A Brief Visit with 'An Tuiseal Ginideach' Plus a Mioncheistiúchán (showing possession or adding description in Irish, plus a little quiz)

A Brief Visit with ‘An Tuiseal Ginideach’ Plus a ‘Mioncheistiúchán’ (showing possession or adding description in Irish, plus a little quiz) Posted by róislín on Aug 11, 2016 in Irish Language

(le Róislín)

Before we completely move away from the “samhradh, samhraidh, an tsamhraidh, and samhraí” theme and the related vocabulary covered in recent blogposts (naisc thíos), I thought it would fun to look at a nice succinct list of examples of “an tuiseal ginideach” (the genitive case), based on Liam Ó Muirthile’s own description of his Irish-language column, “An Peann Coitianta” in the Irish Times. These forms are vital for being able to use Irish nouns in different contexts.

The system of the genitive case is similar to what we find in Latin and German, and no doubt, other languages as well. We have an echo of it in English, when we apply “apostrophe s” or just an apostrophe to nouns (the boy’s book, the boys’ books, the man’s shoes, the men’s shoes).

So here we are, short and hopefully “milis“ (sweet), with a list from some further commentary by Ó Muirthile, quoted by Mícheál Ó hAodha in his article “Books Ireland, Eanáir/Feabhra, 2015 Iriseoireacht as Gaeilge” (nasc thíos).

Ó Muirthile says his “colúin“ (columns) pertain to “an saol” (life, lit. the life), including his own (he says “mo shaol féin“) and the following other types of “saol.” I’ve left a blank space so readers can filled in the tuiseal ginideach (genitive case) forms. Tá na freagraí thíos. And if you want a quick review of the genitive case before embarking on this, please check out the various (actually a book’s worth, practically) entries from a few years back (naisc thíos). The term to the right, in parentheses, is the root form of the noun, which needs to be adjusted for use in the phrase:

saol ____________________ (an tuairisceoir)
saol ____________________ (an scríbhneoir)
saol ____________________ (an teaghlach)
saol ____________________ (mo mhuintir)
saol ____________________ (an chathair)
saol ____________________ (an tuath)
saol ____________________ (an Tuaisceart)
saol ____________________ (an Fhrainc)
saol ____________________ (an bruachbhaile)
saol ___________________ (an straeire cinn; leid: only one of these words changes)

A few of the words are glossed below to help newcomers to the language.

Why does it seem complicated? Remember, the system in Irish is a lot like Latin and German, but very unlike English. So if English is your native language, you’re probably wondering, “Why so many endings? So many patterns?” All I can really say is welcome to the world of inflected languages. English has a very simple approach to showing possession — we add “apostrophe s” or just an apostrophe, as we saw in the English examples above (boy’s books, boys’ books). Irish, like German and Latin, has different endings for different categories of nouns.

So this was a liosta deas gonta. To fully work on the genitive case typically takes at least six or so chapters in most textbooks, one per declension (the five categories of nouns), and at least one in general, to explain the function. The previous posts in this blog, luaite thuas le naisc thíos, describe the situation further. Hope you enjoyed it — Róislín

Gluais: bruachbhaile, suburb; muintir, extended family, inhabitants of a place; straeire, strayer, wanderer (btw, fánaí or seachránaí can also be used for “wanderer”); teaghlach, family, household

Freagraí:

saol an tuairsceora (an tuairisceoir, the reporter, m3)
saol an scríbhneora (an scríbhneoir, the writer, m3)
saol an teaghlaigh (an teaghlach, the family, the household, m1)
saol mo mhuintire (mo mhuintir, my [extended] family, f2; “muintir” can also mean “inhabitants” but we wouldn’t typically say “my inhabitants” unless, fancifully, a city, town, or other dwelling-place is speaking in the first person, or should I say, “in the first residential”. Hmm, “Is mise an Ghaeltacht. Tá mo mhuintir …” Bhuel, b’fhéidir!)
saol na cathrach (an chathair, the city, f5)
saol na tuaithe (an tuath, the countryside, f2; also “the tribe” referring to ancient Ireland, but not for most anthropological contexts, which use “treibh“)
saol an Tuaiscirt (an Tuaisceart, Northern Ireland, m1)
saol na Fraince (an Fhrainc, France, f2)
saol an bhruachbhaile (an bruachbhaile, the suburb, m4)
saol an straeire chinn (an straeire cinn, m4; the wanderer, lit. the wanderer “of head,” which presumably means someone like a daydreamer; so far, I haven’t found this phrase anywhere else on the Internet or in any readily available dictionaries)

In case you’re wondering about the abbreviations which follow each entry (such as 3m or 1m), they are the standard way of designating the gender and declension for nouns in Irish. Whether intentionally or not, Ó Muirthile’s list gives us a nice set of examples of all five declensions or categories:

1st declension, masculine: teaghlach, an Tuaisceart

2nd declension, feminine: muintir, tuath, an Fhrainc

3rd declension, masculine: tuairsceoir, scríbhneoir

4th declension, masculine: bruachbhaile, straeire

5th declension, feminine: cathair

Naisc (Ó Muirthile agus Ó hAodha):

alt Uí Mhuirthile san Irish Times leis na foirmeacha seo den fhocal ‘samhradh’: samhradh, samhraidh, an tsamhraidh, samhraí : http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2.663/saoiri-samhraidh-1.1091985 (14 Lúnasa 2002)

leabhartha le Liam Ó Muirthile: Rogha Alt (1989-2003), Cois Life, 2014; http://www.coislife.ie/leabhar/153/rogha-alt . Tá cnuasaigh eile aige ach tá siad as cló: Ar an bPeann, Cois Life, 2006; An Peann Coitianta 2 (1992-1997), Cois Life, 1997, agus An Peann Coitianta, Comhar, 1991. Tá i bhfad níos mó foilsithe aige (úrscéalta, dánta, srl.) ach is iad seo na cinn a bhaineanns leis an alt seo.

alt le Mícheál Ó hAodha faoi scríbhneoireacht Uí Mhuirthile: http://www.coislife.ie/leabhar/153/rogha-alt (from Books Ireland, Eanáir/Feabhra, 2015 Iriseoireacht as Gaeilge)

na blaganna roimhe seo sa tsraith seo:

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Deich bhFrása Shuimiúla as Alt Uí Mhuirthile (‘Saoirí Samhraidh’ san Irish Times), Cuid 2 Posted by róislín on Jul 28, 2016 in Irish Language

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