5 Irish Syntax: Noun-based
The ‘syntax’ of a language is the way the words are put together to make a complete sentence. Once you have learned a stock of words, you still need to know how to put them together to make a sentence: ‘a group of words that makes complete sense’. The phrasing of Irish is considerably more different from English than is the syntax of French, German, Spanish, or many of the other Western European languages descended from the original parent language, that we call Indo-European.
English is very much based on verbs, while Irish is based on nouns and prepositions.
The noun-centred nature of Irish idiom goes very deep.
To give one example: Irish has 20 different ways to say ‘I love you’ but the most natural one is “Mo ghrá thú” “You are my love”. ‘Love’ here is a noun.
C.f. the proverb,
“Beirt nach dtuigeann do bhás go bráth: ’té d’fhuatha agus ’té do ghrá.”.
“Two people who will never understand that you are dead: the one who hates you and the one who loves you.”
‘té is short for An t-é – ‘He’ used as a noun;
d’fhuatha from do (your) and fuatha = the genitive of fuath (hatred).
So ’té d’fhuatha means literally ‘he of your hatred’ – & ’té do ghrá means he of your love.
If you are surprised to see someone up and about early, you could say
“Cén chúis moch-éirí ort?”
Cén what is (it) the;
cúis cause;
moch- early;
éirí (the) rising – a verbal noun;
ort on you.
The natural way to say it in English would be ‘Why did you get up so early?’
The natural way to phrase it in Irish is ‘What is the cause of the early rising that is on you?’
Clumsy? Only in English. The natural English sentence has 8 syllables, the Irish has 6.
That brings up the fact that whereas English makes great use of
§ the infinitive of a verb (‘to go’ or sometimes ‘go’ without the marker word ‘to’), which is still a verb; or
§ a present participle, (he is going) which builds up the meaning of the verb;
the infinitive has long ago dropped out of Irish and all equivalent phrases use
the verbal noun, which is definitely a noun, not a verb. Éirí means ‘a rising’, not ‘to rise’.
That is why phrases for continuous actions are different in Irish vs. English.
“He is doing work” - ‘Doing’ in English is a present participle - a verbal adjective - that completes the meaning of the main verb. But the Irish is
“Tá sé ag déanamh oibre” with the tuiseal ginideach (Genitive - ‘of’ case) of ‘obair’.
The real meaning of the Irish phrase is
‘He stands (tá means a process of happening, originally from stá ‘stand’) at the doing of work’.
‘The doing’ is a noun, not a verb. This is less clear in Modern English because the English present participle and the verbal noun both end in -ing.
So in Irish, the way to describe an action is ag + verbal noun.
To complete the sense of a transitive verb [a verb that takes an ‘object’], we add a noun in the ‘of’ case.
Bhí sé ag péinteáil an bháid - he was [at] [the] painting [of] the boat.
The subject of this sentence is sé & the object is an bháid. The normal word order in English is subject - verb - object. In Irish it is verb - subject - object.
The way to describe a static state is ar + verbal noun.
Describing an action (“doing”):
Bhí an pictiúr ag titim den bhalla – the picture was falling off the wall;
but
Describing a static state (“being”):
Bhí an pictiúr ar crochadh ar an mballa – the picture was hanging on the wall.
“Doing”: Bhí an dalta ag obair i rith an lae – the pupil was working during the day
(i rith an lae = in the running of the day)
but
“Being”: Bhí an t-ineall ar obair ar maidin – the machine was working [in working order] this morning.
The word ‘is’ can only ever link two nouns, or a noun and a preposition: it is not really a verb at all. It is an Equals Sign.
‘I like it’ => ‘Is maith liom é’; but in this construction ‘maith’ is a noun, not an adjective, meaning ‘a good thing’. So the meaning of Is maith liom é is
It = a good thing with me.
So ‘I intend to go home’ is ‘Is mian liom dul abhaile’.
‘Dul’ is a verbal noun: ‘the going’. So what we are saying is
‘The going homewards is an intention in my ownership’. The basic sentence is
[dul] = [mian]: [going] = [intention]: – with the order in the reverse of the English.
Feelings, emotions etc are ‘things’ that are ‘on’ us:
Tá áthas orm Happiness, gladness stands on me – I am glad, I am pleased.
Tá eagla orm Fear stands on me – I am afraid, I fear.
Tá fonn orm The humour, the mood, is on me – I feel like (doing something).
Opinions are ‘things’ that are ‘with’ us:
Is maith liom é It is a good thing with me – I like it
Is féidir leis é It is a possible thing with him – He (thinks he) can do it.
Is cuma liom It is an equal thing with me – I don’t care
Objective states or conditions are ‘things’ that are ‘to’ or ‘for’ us:
Is maith dom é It is a good thing for me – it does me good.
Is féidir dó é It is a possible thing for him – He (really) can do it.
Is cuma duit It is an equal thing for him – it doesn’t matter to him, it’s none of his business.
To say ‘Enjoy!’ we say Bain taitneamh as! ‘Take enjoyment out of it!’
In the exercises we will come across many examples of this noun-based thinking in Irish.
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