grammar of irish.pdf - Cryptm.org

CHAP. H."jTHE NOUN. 19as it is in learning French and many other languages. Withoutthis knowledge, which can only bo mastered by practice,no one can speak or write Irish correctly.4. There are a few general rules which will very muchhelp the learner to distinguish the gender of nouns: theyare only general rules, however, subject to many exceptions ;and where they do not apply, the student must depend onpractice and memory.MASCULINE.1. The following nouns are generallymasculine:—Names (1.) of males as; coileac, acock; laoca hero ; Fecrp, a man.(2.) Nouns of more than one syllable, endingin a consonant, or two consonants, preceded bya broad vowel ;as boicceall, churlishness :except(a), derivatives in ace ; (&), diminutives in 65.(3.) Nouns ending in oip, aipe, ac, ai&e (or oioe,or uioe), when they denote personal agents, as theygenerally do as ; ppealaooip, a mower ; pealgaipe,a—hunter; ceiceapnac, a soldier one of a body ofhems; pjealaioe orpseuluioe, a story-teller.(4.) Diminutives in dn and abstracts in ap as;coiledn, a whelp ; edipoeap, friendship.(5.) Diminutives in fn are of the same gender as the nounsfrom which they are derived.FEMININE.•2. The following nouns are generally feminine:—Names (1). of females names of; countries,rivers, and diseases as ; ceapc, a hen ; Gipe, Ireland;beapba, the Barrow; pldi§, a plague.(2). Diminutives in 65, and derivatives in aceas puipeo^, a lark :; cuihpacc, fragrance and abstractnouns formed from the genitive feminine ofadjectives;as oaille, blindness.