Irish/Relative clauses

There comes a time in the life of every learner of Irish when they have to face Irish relative clause constructions, and it can be a challenge. Relative clause is one that refers back to something that was mentioned before (or, in some languages, will be mentioned later) – often providing more information about it, for example in the English sentence:

• The man whom I had seen before walked in

the whom I had seen before is a relative clause that refers back to the man of the outer clause (the man … walked in).

The thing the relative clause refers back to (so the man in the example above) is called the antecedent.

Irish is famous in having two types of relative clauses – direct and indirect ones (the latter being an Irish innovation, this form didn’t really exist in Classical Gaelic and isn’t found in other Gaelic languages).

Direct relative

Direct relative clauses are formed with the relative particle a and the lenited independent form of the verb (or the relative form if a given dialect uses those).

Clauses of this type have their verb refer directly to their antecedent – this means that there is no word, like a pronoun, referring back to the antecedent and that the antecedent is closely related to the verb of the relative clause.

This means that you use the direct relative clause when the antecedent is one of the following:

1. the subject of the relative clause,
2. the direct object of the relative clause,
3. an adverb describing the manner or time of the verb of the relative clause.

For example, when the antecedent is the subject:

• an fear a mholann an leabhar ‘the man who praises the book’ (or a mholas, a mholanns with the relative form),
• an bhean a bhí sa tseomra ‘the woman who was in the room’.

or the object:

• an buachaill a chonac ‘the boy whom I saw’,
• na leabhair a léigh sé ‘the books that he read’.

Note that sometimes only the context can disambiguate whether the clause describes its subject or object:

• an fear a chonaic an bhean can mean either ‘the man who saw the woman’ and ‘the man whom the woman saw’.

This is also the construction used with adverbs of time and nouns denoting time (which work adverbially), like nuair ‘when’, an lá ‘the day’, an bhliain ‘the year’, etc. (but see below – in Connacht it’s common to use indirect relative clauses with time nouns too):

• an lá a bhí mé in Éirinn ‘the day when I was in Ireland’,
• 'nuair a tháinig sé ‘when he came’.

And the same logic applies to adverbials (prepositional phrases and other averbs) fronted with the copula:

• is ar an mbord atá an cat ‘it is on the table that the cat is’,
• is liomsa a bhí tú ag caint ‘it is to me that you were talking’.

Note that for the verb tá the form used in relative clauses is atá and it’s not lenited – that’s because the verb comes from Old Irish at·tá, a compound verb. Those had the verbal rule lenited in relative clauses, and ·tá could not be lenited after at·. So it was invariably at·tá, in Classical Gaelic a-tá. In Modern Irish the initiall a- was dropped except in relative clause contexts (where it is understood as the relative particle), but lack of lenition remained.

Relative form of the verb

Dialects of Ulster and Connacht have special relative forms of verbs in the present and future tenses (but not in the past). Those forms are not used in Munster dialects (except for some set phrases), the relative form is optional but allowed in the Caighdeán Oifigiúil.

In the present tense in Ulster and Standard Irish the ending is -(e)as or -(í)os replacing the present ending -(e)ann, -(í)onn:

• an fear a mholas an leabhar ‘the man who praises the book’.

In Connacht the -s is added to -(e)ann, -(í)onn, resulting in -(e)anns, -(í)onns:

• an fear a mholanns an leabhar ‘the man who praises the book’.

In the future tense the ending is -f(e)as:

• an fear a mholfas an leabhar ‘the man who will praise the book’.

There is one verb whose relative form is required by an Caighdeán Oifigiúil, that is lean ‘follow’ which in present tense direct relative clauses is required to be leanas ‘which follows, that follows’.

The copula

The relative form of the copula is is /əs/, just like the independent form. It is sometimes written as in older texts.

[TODO: examples]

Indirect relative

Indirect relative clauses are formed with the other relative particle a (sometimes go or na, see below) and the eclipsed dependent form of the verb (the relative form of verbs is not used in this type!). In the past tense with regular nouns leniting ar is used instead.

Clauses of this type generally have some type of pronoun referring back to their antecedent, this might be:

1. a prepositional pronoun (like air ‘on him / it’, léi ‘with her / it’, acu ‘at them’, etc.),
2. a possessive pronoun (a ‘his / her / their’, also merged with a preposition like dá ‘to his’, etc.),
3. or a direct object pronoun (é ‘him / it’, í ‘her / it’, iad ‘them’).

Some examples of the first one would be:

• an bord a bhfuil an cat air — the table that the cat is on, air ‘on it’ refers back to an bord ‘the table’,
• an cailín a raibh mé ag caint léi — the girl I was talking to, léi ‘with her / to her’ refers to an cailín ‘the girl’,
• tuigim an teanga ar scríobh tú an teachtaireacht inti — I understand the language in which you wrote the message (literally … that you wrote the message in it), inti ‘in it’ (feminine) refers to an teanga,
• na leabhair ar fhoghlaim mé uathu – the books I learned from, uathu ‘from them’ refers to na leabhair ‘the books’.

Note that the prepositional pronoun agrees in number and gender to the thing referred to (in case of cailín ‘girl’ it actually agrees with the “natural” perceived gender rather than the noun’s gender, as is common when talking about humans).

When the pronoun is a possessive one then the clause translates as a ‘whose’-relative clause to English:

• an buachaill a bhfuil a mháthair breoite — the boy whose mother is sick, the leniting a ‘his’ refers back an buachaill ‘the boy’,
• sin í an bhean a raibh mé sa scoil lena mac – this is the woman with whose son I was in school (lit. … that I was in school with her son), lena ‘with her’ refers back to an bhean ‘the woman’,

[TODO: the rest + examples]

[TODO: explain “exceptions” like an fáth a bhfuil…, an áit a bhfuilim, etc. – historically prepositional clauses]

Alternative forms of the particle

In Munster dialects generally go is used instead of a in indirect relative clauses. This generally affects only the “normal” indirect relative clauses – not the prepositional ones with the preposition before the clause, those remain the same.

[TODO: examples]

Sometimes go gets used in Connacht too, but it’s rarer there.

Another particle is na which also happens in Munster, especially in older texts – it’s generally interchangeable with go as the marker of indirect relative clause.

[TODO: examples]

Other relativizers

[TODO: mar ‘where’]

[TODO: dá ‘when’]