Irish morphology

The morphology of Irish is in some respects typical of an Indo-European language. Nouns are declined for number, and case, and verbs for person and number. Nouns are classified by masculine or feminine gender. Other aspects of Irish morphology, while typical for a Celtic language, are not typical for Indo-European, such as the presence of inflected prepositions and the initial consonant mutations.

The discussion of Irish morphology has been split up into four articles. On this page, the pronouns, inflected prepositions, and numbers are discussed. Irish nouns, adjectives, and the definite article are discussed on the page on Irish nominals. Irish verbs are discussed at Irish verbs. The initial mutations are dealt with on a separate page.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns in Irish do not inflect for case, but there are three different sets of pronouns used: conjunctive forms, disjunctive forms, and emphatic forms (which may be used either conjunctively or disjunctively)

Conjunctive forms

The normal word order in Irish is verb-subject-object (VSO). The forms of the subject pronoun directly following the verb are called "conjunctive":

The forms "thusa", "eisean" and "ise" are disjunctive forms, while "tusa", "seisean" and "sise" are conjunctive forms.

The word _ga. "féin" (IPA|/fʲeːnʲ/ or IPA|/heːnʲ/) "-self" can follow a pronoun, either to add emphasis or to form a reflexive pronoun.

: _ga. Rinne mé féin é. "I did it myself.": _ga. Ar ghortaigh tú thú féin? "Did you hurt yourself?": _ga. Sinn Féin is thus "We Ourselves"

Possessive pronouns

The possessive pronouns cause different initial consonant mutations. _ga. "mo" "my" lenites; _ga. "m’" precedes vowels: _ga. mo chara "my friend": _ga. m'fheirm "my farm": _ga. m'athair "my father"

_ga. "do" "your (sg.)" lenites; _ga. "d’" precedes vowels: _ga. do chara "your friend": _ga. d'fheirm "your farm": _ga. d'athair "your father"

_ga. "a" "his" lenites: _ga. a chara "his friend": _ga. a fheirm "his farm": _ga. a athair "his father"

_ga. "a" "her" takes the radical of a consonant and adds an _ga. "h" to a vowel: _ga. a cara "her friend": _ga. a feirm "her farm": _ga. a hathair "her father" _ga. "ár" "our" eclipses: _ga. ár gcara "our friend": _ga. ár bhfeirm "our farm": _ga. ár n-athair "our father"

_ga. "bhur" "your(pl.)" eclipses: _ga. bhur gcara "your friend": _ga. bhur bhfeirm "your farm": _ga. bhur n-athair "your father"

_ga. "a" "their" eclipses: _ga. a gcara "their friend": _ga. a bhfeirm "their farm": _ga. a n-athair "their father"The forms _ga. "a" and _ga. "ár" can also blend with certain prepositions:

Numbers

Cardinal numbers

There are three kinds of cardinal numbers in Irish: disjunctive numbers, nonhuman conjunctive numbers, and human conjunctive numbers.

Disjunctive numbers

"One" as a pronoun is rendered with _ga. "duine" (lit. "person") with people. The other "personal" numbers can also be used pronominally, e.g.:: _ga. Tá cúigear páiste agam; tá duine acu breoite. "I have five children; one of them is sick.": _ga. Tá seisear sa seomra. "Six people are in the room."

Higher numbers are done as with the nonhuman conjunctive numbers: _ga. "trí pháiste déag", "fiche páiste", etc.

Ordinal numbers