Difference between revisions of "A Guide to Irish Cases"

Aavriwnys veih 18:16, 4 Averil 2023

Intro

Different languages have different strategies for showing the relationships between parts of a sentence. In English, we tend to use small, 'filler' words and word order as tools to show these relationships; for example, when we want to show the spacial relationship between two objects, we use prepositions like 'on', 'below' or 'beside' depending on what best suits the relationship. Or perhaps when we want to show how one object is related to another, we put the two words together, like in the phrase 'grammar guide', the first word is describing some aspect of the second one, in this case it's showing what kind of guide it is. However, in some languages there is an extra variable that helps to show listeners these relationships; grammatical case.

What are Cases?

Cases are different forms of the same basic word that emphasise different roles the word has in the sentence, ie. Whether it's acting or is being acted upon, whether it's being affected by a preposition, whether it's related to another noun or not, etc. These forms can be relatively minor changes (cúblálaí 'manipulator'; an cúblálaí, a chúblálaí, an chúblálaí) or they can be fairly different (bean 'woman'; an bhean, a bhean, na mná), what underpins them all is that there is some change to the noun between the different forms.

In Irish there are 3 cases that all have their own jobs and provide different pieces of information about the state the noun is in. These are the common case (an tuiseal ainmneach), the genitive (an tuiseal ginideach) and the vocative (an tuiseal gairmeach).

Whether a noun is singular or plural does not affect what case it is in.

The Common Case

The common case (tuiseal ainmneach) is the citation form of the word. That is, when we are naming the concept of something, for example, when listing dictionary entries. It is by far the most common form of the noun you will see in Irish

Usage

The common case descends historically from the merger of two different cases; the nominative and the accusative case. Originally, the nominative showed which noun was the subject (ie. acting upon something else), and the accusative showed which was the object (ie. the noun having the action done to it), forming a system where the main grammatical distinction between nouns was whether they were the subject or the object. The accusative's form was rarely distinct from that of the other cases, for some nouns it was identical to the nominative, and for others, the dative. This led to it becoming subsumed by the nominative case to eliminate confusion and to regularise the paradigm, causing the two cases to merge into the common case.

Despite previous instances of the accusative now being governed by nouns in the nominative form, the role of the accusative did not die out but became part of this new case's jurisdiction. For example, we use the common case to cover both the subject and object. As can be seen below.

Feiceann an fear an bhean - The man sees the woman
Feiceann an bhean an fear - The woman sees the man

No matter who is seen by whom, both bean 'woman' and fear 'man' stay the same and do not change. They do not have to change case because the order of the words is fixed in simple sentences like this; the verb comes first, followed by the subject or the 'doer', and then finally by the object or the direct recipient of the action. This is in contrast to many other languages, such as German, where depending on the role of the noun as either subject or object, it will change its form. This is not how Irish behaves and it is for this reason that I've chosen the term 'common case' over the more traditional, Latin-based designation of the 'nominative case' to avoid the confusing implication that there might be an accusative case. I will add a German example for comparison using der Präsident 'the president' and der Bär 'the bear'. However, if you don't speak German, this example just illustrates some differences between Irish and more common languages. It is unnecessary to understand the concept of the common case.

Der Bär sieht den Präsidenten - The bear sees the predsident
Der Präsident sieht den Bären - The president sees the bear

Another use of the historical accusative case was to turn a noun into an adverb. This use still survives today and has been assimilated into the common case. To see this, we must look at a few examples:

Shuigh sé tamall ar an bhinse - He sat on the bench a while
D'fhan sé bliain sa Ghaeltacht - He stayed a year in the Gaeltacht
Tá'n pub suite suas an cabhsa ón ollmhargadh - The pub is located up the lane from the supermarket
Tránn an fharraige ciliméadar ón bhaile le lag trá - The sea recedes a kilometre from the town at low tide

In these examples, tamall 'a while', bliain 'a year', suas an cabhsa 'up the lane', and ciliméadar 'kilometre' behave like adverbs describing the action occurring in the sentence. In the first two examples, the two bolded nouns describe the time the action took place. eg. How long did he stay/sit there? a year/a while. In the second two, the nouns describe the distance the action takes place over. eg. How far does it receed? a kilometre, Where is it located from the supermarket? up the lane, etc.

There is also a similar use of the common case roughly equivalent to the English preposition 'per'. For example, some such phrases:

Bhí siúl trí chéad ciliméadar an uair ar an ghaoth inné - The wind was at a speed of 300 kilometres per hour yesterday
Beidh trí iontráil an chatagóir ann ar deireadh - There will be three entries per category in it by the end
Cá mhéad atá ar na ticéidí? Cúig euro an duine - How much are the tickets? 5 euro per person

Morphology

When in the common case, attributive adjectives (teach mór, mór is an attributive adjective because it's attached to teach 'a house') and articles (eg. an, na) must be in specific forms to reflect not only the fact the noun is in the common case but also to match the noun's gender and number too.

The Article

There are two forms of the definite article in the common case; an for singular nouns, and na for plural ones. As such, we say an fear 'the man' but na fir 'the men'. Additionally, the article 'an' has different effects depending on whether it's attached to a masculine or feminine noun. Here are two tables to visualise these changes.

The Article - Consonant initial Nouns
	singular		plural
masc.	an		na
fem.	anᴸ		na

The Article - Vowel initial Nouns
	singular		plural
masc.	anᵀ		naᴴ
fem.	an		naᴴ

The superscript letters next to some forms of the article represent their mutational effects, eg. L^[1] signifies lenition, H aspiration^[2], and T t-prefixing^[3]. A brief explanation of these terms can be found in the references at the foot of the article.

Examples:

Masculine: an teach, an t-athrú, an cúl - the house, the change, the back
Feminine: an chuil, an ghal, an aiste - the look, the steam, the essay
Plural: na daoine, na haistí, na hathruithe, na cúil - the people, the essays, the changes, the backs

An important rule to remember in regards to lenition is the DNTLS rule. This rule covers which consonants don't take normal lenition (and also eclipsis, but that's not applicable here) from the article. D,N,T,L, and R don't receive lenition, and S receives its own mutation. In the case of S, it becomes eclipsed by the /t/ sound and the result is written ts, with the s being silent. eg. sráid 'a street' becomes an tsráid 'the street' (said 'an tráid').

Adjectives

As mentioned earlier, adjectives also change form to agree with their noun's gender and number. Let's look at the adjectives mór 'big' and maith 'good' in their different forms before introducing some rules on what changes need to be applied.

Mór
	singular	plural
	singular	broad	slender
masc.	mór	móra	mhóra
fem.	mhór	móra	mhóra

Maith
	singular	plural
	singular	broad	slender
masc.	maith	maithe	mhaithe
fem.	mhaith	maithe	mhaithe

As we can see, feminine adjectives take lenition, and plural ones gain an -a or -e ending from their root form. As well as this, plural adjectives are lenited if the noun's plural ending is a slender consonant (ie. a palatalised one). eg. Mná maithe 'good women' but fir mhaithe 'good men'. Adjectives only change (decline) when they're directly attached to a noun, so we say fir mhóra but tá na fir mór 'the men are big'.

Summary
	singular	plural
	singular	broad	slender
masc.	∅^[4]	-a/e	lenition & -a/e
fem.	lenition	-a/e	lenition & -a/e

The Genitive

↑ Lenition is the process by which the consonants b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s, and t become 'softened'. This is shown orthographically by inserting a h after them
↑ Aspiration, or H prefixing, is the process by which a prosthetic h sound is added to the beginning of a vowel initial word after certain parts of speech
↑ T-prefixing is the process by which a prosthetic t sound is added to the start of vowel initial masculine nouns in the nominative/common case
↑ the symbol ∅ shows no change to the adjective

[1] Lenition is the process by which the consonants b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s, and t become 'softened'. This is shown orthographically by inserting a h after them

[2] Aspiration, or H prefixing, is the process by which a prosthetic h sound is added to the beginning of a vowel initial word after certain parts of speech

[3] T-prefixing is the process by which a prosthetic t sound is added to the start of vowel initial masculine nouns in the nominative/common case

[4] the symbol ∅ shows no change to the adjective

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

@@ Linney 13: / Linney 13: @@
 ==The Common Case==
-The common case (tuiseal ainmneach) is the citation form of the word. That is, when we are simply naming the concept of something, for example, when listing dictionary entries. It is by far the most common form of the noun you will see in Irish
+The common case (tuiseal ainmneach) is the citation form of the word. That is, when we are naming the concept of something, for example, when listing dictionary entries. It is by far the most common form of the noun you will see in Irish
 ===Usage===
-The common case descends historically from the merger of two different cases; the nominative and the accusative case. Originally the nominative showed which noun was the subject (ie. performing an action) and the accusative showed which was the object (ie. the noun having the action done to it), forming a system where the main grammatical distinction between nouns was whether they were the subject or the object. However, the accusative's form was rarely if ever distinct from that of the other cases, for some nouns it was identical to the nominative and for others it was identical to what's called the dative. As such this lead to it becoming subsumed by the nominative case to eliminate confusion and to regularise the paradigm, causing the two cases to merge into what's now the common case.
+The common case descends historically from the merger of two different cases; the nominative and the accusative case. Originally, the nominative showed which noun was the subject (ie. acting upon something else), and the accusative showed which was the object (ie. the noun having the action done to it), forming a system where the main grammatical distinction between nouns was whether they were the subject or the object. The accusative's form was rarely distinct from that of the other cases, for some nouns it was identical to the nominative, and for others, the dative. This led to it becoming subsumed by the nominative case to eliminate confusion and to regularise the paradigm, causing the two cases to merge into the common case.
-Despite previous instances of the accusative now being governed by nouns in the nominative form, the role of the accusative did not die out but rather became part of this new case's jurisdiction. for example, we use the common case to cover both the role of the subject and object as can be seen below.
+Despite previous instances of the accusative now being governed by nouns in the nominative form, the role of the accusative did not die out but became part of this new case's jurisdiction. For example, we use the common case to cover both the subject and object. As can be seen below.
 *Feiceann an fear an bhean - The man sees the woman
 *Feiceann an bhean an fear - The woman sees the man
-No matter who is seen by whom, both bean 'woman' and fear 'man' stay the same and do not change. The reason they do not have change case is because the order of the words is fixed in simple sentences like this, the verb comes first, followed by the subject or the 'doer', and then finally by the object or the direct recipient of the action. This is in contrast to many other languages, such as German, where depending on the role of the noun as either subject or object it will change form. This is not how Irish behaves and it is for this reason that I've chosen the term 'common case' over the more traditional, latin-based designation of the 'nominative case' in order to avoid confusion due to its role as both subject and object in this kind of sentence. Nonetheless, I will append a German example for comparison using the German translation of man 'Der Mann' and the woman ' Die Frau' for the sake of clarity.
-*''Der'' Mann sieht ''die'' Frau - ''The'' man sees ''the'' women
+No matter who is seen by whom, both bean 'woman' and fear 'man' stay the same and do not change. They do not have to change case because the order of the words is fixed in simple sentences like this; the verb comes first, followed by the subject or the 'doer', and then finally by the object or the direct recipient of the action. This is in contrast to many other languages, such as German, where depending on the role of the noun as either subject or object, it will change its form. This is not how Irish behaves and it is for this reason that I've chosen the term 'common case' over the more traditional, Latin-based designation of the 'nominative case' to avoid the confusing implication that there might be an accusative case. I will add a German example for comparison using der Präsident 'the president' and der Bär 'the bear'. However, if you don't speak German, this example just illustrates some differences between Irish and more common languages. It is unnecessary to understand the concept of the common case.
-*''Die'' Frau sieht ''den'' Mann - ''The'' woman sees ''the'' man
+*''Der Bär'' sieht ''den Präsidenten'' - ''The bear'' sees ''the predsident''
+*''Der Präsident'' sieht ''den Bären'' - ''The president'' sees ''the bear''
-(As we can see, when 'Mann' is the subject the word for the is 'der', but when it's the object this becomes 'den')
-Another use of the historical accusative case was to turn a noun into an adverb, this use still survives today and has been assimilated to the common case. In order to see what I mean we must look at a few examples:
+Another use of the historical accusative case was to turn a noun into an adverb. This use still survives today and has been assimilated into the common case. To see this, we must look at a few examples:
 *Shuigh sé ''tamall'' ar an bhinse - He sat on the bench ''a while''
 *D'fhan sé ''bliain'' sa Ghaeltacht - He stayed ''a year'' in the Gaeltacht
 *Tá'n pub suite ''suas an cabhsa'' ón ollmhargadh - The pub is located ''up the lane'' from the supermarket
-*Tránn an fharraige ''ciliméadar'' ón bhaile le lag trá - The sea receeds a ''kilometre'' from the town at low tide
+*Tránn an fharraige ''ciliméadar'' ón bhaile le lag trá - The sea recedes a ''kilometre'' from the town at low tide
+In these examples, tamall 'a while', bliain 'a year', suas an cabhsa 'up the lane', and ciliméadar 'kilometre' behave like adverbs describing the action occurring in the sentence. In the first two examples, the two bolded nouns describe the time the action took place. eg. How long did he stay/sit there? ''a year/a while''. In the second two, the nouns describe the distance the action takes place over. eg. How far does it receed? ''a kilometre'', Where is it located from the supermarket? ''up the lane'', etc.
-In these examples, tamall 'a while', bliain 'a year', suas an cabhsa 'up the lane', and ciliméadar 'kilometre' are behaving like adverbs that describe the action ocurring in the sentence. In the first two examples the two bolded nouns are describing the length of time the action took place. eg. How long did he stay/sit there? ''a year/a while''. In the second two the nouns are describing the distance the action takes place over. eg. How far does it receed? ''a kilometre'', Where is it located from the supermarket? ''up the lane'', etc.
-Lastly, there also exists a similar use of the common case being roughly equivalent to the English preposition 'per'. For example, some such phrases:
+There is also a similar use of the common case roughly equivalent to the English preposition 'per'. For example, some such phrases:
 *Bhí siúl trí chéad ciliméadar ''an uair'' ar an ghaoth inné - The wind was at a speed of 300 kilometres ''per hour'' yesterday
 *Beidh trí iontráil ''an chatagóir'' ann ar deireadh - There will be three entries ''per category'' in it by the end
 *Cá mhéad atá ar na ticéidí? Cúig euro ''an duine'' - How much are the tickets? 5 euro ''per person''
 ===Morphology===
@@ Linney 50: / Linney 54: @@
 When in the common case, attributive adjectives (teach ''mór'', mór is an attributive adjective because it's attached to teach 'a house') and articles (eg. an, na) must be in specific forms to reflect not only the fact the noun is in the common case but also to match the noun's gender and number too.
-For example, there are two forms of the definite article in the common case; ''an'' for singular nouns, and ''na'' for plural ones. As such we say an fear 'the man' but na fir 'the men'. Additionally, the article 'an' will cause lenition (also known as a séimhiú) on a feminine noun, eg. an pheil '(Gaelic) football' and an bhean 'the woman' but an fear 'the man' and an tábla 'the table'. However, there are special rules for this process in regards to the consonants d,n,t,l,s. D, n, t, l don't get lenited after the article, and s gets mutated to t. eg. an dáil 'the council', an tsráid 'the street' & an leac 'the slab'. In the case of words starting in a vowel nothing is added. To summarise:
-*Common feminine nouns: an + lenition (séimhiú). eg. an Cháisc 'easter', an mhaidin 'the morning', an ghal 'the steam'
+===The Article===
-*DNTLS: an + no change. eg. an deoch 'the drink', an tír 'the country', an nead 'the nest'
-*Vowel: an + no change. eg. an aiste 'the essay'
+There are two forms of the definite article in the common case; ''an'' for singular nouns, and ''na'' for plural ones. As such, we say an fear 'the man' but na fir 'the men'. Additionally, the article 'an' has different effects depending on whether it's attached to a masculine or feminine noun. Here are two tables to visualise these changes.
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
+|+ The Article - Consonant initial Nouns
+! colspan="1" |
+! colspan="2" | singular
+! colspan="2" | plural
+|- class="small"
+|-
+! masc.
+| colspan="2" | an
+| rowspan="2" | na
+|-
+! fem.
+| colspan="2" | an''ᴸ''
+|-
+|}
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
+|+ The Article - Vowel initial Nouns
+! colspan="1" |
+! colspan="2" | singular
+! colspan="2" | plural
+|- class="small"
+|-
+! masc.
+| colspan="2" | an''ᵀ''
+| rowspan="2" | na''ᴴ''
+|-
+! fem.
+| colspan="2" | an
+|-
+|}
+''The superscript letters next to some forms of the article represent their mutational effects, eg. L<ref>Lenition is the process by which the consonants b,c,d,f,g,m,p,s, and t become 'softened'. This is shown orthographically by inserting a h after them</ref> signifies lenition, H aspiration<ref>Aspiration, or H prefixing, is the process by which a prosthetic h sound is added to the beginning of a vowel initial word after certain parts of speech</ref>, and T t-prefixing<ref>T-prefixing is the process by which a prosthetic t sound is added to the start of vowel initial masculine nouns in the nominative/common case</ref>. A brief explanation of these terms can be found in the references at the foot of the article.''
+Examples:
+*Masculine: an teach, an t-athrú, an cúl - the house, the change, the back
+*Feminine: an chuil, an ghal, an aiste - the look, the steam, the essay
+*Plural: na daoine, na haistí, na hathruithe, na cúil - the people, the essays, the changes, the backs
+An important rule to remember in regards to lenition is the DNTLS rule. This rule covers which consonants don't take normal lenition (and also eclipsis, but that's not applicable here) from the article. D,N,T,L, and R don't receive lenition, and S receives its own mutation. In the case of S, it becomes eclipsed by the /t/ sound and the result is written ts, with the s being silent. eg. sráid 'a street' becomes an tsráid 'the street' (said 'an tráid').
+===Adjectives===
+As mentioned earlier, adjectives also change form to agree with their noun's gender and number. Let's look at the adjectives mór 'big' and maith 'good' in their different forms before introducing some rules on what changes need to be applied.
-In the case of masculine nouns, an does not trigger any effects on nouns beginning in a consonant. However it does add a t prefix to words starting in a vowel, eg. an t-éacht 'the feat'. This is important to be aware of and to use as failure to add this prefix is only correct for feminine nouns, noetheless it remains a common error in non-native speech.
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
+|+ Mór
+! colspan="1" ! rowspan="2" |
+! colspan="2" ! rowspan="2" | singular
+! colspan="2" | plural
+|- class="small"
+! colspan="1" | broad
+! colspan="1" | slender
+|-
+! masc.
+| colspan="2" | mór
+| rowspan="2" | móra
+| rowspan="2" | mhóra
+|-
+! fem.
+| colspan="2" | mhór
+|-
+|}
-*Consonant initial nouns - an + no change. eg. an fear 'the man', an sruthán 'the stream', a ceol 'the music'
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
-*vowel initial - an + t-. eg. an t-iasc 'the fish', an t-ólachán 'the drink' (a euphemism for alcohol)
+|+ Maith
+! colspan="1" ! rowspan="2" |
+! colspan="2" ! rowspan="2" | singular
+! colspan="2" | plural
+|- class="small"
+! colspan="1" | broad
+! colspan="1" | slender
+|-
+! masc.
+| colspan="2" | maith
+| rowspan="2" | maithe
+| rowspan="2" | mhaithe
+|-
+! fem.
+| colspan="2" | mhaith
+|-
+|}
-Lastly, for the plural article 'na' the only change it causes is a h prefix to vowel initial nouns, eg. na hulcabháin 'the owls'.
-*Consonant initial nouns - na + no change. eg. na seansálaithe 'the chancers', na múinteoirí 'the teachers', na creidimh 'the beliefs'
+As we can see, feminine adjectives take lenition, and plural ones gain an -a or -e ending from their root form. As well as this, plural adjectives are lenited if the noun's plural ending is a slender consonant (ie. a palatalised one). eg. Mná maithe 'good women' but fir mhaithe 'good men'. Adjectives only change (decline) when they're directly attached to a noun, so we say fir mhóra but tá na fir mór 'the men are big'.
-*Vowel initial nouns - na + h. eg. na hathruithe - 'the changes', na hamhráin 'the songs'
-In the case of adjectives, the rules are much simpler. Masculine attributive adjectives, that is adjectives that are attached to nouns, receive no changes from their citation forms (eg. tábla ''mór''). Feminine atributive adjectives are lenited (eg. bean ''mhór''). And finally, plural adjectives receive either a final -e or -a dependingon the adjective (eg. daoine ''maithe'', dromchlaí ''sleamhna''). On top of this plural adjectives become lenited when the plural noun they're bound to ends in a slender consonant, eg. (daoine ''maithe'', but fir ''mhaithe'').
+{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
+|+ Summary
+! colspan="1" ! rowspan="2" |
+! colspan="2" ! rowspan="2" | singular
+! colspan="2" | plural
+|- class="small"
+! colspan="1" | broad
+! colspan="1" | slender
+|-
+! masc.
+| colspan="2" | {{IPA|∅}}<ref>the symbol ∅ shows no change to the adjective</ref>
+| rowspan="2" | -a/e
+| rowspan="2" | lenition & -a/e
+|-
+! fem.
+| colspan="2" | lenition
+|-
+|}
 ==The Genitive==

Difference between revisions of "A Guide to Irish Cases"

Aavriwnys veih 18:16, 4 Averil 2023

Cummal

Intro

What are Cases?

The Common Case

Usage

Morphology

The Article

Adjectives

The Genitive

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