Hew Morrison Collection > How to learn Gaelic

15
Noun and Adjective Conjoined.
cat glas, VI., a grey cat.
Sing. Plural.
Kohi. cat ylas cait ghlasa
Gen. cait ghlais chat glas
Dat. cat glas cataibh glasa
Voc. a chait ghlais a chata glasa
Note that the dat. mas. with the article is do 'n chat f/hi"",
where the adj. is aspirated.
Note also that the nom. plural of nouns of the Strong Decl.
CuMP.vHisox OF Adjectives.
The Adjective has only one degree of comparison — the
comparative. In form the comparative is the same as the
gen. sing, fem., as ban, white, hàine, whiter. The indeclinal)le
adjectives of the Weak Dec. add, if consonant-ending, a oi- <,
as hochd, poor, hochda, poorer, ceàrr, wrong, cearra, more
wrong.
The commonest adjectives are, as in English, irregular in com-
parison, as olr. bad, miosa, worse ; and in addition they have, with
the As.sertive form of the verb " to be," an agglutinate form in -/I or
-de, from the prep, form il< , "of it, therefor." S.g., Is misde c an
cath. He is thi^ worse for the battle, which in Early Gaelic is more
idiomatically thus— /s mtsai-rU in cath do. The nattle' is worse fherejor
to him. The (iaelio grammars call this form the .Second Cci.m-
PAR.A.TIVP:. A Third Comp.\k.vtive is found in the abstract nouns in
-d, as ijiorrad, shortness, daoirtad, dearness, which, with the verb
r(trh^ go, mav express comparison, as — Tha 'mhin a" dol an daoinad,
literally, " The meal is going into dearness," but which is translated
us—" Meal is getting dearer."
The Sufjerlative is expressed by the comparative with the relative
form of the verb " to be." Thus :' '.S' * Màiri as sine de 'n teatjhlach =
" Mary is the eldest of the family,' literally, "It is Mary who is
older of the family." Ordinary comparison is thus expressed : '.S' i
Mùiri as sine na Seonaid — " yiavy is older than Jessie." The fore-
going is the Assertive form : pure statement is done thus : Tha Main
na '* .«fù(e na Seònaid, literally, " Mary is what is older than Jessie."