The Irish Language - Grammar, Pronunciation, Games, Myths, Poetry and more

Re: An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

Dale D — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 18:36:54 GMT

High, Derek.

2. I was given to understand that, in Old Irish (not sure how old) all consonants were subject to lenition, but over time the differences became so slight that the practice was dropped for certain consonants. I think it was seáno who mentioned that. It is possible that I misunderstood, but that was the gist of what I remember.

3. Aontaím atá sé comhtharlú.

Gabh mó leithscéal ní scríobh mé mó post i nGaeilge, ach tá mé ag foghlaim fós.

Re: An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

derek john — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 11:47:03 GMT

Hi Dale

Go raibh maith agat as an soileiriu.

1: I ndairire ta a fhois agam na rialacha chomhchuingeach san aimsir chaite. Ach ni raibh me cinnte faoin focal "diol".

2: Luann tu "some consonants cannot be lenited in modern Irish" agus "L has no lenited form in modern Irish". Cen fath a usaideann tu an focal "modern" anseo. An bhfuil tu ag ra bhi seimhiu ar an L sa sean Gaeilge ?

3: Luann tu freisin "Isn't it interesting that the spellings are the same in present and past in both English and Irish?". Is ea, ta se an-suimiuil ach ceapaim go bhfuil se ach chomhtharlu.

Go raibh maith agat Dale :)

Derek

Re: An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

Dale D — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 01:03:06 GMT

Derek John,

Just a couple of points of clarification:

Seimhiu is applied to the initial consonant of verbs in the past tense, except for some irregular verbs, and the rule does not apply to verbs that begin with a vowel.

If a verb begins with a vowel, the past tense adds "D'" to the front of the verb, so ith "eat" becomes d'ith "ate". Also, seimhiu is only applied where possible, as some consonants cannot be lenited in modern Irish, so léigh "read" (present tense) is also léigh "read" (past tense). Isn't it interesting that the spellings are the same in present and past in both English and Irish?

Another example of the above is líon "fill"; past tense is líon "filled", so my presumption is that you would have to gather the tense from context.

These two examples rely on the fact that the consonant "L" has no lenited form in modern Irish. The same can be seen with nigh "wash", where nigh is also the past tense, "washed," because "N" has no lenited form. It does make it a little confusing. The comforting part is, only L, N, and R cannot be lenited, among consonants in Irish, so there are not so many words that are affected by this rule.

Dale D

Re: An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

derek john — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 23:39:17 GMT

Go raibh maith agat Dale :)

Re: An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

Dale D — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 21:56:41 GMT

Is ceart "dhíol me" = "I sold"

Dale D

An briathar "Diol" san aimsir chaite.

derek john — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 09:30:05 GMT

Cuirtear seimhiu ar an gcead chonsan san aimsir chaite. m.sh dhun

Ach cad faoi "diol"

I sold = Diol me, no Dhiol me ?

GRMA