Caoilte wrote:
Labhrás, Djwebb, thanks for the replies.
'Cárb as tú?' (Where are you from?) seems more logical to say than 'Cad as tú?' (literally 'What are you from?'). The latter does seem a little peculiar when you think of it literally.
Now that I think about it, a sentence like 'Is as Luimneach dó' seems peculiar also since a prepositional pronoun is acting as the subject of the sentence, which doesn't seem very rational. I wonder how this came about.
It was already so in Old Irish.
The copula "is" doesn't meant "is", actually.
It rather meant "he/she/it is". So, there was already a subject. "Is" was a combination of the copula and a 3rd person, like "tuigim" is a combination of tuig and first person. ("Am" meant "I am", "at" meant "you are").
And the thing/person involved was added as a mere apposition
- either in nominative (so in sentences with a noun as predicate)
- or as an apposition with do (so in sentences with an adverb as predicate).
The phrase "as Luimneach" is adverbial, so you can use "do".
"Is as Luimneach do Sheán" meant literally (or rather "etymologically") "He's out-of Limerick, (for) Seán"
and "Is fear (é) Seán" meant "He's a man, (he) Seán"
In both cases "Seán" was not really the "subject" but only an apposition to an already complete sentence.
I don't know for Old Irish but in Modern Irish this "do" is a relict and so it is optional.
But there are a few phrases where it is still mandatory, e.g. "Is ann do Dhia", God exists. "Is ann é Dia" would be wrong.
Quote:
Also, if the following equation holds: 'Is as Luimneach é' = 'Is as Luimneach dó', do the following equations also hold:
'Is as Luimneach Seán' = 'Is as Luimneach do Sheán'
'Is as Luimneach an fear' = 'Is as Luimneach don fhear'
(I don't think I've come across 'do' plus noun to express where someone if from.)
Yes.
See also:
"Is from" question here in this forum.
Labhrás, thanks for that. So, in a sense, the use of 'do' can be better explained in the context of archaic grammar.
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