irish morphology

The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for gender, number, and case, and verbs for person and number. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for a Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations. The discussion of Irish morphology has been split up into three articles. On this page, the pronouns, inflected prepositions, and numbers are discussed. Irish nouns, adjectives, and the definite article are discussed on the page on Irish nominals. Irish verbs are discussed at Irish verbs.

Pronouns

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 order in Irish is verb-subject-object (VSO). The forms of the subject pronoun directly following the verb are called conjunctive:

Singular	Plural
1st	m	(muid)
2nd	t	sibh
3rd	masc. s; fem. s	siad

The form muid in the 1st person plural is not used in the standard language, but is very common in the dialects. The standard has no subject pronoun in the 1st person plural but uses 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 t and sibh is simply one of grammatical number.

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:

Singular	Plural
1st	m	sinn
2nd	th	sibh
3rd	masc. ; fem.	iad

Emphatic forms

Irish also has emphatic forms, used to give the pronouns a bit more weight.

Singular	Plural
1st	mise	muidne, sinne
2nd	t(h)usa	sibhse
3rd	masc. (s)eisean; fem. (s)ise	(s)iadsan

The word fin (fe:n or he:n) '-self' can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.

Rinne m fin . 'I did it myself.'

Ar ghortaigh t th fin? 'Did you hurt yourself?'

Sinn Fin is thus 'We Ourselves'

Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns cause different initial consonant mutations. mo 'my' lenites; m' precedes vowels

mo chara 'my friend'

m'fheirm 'my farm'

m'athair 'my father'

do 'your (sg.)' lenites; d' precedes vowels

do chara 'your friend'

d'fheirm 'your farm'

d'athair 'your father'

a 'his' lenites

a chara 'his friend'

a fheirm 'his farm'

a athair 'his father'

a 'her' takes the radical of a consonant and adds an h to a vowel

a cara 'her friend'

a feirm 'her farm'

a hathair 'her father'

r 'our' eclipses

r gcara 'our friend'

r bhfeirm 'our farm'

r n-athair 'our father'

bhur 'your(pl.)' eclipses

bhur gcara 'your friend'

bhur bhfeirm 'your farm'

bhur n-athair 'your father'

a 'their' eclipses

a gcara 'their friend'

a bhfeirm 'their farm'

a n-athair 'their father'

The forms a and r can also blend with certain prepositions: de and do>

d chara 'from/to his friend'; d feirm 'from/to her farm'; dr n-athair 'from/to our father'; d n-athair 'from/to their father'
faoi	faoina chara 'about his friend'; faoinr n-athair 'about our father'
i	ina feirm 'in her farm'; inr bhfeirm 'in our farm'
le	lena n-athair 'with their father; lenr bpiste 'with our child'
	na bhean 'from his wife'; nr dtaighde 'from our research'
tr	trna cos 'through her foot'; trnr dteach 'through our house'

The object of a verbal noun is governed by the genitive:

T s ag pl a rothair. 'He's discussing his bicycle' (lit.: He is at the discussing of his bicycle)

If the object of the verbal noun is a pronoun, that pronoun is possessive:

T s ' phl.''' 'He's discussing it.' (lit.: He is at its (i.e. the bicycle's) discussing)

More examples:

T s do mo bhualadh. 'She's hitting me.'
T siad do do phl. 'They are discussing you.'
T s ' pgadh.''' 'He's kissing her.'
T t dr mbualadh. 'You're hitting us.'
T m do bhur bpl. 'I'm discussing you(pl.).'
T sibh ' bpgadh.''' 'You(pl.) are kissing them.'

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns introduce a question, e.g. the words who, what, which. The Irish equivalents are:

c 'who?, which?'
cad or card 'what?'
c 'which?'

Examples:

C a rinne ? 'Who did it?'
C a chonaic t? 'Who did you see?'
C ar thug t an leabhar d? 'Who did you give the book to?'

Cad at ort? 'What's wrong (with you)?' (lit. 'What is on you?')
Card a dirt t? 'What did you say?'

C hainm at ort? 'What's your name?' (lit. 'Which name is upon you?')
C haois t? 'How old are you?' (lit. 'Which age are you?')

Inflected prepositions

As the object of a preposition, a pronoun is fused with the preposition; one speaks here of "inflected" or "conjugated" prepositions. ag 'at'

1	agam 'at me'	againn 'at us'
2	agat 'at you'	agaibh 'at you(pl.)'
3	aige 'at him' aici 'at her'	acu 'at them'

ar 'on'

1	orm	orainn
2	ort	oraibh
3	air uirthi	orthu

as 'out of, from'

1	asam	asainn
2	asat	asaibh
3	as aisti	astu

chuig, chun 'to, towards'

1	chugam	chugainn
2	chugat	chugaibh
3	chuige chuici	chucu

de 'from,of'

1	dom	dnn
2	dot	dbh
3	de di	dobh

do 'to, for'

1	dom	dinn
2	duit	daoibh
3	d di	dibh

faoi 'under; about (concerning)'

1	fm	finn
2	ft	fibh
3	faoi fithi	fthu

i 'in'

1	ionam	ionainn
2	ionat	ionaibh
3	ann inti	iontu

idir 'between'

1	idir m	eadrainn
2	idir th	eadraibh
3	idir idir	eatarthu

le 'with'

1	liom	linn
2	leat	libh
3	leis li	leo

'from, since'

1	uaim	uainn
2	uait	uaibh
3	uaidh uaithi	uathu

roimh 'before, in front of'

1	romham	romhainn
2	romhat	romhaibh
3	roimhe roimpi	rompu

thar 'beyond, over'

1	tharam	tharainn
2	tharat	tharaibh
3	thairis thairsti	tharstu

tr 'through'

1	trom	trnn
2	trot	trbh
3	trd trthi	trothu

um 'around'

1	umam	umainn
2	umat	umaibh
3	uime uimpi	umpu

Numbers

Cardinal numbers

There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.

Disjunctive numbers

nid	13	a tr dag
1	a haon	14	a ceathair dag
2	a d	20	fiche
3	a tr	21	fiche a haon
4	a ceathair	30	trocha
5	a cig	40	daichead
6	a s	50	caoga
7	a seacht	60	seasca
8	a hocht	70	seacht
9	a naoi	80	ocht
10	a deich	90	ncha
11	a haon dag	100	cad
12	a d dhag	1000	mle

These numbers are used for example in arithmetic, in telling time, in telephone numbers and after nouns in forms like bus a tr dag 'Bus 13' or seomra a d 'Room 2'.

Nonhuman conjunctive numbers

These numbers are used to count nouns that do not refer to human beings, e.g. capall 'horse'

aon chapall amhin; capall amhin	13	tr chapall dag
2	dh chapall	20	fiche capall
3	tr chapall	21	capall is fiche
4	ceithre chapall	22	dh chapall is fiche
5	cig chapall	30	trocha capall
6	s chapall	40	daichead capall
7	seacht gcapall	50	caoga capall
8	ocht gcapall	60	seasca capall
9	naoi gcapall	70	seacht capall
10	deich gcapall	80	ocht capall
11	aon chapall dag	90	ncha capall
12	dh chapall dag	100	cad capall

'one' as a pronoun = ceann (lit. 'head') when it concerns things and animals, e.g.:

T cig chapall agam; t ceann acu breoite. '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. piste 'child'

aon phiste amhin; piste amhin	7	seachtar piste
2	beirt phiste	8	ochtar piste
3	trir piste	9	naonr piste
4	ceathrar piste	10	deichnir piste
5	cigear piste	11	aon phiste dag
6	seisear piste	12	drag piste

'one' as a pronoun = duine (lit. 'person') with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:

T cigear piste agam; t duine acu breoite. 'I have five children; one of them is sick.'

T seisear sa seomra. 'Six people are in the room.'

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: tr phiste dag, fiche piste, etc.

Ordinal numbers

an chad chapall	13th	an tr capall dag
2nd	an dara capall	20th	an fichi capall
3rd	an tr capall	21st	an t-aon capall is fiche
4th	an ceathr capall	22nd	an d chapall is fiche
5th	an cigi capall	30th	an trochad capall
6th	an s capall	40th	an daichead capall
7th	an seacht capall	50th	an caogad capall
8th	an t-ocht capall	60th	an seascad capall
9th	an nao capall	70th	an seachtd capall
10th	an deichi capall	80th	an t-ochtd capall
11th	an t-aon capall dag	90th	an nchad capall
12th	an d capall dag	100th	an cad capall