Consonant mutations

Lenition and slenderisation (also referred to as palatalisation or "i-infection") play a crucial role in Scottish Gaelic grammar.^[2]

Lenition (sometimes inaccurately referred to as "aspiration"), as a grammatical process, affects the pronunciation of initial consonants, and is indicated orthographically by the addition of an ⟨h⟩:

• caileag → chaileag "girl"
• beag → bheag "small"
• faca → fhaca "saw"
• snog → shnog "nice"

Lenition is not indicated in writing for words beginning with ⟨l, n, r⟩. Nor does it affect words that begin with either a vowel, or with ⟨sg, sm, sp, st⟩. In most cases, lenition is caused by the presence of particular trigger words to the left (certain determiners, adverbs, prepositions, and other function words). In this article, the leniting effect of such words is indicated, where relevant, by the superscript "+L" (e.g. glè^+L "very").

Slenderisation, on the other hand, is a change in the pronunciation of the final consonant of a word, and it is typically indicated by the addition of an ⟨i⟩:

• facal → facail "word"
• balach → balaich "boy"
• òran → òrain "song"
• ùrlar → ùrlair "floor"
• cailleach → caillich "old woman"

In monosyllabic words, slenderisation can cause more complex changes to the vowel:

• ceòl → ciùil "music"
• fiadh → fèidh "deer"
• cas → cois "foot"

Slenderisation usually has no effect on words that end in a vowel (e.g. bàta "boat"), or words whose final consonant is already slender (e.g. sràid "street"). In rare cases, for example in words where a historic silent final consonant is elided in spelling, this may re-appear in the slenderised form, e.g. tlà (< tlàth) usually slenderises to tlàith.

Most cases of slenderisation can be explained historically as the palatalizing influence of a following front vowel (such as -⟨i⟩) in earlier stages of the language. Although this vowel has now disappeared, its effects on the preceding consonant are still preserved.^[3] Similarly, lenition of initial consonants was originally triggered by the final vowel of the preceding word, but in many cases, this vowel is no longer present in the modern language.^[4]

Many word-final consonants have also disappeared in the evolution of Scottish Gaelic, and some traces of them can be observed in the form of prosthetic or linking consonants (⟨n-, h-, t-⟩, etc.) that appear in some syntactic combinations, for example, after some determiners (see below).^[5]

Gender and number

Gaelic nouns and pronouns belong to one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine. Nouns with neuter gender in Old Gaelic were redistributed between the masculine and feminine.

The gender of a small number of nouns differs between dialects. A very small group of nouns have declensional patterns that suggest mixed gender characteristics. Foreign nouns that are fairly recent loans arguably fall into a third gender class (discussed by Black), if considered in terms of their declensional pattern. It is arguable that feminine gender is under pressure and that the system may be becoming simplified with the feminine paradigms incorporating some typically masculine patterns.

Nouns have three grammatical numbers: singular, dual (vestigially) and plural. Dual forms of nouns are only found after the numeral dà (two), where they are obligatory. The dual form is identical in form to the dative singular; depending on noun class, the dual is therefore either the same in form as the common singular (the nominative-accusative, Class 1 nouns, Class 3 and Class 4 nouns), or have a palatalised final consonant in nouns of Class 2 and Class 5. Plurals are formed in a variety of ways, including suffixation (often involving the suffix -(e)an) and slenderisation. Pluralisation, as in Irish Gaelic and Manx, can vary according to noun class, however on the whole depends on the final sound of the singular form.

Cases

Nouns and pronouns in Gaelic have four cases: nominative, vocative, genitive, and dative (or prepositional) case. There is no distinct accusative case form; the nominative is used for both subjects and objects. Nouns can be classified into a number of major declension classes, with a small number of nouns falling into minor patterns or irregular paradigms. Case forms can be related to the base form by suffixation, lenition, slenderisation, or a combination of such changes. See the example paradigms below for further details.

The case system is now under tremendous pressure and speakers exhibit varying degrees of paradigm simplification.

Indefinite and definite

Gaelic has no indefinite article. Cù may mean either "dog" or "a dog", and coin may mean either "dogs" or "some dogs."^[6]

The definite article is discussed below in full under articles. A noun or noun phrase is considered to be definite if it fulfils one of the following criteria.^[6]

• It is a proper noun
  • Màiri "Mary"
  • Inbhir Nis "Inverness"
  • Alba "Scotland"
• It is preceded by an article
  • an cù "the dog"
  • na h-aibhnichean "the rivers"
• It is preceded by a possessive determiner
  • mo cheann "my head"
  • àirde mo chinn "at the top of my voice"

Personal pronouns

Gaelic has singular and plural personal pronouns (i.e., no dual forms). Gender is distinguished only in the 3rd person singular. A T-V distinction is found in the 2nd person, with the plural form sibh used also as a polite singular.^[6]

In most cases the Classical Gaelic lenited form of tu, i.e. thu, has become generalised. Tu is retained in constructions where it is preceded by a verb ending in -⟨n⟩ -⟨s⟩ or -⟨dh⟩ (incl. historic -⟨dh⟩):

• Is tu a rinn a' mhocheirigh! "You are an early riser!"
• Bu tu an gaisgeach! "What a hero you were!" (In older Gaelic bu was written and pronounced budh)
• Mun abradh tu “deas-dé.” "Before you could say Jack Robinson."
• Cuiridh tu an-seo e! "You will put it here!"

Possessive determiners

Gaelic uses possessive determiners (corresponding to my, your, their, etc.) differently from English. In Gaelic, possessive determiners are used mostly to indicate inalienable possession, for example for body parts or family members.

As indicated in the following table, some possessive determiners lenite the following word. Before a word beginning with a vowel, some of the determiners have elided forms, or require a linking consonant.^[6]

The 3rd plural possessive a takes the form am before words beginning with a labial consonant: ⟨b, p, f, m⟩.

As discussed above, the linking consonants n- and h- reflect the presence of a final consonant that has disappeared in other contexts. Ar and ur are derived from genitive plural forms that originally ended in a nasal.^[7] The feminine singular a derives from a form ending in final -⟨s⟩, whose only trace is now the prefixation of h- to a following vowel.^[8]

To refer to non-permanent possession, one uses the preposition aig, as described above:

• am faclair aice her dictionary (lit. the dictionary at her)
• an leabhar aca their book (lit. the book at them)

Articles

Gaelic has a definite article but no indefinite article:

• taigh "(a) house"
• an taigh "the house"

The singular article is often used to designate an entire class.^[6]

• am bradan "salmon"
• an t-each "horses"
• am feur "grass"

Abstract nouns consistently take the singular article, as well.^[6]

• an aois "age"
• an sgìos "tiredness"
• am blàs "warmth"

The form of the (definite) article depends on the number, gender, case of the noun. The following table shows the basic paradigm, as used when there is no assimilation to the initial sounds of the following word.

The superscript ⟨^+L⟩ indicates that the following word is lenited. The actual realization of the capitalised forms in the paradigm above depends on the initial sound of the following word, as explained in the following table:

Putting all of those variants together into one table:

The forms of the definite article trace back to a Common Celtic stem *sindo-, sindā-. The initial ⟨s⟩, already lost in the Old Irish period, is still preserved in the forms of some prepositions (for example le "with" becomes leis before an article, similarly (ann) an "in", becomes anns — see below). The original d can be seen in the form an t-, and the leniting effect of the form an^+L is a trace of a lost final vowel. The form na h- reflects an original final -⟨s⟩.^[9]

Masculine definite noun paradigms

Feminine definite noun paradigms

Copula verbs

The number of copular verbs and their exact function in Gaelic is a topic of contention among researchers. There is a certain amount of variation in sources, making it difficult to come to a definitive conclusion about certain aspects of copular verbs. However, there is some information that consistently shows up across these sources, which we will discuss in this section.

Gaelic has two copular "be" verbs, though some grammar books treat them as two parts of a single suppletive verb:

Bi: attributes a property to a noun or pronoun; its complement is typically a description that expresses position, state, non-permanent characteristic (see further below)

Is: Historically called the “copula” verb, is can be used in constructions with nominal complements and adjectival complements. It also has the additional function of “topicalization”, a term that means a certain element of a sentence is being emphasized as the topic of interest.^[10]

Is:

In English, italics (for text) and stress (for speech) are used to emphasize different elements of a sentence; one can also change the word order to put the emphasized element first. Scottish Gaelic, however, does not use stress and very rarely uses word order changes to create emphasis. Instead, it uses topicalization, for example when “a sentence with the verb is followed by the element topicalised” (MacAulay, 189). This equates the English fronting device "it is X that...":

Examples (from MacAulay, pages 189–190):

The fronting use of is is part of its general function of ascribing descriptions to a complement (see below). Most commonly one will see classificatory or adjectival complements, as shown below:

Bi: Historically called the “substantive” verb, tha (the present indicative independent 3rd person singular form of bi) can be used in constructions with adjectival complements, locative predicates, and in aspectually marked sentences (MacAulay, page 180).

Examples (MacAulay, page 178):

It is also possible to use tha to describe a noun or pronoun with a nominal complement by using an embedded pronoun (MacAulay, page 179):

The two usages carry a semantic contrast. Is shows a permanent state, while tha shows that the state of being a soldier is temporary in some way or other. Often the tha construction is used when someone has just become a soldier, for example, while the is construction shows that being a soldier is a part of Ian's persona.

Notice that the example using is exhibits a diversion from the typical VSO word order. In Classical Gaelic, is incorporates the subject (3rd person singular), the noun or adjective that follows is in the nominative, and the second noun/pronoun is objective in case. In Modern Gaelic, this has been reanalysed as V – Topic/Complement – S, or V – S – S, a "double nominative construction", as it were. Latin based descriptions, however, assume the first analysis. The tha example maintains VSO/VSC word order, where the complement is a prepositional phrase that states what state the subject is in (in the state of being a soldier); cf. tha e na shuidhe and tha e na thost above.

The difference between tha and is is that tha describes psychologically temporary states:

tha mi sgìth "I am tired"

tha an duine reamhair "the man is fat"

Is, on the other hand, describes more permanent conditions — that is, states of being that are intrinsic and/or not seen as having an assumed end:

is beag an taigh e "it's a small house"

is Albannach mi "I am Scottish"

In the last example, for instance, if someone were to become a Scottish citizen, the phrase would be :Tha mi nam Albannach a-nise "I am Scottish now".

Verb forms, tense and aspect

Tense and aspect are marked in Gaelic in a number of ways.

Present tense is formed by use of the verb tha and the verbal noun (or participle) form of the main verb. The construction, unlike Irish Gaelic, is neutral to aspect. Apart from this, tense and aspect marking are very similar in the two languages.

Tha mi a' bruidhinn. "I am speaking" or "I speak" (lit. "Am I at speaking")

The perfective past in regular verbs is indicated by lenition of the initial consonant, and d'/dh addition with verbs that start with a vowel or ⟨f⟩ (do is the underlying form in all cases):

bruidhinn [ˈpri.ɪɲ] "speak": bhruidhinn mi [ˈvri.ɪɲ mi] "I spoke"

òl [ɔːl̪ˠ] "drink": dh'òl mi [ɣɔːl̪ˠ mi] "I drank"

fuirich [ˈfuɾʲɪç] "wait, stay": dh'fhuirich mi [ˈɣuɾʲɪç mi] "I waited/stayed"

Gaelic conjugates verbs to indicate either the present imperfective or the future tense:

bruidhnnidh mi "I speak", "I will speak", "I speak (at times/occasionally/often)".

The habitual continuous and future continuous is expressed by using the habitual verb bi:

Bidh mi a' bruidhinn "I speak (regularly)", "I will be speaking", "I am speaking as a normal habit", etc.

As in other Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic expresses modality and psych-verbals (such as "like", "prefer", "be able to", "manage to", "must"/"have to", "make"="compel to") by periphrastic constructions involving various adjectives, prepositional phrases and the copula or another verb, some of which involve highly unusual syntactic patterns when compared to English.

Inflected prepositions with personal pronouns

Prepositions that mark the dative take the conjugated dative forms of the personal pronouns, thus *aig mi "at me" and *le iad "with them" are incorrect. Such prepositions have conjugated forms, like verbs (see Inflected preposition). The following table presents some commonly used paradigms.^[6]

Inflected prepositions with possessive determiners

When the preposition an "in" (often found in the combined form ann an) is followed by a possessive determiner, the two words create a combined form.^[6] This also occurs with ag, the form of aig used with verbal nouns, and a^+L.^[6] As the last elements of these forms are the possessive determiners, the expected mutations occur.

Full reference citations

• Black, Ronald (1997). Cothrom Ionnsachaidh. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Department of Celtic. ISBN 0-906981-33-6.
• Calder, George (1990) [1923]. A Gaelic Grammar. Glasgow: Gairm. ISBN 978-0-901771-34-6.
• Dwelly, Edward (1988) [1901–11]. The Illustrated Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.). Glasgow: Gairm. ISBN 978-1-871901-28-3.
• Gillies, H. Cameron (2006) [1896]. Elements of Gaelic Grammar. Vancouver: Global Language Press. ISBN 978-1-897367-00-1.
• Lamb, William (2008). Scottish Gaelic Speech and Writing: Register Variation in an Endangered Language. Belfast: Cló Ollscoil na Banríona. ISBN 978-0853898955.
• Lewis, Henry; Holger Pedersen (1989). A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar (3rd ed.). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-26102-0.
• Macaulay, Donald (1992). The Celtic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23127-2.
• Mark, Colin (2006). Gaelic Verbs: Systemised and Simplified (2nd rev. ed.). Glasgow: Steve Savage Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-1-904246-13-8.
• Ó Maolalaigh, Roibeard; Iain MacAonghuis (1997). Scottish Gaelic in Three Months. Hugo's Language Books. ISBN 978-0-85285-234-7.
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1993) [1946]. A Grammar of Old Irish. Translated by D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 1-85500-161-6.