Now we’ve taken care of five of the seven-plus ways to say “before” in Irish, which Seanchán had asked about (roimh, sula/sular, os coinne, os comhair, cheana).  The remaining two that he asked about are “thar” and “ar tosach.”

First, let me say that both “thar” and “ar tosach” have a variety of other meanings (ní nach ionadh – almost every word does!).  For “thar,” I’d primarily think of “over” and “across,” as in “thar sáile,” which means “over or across (the) sea” and “thar barr” (excellent, lit. “over (the) top).  For “ar tosach,” the meaning is based on the noun “tosach” (beginning, origin).  “Tosach” can be used in many many ways, such as “tosach an leabhair” (the beginning of the book) or “an capall tosaigh” (the leading horse, where “tosach” has changed ending because it is functioning as an adjective). 

Now, how do these words end up meaning “before”?  Rather loosely.

“Thar” could be translated as “before” in sentences or phrases like the following:

Thogh sé an rud sin thar an rud eile.  He chose that thing in preference to (before) the other thing. 

Cuirim thar an rud eile é.  I set it over the other thing (i.e. give it precedence)

An ndéanfá rogha de Veirgil thar Hóiméar?  Would you set Virgil before Homer? [in terms of preference; lit. Would you make a choice of Virgil over Homer?]

“Thar” also has the full set of pronoun endings (tharam, tharat, thairis, thairsti, tharainn, tharaibh, tharstu).  It is also one of the few words in Irish with permanent lenition, or almost so, since we do have the unlenited form “tar” as in “tar éis.”  But then we also have “thar éis” and the contracted version found in Conamara, “théis.”  Ábhar blag eile?

For “ar tosach,” we could translate it as “before” in a phrase like the following:

Tá sé ag dul ar tosach.  He is going in front (i.e. before the other people)

Overall, I’d say that “thar” and “ar tosach” are not the main equivalents of “before” but they can be used that way in certain circumstances.  “Roimh” and “sula/sular” would be the most typical equivalents to “before,” for use as a preposition and as a conjunction respectively.  “Os comhair,” “os coinne,” and “cheana” can all be translated as “before” in certain contexts.

And just in case anyone was wondering, “fore!” in golf is considered to be an aphetic variation of “before,” adding at least one more term for our to-do pile.   But that doesn’t mean that your Gaeltacht galfaire would call out any of the above phrases, even aphetically!  Not that you can really aphetize most of our seven words anyway, since some have only one syllable and others have the stress on the first syllable.  And that’s a clue about aphesis, which is reasonably common in English.  Most English-speakers probably indulge in aphesis quite often, without necessarily being aware that they are doing so.  Were you?  How ‘bout those of you who speak other languages — any aphetic variations come to mind?   For more on Gaeilge agus galf, and perhaps for more on aphesis, please stay tuned!   

So that takes care of the seven terms originally asked about.  While I’m still ag machnamh air, I might add a few more words for “before” in the next blog  And I’m champing at the bit to tackle “already,” for which the simple answer is “cheana” or “cheana féin,” but these don’t address all the nuances of “already,” at least as found in American English. 

Gluais: machnamh ar X, reflecting on / thinking about X

Fuaimniu: rogha [row, as in the UK usage, to have a row, i.e. rhymes with “cow” and “now,” not “row a boat”]; thar [hahr]; tharam [HAHR-um], thogh [how, as in “how are you?”]