grammar of irish.pdf - Cryptm.org

18 ETYMOLOGY. [PART II.an 5-cpann, on the tree; 6'n b-pocal iben, " fromthe word ' ibcr ;'" leip an b-peap, with tlio man.5. But after the propositions bo and be, thearticle aspirates oftener than it eclipses; asceicpecenno bo'n cpiop, four degrees of the zone (Keating)bo; leanabap a 5-copa bo'n cappaig, theirfeet clung to the rock (story of the Children of Lir).6. No^ changeisproduced by the article in thesingular number, if the noun begins with I, n, p,b, c, or with p before a mute.PLURAL.1. If the noun begins with an eclipsable consonant,the article eclipses in the genitive; asimp na b-pfobbab, [the] island of thewoods; cailfnt>eay cpuibce na m-b6, [the] pretty girl of [the]milking of the cows (i.e.,the pretty milking girl).2. If the noun begins with a vowel, the articleprefixes n to the genitive, and h to the othercases ;as cfp na n-65, the land of the young(people) 6 na h-dicib;pin, from those places.These are the only changes produced by thearticle in the plural.CHAPTEE II.THE NOUN.I. GENDER.1. There are only two genders in the Irishlanguage, the masculine and feminine : all Irishnouns, therefore, are either masculine or femininegender.2. In ancient Irish there was a neuter gender, but no traceof it remains in the modern language.3. To know and remember the gender of all ordinarynouns Irish,is ono of the great difficulties in learning the language,