Blair Collection > Pronouncing Gaelic dictionary

RUDIMENTS OF GAELIC GRAMMAR.
XIX
id Rule. Nouns maj. beginning with a
vowel have their voe. and gen. alike ; as,
nom.ord, a hammer, gen. ùird, voc. ùirdj
no/re. amaid, a female foo!, gen. and voc.
amaid ; nom.oganac/i , young man, gen. and
voe. oganaich. od. Feminine nouns form
ihcir vocative by aspirating their nomina-
tive; as, nora. gealaeh, moon, voc. gheal-
ach, moon ! nom. grian, the sun, voc.
ghrian, sun !
Plural Number. The nominative pin.
ral is formed from the nominative singtt-
lar by adding an (sometimes by way of sur-
prisiiig people by a) ; as, srad, a spark of
fire, sradan, sparks ; rioghachd, a king-
dom ; r'loghachdan, kingdoms.
Special Rules No.M. Pl. Is/, A few dis-
syllables in ach, form the nom. plnral hora
the gen. sing, in aich by adding ean ; as,
Kom. Sing. Gen. Sing. Nom. Plur.
Clarsac.h, Clarsaich, Clarsaichean.
TiIULLACH, MuUaich, 31 ul/aichean.
2d, For the most part nouns in aich, in the
genitive sing, may have their nom. phtral
alike; as, oglach,a young man; gen. sing,
and nominative plural oglaich, of a young
man or of young men.
5d, Nouns in ar form their plural by
throwing away the ar and adding raichean ;
as, lobar, a well ; piuthar, a sister ; leobhar,
a buok- ; tobraichean, wells ; peathraichean,
sisters ; leobhraichean, book9i latha, a day,
has laithean j leaba, a bed, has leapaicliean.
it/i Rule. Nouns that change ea into
i, in the genitive sing., have the nom. pl.
like the gen. sing. ; as, fear, fir, men or of
a man; meall, mill, lumps; geall, gill,
pledges; ceann, cinn, heads; meann, min>i,
irids; peann, pinn, pens, except beann, a
hill, beanntan, hills; gleann, a valley, has
gl'inn, and gleanntan, valleys ; sliabh, has
slèib/itean, hills' sitles ; sabhall, has saibh-
lean, barns; bo, acow,has ba, cows, in Ar-
gyle — in Perth, crodh; some has tan, but
very few; reul, a star, has reultan, stars;
lion, a net, a snare, has liontan, nets;
gniomh, a deed, act, has gniomharan and
gniomlian; as the plural of overseer,
gniomhtan or grimh.
5th Rule. Words of one syllable has for
the most part the nom. plur. like the geni-
tive singular ; as, clag, a bell, eluig, bells ;
ball, buil, spots, articles; balls; bolg,
bui/g, bellows, bags, wallets; cat, cuit or
cait, cats ; ceard, ceàird and ceardan, tink-
ers s sloe, a pit, sluic, pits; soc, suic,
shares ; toll, tuill, holes ; — some have two
plurals; mall, rent, màiU and maltan ;
baile, bailtean, towns; canna, a can, cann-
aichean, cans.
Genitive Plural is like the nominativt
sing, in monosyllables; as, bard, a poet,
gen. pl. nam bard, of the poets ; except
bean, a woman ; nam ban, of the women ;
cu, a dog, ?ian con, of the dogs: bo, a
cow, nam bb, (pro. baw, and nom. sing,
ba), of the cows; coara, a sheep, nan coar-
ach, of the sheep; sluagh, a multitude, nan
sluagh, of the multitudes, (nan slogh is
nonsense) ; 2rf, also dissyllables that have
ean in the nom. pl. have the same in the
gen. pl. ; as, nom. and gen. plural, leap,
aichean, leobhraichean, tobhraichean, beds,
or of beds ; books, or of books ; wells, or of
wells.
Dative Plural of words of 07ie syllable,
ends in aibh or ibh, excepting words ending
in bh or mh, in which case, the dative is
like the nominative plural ^ hence the ab-
surdity of writing na marbhaibh in place of
mairbh, tarbhaibh for tairbh. Note.— By
way of being superfine in Gaelic scholar-
ship, the best Celtic scholars write the tail
aibh, supposing it were as long as your
arm ! 2c?, dative plural is derived from the
nom. plural, when formed by lean or tax;
as, beanntan, hills, beanntatbh, to the hills;
slèibhtean, hill sides, slèihhtibh, dative.
In like manner, Cuantan, Cuantaibh, 0-
ceans; fiadh, a deer, has fèidh in nom. and
dat. plural ; some prefer slòigh to slauigh,
but we never used it ; baibh, a fury, damh,
an ox, a bullock; ramh, ayi oar, tamh,
rest, have their 7wminatives and datives plu-
ral alike, daimh, &c. Math, a personage,
has Maithibh in nom. and dative plural ;
thainig maithibh Bhaile-cliath niach 'nar
coinneamh, the principal people if DuLlin
came out to meet us, — Legend.
Vocative Plural is the no7n. plu. aspi-
rated; as, beanntan, hills, bheannian,
hiUsl It is proper enough to write bheann-
ta in the vocative, though very question-
able as a nom. plural, compounds alone ex-
cepted ; caora-madaidh, dog-berries, cao; a-
feulain, ivy-berries; but always caoran,
elder-berries, or berries generally.
There are some irregular nouns, such as,
bean, a woman ; cu, dog; bOj cow, which
shall be declined at large.
Second Declensio.v. Though wehave
followed the arrangement of Armstrong
and Ste\Vart, for the most part, yet it is ob-
vious to any person, that the classification
of nouns given here, divides into six fami-
lies or different modes of forming the geni-
tive. See Declension.
Under the Second Declension, is classed
all nouns having their last vowel i, and
sometimes e final, and whose genitive is
like the nominative, or is irregularly forofc
ed.