Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

158 OF SYNTAX. [Part II r.
Adjective ending in «, is in the primary Form ; as 'aon
* duine' one man, *seann sluagh' old people.
SECTION III.
OF THE AGREEMENT OF A PRONOUN WITH ITS ANTECE-
DENT.
The Personal and Possessive Pronouns follow the Number
of their Antecedents, i. e. of the Nouns which thej repre-
sent. Those of the 3d Pers. Sing, follow also the Gender
of their antecedent ; as *sheas a' bhean aig a chosaibh, agus
' thòisich / air am fliuchadh leis a deuraibh, agus thiormaich
' i iad le gruaig a cinn'. The woman stood at his feet, and
she began to wet them with her tears^ and she wiped them with
the hair of her head, Luke vii. 38. They follow, however,
not the Gender of the Antecedent, but the sex of the crea-
ture signified by the Antecedent, in those words in which
Sex and Gender disagree ; as 'an gobhlan-gaoithe mar an
' ceudn' do sholair nead dh'i fein' the swallow, too, hath pro-
vided a nest for herself , Psal. Ixxxiv. 3, 'Gobhlan-gaoithe'
a swallow^ is a masc. Noun, as appears by the masc. Article;
but as it is the dam that is spoken of, the reference is made
by the Personal Pronoun of the fern, gender. — 'Ta gliocas
' air a fireanachadh leis a cloinn' Wisdom is Justified by her
children. Matt. xi. 19. *Gliocas' is a masc. noun; but as
Wisdom is here personified as a female, the regimen of the
Possessive Pronoun is adapted to that ideaC^^. See also
Prov. ix. 1 — 3. In this sentence *Och nach b' i mhaduinn e'
Dent, xxvili. 67. the former pronoun i is correctly put in
the
(^e) This, however, does not happen invariably. Where the
Sex, though specified, is overlooked as of small importance, the
Personal or Possessive Pronouns follow the Gender of the Ante-
cedent. See 2 Sam. xii, 3.