One of this blog’s readers, Seanchán, has written in with an interesting question.  Cad é an difear idir na focail seo: cheana, roimh, sula, thar, os coinne, os comhair agus ar tosach.  Ciallaíonn siad go léir “before.”  Most have many other meanings as well.   And before we finish the topic, we might be adding a few more entries to the list. 

One aspect of the answer is that some are different parts of speech (ranna cainte).  And then there is always nuance, idiom, tradition and context to explain other differences.  So let’s take the translations of “before” one by one.

The two that are probably most widely used are “roimh” and “sula.” 

“Roimh” is used before nouns or with a pronoun ending in phrases like:

Tá fáilte romhat (one of the ways to say “You’re welcome,” lit. “a welcome is before you”)

Bhí eagla orm roimh an mbean sí (I was afraid of the banshee). 

Críost romham (loosely translated, “May Christ lead me,” lit. “Christ before me,” one of the lines of St. Patrick’s famous lorica (breastplate) prayer). 

roimh a seacht a chlog, before seven o’clock

an rud a bhí rompu, what was before them

Since “roimh” is a preposition, it has seven forms with pronoun endings: romham, romhat, roimhe, roimpi, romhainn, romhaibh, rompu (before me, before you, etc.).  For pronunciation, remember the “mh” is pronounced either like a “w” (romham [ROH-wum]) or like a “v” (roimhe [RIV-uh]). 

“Sula” is used before verbs, as in:

Sula bhfaca sí an corpán, chonaic an bhean lóistín an fhuil ag sileadh tríd an tsíleáil (Before she saw the body, the landlady saw the blood trickling through the ceiling).  Why that scene from Tess occurred to me to represent one incident happening before another incident, I have no idea, ach is scannán maith é). 

Caithfidh muid sin a dhéanamh sula n-imeoidh muid (We have to do that before we go). 

As you might have noticed, “sula” causes eclipsis, even of vowels.  “Sula” also changes to “sular” before regular past tense verbs and some of the irregulars: 

D’ól sé gloine uisce sular ith sé an béile (He drank a glass of water before he ate the meal).

Léigh sé na nótaí sular thosaigh sé an obair (He read the notes before he started the work).

And a sula + roimh combo:

Bhí áthas air gur léigh sé Ulysses sular léigh sé Finnegans Wake in ionad Finnegans Wake a léamh roimh Ulysses (He was glad he read Ulysses before he read Finnegans Wake instead of reading Finnegans Wake before Ulysses). 

Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I saw book promotions for “Sula.”  “Aha!” I thought, “someone has finally named a novel after an Irish conjunction.”  Not that I’d been holding my breath for such an occurrence.  Turns out, as you may know, that “Sula” happens to also be a girl’s name, meaning “peace” (cf. Shulamit) or “the sun” (cf. sol, Old Norse for “sun”) or “little bear” (cf. ursa, ursula) depending on your source, Arabic, Icelandic, and Latin respectively.  And the book was actually the leabhar móréilimh by Toni Morrison, about a girl named Sula.  So the opportunity to write the novel is still open – a conjunktionsroman, anyone?  Written in the conjunctive mood – there actually are possibilities, with sub-plots of the conjunctive-imperative and subordination.  Hmmm!

Looks like this topic will be another mionsraith ar an mblag, since this one is long enough, already.  And that last little twist of phrase is a réamhthagra to the next blog, so please stay tuned. 

Gluais: eagla, fear; fuil, blood; réamhthagra [RAYV-HAHG-ruh], flash-forward, prolepsis; sileadh, dripping, trickling; sraith, series

P.S. Hope I got that German possessive ending correct.  Muna bhfuil sé ceart, an scríobhfadh Geamánach ar bith ar an liosta chugam lena cheartú?  Go raibh maith agat roimh ré.