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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 7:53 pm 
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franc 91 wrote:
Just to go back to the original question - this is what you find on page 20 of 'Teach yourself Irish' (the 1960 edition)

The prefixed h:
One other initial change must be noted. The gen. sg. fem. and the nom.pl. of the article prefix h to a following initial vowel: na habhann "of the river"; na huain 'the lambs".
h is also prefixed as follows:
(a) to nouns after the fem. possessive a "her"; after the numerals trí, cheithre, sé and after tarna "second" and ordinals ending in ú; after the prepositions go and le (1), and after the negative copula ní: a hiníon 'her daughter", trí huaire "three times, an tarna huair "the second time", go hÉirinn "to Ireland", le hór "with gold", ní hea "it is not", ní hamhlaidh "it is not so";
(b) to adjectives after chomh "as, so" and go (forming adverbs): chomh hálainn"as beautiful", go holc "badly";
(c) to verbs in the passive-impersonal after all particles ending in vowels, and in the imperative after the negative ná: ní hitear " is not eaten"; ná hól! "do not drink", do hólaidh "was drunk".

(1) le prefixes n to the verbal nouns ithe "to eat" and ól "to drink".


Go raibh agat a franc 91

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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 8:12 pm 
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franc 91 wrote:
(1) le prefixes n to the verbal nouns ithe "to eat" and ól "to drink".

I think le actually prefixes both n- and h with different meanings:

Bhí neart le n-ithe agus le n-ól againn aréir.
Tá mé tinn le hól ar maidin.

That is, le n-ól is used in the sense of "(in order) to drink/(ready) to be drunk".

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WARNING: Intermediate speaker - await further opinions, corrections and adjustments before acting on my advice.
My "specialty" is Connemara Irish, particularly Cois Fhairrge dialect.
Is fearr Gaeilge ḃriste ná Béarla cliste, cinnte, aċ i ḃfad níos fearr aríst í Gaeilge ḃinn ḃeo na nGaeltaċtaí.
Gaeilge Chonnacht (GC), go háraid Gaeilge Chois Fhairrge (GCF), agus Gaeilge an Chaighdeáin Oifigiúil (CO).


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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 8:37 pm 
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franc 91 wrote:
Just to go back to the original question - this is what you find on page 20 of 'Teach yourself Irish' (the 1960 edition)

The prefixed h:
One other initial change must be noted. The gen. sg. fem. and the nom.pl. of the article prefix h to a following initial vowel: na habhann "of the river"; na huain 'the lambs".
h is also prefixed as follows:
(a) to nouns after the fem. possessive a "her"; after the numerals trí, cheithre, sé and after tarna "second" and ordinals ending in ú; after the prepositions go and le (1), and after the negative copula ní: a hiníon 'her daughter", trí huaire "three times, an tarna huair "the second time", go hÉirinn "to Ireland", le hór "with gold", ní hea "it is not", ní hamhlaidh "it is not so";
(b) to adjectives after chomh "as, so" and go (forming adverbs): chomh hálainn"as beautiful", go holc "badly";
(c) to verbs in the passive-impersonal after all particles ending in vowels, and in the imperative after the negative ná: ní hitear " is not eaten"; ná hól! "do not drink", do hólaidh "was drunk".

(1) le prefixes n to the verbal nouns ithe "to eat" and ól "to drink".


There are just a few simple generalizations that can be made about the prefixed h-:

Any "proclitic" word of the type that could be expected to cause some sort of mutation (determiners, monosyllabic prepositions, copular forms, preverbal particles, etc. – all the usual suspects) adds the prefixed h- to a vowel if both of the following conditions are met:
(1) The triggering word ends in a vowel (chomh is pronounced [xo], so it counts as ending in a vowel).
(2) The triggering word does not trigger either lenition (séimhiú) or eclipsis (urú).

If there are any exceptions to this, I'm not aware of them.

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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 9:19 pm 
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There's at least one:

cúig huaire... cúig ends with a consonant :)

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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 9:26 pm 
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Lughaidh wrote:
There's at least one:

cúig huaire... cúig ends with a consonant :)


Cool, I didn't know about that.

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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 9:35 pm 
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Yes but I believe - huaire - is a special case, isn't it?


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 Post subject: Re: Why the "h"
PostPosted: Fri 21 Sep 2012 9:57 pm 
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No, all the nouns that begin with a vowel, when they are in the plural form after 3, 4, 5, 6, get a prefixed h.

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