Possessives Query

Ciamar a chanas mi.... / How do I say...
AlexAkimov
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Possessives Query

Unread post by AlexAkimov »

My course has reached possessives. All seems straightforward enough, just one thing I was wondering. If you look at this sentence:

Càite a bheil am baile?

This to me means - Where is the town?

But if "am" is the possessive for "their" when used in conjunction with labials, then couldn't the same sentence also mean:

Where is their town?

If so how do you know which is meant?


GunChleoc
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Possessives Query

Unread post by GunChleoc »

From context only.
Oileanach chànan chuthachail
Na dealbhan agam
AlexAkimov
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Possessives Query

Unread post by AlexAkimov »

GunChleoc wrote: From context only.
I feared that would be the answer, but thanks anyway :?
GunChleoc
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Possessives Query

Unread post by GunChleoc »

There's a lot of that happening in English too - you just don't notice, because you're used to it ;)
Oileanach chànan chuthachail
Na dealbhan agam
akerbeltz
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Possessives Query

Unread post by akerbeltz »

With third person possessives which don't show the distiction between alienable and inalienable clearly though lenition etc, it's very common to resort to aige/aice/aca irrespective of whether the object theoretically falls into one or the other category of posession. So for clarity, càit a bheil am baile aca is not going to raise eyebrows from any native speaker.
poor_mouse
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Possessives Query

Unread post by poor_mouse »

I think it may be also "am baile-san" or "am baile fhèin" in the case of "their town".
But in the case of "the town", context is the only help: Càit' a bheil am baile as fhaisge?
Eilidh -- Luchag Bhochd
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