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by Seonaidh » Fri Oct 24, 2014 8:11 pm
Je ne suis pas avec vous. Well, even if you know French, it's only by knowing what the English "literal tr*nsl*t**n" of that is that you could understand it. For instance, when you write "(thing) (owner)" are these two terms for the same thing, as in "'S e leabhar a th' ann", as the book "owns" the property of being described? Or do you actually mean something like "'S i cnag na cùise a th' innte", i.e. with the "thing" (cnag) and the "owner" (a' chùis) being two separate entities?
If it's this latter, then I think you're getting confused with the vocative case, i.e. when you actually adress somebody or something, e.g. "A Sheumais!" or "A Mhòrag!": there, sèimheachadh is universal (where possible) but thinning only happens to boys (where possible). Note: this is NOT the same as the genitive case.
What you do as regards sèimheachaidh is more-or-less up to you: in general, if the object being possessed is gramatically feminine then you lenite the owner, otherwise not. In ALL cases, however (where possible) you thin the owner, e.g.:-
Leabhar Seumais. Leabhar Mòraig. Tìr Sheumais. Tìr Mhòraig.
A simple rule of thumb that usually works is to treat the genitive-case noun as if it was an adjective. An adjective would lenite after a gramatically feminine noun, but not after a gramatically masculine one.
There are, however, different rules regarding place-names...