Hi, I’ve started writing a Guide to Irish “to be” (ie. the bí verb and the copula). It’s not finished yet (especially the section on answering yes/no questions is missing) – but IMO it should already be usable as is.

Most (all?) the same information can be found in Gramadach na Gaeilge (especially the German version), O’Nolan’s books (Studies in Modern Irish and New Era Grammar), and some stuff is in Graiméar Gaeilge na mBráithre Críostaí – but I hope this form will be more accessible for some (especially O’Nolan’s Studies aren’t easy for beginners without direct translations of many examples).

It’s basically a conversion of my guide to Scottish Gaelic “to be” but a bit longer (because I have a bit better understanding of Irish copula, and because I feel there’s more to say about it in Irish).

I’ll keep adding things to it (there’s a lot to add about dialectal differences, some forms I don’t discuss at all, etc.) – but probably not very often.

Please, let me know about any errors you find in it, or things you think are badly described, etc.

Hi, that's great - apart from claiming the copula cannot stand next to a definite noun, which you will have read in O'Nolan is not true.

As you can see, Tighearna is a definite noun here. It would be better to argue that where the copula does stand before a definite noun, the definite article is not used. It is not *sin é is an Tiarna.

Yes, that’s a good point. I am aware this happens in some relative copula constructions (and AFAIR in poetry even sometimes in non-relative clauses; but I’ll need to do some digging for examples). I’ll add a mention about it later.

Very nice silmeth. Explaining this topic is very difficult. I've never found a way to explain the "Tá sé ina X" construction. At some point I just began to use it correctly.

I don't know how useful it would be to you, but at some point I could give some information about the copula today. Particularly the past tense is not used in the manner you'd encounter in older books. For instance in Kerry most people would say:
"Is saighdiúr ab ea í"
rather than
"ba shaighdiúr í"

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Please do.
Have you ever found is é é constructions in real life, of the type: múinteóir na scoile is é é. ?

Yeah it's fairly common. There's a small difference in meaning from the usual definite construction.

Is é an tigh is deasa ar an mbaile é = It's the nicest house in town
An tigh is deasa ar an mbaile is é é = It truly is the nicest house in town/It's the nicest house in town and no mistake

For this reason you will most often hear it with the superlative or "féin".

It's also used in a sort of stock construction with "Má":

"Má tá fearas gan locht in Éirinn, is é é"

This obviously feeds into the way its used above just using an indirect "If there is a tool without fault in Ireland, it's it" to say "It's truly the best tool round".

Note I have never seen this construction properly discussed in a formal exposition, this is just what I've picked up from conversations and questions.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Thank you! Any additional info is useful. I don’t have a lot of time to edit it, but I try to fix small things and expand it once in a while. I have some more things I want to mention too (eg. the Ulster is é an fear for is é an fear é, without the subject pronoun, or alternatively with subpredicate reinterpreted as the subject… – I need to read more about copula in Ulster to see which interpretation there is “more correct” synchronically; or is mór an fear atá ann; is maith an rud atá ann with the atá ann being used with adjective predicates, etc.).



That makes a lot of sense for Munster (well… for older Muskerry, I guess, saighdiúr dob/ab ea í without the first is makes more sense, since in its origin this is not actually the cleft with relative; but I know in Kerry these days people say gur fear is ea é instead of gur fear gurb ea é – so it’s been reanalyzed as relative) – as it mirrors the common present tense form saighdiúr is ea í – but what would be used in Connacht dialects and Ulster? (bhí sí ina saighdiúr of course is an option – but I’d think the past copula still is used directly there too?).

Also a funny thing – although in modern Irish the copula doesn’t have any future form, O’Nolan noted he himself heard the relative bhus from a Cork speaker, in má bhus liom é ‘if it is/will be mine’ (noted his New Era Gramamar and in vol. 4 of Studies in Modern Irish) and also Croidhe Cainnte C[h]iarraighe has “Cia bhus oidhre dot shaibhreas seóide?”: cia leis go dtuitfidh? ‘“Who will be the heir/inheritor of your precious wealth?”: to whom will it go?’. Corpus RIA also has 20th c. examples (but most non-native, so probably classicalisms). Anyway, seems at least some speaker were still aware of it in the earlier 20th century.

Yeah I should have said above this extends to all forms like:

Arbh ó Chíll Dara é?

is now:

Ab ó Chíll Dara ab ea é?

i.e. the general pattern is using present forms and conveying the past with a relative like "ab ea". Although I've even heard the past conveyed just with "aig' an am san"

I assume people are familiar with the fact that in Munster (and Connemara in my experience although obviously not the synthetic form below) speakers say:

An dtugais an leabhar do?

and not:

Ar thugais an leabhar do?


Cool. I knew the one from O'Nolan, but not the CCC example.

Just a question silmeth, is there a good grammar of Classical Irish yet? I've read Damian McManus's in Stair na Gaeilge and I can read Classical Irish unless the poet is being very archaic. However I've seen a comprehensive grammar, i.e. one that handles the actually realities of reading classical poetry and its ornamentation.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal

Yeah. That’s not really related to copula either – that’s just the older form – since tugaim had the preverb to-/do-, it didn’t use the preverb ro- in the perfect originally. Same eg. with an ndeachaigh?.



I’m not aware of any, unfortunately. Myself, I started with The Art of Bardic Poetry: a new edition of Irish Grammatical Tracts I by Eoin Mac Cárthaigh – which is basically an edition and translation of the “basic/general” (late 15th? early 16th? c.) grammatical tract. Then Bardic Syntactical Tracts by McKenna (no direct translation – but lots of notes by McKenna and big parts of the text translated). But they’re not grammars in the modern sense, and certainly not comprehensive. But there’s lot of stuff in there, and especially Mac Cárthaigh’s notes are great.

I think McManus’s chapter in SnaG is still the most comprehensive systematic modern description, though.

Some other things I use(d) are introductions and appendices to some modern editions of early modern prose – they often give some overview of classical elements and differences from classical norm in those texts. Especially O’Rahilly’s notes to Conry’s Desiderius are good.

I have a summary of resources I use on the Classical Gaelic Resources page on celtic-languages wiki (the wiki is not mine, but most (all?) of Classical Gaelic material there is written by me).

If I come upon a more comprehensive classical grammar – I’ll certainly add it there!

I don't know about the history of the form, but for modern speakers its part of the whole sale replacement of past particles with present ones, so Ar -> An, Níor -> Ní and gur -> go. You'll often have families where the grandparents say Ar, Níor, gur but the younger members (<60) use An, Ní, Go all the time. This occurs for all verbs, not just tabhair in case that's useful so:

Is dócha go nglan sé é..
Ní foláir nó go gcuaigh sé...
N'fheadar go gcualathas...
Dúirt sé go gcuir sé...


Thank you for that response.

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The dialect I use is Cork Irish.
Ar sgáth a chéile a mhairid na daoine, lag agus láidir, uasal is íseal