimes considered unusual compared to Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages, in that the genitive follows the word it governs (taigh m'athar "my father's house", nominative athair). However, this structure is standard in German, for example ("das Haus meines Vaters") and Old Indo-European languages which mostly had free word order. In the Brittonic languages, genitive marking has been lost, and so the order is simply "owned + owner" ("ti fy nhad i" "my father's house"). This structure has frequently been compared with the construct state in Afro-Asiatic and particularly Semitic languages, though the details actually differ.

Indefinite and Definite

Gaelic has no indefinite article. Cù may mean either "dog" or "a dog", and coin may mean either "dogs" or "some dogs."[6]

The definite article is discussed below in full under articles. A noun or noun phrase is considered to be definite if it fulfils one of the following criteria.[6]

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Gaelic has singular and plural personal pronouns (i.e., no dual forms). Gender is distinguished only in the 3rd person singular. A T-V distinction is found in the 2nd person, with the plural form sibh used also as a polite singular.[6]

Simplidh
Simple 		Neartail
Emphatic 		Beurla
English
Singilte
Singular 		1st mi mise "I, me"
2nd Caidreach - Familiar thu
tu		 thusa
tusa 		"you"
Spéiseil - Respectful sibh sibhse "you"
3rd Fireann - Masculine e esan "him"
Boireann - Feminine i ise "her"
Iolra
Plural		 1st sinn sinne "we, us"
2nd sibh sibhse "you"
3rd iad iadsan "they, them"

In most cases the Classical Gaelic lenited form of tù, i.e. thù, has become generalised. Tu is retained in constructions where it is preceded by a former dental or -s:

Is tu a rinn a' mhoch-éirigh! "You are an early riser!"
Bu tu an uislig! "What an awe-inspiring object you were!" (In older Gaelic bu was written and pronounced budh)
Mun abradh tu “deas-dé.” "Before you had time to say even a single word."

Emphatic Personal Pronouns

The emphatic pronouns are used to express emphasis or contrast:[6]

Emphatic forms are found in all pronominal constructions:

Adjectives

Adjectives in Gaelic inflect according to gender and case in the singular. In the plural, a single form is used for both masculine and feminine genders, in all cases (although it may be lenited depending on the context).

Adjectives normally follow the noun they modify, and agree with it in gender, number and case. In addition, in the dative singular of masculine nouns, the leniting effect of a preceding definite article (see Articles below) can be seen on both the noun and the following adjective:

A small number of adjectives precede the noun, and generally cause lenition. For example:

Determiners

Possessive determiners

Gaelic uses possessive determiners (corresponding to my, your, their, etc.) differently than English. In Gaelic, possessive determiners are used mostly to indicate inalienable possession, for example for body parts or family members.

As indicated in the following table, some possessive determiners lenite the following word. Before a word beginning with a vowel, some of the determiners have elided forms, or require a linking consonant.[6]

before
consonant 		before
vowel 		eisimpleirean - examples
Singilte
Singular		 1st mo+L m' mo mhàthair, m' athair "my mother", "my father"
2nd Caidreach - Familiar do+L d' (or t') do mhàthair, d' athair "your mother", "your father"
Spéiseil - Respectful ur ur n- ur màthair, ur n-athair "your mother", "your father"
3rd Fireann – Masculine a+L a a mhàthair, (a) athair "his mother", "his father"
Boireann – Feminine a a h- a màthair, a h-athair "her mother", "her father"
Iolra
Plural		 1st ar ar n- ar màthair, ar n-athair "our mother", "our father"
2nd ur ur n- ur màthair, ur n-athair "your mother", "your father"
3rd an/am an am màthair, an athair "their mother", "their father"

The 3rd plural possessive an takes the form am before words beginning with a labial consonant: b, p, f, or m.

As discussed above, the linking consonants n- and h- reflect the presence of a final consonant that has disappeared in other contexts. Ar and ur are derived from genitive plural forms that originally ended in a nasal.[7] The feminine singular a derives from a form ending in final -s, whose only trace is now the prefixation of h- to a following vowel.[8]

To refer to non-permanent possession, one uses the preposition aig, as described above:

Emphatic Suffixes with Possessive Determiners

Emphatic suffixes are used with possessive determiners, and other parts of speech, to lend emphatic or contrastive power. They are used following nouns preceded by possessive pronouns to emphasize the pronominal element. Notice that -sa replaces -se in the first person singular in comparison to the pronominal emphatic suffixes above.[6]

possessive
determiner 		+ noun+suffix eisimpleirean - examples
Singilte
Singular		 1st mo+L or m {noun}-sa mo làmh-sa "my hand"
2nd Caidreach - Familiar do+L or d (or t) {noun}-sa do cheann-sa "your head"
Spéiseil - Respectful ur or ur n- {noun}-se ur n-aodann-se "your face"
3rd Fireann – Masculine a+L or a {noun}-san a uileann-san "his elbow"
Boireann – Feminine a or a h- {noun}-se a co-ogha-se "her cousin"
Iolra
Plural		 1st ar or ar n- {noun}-ne ar n-ogha-ne "our grandchild"
2nd ur or ur n- {noun}-se ur teaghlach-se "your family"
3rd an / am {noun}-san am baile-san "their town"

Articles

Gaelic has a definite article but no indefinite article:

an taigh — the house, taigh — (a) house

The singular article is often used to designate an entire class.[6]

Abstract nouns consistently take the singular article, as well.[6]

The form of the (definite) article depends on the number, gender, case of the noun. The following table shows the basic paradigm, as used when there is no assimilation to the initial sounds of the following word.

Singilte
Singular		 Iolra
Plural
Fireann
Masculine 		Boireann
Feminine
Ainmneach – Nominative AN AN +L NA
Tabhartach - Dative AN +L
Ginideach - Genitive AN +L NA NAN

The superscript "+L" indicates that the following word is lenited. The actual realization of the capitalised forms in the paradigm above depends on the initial sound of the following word, as explained in the following tables:

(used in: masc. sing. nom.)
AN an t- before vowel
am before b, f, m, p
an elsewhere
(used in: fem. sing. nom. & dat., masc. sing. dat. & gen.)
AN +L a' +L before b, c, g, m, p
an +L before f
an t- before s + vowel, sl, sn, sr
an elsewhere (before d, n, t, l, r, sg, sm, sp, st, vowel)

(used in: fem. sing. gen., plural nom. & dat.)
NA na before consonant
na h- before vowel
(used in: plural gen.)
NAN nam before b, f, m, p
nan elsewhere

Putting all of those variants together into one table:

Altan Cinnteach
Definite Article		 Fireann – Masculine Boireann – Feminine
Before
b, m, p 		Before
c, g 		Before
f 		Before
s + vowel,
sl, sn, sr 		Before
d, n, t,
l, r,
sg, sm,
sp, st 		Before
vowel 		Before
all else 		Before
b, m, p 		Before
c, g 		Before
f 		Before
s + vowel,
sl, sn, sr 		Before
d, n, t,
l, r,
sg, sm,
sp, st 		Before
vowel 		Before
all else
Ainmneach – Nominative
Singilte
Singular		 am an am an an an t- an a' +L a' +L an +L an t- an an an +L
Iolra
Plural		 na na na na na na na na na na na na na h- na
Tabhartach - Dative
Singilte
Singular		 a' +L a' +L an +L an t- an an an +L a' +L a' +L an +L an t- an an an +L
Iolra
Plural		 na na na na na na na na na na na na na h- na
Ginideach - Genitive
Singilte
Singular		 a' +L a' +L an +L an t- an an an +L na na na na na na h- na
Iolra
Plural		 nam nan nam nan nan nan nan nam nan nam nan nan nan nan

The forms of the definite article trace back to a Common Celtic stem *sindo-, sindā-. The initial s, already lost in the Old Irish period, is still preserved in the forms of some prepositions (see below). The original d can be seen in the form an t-, and the leniting effect of the form an+L is a trace of a lost final vowel. The form na h- reflects an original final -s.[9]

Example paradigms

The following examples illustrate a number of nominal declension patterns, and show how the definite article combines with different kinds of nouns.

Masculine noun paradigms

begins with [ c, g ]:
cat "cat" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an cat na cait
Tabhartach - Dative a' chat
Ginideach - Genitive a' chait nan cat
Gairmeach - Vocative a chait a chata
begins with [ b, m, p ]:
balach "boy" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative am balach na balaich
Tabhartach - Dative a' bhalach
Ginideach - Genitive a' bhalaich nam balach
Gairmeach - Vocative a bhalaich a bhalacha
begins with a vowel:
òran "song" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an t-òran na h-òrain
Tabhartach - Dative an òran
Ginideach - Genitive an òrain nan òran
Gairmeach - Vocative 'òrain òrana

begins with [ d, n, t, l, r ]:
rud "thing" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an rud na rudan
Tabhartach - Dative an rud
Ginideach - Genitive an ruid nan rudan
Gairmeach - Vocative a ruid a ruda
begins with [ f ]:
fiadh "deer" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative am fiadh na féidh
Tabhartach - Dative an fhiadh
Ginideach - Genitive an fhéidh nam fiadh
Gairmeach - Vocative fhéidh 'fhiadha
begins with [ s, sl, sn, sr ]:
seòmar "room" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an seòmar na seòmraichean
Tabhartach - Dative an t-seòmar
Ginideach - Genitive an t-seòmair nan seòmraichean
Gairmeach - Vocative a sheòmair a sheòmraiche

Feminine noun paradigms

begins with [ c, g ]:
caileag "girl" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative a' chaileag na caileagan
Tabhartach - Dative a' chaileig
Ginideach - Genitive na caileig(e) nan caileagan
begins with [ b, m, p ]:
pìob "pipe" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative a' phìob na pìoban
Tabhartach - Dative a' phìob
Ginideach - Genitive na pìoba nam pìob(an)
begins with a vowel:
abhainn "river" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an abhainn na h-aibhnichean
Tabhartach - Dative an abhainn
Ginideach - Genitive na h-aibhne nan aibhnichean

begins with [ d, n, t, l, r ]:
léine "shirt" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an léine na léintean
Tabhartach - Dative an léine
Ginideach - Genitive na léine nan léintean
begins with [ f ]:
fidheall "fiddle" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an fhidheall na fidhlean
Tabhartach - Dative an fhidheall
Ginideach - Genitive na fidhle nam fidhlean
begins with [ s, sl, sn, sr ]:
sràid "street" Singilte
Singular 		Iolra
Plural
Ainmneach – Nominative an t-sràid na sràidean
Tabhartach - Dative an t-sràid
Ginideach - Genitive na sràide nan sràid(ean)

Verbs

Verbal constructions may make use of synthetic verb forms which are marked to indicate person (the number of such forms is limited), tense, mood, and voice (active, impersonal/passive). Gaelic has very few irregular verbs, conjugational paradigms being remarkably consistent for two verb classes, with the two copular or "be" verbs being the most irregular. In the paradigm of the verb, the majority of verb-forms are not person-marked and independent pronouns are required as in English, Norwegian and other languages. Alongside constructions involving synthetic verb forms, analytic (or 'periphrastic') aspectual constructions are extremely frequently used and in many cases are obligatory (compare English "be + -ing" and Spanish "estar + -Vndo" verbal constructions). These structures convey tense, aspect and modality, often in fused forms.

'Verbal nouns' play a crucial role in the verbal system, being used in periphrastic verbal constructions preceded by a preposition where they act as the sense verb, and a stative verb conveys tense, aspect and mood information, in a pattern that is familiar from other Indo-European languages. Verbal nouns are true nouns in morphology and inherent properties, having gender, case and their occurrence in what are prepositional phrases, and in which non-verbal nouns are also found. Verbal nouns carry verbal semantic and syntactic force in such core verbal constructions as a result of their meaning content, as do other nouns found in such constructions, such as tha e 'na thosd "he is quiet, he stays silent", literally "he is in his silence", which mirrors the stative usage found in tha e 'na shuidhe "he is sitting, he sits", literally "he is in his sitting". This is similar to words such as "bed" in English and "letto" in Italian when used in prepositional phrases such as "in bed" and "a letto" "in bed", where "bed" and "letto" express a stative meaning. The verbal noun covers many of the same notions as infinitives, gerunds and present participles in other Indo-European languages.

Traditional grammars use the terms 'past', 'future tense', 'conditional', 'imperative' and 'subjunctive' in describing the five core Scottish Gaelic verb forms; however, modern scholarly linguistic texts reject such terms borrowed from traditional grammar descriptions based on the concepts of Latin grammar. In a general sense, the verb system is similar to that found in Irish, the major difference being the loss of the simple present, this being replaced by the periphrastic forms noted above. These periphrastic forms in Irish have retained their use of showing continuous aspect. The tense–aspect system of Gaelic is ill-studied; Macaulay (1992) gives a reasonably comprehensive account.

Copula verbs

The number of copular verbs and their exact function in Gaelic is a topic of contention among researchers. There is a certain amount of variation in sources, making it difficult to come to a definitive conclusion about certain aspects of copular verbs. However, there is some information that consistently shows up across these sources, which we will discuss in this section.

Gaelic has two copular "be" verbs, though some grammar books treat them as two parts of a single suppletive verb:

Bi: attributes a property to a noun or pronoun; its complement is typically a description that expresses position, state, non-permanent characteristic (see further below)

Present independent tha
Present relative ata
Present dependent bheil, eil
Present imperfective, future independent bidh, bithidh
Present imperfective, future dependent bi
Past perfective independent bha
Past perfective dependent robh
Past imperfective bhìodh

Is: Historically called the “copula” verb, is can be used in constructions with nominal complements and adjectival complements. It also has the additional function of “topicalization”, a term that means a certain element of a sentence is being emphasized as the topic of interest.[10]

Present independent is
Present relative as
Present dependent bu
Past bu

Is:

In English, italics (for text) and stress (for speech) are used to emphasize different elements of a sentence; one can also change the word order to put the emphasized element first. Scottish Gaelic, however, does not use stress and very rarely uses word order changes to create emphasis. Instead, it uses topicalization, for example when “a sentence with the verb is followed by the element topicalised” (MacAulay, 189). This equates the English fronting device "it is X that ...":

Examples (from MacAulay, pages 189-190):

1- The subject is emphasized

    Is e                      Iain a   thug an  leabhar do Anna an dè
    is 3SG-MASC-PRON          Ian  REL gave the book    to Anna yesterday
    "It is Ian who gave the book to Anna yesterday."

2-The direct object is emphasized

    Is e              an  leabhar a   thug Iain do Anna an dè
    is 3SG-MASC-PRON  the book    REL gave Ian  to Anna yesterday
    "It is the book that Ian gave to Anna yesterday."

3- The indirect object is emphasized

    Is ann    do Anna a   thug Iain an  leabhar an dè
    is in-it  to Anna REL gave Ian  the book    yesterday
    "It is to Anna that Ian gave the book yesterday."

4-The adjunct is emphasized

    Is ann    an dè     a   thug Iain an  leabhar do Anna
    is in-it  yesterday REL gave Ian  the book    to Anna
    "It was yesterday that Ian gave the book to Anna."

5-The complement is emphasized (for aspectual sentences)

    Is ann    a’ toirt     an  leabhair to Anna a   bha Iain
    is in-it  at giving-VN the book-GEN to Anna REL was Ian
   *"It was giving the book to Anna that Ian was."

The fronting use of is is part of its general function of ascribing a descriptions to a complement (see below). Most commonly one will see classificatory or adjectival complements, as shown below:

(a) 

    Is duine Iain
    is man   Ian
    "Ian is a man."

(b) 

    Is math sin!
    is good that
    "That is good!"[10]

Bi:

Historically called the “substantive” verb, tha (the present indicative independent 3rd person singular form of bi) can be used in constructions with adjectival complements, locative predicates, and in aspectually marked sentences (MacAulay, page 180).

Examples (MacAulay, page 178):

(c) adjectival complement

    Tha an  càr mòr
    is  the car large
    "The car is large."

(d) locative

    Tha an  càr air an  rathad 
    is  the car on  the road
    "The car is on the road."

(e) aspectually marked

    Tha an  càr a’ siubhal
    is  the car at travelling
    "The car is travelling."

It is also possible to use tha to describe a noun or pronoun with a nominal complement by using an embedded pronoun (MacAulay, page 179):

(f) Example with tha

    Tha Iain 'na                                                   shaighdear
    is  Ian  in.3SG.MASC.PRON (in-his; for convenience)            soldier
    "Ian is a soldier."

(g) Example with is

    Is  saighdear Iain
    is  soldier   Ian
    "Ian is a soldier."

The two usages carry a semantic contrast. Is shows a permanent state, while tha shows that the state of being a soldier is temporary in some way or other. Often the tha construction is used when someone has just become a soldier, for example, while the is construction shows that being a soldier is a part of Ian's persona.

Notice that the example using is exhibits a diversion from the typical VSO word order. In Classical Gaelic, is incorporates the subject (3rd person singular), the noun or adjective that follows is in the nominative, and the second noun/pronoun is objective in case. In Modern Gaelic, this has been reanalysed as V - Topic/Complement - S, or V - S - S, a "double nominative construction", as it were. Latin based descriptions, however, assume the first analysis. The tha example maintains VSO/VSC word order, where the complement is a prepositional phrase that states what state the subject is in (in the state of being a soldier); cf. tha e 'na shuidhe and tha e 'na thosd above.

The difference between tha and is is that tha describes psychologically temporary states:

tha mi sgìth – "I am tired"
tha an duine reamhair – "the man is fat"

Is, on the other hand, describes more permanent conditions — that is, states of being that are intrinsic and/or not seen as having an assumed end:

is beag an taigh e – "it's a small house"
is Albannach mi - "I am Scottish"

In the last example, for instance, if someone were to become a Scottish citizen, the phrase would be Tha mi 'nam Albannach anise "I am Scottish now".

Verb forms, tense and aspect

Tense and aspect are marked in Gaelic in a number of ways.

Present tense is formed by use of the verb "tha" and the verbal noun (or participle) form of the main verb. The construction, unlike Irish Gaelic, is neutral to aspect. Apart from this, tense and aspect marking are very similar in the two languages.

Tha mi a' bruidhinn. – "I am speaking" or "I speak" (lit. "Am I at speaking")

The perfective past in regular verbs is indicated by lenition of the initial consonant, and d'/dh' addition with verbs that start with a vowel or "f" (do is the underlying form in all cases):

bruidhinn [ˈprujɪɲ] "speak" : bhruidhinn mi [ˈvrujɪɲ mi] "I spoke"
òl [ɔ:lɤ] "drink" : dh'òl mi "I drank"
fuirich [furʲiç] "wait, stay" : dh'fhuirich mi "I waited/stayed"

For the English speaker learning Gaelic, it is sometimes difficult to learn to listen to the beginning of a word for its time indicator rather than the end (in English, either the end of a verb is marked with -ed/-t to indicate past tense, or the verb itself (e.g. "sing" > "sang").

Gaelic has verb inflexion to indicate either the present imperfective or the future tense:

bruidhnnidh mi – "I speak", "I will speak", "I speak (at times/occasionally/often)".

The habitual continuous and future continuous is expressed by using the habitual verb bi:

Bidh mi a' bruidhinn – "I speak (regularly)", "I will be speaking", "I am speaking as a normal habit", etc.

As in other Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic expresses modality and psych-verbals (such as "like", "prefer", "be able to", "manage to", "must"/"have to", "make"="compel to") by periphrastic constructions involving various adjectives, prepositional phrases and the copula or another verb, some of which involve highly unusual syntactic patterns when compared to English.

Prepositions and similar words

Prepositions in Gaelic govern the dative (prepositional) case.[6] There are also some preposition-like word forms are followed by the nominative or genitive. In "traditional" Latin/English-based grammar these are also often called prepositions.

All so-called "compound prepositions" consist of a simple preposition and a noun, and therefore the word they refer to is in the genitive case:

Some prepositions have different forms (ending in -s or -n) when followed by the article. In the case of -s, this is from the original initial s- of the definite article (Old Irish sin, in), while where -n is concerned, this is an extension from prepositions that end in -n, like Classical Gaelic i/a "in", before vowels in/an (Modern Gaelic an and am have become the standard forms except in set phrases such as a-mach "out(wards)"):

Inflected Prepositions with Personal Pronouns

Prepositions that mark the dative take the conjugated dative forms of the personal pronouns, thus *aig mi "at me" and *le iad "with them" are incorrect. Such preposition have conjugated forms, like verbs (see Inflected preposition). The following table presents some commonly used paradigms.[6]

+ mi
"me" 		thu
"you,
sg. fam." 		sibh
"you,
sg. respect." 		e
"him" 		i
"her" 		sinn
"us" 		sibh
"you, pl." 		iad
"them"
aig "at" agam agad agaibh aige aice againn agaibh aca
air "on" orm ort oirbh air oirre oirnn oirbh orra
le "with" leam leat leibh leis leatha leinn leibh leotha
ann an "in" annam annad annaibh ann innte annainn annaibh annta
do "to, for" dhomh dhut dhuibh dha dhi dhuinn dhuibh dhaibh

Emphatic Forms

Like the personal pronouns, inflected prepositions have emphatic forms derived by adding the following suffixes:[6]

+ sa sa se san se ne se san
aig "at" agamsa agadsa agaibhse aigesan aicese againne agaibhse acasan
air "on" ormsa ortsa oirbhse airsan oirrese oirnne oirbhse orrasan
le "with" leamsa leatsa leibhse leisan leathase leinne leibhse leothasan
ann an "in" annamsa annadsa annaibhse annsan inntese annainne annaibhse anntasan
do "to, for" dhomhsa dhutsa dhuibhse dhasan dhise dhuinne dhuibhse dhaibhsan

Inflected Prepositions with Possessive Determiners

When the prepositions an "in" (often found in the combined form ann an) is followed by a possessive determiner, the two words create a combined form.[6] This also occurs with ag, the form of aig used with verbal nouns, and a+L.[6] As the last elements of these forms are the possessive determiners, the expected mutations occur.

+ mo
"my" 		do
"your,
sg. fam." 		ur
"your,
sg. respect." 		a
"his" 		a
"her" 		ar
"our" 		ur
"your, pl." 		an
"their"
[ann] an "in" nam+L nad+L nur [n-] na+L na [h-] nar [n-] nur [n-] nan / nam
ag "at" gam+L gad+L gur [n-] ga+L ga [h-] gar [n-] gur [n-] gan / 'gam
a+L "to" am+L ad+L ur [n-] a+L a [h-] ar [n-] ur [n-] an / am

Emphatic Forms

The emphatic forms of inflected propositions based on possessive determiners follows the emphatic forms of the emphatic suffixes with possessive determiners. That is, the suffix is added to the noun following the possessive determiner rather than to the possessive determiner itself.[6]

+ sa sa se san se ne se san
ann an "in" nam+L {noun}-sa nad+L {noun}-sa nur {noun}-se na+L {noun}-san na [h-] {noun}-se nar [n-] {noun}-ne nur {noun}-se nan / nam {noun}-san
ag "at" gam+L {noun}-sa gad+L {noun}-sa gur {noun}-se ga+L {noun}-san ga [h-] {noun}-se gar [n-] {noun}-ne gur {noun}-se gan / gam {noun}-san
a "to" am+L {noun}-sa ad+L {noun}-sa ur {noun}-se a+L {noun}-san a [h-] {noun}-se ar [n-] {noun}-ne ur {noun}-se an / am {noun}-san

References and Notes

  1. ↑ See Celtic languages#Characteristics of Celtic languages.
  2. ↑ The phonological aspects of these processes are discussed in Scottish Gaelic phonology. See also Irish initial mutations.
  3. ↑ Lewis & Pedersen (1989), §167ff; Calder (1923), §6
  4. ↑ Thurneysen (1946), §230ff; Calder (1923), §19
  5. ↑ Thurneysen (1946), §§230, 236ff; Calder (1923), §§13, 48
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Ó Maolalaigh, Roibeard; Iain MacAonghuis (1999). Scottish Gaelic in Three Months. DK Publishing, Inc. ISBN 0-7894-4430-5.
  7. ↑ Lewis & Pedersen (1989), §357 ("ⁿ" indicates nasal mutation):
    *nserōm > *ēsar/asar > OI athar > arⁿ > ar n-
    *sweserōm > *sear > OI sethar > farⁿ > (bh)ur n-
  8. ↑ Lewis & Pedersen (1989), §358; Thurneysen (1993), §§240, 441 ("g" indicates gemination):
    *esjās > OI ag > a h-
  9. ↑ Lewis & Pedersen (1989) §200; Thurneysen (1993) §467
  10. 1 2 MacAulay, D., Dochartaigh, C.Ó., Ternes, E., Thomas, A.R., & Thomson, R.L. (1992). The Celtic languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Full Reference Citations

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