1. In Lesson 1 of
Beag air Bheag, they mention slenderization and lenition. If you wish to know more about these processes, you can read up on them on the
Morphology and Morpho-Phonology page in the section on Morpho-Phonological Processes Used in Gaelic. You will need some lingo that is explained earlier on that page. If it's too much information for you to take in right now, just skim it or drop it and return for it later.
2. Go to
Beag air Bheag, lesson 2. One grammatical point to look out for: We have learned that "I am" is "Tha mi". Now, it's suddenly "Is mise". Huh? Two things happen here:
- There are two different Gaelic verbs corresponding to English "to be". The present tense for one of them is
tha, and for the other it's
is. Now, when to use which? To make things simple, use
is when you describe what a noun is, and
tha for all other words. "
Tha mi gu math":
gu math is an adverb, so I use
tha. "
Is mise GunChleoc":
GunChleoc is a name, and thus a noun, and I use
is. You can also have both in one sentence, as in "
Dè an t-ainm a th' ort?".
is is an elusive little fellow and likes to hide itself, in this case it's hidden in the question word
Dè.
an t-ainm is a noun phrase. So, you have
is, but hidden in
Dè, because it is a question.
th' is a shortened form of
tha, and it's followed by a preposition. If your head isn't spinning in circles by now, you can read more about this type of sentence in
Existentials or 'I think therefore I am' @ akerbeltz.
- Why
mise and not
mi? Gaelic has two sets of personal pronouns, one with emphasis or contrast, and one without emphasis:
without - with emphasis
mi -
mise (I)
thu -
thusa (you)
e -
esan (he)
i -
ise (she)
sinn -
sinne (we)
sibh -
sibhse (you)
iad -
iadsan (they)
cf. English "it is
me (and not
him)!"
If you remember back to
Lesson 1, here's one of the means Gaelic uses for stressing words. You do not raise your voice like in English, but you add something to the words instead. You also use emphasized personal pronouns when you switch to something new, and introducing yourself is as new as it gets.
3. Let's talk!
Is mise GunChleoc. Cò sibhse?