Irish challenge (7)

This post is the 7^th instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 6 of Teach Yourself Irish.  For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/

It covers:

• past, present and future of tá
• time expressions
• adjectives
• weather
• nouns
• other words and phrases

Mutation is indicated below using bold type.

Past, present, future of tá

The forms bhfuil and raibh are ‘dependent’ forms, appearing only if ní or an is present.

Negative questions are formed with nach, eg nach breá an aimsir í? (isn’t the weather great?)

Time expressions

Laethanta an seachtaine (days of the week)

 ‘day’ = lá (gen. lae, pl laethanta)‘week’ = seachtain  (fem; gen. -e, pl. -í), presumably from seacht ( ‘seven’).

To refer to a particular day, add Dé before the noun (eg Dé Luan, on Monday), except for Déardaoin (‘thursday’), which already contains Dé.

Seasons

Months

The months are often preceded by mí (‘month’, gen. -osa, pl. -onna), followed by the genitive, as shown in the 3^rd column.

Meán Fómhair (‘September’) means ‘middle of autumn’ and Deairadh Fómhair (‘October’) means ‘end of autumn’. Nollaig (‘December’) also means ‘Christmas’.

Other expressions of time

Tráthnóna originally mean noon time, as shown by the component nóna.

Other expressions of time:

• an tseachtain (m) seo chugainn (‘next week’ = this week towards us’)
• faoi láthair ‘at present’, ar bell ‘later’, nios déanai ‘later’
• tréimhse (spell of time’, period’), iarnóin (f) (‘afternoon’)
• le tamail ‘for some time’, le seachtain ‘for the last week’, le coícís (‘for a fortnight)
• ‘good night’ is oíche mhaith

Adjectives

Adjectives with go

The untranslatable particle go must appear before a few adjectives, including go maith (‘good’), go dona (‘bad’), go deas (‘nice’)

Go adds h- to adjectives starting with a vowel: go hálainn (‘beautiful’), go holc (‘bad’), go hainnis (‘awful’)

Word order

Adjectives normally follow the noun, but for emphasis the adjective can be brought forward, with an inserted after:

Forming adjectives from nouns

Some adjectives formed from nouns with the suffix -mhar:

• grianmhar sunny
• gaofar windy (from Gaoth ‘wind’)
• ciallmhar ‘sensible’

Some adjectives formed from nouns with the suffix -ach:

• scamallach ‘cloudy’
• ceobhránach ‘drizzly’
• ceathach ‘showery’ from cith ‘shower’
• tábhachtach ‘importance’

Some adjectives formed from nouns with the suffix -úil (-iúil after slender consonant):

• stoirmiúil ‘stormy’
• laethúil ‘daily’ (from lá ‘day’)
• cáiliúil (‘famous’)

Bad

Droch– ‘bad’ is prefixed to nouns and causes lenition: drochthalamh (‘bad land’)

Weather

Types of weather (cineálacha aimsire)

For some nouns, adjectives do not exist or are rarely used: báisteach (f. ‘rain’), gala (m. ‘gale’), sioc (m. ‘frost’), sneachta (m. ‘snow’). The noun may be put in the genitive case:

lá gréine (‘a sunny day’ = a day of sun’), lá báistí (‘a rainy day’), lá seaca (‘a frosty day’), lá gaoithe (‘a windy day’), lá sneachta (‘a snowy day’), tréimshí gréine (‘sunny spells’), oíche (f) stoirme (‘a stormy night’)

Plurals: stoírmeacha (‘storms’), scamaill (‘storms’), ceathanna (‘showers’), gálai (‘gales’)

Some other adjectives: fliuch ‘wet’, bog ‘mild’, tirim ‘dry’, fuar ‘cold’), chomh tirim (‘so dry’) chomh te (‘so hot’, teas (gen. a) = heat’, teocht (f) (‘temperature’))

Soe other phrases about the weather:

• Beidh síoc ann (‘there will be frost’), Bhí an-ghála (m) ann (‘there was quite a gale’)
• Ní raibh báisteach (f) again (‘we haven’t had rain’)
• Ag caint faoin aimsir (‘talking about the weather’)

Nouns

Genitives

If the possessor is feminine, the changes to na, which does not trigger lenition.

The genitive is required after fud (throughout’), timpeall (‘around’, ‘about’) and i rith (‘during’).

Feminine nouns beginning with s-

Feminine nouns beginning s- prefix this with t- after the definite article an and after cén (‘what’ = cé + an): an tsúil dheas (‘the right eye’); an tsúil chlé (‘the left eye’)

Prefixing h- after na, before noun starting with vowel

na prefixes h- to vowels lár na hoíche (‘[the] middle of the night’) gaoth láidir (‘strong wind’)

Improvement and excellence

Ar fheabhas = ‘excellent’
Tá an  leabhar seo ar fheabhas
Is  the book this excellent
‘This book is excellent’

The noun feabhas (‘improvement’) is normally used instead of the verb feabhsaíonn (‘improves’).

Tá feabhas ar an aimsir
Is  improvement on the weather
‘the weather is improving’

Tá feabhas          ort
Is  improvement on.you
‘you are better’ [in health]

Tá sé ag dul i bhfeabhas
Is it at going into improvement
‘It is improving’           

Tá feabhas          ag feacht air
Is  improvement at coming on.it
‘It is improving’

Beidh feabhas (m) air ..’ ‘it will be better’

Points of the compass

The 1^st column below shows the phrases for ‘the north’ etc, the 2^nd column shows the phrases for ‘in the north’ etc and the last column shows the Welsh words

Other words and phrases

Nouns: diobháil (f) (‘harm’), céim (‘degree’), áit (‘place’)

adjectives: trom ‘heavy’, ar dtús (‘first’)

adverbs and conjunctions: beagnach (‘almost’), amuigh (‘outside’), istigh (‘inside’)

prepositions: ó ‘from’,

verb: cloisim (‘I hear’) ag gianadh (‘cleaning, clearing’),

phrases: buíochas (m) le Dia ‘thanks be to God’ tá gá (m) againn le (‘we have need of’ = we need), mar seo ‘like this’ ar fud na tire (f)’throughout the country’, ag éiri (becoming’), ceart go leor (‘right enough’ = ‘alright’)

Source

Teach Yourself Irish, Diarmuid Ó Sé and Joseph Sheils (1993)