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This article describes the grammar of the Scottish Gaelic language.
[edit] 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.
Scottish Gaelic is an inflected language. Nouns indicate their relationships with a number of grammatical cases (nominative, vocative, genitive, and 'dative', so-termed in traditional grammars [better - 'post-prepositional' case]), and verbs are conjugated to indicate tense (simple tenses are past and future; compound tenses are continuous present, past, and future), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive), and voice (active, passive).
Gaelic shares with other Celtic languages a number of interesting grammatical features:
- Verb Subject Object word order; a relatively uncommon typology among the world's languages
- Prepositional pronouns: pronouns and most prepositions are fused into compound forms, such as agam (at me), agad (at you), ris (to him).
- The absence of a verb to have: instead, possession is expressed prepositionally, with aig (that is, by saying that something is at or on a person, cf. Russian у):
- tha taigh agam — I have a house (lit. a house is at me)
- an cat aig Iain — John's cat (lit. the cat at John)
- Similarly, the absence of a verb "to own": ownership is expressed also prepositionally with "le" (that is, by saying something is "with" a person):
- "Tha taigh leam" -- I own a house (lit., "Is house with me.)
- "Tha an cat sin le Iain." - Iain owns that cat (lit., "Is the cat [*that*] with Iain.")
- Emphatic pronouns: A distinction is made between the ordinary pronouns, like mi and thu, and their emphatic counterparts, mise, thusa, and so forth, which express a contrast to other persons. For example:
- tha i bòidheach — she's beautiful
- tha ise bòidheach — she's beautiful (as opposed to somebody else)
Grammatical emphasis carries over into other situations:
- an taigh aicese — her house
- chuirinn-sa — I would put
- na mo bheachd-sa — in my opinion
- Copula: Gaelic has two verbs that both mean "to be" (though some grammar books treat them as two parts of a single suppletive verb): tha is used to ascribe a property to a noun or pronoun, whereas in general usage is is used to identify a noun or pronoun as a complement. ('Is' can be used to ascribe a description to a noun or pronoun, but generally this usage is restricted to fixed expressions, for example: 'Is beag an t-iongnadh' lit. 'Is small the surprise' or 'Is e Gàidheal a th'annam' lit. 'It is a Gael that is in me'.
- tha mise sgìth — I am tired
- is mise Eòghann — I am Ewan.
It is, however, possible to use tha to say that one thing is another thing by turning it into a property:
- tha mi nam Albannach — I am a Scot (lit. I am in my Scot)
- Is e Albannach a th' annam — I am a Scot (lit. it's a Scot that's in me).
Another way to think of the difference between tha and is is that tha describes temporary states:
- "Tha mi sgith" -- I am tired. (or, lit. "Am I tired.")
- "Tha an duine reamhair" -- The man is fat. (or, lit., "Is the man fat.")
Whereas, is describes more permanent conditions -- that is, states of being that are intrinsic:
- 'S e taigh beag a' th'ann. -- It's a small house. (or lit., "Is it house small that is in it.")
- TENSE
Tense (past, present, future) is marked in Gaelic by a number of ways.
Present Tense is formed by use of the verb "tha" and the participle of the main verb.
- Tha mi a bruidhinn. (am I at speaking) = "I am speaking", or "I speak".
Simple past tense in regular verbs is indicated by lenition of the initial consonant:
- The verb bruidhinn (pronounced [ˈpriɪɲ] means "speak", but bhruidhinn mi (pronounced [ˈvriɪɲ mi]) means "I spoke."
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, the end of a verb is marked with an -ed to indicate past tense). Unlike English, Gaelic allows for the inflexion of a verb to indicate future tense independent of a helping verb.
- Bruidhinnidh mi = I will speak. This formation also means "I speak", as in "I speak all the time" (habitually)
Gaelic also as an alternate form of the future tense that uses a helping verb, the future tense of the verb "to be":
- Bidh mi a' bruidhinn = I will speak
- POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Gaelic uses possessive pronouns (my, your, their, etc.) differently than English. In Gaelic, possessive pronouns are used mostly to indicate "ownership" or "possession" of body parts or family -- that is, things or relationships that are permanent. Thus, one would say
- mo chas = my leg
- do cheann = your head
- a màthair = her mother, a n-athair = her father. When the word starts with a vowel, an "n-" is prefixed.
- a mhàthair = his mother
- ar pàrantan = our parents, ar n-athair = our father
- ur teaghlach = your (polite, plural) family, ur n-athair = your father
- an teaghlach = their family, am bràthair = their brother. Before words beginning with b, p, f, or m, "am" is used.
But to refer to non-permanent "possession," one uses the preposition "aig," as described above:
- an taigh aige = his house (the house at him)
- an leabhar agam = my book (the book at me)
[edit] Articles
Gaelic has a definite article but no indefinite article:
- an taigh — 'the house', taigh — '(a) house'
The form of the (definite) article depends on the number, gender, case of the noun. The following table shows the basic paradigm, but the article is given in an abstract form.
|
singular |
plural |
| masculine |
feminine |
| nominative |
AN |
AN +L |
NA |
| dative |
AN +L |
| genitive |
AN +L |
NA |
NAN |
The superscript "+L" indicates that the following word is lenited. The actual realization of the capitalized 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 |
|
[edit] Example paradigms
The following examples show how the definite article is used with several classes of nouns, depending on the first one or two letters.
[edit] Masculine noun paradigms
| begins with [c, g]: |
| cat 'cat' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an cat |
na cait |
| dative |
a' chat |
| genitive |
a' chait |
nan cat |
|
| begins with [b, m, p]: |
| balach 'boy' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
am balach |
na balaich |
| dative |
a' bhalach |
| genitive |
a' bhalaich |
nam balach |
|
| begins with a vowel: |
| òran 'song' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an t-òran |
na h-òrain |
| dative |
an òran |
| genitive |
an òrain |
nan òran |
|
| begins with [d, n, t, l, r]: |
| rud 'thing' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an rud |
na rudan |
| dative |
an rud |
| genitive |
an ruid |
nan rudan |
|
| begins with [f]: |
| fiadh 'deer' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
am fiadh |
na féidh |
| dative |
an fhiadh |
| genitive |
an fhéidh |
nam fiadh |
|
| begins with [s, sl, sn, sr]: |
| seòmar 'room' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an seòmar |
na seòmraichean |
| dative |
an t-seòmar |
| genitive |
an t-seòmair |
nan seòmraichean |
|
[edit] Feminine noun paradigms
| begins with [c, g]: |
| caileag 'girl' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
a' chaileag |
na caileagan |
| dative |
a' chaileig |
| genitive |
na caileig(e) |
nan caileagan |
|
| begins with [b, m, p]: |
| pìob 'pipes' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
a' phìob |
na pìoban |
| dative |
a' phìob |
| genitive |
na pìoba |
nam pìob(an) |
|
| begins with a vowel: |
| abhainn 'river' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an abhainn |
na h-aibhnichean |
| dative |
an abhainn |
| genitive |
na h-aibhne |
nan aibhnichean |
|
| begins with [d, n, t, l, r]: |
| léine 'shirt' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an léine |
na léintean |
| dative |
an léine |
| genitive |
na léine |
nan léintean |
|
| begins with [f]: |
| fidheall 'fiddle' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an fhidheall |
na fidhlean |
| dative |
an fhidheall |
| genitive |
na fidhle |
nam fidhlean |
|
| begins with [s, sl, sn, sr]: |
| sràid 'street' |
singular |
plural |
| nominative |
an t-sràid |
na sràidean |
| dative |
an t-sràid |
| genitive |
na sràide |
nan sràid(ean) |
|
[edit] References
[edit] See also
