Irish

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Irish is a Celtic language spoken in Ireland. It is an official language of the Republic of Ireland and the European Union, and has official recognition in Northern Ireland. It is a required subject for most schoolchildren in the Republic of Ireland, but only a small minority of the country's population has native competence in the language, most Irish people being native speakers of English.

Phonology

Irish phonology is characterized by the persistent contrast between velarized and palatalized consonants. Almost all consonants make a phonemic contrast between a velarized (or "broad") and a palatalized (or "slender") variant.

Consonant
phonemes
Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
Bilabial Labio-
dental
Labio-
velar
Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar
Stop

        t̪ˠ
 
d̪ˠ
 
 
 
     
c
 
ɟ
k
 
ɡ
 
   
Fricative/
Approximant
   
 
  w
 
   
 
   
ʃ
   
ç
 
j
x
 
ɣ
 
h  
Nasal  
          n̪ˠ
 
   
       
ɲ
  ŋ
 
   
Tap                   ɾˠ
ɾʲ
               
Lateral               ɫ̪
 
   
               

The vowels are as follows:

  Front Central Back
Close  
Near-close ɪ   ʊ
Close-mid  
Mid   ə  
Open-mid ɛ   ɔ
Open a, aː

Diphthongs:

  • /əi/
  • /əu/
  • /iə/
  • /uə/

Schwa is found only in unstressed syllables.

Morphology

Irish is an inflecting language. Nouns, which are divided into masculine and feminine genders, are declined for two numbers (singular and plural) and four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, and vocative; the nominative also has accusative function).

Verbs are conjugated for four persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and the so-called "autonomous") and several tenses and moods (in the indicative: present, imperfect, preterite, future, conditional; in the subjunctive: present and imperfect; in the imperative, present). Verbs also have a verbal noun which takes the place of an infinitive and a verbal adjective that functions similarly to a past participle.

Finite verb forms are either analytic or synthetic: analytic forms (apart from imperatives) require a following subject pronoun or noun (following because Irish word order is VSO), while with synthetic forms (which only appear in the 1st and 2nd persons, and not always then) a subject pronoun would be ungrammatical. For example, "you (singular) praise" may be rendered as either molann tú (with the analytic form molann followed by the pronoun ) or molair (with the synthetic form of the 2nd person singular), but *molair tú with the synthetic form followed by the pronoun is ungrammatical.

Syntax

As mentioned above, Irish word order is VSO, as in (1).

(1) Ólann  Seán bainne.
    drinks Seán milk
    "Seán drinks milk"

Complements follow the direct object, as in (2).

(2) D'ól  Seán an  bainne sa     chistín inné.
    drank Séan the milk   in-the kitchen yesterday
    "Séan drank the milk in the kitchen yesterday"

However, object pronouns come at the end of the sentence, following any complements, as in (3).

(3) D'ól  Seán sa     chistín inné      é.
    drank Seán in-the kitchen yesterday it
    "Seán drank it in the kitchen yesterday".

The verb "to be" (whose present indicative analytic form is ) cannot be used with a noun phrase as its predicate. Thus while (4) and (5) are both grammatical, (6) is not.

(4) Tá an  bosca lán.
    is the box   full
    "The box is full"
(5) Tá an  bosca ar an  tábla.
    is the box   on the table
    "The box is on the table" 
(6) * Tá Máire múinteoir.
      is Máire teacher

Sentences whose predicate is a noun phrase contain no verb at all, but are introduced by the copulative particle is. (Traditional grammars describe is as a verb, but theoretical syntacticians reject this analysis.) If the predicate is indefinite, it precedes the subject, and is separated from it by an agreement particle, as in (7).

(7) Is  múinteoir í   Máire.
    COP teacher   AGR Máire
    "Máire is a teacher"

If the predicate is definite, it follows the subject; the subject is separated from the copulative particle by the agreement particle, as in (8).

(8) Is  í   Máire an  múinteoir
    COP AGR Máire the teacher
    "Máire is the teacher"

Initial mutations

Like all Insular Celtic languages, Irish is characterized by a set of initial mutations that appear in various morphosyntactic environments. Word-initial consonants are affected by either of two mutations, Lenition and Eclipsis, while word-initial vowels may acquire one of the prothetic consonants h, n, or t.

Lenition

Lenition converts stops and /mˠ mʲ/ into fricatives/approximants, causes /fˠ fʲ/ to disappear, and causes coronals to lose their place of articulation (becoming either glottal or dorsal).

Radical Lenited
pˠ pʲ fˠ fʲ
bˠ bʲ w vʲ
t̪ˠ tʲ h
d̪ˠ dʲ ɣ j
c k ç x
ɟ ɡ j ɣ
fˠ fʲ (deleted)
sˠ ʃ h
mˠ mʲ w vʲ

Eclipsis

Eclipsis makes voiceless stops and /fˠ fʲ/ voiced, and converts voiced stops into the corresponding nasals.

Radical Eclipsed
pˠ pʲ bˠ bʲ
bˠ bʲ mˠ mʲ
t̪ˠ tʲ d̪ˠ dʲ
d̪ˠ dʲ n̪ˠ nʲ
c k ɟ ɡ
ɟ ɡ ɲ ŋ
fˠ fʲ w vʲ