Part 10 (1/2)

ua sin a vowel have their genitive like the no_, ti _

_Dative_ The dative singular is like the nominative; as, duine _, d s ular is like the nominative, as, caraid m

_friend_, v s charaid; mathair f _mother_, v s mhathair

_Plural Number_

_Nominative--General Rule_ The noular _a_ or _an_, written _e_ or _ean_ to correspond to a preceding small vowel; as, piobair m _a piper_, n p piobairean; aimsir f _time_, _season_, n p aimsirean Some nouns suffer a contraction in the nominative plural; as, caraid m _a friend_, n p cairdean; naimhaid m _an enemy_, n p naimhdean; fiacail f _a tooth_, n p fiaclan

_Particular Rules_ 1 Some nouns, whose last consonant is _l_ or _n_, insert _t_ in the nominative plural; as, tuil f _a flood_, n p tuilte; sht_, n p smuaintean; coille f _a wood_, n p coilltean; aithne f _a command_, n p aithnte The _t_ is aspirated in dail f _a plain_, n p dailthean; sail f _a beam_, n p sailthean

2 Soular in _ach_, retain the same syllable in the nominative plural, and insert _i_ after _a_; as,

Cathair, f _a seat_, g s cathrach, n p cathraichean

Lasair, f _a fla s lasrach, n p lasraichean

Nathair, f _a serpent_, g s nathrach, n p nathraichean

{54} So also cuid f _a part_, fro s codach, has the n p

codaichean; athair m _a father_, n p aithrichean; mathair f _a mother_, n p maithrichean To which add ae eachan; cridhenouns forularly; duine hre; ni _, n p

nithe; cliamhuinn m _a son-in-law_, or _brother-in-law_, n p cleaenitive plural of monosyllables and ular, and like the nohre The genitive plural of feminine polysyllables is like the no p ai p

sul

_Dative_ The dative plural is for the final vowel into _ibh_; as, coluinn f _the body_, n p

coluinne, d p coluinnibh; cridhe m _the heart_, n p cridheacha, d p

cridheachaibh

_Vocative_ The vocative plural is like the nominative plural; as, duine m

_a man_, n p daoine, v p dhaoine

Final _a_ or _e_ in all the singular cases of polysyllables is occasionally cut off, especially in verse; as, leab _bed_, teang _tongue_, coill _wood_, cridh _heart_

_Of the Initial for with a consonant, all the cases adular and plural the aspirated forual, which are generally in the priual; as, a sheann duine _oldwith _s_ followed by a mute consonant have no aspirated form, because _s_ in that situation does not ad with _l_, _n_, _r_, a distinction is unifor the initial consonant, corresponding precisely to the distinction of pri with other consonants This distinction has already been fully stated in treating of pronunciation

The general use of the singular and plural numbers has been already mentioned A remarkable exception occurs in the Gaelic When the numerals fichead _twenty_, ceud _a hundred_, mile _a thousand_, are prefixed to a noun, the noun is not put in the plural, but in the singular number, and admits no variation of case The termination of a noun preceded by da _two_, is the saoverned in the genitive case, and then it is put in the genitive plural[38]; when preceded by fichead, ceud, &c, the terular; thus da laimh _two hands_, da chluais _two ears_, da fhear _two men_, fichead lamh _twenty hands_, ceud fear _a hundred men_, mle caora _a thousand sheep_, deich mle bliadhna _ten thousand years_[39]

CHAPTER III