Aig (preposition)
Gaelic preposition, meaning roughly "at" or sometimes "by" or "near". It can also mean "have" when used in combination with the verb Bi (e.g. tha leabhar agam) and in its inflected form can be used to mark possessive pronouns. It governs the dative case, but typically does not trigger lenition on the following bare indefinite nouns.
For other prepositions see prepositions
Contents
Form
Simple forms
bare form: aig 'at a'
definite form: aig an 'at the'
Basic inflected forms
Like most prepositions, aig can be inflected for person, number, and gender. For example, to say 'at me', we use the single word agam.
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | agam | againn | |
| 2nd | agad | agaibh | |
| 3rd | Masc | aige | aca |
| Fem | aice | ||
Emphatic Inflected forms
Special emphatic forms are used if we want to emphasize the pronoun in the inflected preposition. (e.g. agamsa 'at me')
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | agamsa | againne | |
| 2nd | agadsa | agaibhse | |
| 3rd | Masc | aigesan | acasan |
| Fem | aicese | ||
Possessive inflected forms:
There is a special contracted form of aig used with possessive pronouns:
Tha mi gam thaigh be.pres 1s at.my house "I am at my house."
Contracted forms (typically used in speech)
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 'gamL | garN | |
| 2nd | 'gadL | gurN | |
| 3rd | Masc | gaL | ganN |
| Fem | gaH | ||
- NOTE: gam is used instead of gan 'at their' in front of words beginning with the labial consonants <f, b, p, m>. Note that orthographically this is the same as gam 'at my', but does not trigger lenition. Instead, it triggers eclipsis.
These same forms are used with the progressive aspect particle ag when the object is pronominal. See the Progressive aspect article for more details.
Special Uses of "aig"
Possessive Pronoun Usage
an leabhar agam 'my book'
Possessive Marker
an leabhar aig Iain "Iain's book
Usage to mean 'have'
tha leabhar agam 'I have a book'
Modal Usage
Tha agam ri + vn "I have to ...
Experiencer Usages
- Chan eil agam air +N "I dislike N"
- Chan eil fios agam "I don't know"
Partitive Usage
(Mark 2004:15)
- an dithis aca 'both of them'
- an dithis agaibh 'both of you'
- an triùir againn "the three of us"
References
Mark, Colin (2004) The Gaelic-English Dictionary/Am Faclair Gàidhlig-Beurla. London: Routledge
Notes
In this document, as elsewhere, L indicates Lenition and N indicates Nasalization, (prefixation of an n- before a word beginning with vowels, and a nasalization of the next consonant (not indicated in the orthography) and H indicates Antilenition (the prefixation of <h> before words beginning with vowels).
