Irish

by Natalie Nic Shìm

Irish (Gaeilge /ge:lɪg/, or Gaoluinn /gë:ɫɪŋ^j/ in Munster Irish) is a Goidelic Celtic language spoken in Ireland. It remains the everyday language of Gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking districts) in counties Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Cork, Meath and Waterford, and is also spoken by many people outside of these areas. Additionally, there are significant numbers of competent speakers in the United States, Canada and Australia. According to 2011 census figures for the Republic of Ireland, 1,774,437 people (41.4% of the population) professed some knowledge of Irish, although only 77,185 claimed to speak it on a daily basis outside of the education system. The 2011 census for Northern Ireland recorded that 10.65% of the population claimed ‘some ability in Irish’, although only 0.24% gave Irish as their ‘main language’.

Under the Constitution of Ireland (enacted 1937), ‘the Irish language as the national language is the first official language’. In 2007, Irish became the 23^rd official language of the European Union. Irish-medium immersion education is available at all levels and Irish is a compulsory subject of the Leaving Certificate in the Republic of Ireland.

There are three main dialects of spoken Irish – Ulster, Connaught and Munster – which demonstrate clear differences of grammar, syntax, pronunciation, stress, vocabulary and idiom. A written standard, An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, was introduced in 1958, with a revised edition published in 2012.

Phonology and Orthography

Alphabet

The Irish alphabet has 18 letters: 5 vowels and 13 consonants:

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u

Vowels

Vowels in Irish can be either long or short. Long vowels are demarcated by an acute accent (´), known as the síneadh fada.

Pronunciation varies somewhat between the dialects. Munster Irish tends to place greater emphasis on long vowels, elongating vowels before a double consonant, in spite of the absence of a síneadh fada.

Notes:

• generally when a broad vowel is preceded or followed by a slender vowel, or falls between two slender vowels, only the broad is pronounced. The slender vowels serve purely to modify neighbouring consonants. The exceptions are the long vowels indicated by the síneadh fada, which always maintain their basic sound quality, and the diphthongs described below.
• ao and ae are considered broad vowels; they become aoi and aei before a slender consonant (see, for example, the pairing of 'broad with broad' in laethanta 'days').
• /ə/ only occurs in unstressed syllables
• vowel (and diphthong) quality and pronunciation may vary depending on whether the sound falls at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word.
• consonant quality also influences vowel pronunciation. Vowels adjacent to nasal consonants are often nasalised. In Connaught and Munster Irish, vowels preceding double consonants are elongated (except when immediately followed by a vowel), in spite of the absence of a síneadh fada.  
• the sequences omh, omha(i) are pronounced /oː/

Diphthongs

Irish has four basic diphthongs /əi, əu, iə, uə/, but the actual quality of these sounds varies greatly depending on the adjacent sounds. The table below shows some of the spellings for each sound:

Consonants

Each consonant has two forms in Irish: broad and slender. This distinction affects their pronunciation and can be identified by the neighbouring vowel. Consonants or consonant clusters preceded or followed by an a, o or u are classed as broad, whereas those preceded or followed by an e or i are said to be slender.

 Vowels on either side of a consonant or consonant cluster must be in agreement: caol le caol, leathan le leathan ‘slender with slender, broad with broad’. (E.g. in the word siopadóireacht ‘shopping’, the s and r are slender; the p, d, ch and t are broad. The two i's and the e are not pronounced but are there purely to slenderise the neighbouring consonants.)

Pronunciation varies quite considerably between dialects and idiolects.

*broad consonants are in blue, slender consonants are in red.

Initial Mutations

Irish has two initial mutations: lenition/aspiration (séimhiú), and eclipsis/nasalisation (urú).

Generally, dental consonants are not aspirated if they occur after another dental consonant (e.g. an tír ‘the country’, bean deas ‘a nice woman’).

Grammar

Articles

Irish has no indefinite article. The definite article has two forms:

• an is used with singular nouns in the nominative and dative cases and masculine singular nouns in the genitive.
• na is used with all plural nouns and feminine singular nouns in the genitive.

The nominative singular article lenites feminine nouns (except those beginning with a dental consonant) and prefixes a t to those beginning with an s-. Likewise the genitive masculine singular article. The genitive plural article eclipses nouns of both genders.

Nouns

Plurals in Irish are categorised as either weak or strong, with this distinction influencing their genitive form.

There are two types of weak plural:

• those formed by slenderisation (adding an i before the final consonant/consonant cluster in order to transform it from broad to slender). E.g. cat ‘cat’ → cait.
• those formed by adding an a to the end of the word. E.g. fuinneog ‘window’ → fuinneoga.

All other plurals are classed as strong plurals and are formed by adding a plural termination. These include -(a)í, -(e)acha, -(e)anna, -ta, -te, -tha and -thaí.

On rare occasions, changes to the end of the word are accompanied by minor internal changes:

• the slenderisation of a broad consonant (as in ubh ‘egg’ → uibheacha);
• the broadening of a slender consonant (as in spéir ‘sky’ → spéartha);
• or the loss of a superfluous vowel (as in béal ‘mouth’ → béil).

Noun Cases

Irish still makes a distinction of case and nouns are inflected accordingly.

The accusative case is not mentioned as it is the same as the nominative. (However, 3^rd person pronouns take different forms in the nominative and accusative cases.)

The dative case (used after prepositions) is usually marked by initial mutation (lenition or eclipsis) in the singular. Additionally, some speakers still use older inflected forms which also survive in a few fossilised phrases, e.g. bolg le gréin ‘sunbathing’, ar na mallaibh ‘recently’.

The vocative case (used in direct address) is indicated by aspirate mutation and inflection, and preceded by the vocative particle, a.

The genitive case signifies a relationship between two nouns and is also used after the verbal noun or a compound preposition. It is formed through inflection, with all nouns being identified as belonging to one of five declensions according to their behaviour in the genitive singular:

• 1^st declension: slenderise (add an i before the final consonant/consonant cluster). E.g. capall ‘horse’ → capaill, bád ‘boat’ → báid. (The ending -(e)ach changes to -(a)igh: e.g. Éireannach ‘Irishman’ → Éireannaigh.)
• 2^nd declension: slenderise, if necessary, and add an e to the end of the word. E.g. bróg ‘shoe’ → bróige, páirc ‘field’ → páirce. (The ending -(e)ach changes to -(a)í: e.g. gealach ‘moon’ → gealaí).
• 3^rd declension: broaden (remove the i before the final consonant/consonant cluster), if necessary, and add an a to the end of the word. E.g. múinteoir ‘teacher’ → múinteora, loch ‘lake’ → locha.
• 4^th declension: no change. E.g. cailín ‘girl’ → cailín, rí ‘king’ → rí.
• 5^th declension: various. The 5^th declension serves as a ‘catch-all’ declension for all nouns not fitting the pattern of the other four declensions and therefore includes a number of groups displaying different behaviours, plus various irregular nouns. E.g. máthair ‘mother’ → máthar, cathair ‘city’ → cathrach, talamh ‘land’ → talún, bean ‘woman’ → mná.

For nouns forming weak plurals in the nominative, the genitive plural form is the same as the nominative singular, whereas strong plurals remain the same in the genitive as in the nominative. E.g. bád ‘boat’ → báid (a weak plural) → seolta na mbád ‘the sails of the boats’, cailín ‘girl’ → cailíní (a strong plural) → leabhair na gcailíní ‘the girls’ books’.

Adjectives

Adjectives should agree with the noun they modify in number and case. Adjectives modifying feminine singular nouns in the nominative case are lenited (as are those modifying plurals formed by slenderisation). Adjectives usually follow the noun, although there are some notable exceptions, including sean- ‘old’, droch- ‘bad’ and dea- ‘good’ (all of which lenite the noun they modify).

As a general rule, nominative plural forms are created by adding -a to adjectives finishing on a broad consonant and -e to those finishing on a slender consonant. However, there are a few groups that behave slightly differently: e.g. adjectives ending -(i)úil and -ir (as in cairdiúil ‘friendly’ → cairdiúla, deacair ‘difficult’ → deacra, saibhir ‘rich’ → saibhre). With the exception of irregular adjectives, those ending on a vowel do not change.

Like the noun, the adjective makes a distinction of case, and there are clear parallels between the inflective patterns of nouns and adjectives.

The genitive plural of the adjective will depend on whether the noun it modifies is a weak or a strong plural. As with nouns, in the case of weak plurals, the genitive plural of the adjective is the same as the nominative singular, whereas for strong plurals, the genitive plural is the same as the nominative plural.

Comparison

Equative comparison is made through periphrasis (e.g. chomh dubh le ‘as black as’), whereas the comparative and the superlative require the inflection of the adjective. The comparative and the superlative forms of the adjective are the same: they are distinguished by the copular forms, níos and is (often ní ba and ba/ab in the past tense, both of which lenite the following adjective). The comparative/superlative form is the same as the genitive feminine singular form of the adjective.

E.g. tá Máire níos óige ná Seán ‘Máire is younger than Seán’, seo an cheist is deacra ‘this is the most difficult question’.

There are a small number of adjectives which are compared irregularly.