Irish language

Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA, is constitutionally recognised as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. On 13 June, 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official working language of the European Union. The new arrangements will come into effect on 1 January, 2007.

Linguistic Structure

The most unfamiliar features of the language are the orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, and the use of two different forms for "to be". However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages.

Related Topics:
Orthography - Initial consonant mutation - Verb Subject Object - Celtic languages - Italian - African languages

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Syntax

See main article Irish syntax

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One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as an chopail). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is only a rough approximation. The copula, which in the present tense is is, is usually demonstrative:

Related Topics:
Copula - Spanish - Portuguese

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:Is fear é. "It is a man."

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:Is Sasanaigh iad. "They're English."

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When saying "this is", or "that is", seo and sin are used:

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:Seo í mo mháthair. "This is my mother."

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:Sin é an muinteoir. "That's the teacher."

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One can also add "that is in him/her", especially when using an adjective, when it is desired to emphasise the quality:

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:Is fear láidir atá ann. "He's a strong man."

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:(Literally: "It is a strong man that is there.")

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:Is cailín álainn atá inti. "She's a beautiful girl."

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:(Literally: "It is a beautiful girl that is in her.")

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This sometimes appears in Hiberno-English, either translated literally as "that is in it", or as "so it is".

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Morphology

See main articles Irish morphology, Irish nominals, and Irish verbs.

Related Topics:
Irish morphology - Irish nominals - Irish verbs

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Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (forainmneacha réamhfhoclacha), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which in the first person singular becomes agam "at me". When used with the verb bi ("to be") ag indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have".

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Tá leabhar agam."I have a book."

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Tá deoch agat."You have a drink."

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Tá ríomhaire aige."He has a computer."

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Tá páiste aici."She has a child."

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Tá carr againn."We have a car."

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Tá teach agaibh."You (plural) have a house."

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Tá airgead acu."They have money."

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Compare with Breton:

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Ul levr a zo ganin."I have a book."

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Ur banne a zo ganit."You have a drink."

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Un urzhiatur a zo ganti."He has a computer."

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Ur bugel a zo gantañ."She has a child."

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Ur c'harr a zo ganomp."We have a car."

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Un ti zo ganeoc'h."You (plural) have a house."

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Arc'hant a zo ganto."They have money."

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Orthography and pronunciation

See main articles Irish orthography and Irish phonology.

Related Topics:
Irish orthography - Irish phonology

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The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is {{IPA|/?/}} or {{IPA|/?/}} and á is {{IPA|/?/}} in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be {{IPA|/??/}}.

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Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. It simplified and standardized the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected.

Related Topics:
World War II - Séamas Daltún

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Examples:

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• Gaedhealg / Gaedhilg(e) / Gaedhealaing / Gaeilic / Gaelainn / Gaoidhealg / Gaolainn => Gaeilge, "Irish language" (Gaoluinn or Gaolainn is still used in books written in dialect by Munster authors, or as a facetious name for the Munster dialect)
• Lughbhaidh => Lú, "Louth"
• biadh => bia, "food" (The orthography biadh is still used by the speakers of those dialects that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh - nominative case - and bídh - genitive case: "of food, food's". For example, in Munster Irish the latter ends in an audible -g sound, because final -idh, -igh regularly becomes -ig in Munster pronunciation.)

Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada 'long mark'; this is frequently referred to, especially by English speakers as simply the fada, using the adjective as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens, which was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts. Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a buailte or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the buailte predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters. Today Gaelic letters and the buailte are rarely used except where a 'traditional' style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat-of-arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces. Letters with the buailte are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart PDF).

Related Topics:
Diacritic - Lenition - Old Irish - University College Dublin - Coat-of-arms - Irish Defence Forces - Unicode - Latin-8 - Character set

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Mutations

See main article Irish initial mutations

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In Irish, there are two classes of initial mutations:

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• Lenition (in Irish, séimhiú "softening") describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in old orthography by a dot (called a sí buailte) written above the changed consonant, this is now shown by adding an extra -h-:
• caith! "throw!" - chaith mé "I threw" (this is an example of the lenition as a past-tense marker, which is caused by the use of do, although this is now usually omitted)
• margadh "market", "market-place", "bargain" - Tadhg an mhargaidh "the man of the street" (word for word "Timothy of the market-place" (here we see the lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)
• Seán "Seán, John" - a Sheáin! "O John!" (here we see lenition as part of what is called the vocative case - in fact, the vocative lenition is triggered by the a or vocative marker before Sheáin)
• Nasalisation (in Irish, urú "eclipsis") covers the voicing of voiceless stops, as well as the true nasalisation of voiced stops.
• athair "father" - ár nAthair "our Father"
• tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"
• Gaillimh "Galway" - i nGaillimh "in Galway"