An diofar eadar na mùthaidhean a rinneadh air "An Tràigh"

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Interrogatives are those little words that introduce questions, like ''who, what, why, which'' in English or ''<span style="color: #008000;">có, càite, ciamar</span>'' in Gaelic. On the whole these are pretty straight forward but first let's take a quick detour into history, as there are some historical oddities which are bound to confuse you at some point.
 
  
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==Interrogatives followed by a relative clause==
 
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This is by far the largest group of interrogatives. Well, 5 of 6:
 
  
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{| style="width: 80%;" border="0"
 
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! align="left" | Interrogative
 
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! align="left" | Meaning
 
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! align="left" | Example
 
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|-
 
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| <span style="color: #008000;">có (a)</span> || who? || <span style="color: #008000;">có thuirt seo?</span>, <span style="color: #008000;">'''có''' an neach '''a''' bhuail mi?</span>
 
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|-
 
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| <span style="color: #008000;">(gu) dé (a)</span> || what? || <span style="color: #008000;">(gu) dé thuirt thu?</span>, <span style="color: #008000;">'''(gu) dé''' an rud '''a''' thuirt thu?</span>
 
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|-
 
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| <span style="color: #008000;">ciamar a</span> || how? || <span style="color: #008000;">ciamar a bha sin?</span>
 
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|-
 
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| <span style="color: #008000;">cuin a</span> || when? || <span style="color: #008000;">cuin a bha sin?</span>
 
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|-
 
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| <span style="color: #008000;">carson a</span> || why? || <span style="color: #008000;">carson a bha sin?</span>
 
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|-
 
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|}
 
  
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So the only thing that's potentially confusing here is that the relative particle <span style="color: #008000;">a</span> which follows '''all''' of these interrogatives is dropped both in speech and writing if it immediately follows an interrogative that ends in a vowel, so <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">(gu) dé</span>. But note (see the second example) that if the sentence structure forces the <span style="color: #008000;">a</span> into a position where it can't be gobbled up by the interrogative's vowel, it's there both in speech and writing.
 
  
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==Interrogatives followed by a dependent clause==
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d' fhaicinn-sa vs thusa fhaicinn
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Well, technically it's just one interrogative, <span style="color: #008000;">càit(e)</span>, which takes the dependent form of a verb:
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">càit a bheil thu?</span>
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">càit an robh thu?</span>
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">càit am bi thu?</span>
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">càite fon ghrèin an robh thu?</span>
 
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As with the others, the final <span style="color: #008000;">-e</span> drops off in speech and writing if there's another vowel right next to it but where it's "buffered" by consonants (see the last example), it sticks around.
 
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==The history of interrogatives==
 
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Interrogatives are not the most stable of words, strange as that may seem. Think about it; for example, no one uses ''wheretofore'' or ''whence'' any more. So, interrogatives can fall out of use, fuse, or do other funny stuff. A lot of that has happened in Gaelic over the centuries.  For those reasons, some of the usages around interrogatives in Gaelic seem downright weird, such as asking ''<span style="color: #008000;">có ás a tha thu</span>'' when ''<span style="color: #008000;">có</span>'' is normally reserved for ''who'' or why people in Lewis say [deː] when everyone else says [dʲeː].
 
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So it turns out that Old Irish was thin on ready-made interrogatives compared to other languages. There basically was one question word (<span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span>) which had to cover a lot of ground. Of course it being Old Irish, it started off by making things more complicated by factoring in stressed and unstressed forms and gender and number. So first off, there was the basic stressed form:
 
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span> "who, what, which". This was the masculine form and it would prefix <span style="color: #6600CC;">h</span> to a following word. In the plural, this gives <span style="color: #6600CC;">citné</span> "what/what are they?"
 
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cesí, cessi, cisí</span> - same meanings, but used with feminine nouns. This one caused lenition.
 
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cid, ced</span> - same meanings, used with neuter nouns. In the plural
 
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and the unstressed forms
 
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">ci/ce/ca</span> "who, what, which"
 
  
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First off, as you may already have wondered based one <span style="color: #6600CC;">citné</span> "who/what are they?", all of these are actually a combination of an interrogative and the copula verb, so all of these forms technically are "who/what/which is".
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==Cn medially==
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coisneadh written coisreadh (CMacL)
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MacRìll < MacNill (CmacL)
  
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So inflection and all that aside, the way in which Old Irish made this work was by combining <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span> with a noun. Which should feel very familiar, as many modern Gaelic interrogative are still blatantly obvious combinations of a <span style="color: #008000;">c</span> and some noun, like the <span style="color: #008000;">àit(e)</span> <span style="color: #008000;">càit(e)</span>. So you get things like
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==eadh (gen)==
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">ce méit, cía mméit</span> (our modern <span style="color: #008000;">co mheud</span>) "how many?"
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* na h-acainne bigeadh
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía airm, c'airm</span> (<span style="color: #6600CC;">airm</span> being an old word for "place) "where?"
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* aig taobh creigeadh mòireadh
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">ce chruth</span> "how?"
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* Fionnlagh na Plaide Bàineadh
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cissi chonar</span> (<span style="color: #6600CC;">conar</span> "way, path", which still appears on Uist and Barra as <span style="color: #008000;">conair</span> with the same meaning) "which way?"
 
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* <span style="color: #6600CC;">cissi aimser</span> "when, what time?"
 
  
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What about <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> though? Well, in later stages of Old and Middle Irish, <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span> developed the by-form <span style="color: #6600CC;">cá</span> and from there's it was only a bunny hop to <span style="color: #008000;">có</span>. You can see the intermediate stage by peeking over to Modern Irish which was <span style="color: #6600CC;">cá as</span> for "where from?", the cognate of our <span style="color: #008000;">có ás</span>. So <span style="color: #008000;">có ás</span> isn't particularly weird because the <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> is basically just the modern version of the old <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span> "who, what, which" plus <span style="color: #008000;">ás</span> "from". And by itself, <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> is the heir of <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span>, though in modern Gaelic this has largely dropped all other meanings apart from "who" except where it combines with a noun.
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==lenition of English words==
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* k/c a Kathy /ə xæθɪ/
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* t mo thorch /mɔ hɔrtʃ/, two tickets /daː hɪkɪts/
  
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The rest of the modern set of question words is of course different from that of Old Irish but overall, pretty obvious in its derivation:
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==lowercase initials in other languages==
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cuin</span> "when?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">ùine</span>
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*iPad
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* <span style="color: #008000;">carson</span> "why?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">air</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">son</span> (a now pretty obsolete word for "account, sake")
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*Noongwa e-Anishinaabemjig
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* <span style="color: #008000;">ciamar</span> "how?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">mar</span>, from Old Irish <span style="color: #6600CC;">immar</span> "like, as"
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">có mheud</span> "how many?" « <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">meud</span>. The now rare Argyll variant <span style="color: #008000;">ce meud</span> is even closer to the Old Irish form
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cé</span> "who?" This is pretty archaic now in Gaelic but it also is from the same root
 
  
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The neuter form <span style="color: #6600CC;">cid</span> survives in the forms <span style="color: #008000;">ciod</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">ciodh</span>, both meaning "what?". This also appears in <span style="color: #008000;">ciod thuige</span> "why?" (Old Irish <span style="color: #6600CC;">cid thége</span>.
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==non-Gaelic letter combos==
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* bb cc dd ff gg mm aa oo pp ss tt oa oe eau j k q v w x y z ou au ee ie ii ue uo uu bd bg bc
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but careful of possible junctures
  
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Some regions use the form <span style="color: #008000;">cia</span> instead of <span style="color: #008000;">có</span> in front of a noun, but the basic principle of formation is the same:
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==strange semantic ranges==
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia meud</span> "how many?"
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usually from English perspective
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia fhad</span> "how long/far?"
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*amasach
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia lìon</span> "how many?"
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*càirdeas
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia minig</span> "how often?"
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*cearrachd
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia (bh)uaithe</span> "whence?"
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*eug-samhail
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia ás</span> "where from?"
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*fàsach
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cia an taobh</span> "whither?"
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*fulangach
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*grìosad
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*guidhe
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*sonn
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*toirteil
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*bho chionn goirid
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*astar
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*spearrach
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*siobhag
  
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Some use the very reduced form <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">ce</span>:
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==stuff that breaks and stuff that doesn't==
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* <span style="color: #008000;">c' fheadh</span> "how far?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">feadh</span> "extent"
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*Comann Uibhist is Bharraidh
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* <span style="color: #008000;">c' ainm</span> "what name?"
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*nighean donn bhòidheach
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cuime</span> "about whom/what?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">uime</span> "about him/it", an inflected form of <span style="color: #008000;">mu</span>
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cuige</span> "why?" « <span style="color: #008000;">c'</span> + <span style="color: #008000;">uige</span> "to him/it", an inflected form of <span style="color: #008000;">gu</span>
 
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* <span style="color: #008000;">ce ann</span> "wherein?"
 
  
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A few words which also carry a form of the old <span style="color: #6600CC;">cía</span> at heart are a little less obvious:
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==weird autocorrect==
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* <span style="color: #008000;">ge be</span> "whatever", in older Gaelic <span style="color: #008000;">cibe</span> « <span style="color: #6600CC;">ci</span> + <span style="color: #6600CC;">bíth</span> "existence"
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* bu mhath bum hath
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* <span style="color: #008000;">cionnas</span> "how, in what manner?" « a direct inheritance from Old Irish <span style="color: #6600CC;">cindas</span>, from <span style="color: #6600CC;">indas</span> "method, way"
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* cothrom coatroom
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* <span style="color: #008000;">dé</span> "what?". Now the emphatic "fuller" form of this is <span style="color: #008000;">gu dé</span> and this itself is a re-interpreted form of <span style="color: #008000;">ciod e</span>, which is the Old Irish neuter form <span style="color: #008000;">cid</span> plus a pronoun.
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* farsainge far-seeing
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* <span style="color: #008000;">ge-tà</span>, from older <span style="color: #008000;">ged tà</span>, which is from Middle Irish <span style="color: #6600CC;">ciod tá</span> "though"
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* toilichte toilette
  
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In Old Irish these interrogatives were followed by relative clauses, which is the reason we still do that today.
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==weird words==
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*di-theine, di-theallaich
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==But <span style="color: #008000;">càite</span> isn't follwed by a relative clause!==
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*di-beatha, di-beathte
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Indeed, what about <span style="color: #008000;">càite</span>... So why is it we say <span style="color: #008000;">có (a) chanas seo?</span>, <span style="color: #008000;">carson a chanas tu seo?</span>, <span style="color: #008000;">ciamar a chanas tu seo?</span> and <span style="color: #008000;">cuin a chanas tu seo?</span> but <span style="color: #008000;">càit an can thu seo?</span>. Excellent question. In fact it's so good, I had to email my old prof and ask because I didn't have a scooby (I always just accepted that that's how it was, but then I'm more into sounds than word order).
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*de-theodha
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*de-tibheach (i-tibheach, le-tibheach...)
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But then something fun happened in Middle Irish. It had a relative construction <span style="color: #6600CC;">áit i raibhe sé</span> "the place in which it was" (<span style="color: #008000;">i</span> being the preposition "in" which eventually morphed into <span style="color: #008000;">(ann) an</span>. You still get the same sort of construction in modern Gaelic of course, <span style="color: #008000;">an t-àite san robh e</span>, naturally with a dependent verb form. Now to turn that into a question, slap on <span style="color: #6600CC;">c'</span> (the pre-vowel form of <span style="color: #6600CC;">ce</span>) and you get <span style="color: #6600CC;">c'áit i raibhe sé</span>. Over time, this fused into one word <span style="color: #008000;">càite</span>, followed by a dependent verb because that's what this construction required back in the day, even though it no longer looks like it used to at all and even though it doesn't behave like the other question words.
 
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The memory of Gaelic for things that were there a looong time ago eh, what can you say?
 
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d' fhaicinn-sa vs thusa fhaicinn
 
  
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* weird stuff
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==verbs with prefixes==
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di-theine, di-theallaich
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* agus dhubh dh'fhairlich orm
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di-beatha, di-beathte
 
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de-theodha
 
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de-tibheach (i-tibheach, le-tibheach...)
 
  
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* words with strange semantic ranges (usually from English perspective)
 
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amasach
 
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càirdeas
 
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cearrachd
 
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eug-samhail
 
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fàsach
 
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fulangach
 
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grìosad
 
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guidhe
 
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sonn
 
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toirteil
 
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bho chionn goirid
 
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astar
 
  
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
 
{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"

Am mùthadh mu dheireadh on 18:55, 28 dhen Dùbhlachd 2021



d' fhaicinn-sa vs thusa fhaicinn

Cn medially

coisneadh written coisreadh (CMacL) MacRìll < MacNill (CmacL)

eadh (gen)

  • na h-acainne bigeadh
  • aig taobh creigeadh mòireadh
  • Fionnlagh na Plaide Bàineadh

lenition of English words

  • k/c a Kathy /ə xæθɪ/
  • t mo thorch /mɔ hɔrtʃ/, two tickets /daː hɪkɪts/

lowercase initials in other languages

  • iPad
  • Noongwa e-Anishinaabemjig

non-Gaelic letter combos

  • bb cc dd ff gg mm aa oo pp ss tt oa oe eau j k q v w x y z ou au ee ie ii ue uo uu bd bg bc

but careful of possible junctures

strange semantic ranges

usually from English perspective

  • amasach
  • càirdeas
  • cearrachd
  • eug-samhail
  • fàsach
  • fulangach
  • grìosad
  • guidhe
  • sonn
  • toirteil
  • bho chionn goirid
  • astar
  • spearrach
  • siobhag

stuff that breaks and stuff that doesn't

  • Comann Uibhist is Bharraidh
  • nighean donn bhòidheach

weird autocorrect

  • bu mhath bum hath
  • cothrom coatroom
  • farsainge far-seeing
  • toilichte toilette

weird words

  • di-theine, di-theallaich
  • di-beatha, di-beathte
  • de-theodha
  • de-tibheach (i-tibheach, le-tibheach...)

verbs with prefixes

  • agus dhubh dh'fhairlich orm


Sortable table
Alphabetic Numeric Date Unsortable
d 20 2008-11-24 This
b 8 2004-03-01 column
a 6 1979-07-23 cannot
c 4 1492-12-08 be
e 0 1601-08-13 sorted.
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