Jeeagh er bun Old Irish/Morphology/Nominal Proclitics and Particles

A general guide to clitic and particle morphemes, allomorphs and morphosyntactical structures in Old Irish noun phrases.

= The Vocative Particle =

Nouns in the <b>{{smallcaps|vocative}}</b> are always preceded by the <b>{{smallcaps|vocative}}</b> particle {{seanchlo|a}}<sup>L</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|á}}<sup>L</sup>), e.g. {{seanchlo|a ḟir}} ‘o man’. There is no inflectional variation in the particle and it only lenites.

= The Dual Numeral =

Nouns in the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> are always preceded by the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> numeral.

The <b>{{smallcaps|masculine}}</b> form of the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> is {{seanchlo|da}}<sup>L</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|dá}}<sup>L</sup>) in the <b>{{smallcaps|nominative}}</b>, <b>{{smallcaps|accusative}}</b> and <b>{{smallcaps|genitive}}</b>, e.g. {{seanchlo|da ḟer}} ‘two men/of two men’.

The <b>{{smallcaps|neuter}}</b> form of the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> is {{seanchlo|da}}<sup>N</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|dá}}<sup>N</sup>) in the <b>{{smallcaps|nominative}}</b>, <b>{{smallcaps|accusative}}</b> and <b>{{smallcaps|genitive}}</b>, e.g. {{seanchlo|da n-armm}} ‘two weapons/of two weapons’.

The <b>{{smallcaps|feminine}}</b> form of the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> is {{seanchlo|di}}<sup>L</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|dí}}<sup>L</sup>) in the <b>{{smallcaps|nominative}}</b> and <b>{{smallcaps|accusative}}</b>, e.g. {{seanchlo|di thúaith}} ‘two tribes’. The <b>{{smallcaps|feminine}}</b> form of the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> is {{seanchlo|da}}<sup>L</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|dá}}<sup>L</sup>) in the <b>{{smallcaps|genitive}}</b>, e.g. {{seanchlo|da thúath}} ‘of two tribes’.

The <b>{{smallcaps|masculine}}</b>, <b>{{smallcaps|neuter}}</b> and <b>{{smallcaps|feminine}}</b> form of the <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> is {{seanchlo|dib}}<sup>N</sup> (var. {{seanchlo|díb}}<sup>N</sup>, {{seanchlo|deib}}<sup>N</sup>) in the <b>{{smallcaps|dative}}</b>, which is always preceded by a preposition (or a combination of a preposition and the article), e.g. {{seanchlo|la dib n-armm}} ‘with two weapons’.

The <b>{{smallcaps|dual}}</b> never applies to nouns in the <b>{{smallcaps|vocative}}</b>; the <b>{{smallcaps|plural}}</b> form of the noun is used instead.