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The Case System - Masculine Nouns

Gaelic has 4 cases (we will leave the discussion of whether the vocative is a case in Gaelic to the linguists): the nominative, the dative, the genitive and the vocative case.  Hurk?

The Nominative:  literally the "naming" case.  The basic form of a noun, the word that a dictionary will give you or that you use when naming something, e.g. an taigh, am balach, a' chaileag etc.  Subjects of a sentence in Gaelic are also in the nominative case.  Referred to by some as the "Naming Case" or the "Nominal Case", probably because they think that latinate words cause the brain to overheat - in any case we believe grammar is difficult enough without having 5 terms for the same thing so we stick with the most established term - the nominative.

The Dative:  literally the "giving" case.  Never mind other languages here, in Gaelic simple prepostions are followed by the dative case, e.g. fo, do, de, bho, le, ri, aig, ann an etc.  Referred to by some therefore as the "prepositional case" - again, we'll stick with the established word and not bother about linguists arguing that the Gaelic dative isn't really a dative anymore.

The Genitive:  literally the "creating" case.  Well, in Gaelic the genitive is used for various things.  For one, it expresses possession (akin to the English "possessive 's"), e.g. taigh mo mhàthar, bean an taighe etc.  It also takes the function of the English particle 'of' as in 'house of horror' 'Queen of Scots' - taigh an uabhais, Ban-rìghinn nan Albannach.  It also form compound nouns in Gaelic e.g. gloine fìona (a wineglass) vs gloine fìon (a glass (full) of wine).  Referred to by some as the "possessive" case - do we really need yet another term??

The Vocative:  literally the "calling" case - which is what it does.  You use it in Gaelic when directly addressing someone or something, e.g. when shouting someones name to get their attention, when addressing an audience or when you're drunk and talking to a lamp-post: a Mhórag! a lampa-shràid!

What else?  Ah, number.  English makes a distinction between singular (the cat) and plural (15 cats).  Gaelic has a dual in addition to that, which means the noun will take on one shape for one [X], two [X] and more than two [X] - bròg, dà bhròig, trì brògan ...

Definite and indefinite:  an indefinite noun is a noun that talks about a member of a group of things without telling you exactly which one.  'A cat' for example could be any moggie on or off this planet - but if you say 'the cat sat on the mat' you must have mentioned which cat you mean before, otherwise you'll get questions like 'what, Frankies cat?'.  Definite nouns in Gaelic are preceded by the definite article which changes its shape depending on the noun, case, gender and number: an, a', na, nan, nam ...  Proper nouns are always considered definite as well, so Calum and Dun Èideann are proper nouns even though there are many Calums in this world and at least two Dùn Èideanns (look for Dunedin in New Zealand).

Right, now lets look at our first noun: Balach.  It is masculine and forms its plural by means of slenderisation (yes that is important) and has an initial consonant:

Balach Beag - masculine indefinite noun

Am Balach Beag - masculine definite noun

Oh joy, footnotes again...

1. -e if they end in a slender consonant e.g. glic > glice

2. The article is an, except that in front of the labials b, p, f, m (sounds made at the lips) this assimilates to am.

3. Gaelic has a rule that states that in any given definite noun phrase, the definite article may only occur once and in front of the last noun.  This means that unlike English, where 'the house of the small boy' is grammatical, you may only get an (well, a' in this case) in front of balaich in Gaelic.  As a result, you cannot distinguish 'a house of the small boy' and 'the house of the small boy' in Gaelic and have to rely on context to determine whether the first noun is definite or indefinite.

4. The article is an but before all lenitable consonants (excpet f where it remains an) this is reduced to a'; bear in mind the homo-organic rule which prevents the lenition of d, n, t, l

5. The article is nan, except that in front of the labials b, p, f, m (sounds made at the lips) this assimilates to nam (same as in ¹).

A general footnote: basically anything that happens to the noun, happens to the adjective, so if the noun slenderises, in most cases so will the adjective.  Lenition caused by the definite article "jumps" i.e. it will affect every noun and adjective in that noun phrase until you reach the next part of the sentence, e.g. air a' bhalach bheag tana mhodhail.

Also, in a noun-adjective compound like coileach-dubh both elements are declined as if they were seperated e.g. taigh a' choilich-duibh.  If it is a compound where the adjective precedes the noun as in glas-bheinn, the adjective undergoes lenition, but no other changes while the noun is declined regularly and determines the gender of the compound, e.g. na glas-faoileige, dhan ghlas-fhaoleig etc.

Our next noun is Clachan.  It is masculine and forms its plural by means of adding a suffix and has an initial consonant:

Clachan Beag - masculine indefinite noun

An Clachan Beag - masculine definite noun

1. -e if they end in a slender consonant e.g. glic > glice

2. The article is an, except that in front of the labials b, p, f, m (sounds made at the lips) this assimilates to am.

3. Gaelic has a rule that states that in any given definite noun phrase, the definite article may only occur once and in front of the last noun.  This means that unlike English, where 'the house of the small village' is grammatical, you may only get an in front of clachan in Gaelic.  As a result, you cannot distinguish 'a house of the small village' and 'the house of the small village' in Gaelic and have to rely on context to determine whether the first noun is definite or indefinite.

4. The article is an but before all lenitable consonants (excpet f where it remains an) this is reduced to a'; bear in mind the homo-organic rule which prevents the lenition of d, n, t, l

5. The article is nan, except that in front of the labials b, p, f, m (sounds made at the lips) this assimilates to nam (same as in ¹).

Our next noun is Each.  It is masculine and forms its plural by means of slenderising and has an initial vowel:

Each Beag - masculine indefinite noun

An t-Each Beag - masculine definite noun

1. -e if they end in a slender consonant e.g. glic > glice

2. The definite article is an t- before vowels.  Commonly this is described as the article prefixing t- to nouns beginning with a vowel, but this t- is actually part of the definite article.

3. The definite article is na h- before vowels.  Commonly this is described as the article prefixing h- to nouns beginning with a vowel, but this h- is actually part of the definite article.

4. Gaelic has a rule that states that in any given definite noun phrase, the definite article may only occur once and in front of the last noun.  This means that unlike English, where 'the house of the small horse' is grammatical, you may only get an t- in front of each in Gaelic.  As a result, you cannot distinguish 'a house of the small horse' and 'the house of the small horse' in Gaelic and have to rely on context to determine whether the first noun is definite or indefinite.

5. Before vowels, the a is not pronounced, but should be written

The next noun is eilean.  It is masculine and forms its plural by means of adding an ending and has an initial vowel:

Eilean Beag - masculine indefinite noun

An t-Eilean Beag - masculine definite noun

1. -e if they end in a slender consonant e.g. glic > glice.

2. The definite article is an t- before vowels.  Commonly this is described as the article prefixing t- to nouns beginning with a vowel, but this t- is actually part of the definite article.

3. The definite article is na h- before vowels.  Commonly this is described as the article prefixing h- to nouns beginning with a vowel, but this h- is actually part of the definite article.

4. Gaelic has a rule that states that in any given definite noun phrase, the definite article may only occur once and in front of the last noun.  This means that unlike English, where 'the house of the small island' is grammatical, you may only get an in front of eilein in Gaelic.  As a result, you cannot distinguish 'a house of the small island' and 'the house of the small island' in Gaelic and have to rely on context to determine whether the first noun is definite or indefinite.

5. Before vowels, the a is not pronounced, but should be written

The next noun is saor.  It is masculine and forms its plural by means of slenderisation and has an initial s:

Saor Beag - masculine indefinite noun

An Saor Beag - masculine indefinite noun

1. -e if they end in a slender consonant e.g. glic > glice

2. Gaelic has a rule that states that in any given definite noun phrase, the definite article may only occur once and in front of the last noun.  This means that unlike English, where 'the house of the small joiner' is grammatical, you may only get an t- in front of saoir in Gaelic.  As a result, you cannot distinguish 'a house of the small joiner' and 'the house of the small joiner' in Gaelic and have to rely on context to determine whether the first noun is definite or indefinite.

3. The definite article is an t- before s-.  Commonly this is described as the article prefixing t- to nouns beginning with a vowel, but this t- is actually part of the definite article.  The s- is eclipsed by this t, i.e. the two words are pronounced as if the s- wasn't there at all, so air an t-saor is pronounced as [ɛɾʲ ən t̪ɯːɾ].
   This happens in all cases except before sp/sg/sd - the easiest way to remember this however is to say that it happens in all cases where the resulting word is "pronouncable" and *tp/tg/td are not possible in Gaelic.

So what happens with compound nouns?  Well, to begin with we need to try and answer the question of what constitutes a compound in Gaelic.  According to Faclair na Pàrlamaid, these are "close compounds".  According to them, close compounds are hyphenated nouns, which isn't very helpful as there is a great confusion in Gaelic as to which words are and aren't hyphenated.

The distinction is relatively easy actually, well, for a native speaker.  Two nouns form a close compound if there is stress shift.  Consider the two nound gloine fìon 'a glass (full) of wine' as opposed to gloine-fìona 'a wineglass'.  We start with remembering that every Gaelic word has word stress on the first syllable, which is the case both in gloine and fìon in the first example.  In the second example however, these two words have fused - which you can tell by listening to the stress patterns.  In gloine-fìona there is only one word stress left, the one on -fìona.

You get the same thing in other languages, for example English where whirl + pool (both having word stress) come together to form whirlpool, which has only one word stress left.  Similarly paper + cut > papercut, bull + shit > bullshit and minimal pairs like 'a Frenchman' and 'a French man', 'a rolling pin' and 'a rolling-pin', 'a holiday' and 'a holy day'.

This is a bit tricky for a learner, but it is the only foolproof way of telling a lose compound from a close compound.  Consider a few more examples before progressing.  As you can see, where Gaelic has a close compound, English often has a single word itself, rather than two.  Also, you get lenition in close compounds whereas you don't in lose compounds (the stressed syllables are underlined):

So how DO you decline a close compound?  The general rule is that the second noun is always in the genitive and undergoes lenition after the article when appropriate and masculine nouns which have slenderised for plural while the first noun is regularly declined.  And, if the second noun is in the plural, it is always lenited, following the general rule that a noun in the plural following another noun is lenited.  All the footnotes given above still apply to compound nouns but haven't been stated again:

Muileann-Gaoithe Beag - masculine indefinite noun

Am Muileann-Gaoithe Beag - masculine definite noun

Still more?  Yes, but hang in there, we've almost got it.  What's still left is the treatment of proper nouns. 

Pàdraig Bàn MacDhòmhnaill

Footnotes?  Just a few.  If you get a double name like Pàdraig Aonghas, both of them slenderise and lenite in the vocative e.g. a Phàdraig Aonghais! or a Dhonnchaidh Mhurchaidh!

Down to the last item - proper names a in place names.  There are two kinds of place name you can get - opaque ones and transparent ones.  Opaque placenames are placenames that don't have any "obvious" meaning e.g. Leódhas, na Hearadh, Glaschu whereas transparent ones "make sense" such as Dùn Éideann, Machair Aonghais, Dùn Bheagan, Meall nan Caorach - and of course semi-opaque ones like an t-Eilean Sgiathanach but one thing at a time.

For the most part, proper names such as place names behave like normal nouns.  Here's a few pointers though:

1. In the genitive placenames behave just like string of common nouns - they slenderise the last element in names like Dùn Bheagan > Dhùn Bheagain, An t-Eilean Sgiathanach > an Eilein Sgiathanaich; they also show genitive markings only on the last noun.  Unlike common nouns, they also lenite their initials.

2. In the vocative (should one need it) placenames behave as if they were common nouns.

3. Opaque placenames obey the rules of lenition, but generally not slenderisation, i.e. muinntir Tharabost, not *Tharabuist.

That's it really - now all that's left are feminine nouns ...

And here's the promised pdf.  It is in two parts, the first page contains a table with sample declensions of nouns, compound nouns and proper nouns.  The second page are notes on how to read the table.  Because we wanted to fit it on a single A4 sheet for you for reference, we had to make some slight alterations to the "traditional" way arranging these declensions.  But we believe we have found a way of delivering maximum information in a minimum amount of space.  All you need are the few rules on the second page.  You may want to consider printing them on one sheet and perhaps laminating them if you find them useful.  Download

Oh, and if there are ANY mistakes, do tell us please.