Boergstrom, Really Old, like 1950s old

Mutation:

NOUNS • Lenition of initial consonants: cat- dà chat • Prefixation of a nasal consonant: cat- an cat; phonemically: /(ə) Nkahd/ • Palatalization of final consonants on root morphemes: an cat – a’ chait, na cait; this is often accompanied by, or even replaced by, vocalic mutation: an ceann- na cinn.

VERBS • Palatalization of final consonants occurs, but is ‘relatively unimportant’ • Lentition (a & a dh’) is productive in characterizing the relative mode of all tenses

Borgstroem makes the claim that the syntax of the modes of verbs parallels that of the cases of nouns: • Nominative – independent o Can be used without a sentence, ie. as an answer to a question o In the sentence the verb comes first and the nom second • Genitive – relative o The genitive noun is always governed by some antecedent • A noun • Biadh a’ choin The dog’s food • A verbal noun governs its object in the genitive • Thà a’ bhò ‘g ithe an fheòir The cow is eating the grass • A compound preposition: • air son, an aghaidh • Sometimes a simple preposition • fad, bharr • The adjective làn • Làn fala • Full of blood • Also, two nouns in genitive case maybe coordinated without repetition of the antecedent o The relative verb is always governed by some antecedent • a noun • Baidh a dh’itheas an cù food that the dog will eat • Certain conjunctions • 'nuair, mà, mar, agus • Interrogatives • Cò thuigeas sin? • Who can understand that? • Topicalized(?)/left dislocated(?) words • ‘s ann am maireach a thilleas e • ‘it is tomorrow he will return’ • Dative – dependent o A noun in the dative is always governed by a preposition • Of the 15 prepositions that can be conjugated, all except chun and eadar govern a noun in the dative • Unlike in the above cases, when dative nouns are coordinated, there must be a preposition before each one. o A verb in the dependent case is always governed by a proclitic particle • as in the dative noun case, when dependent verbs are coordinated, the particle must be repeated in each instance

• INTERIM SUMMARY o Nom/indep forms do not presuppose any antecedents o Gen/rel forms presuppose antecedents which are often nouns or have a certain affinity to nouns; the antecedent need not be repeated in coordinated phrases o Dat/dep forms presuppose immediately preceding antecedents which are not nouns, adjectives, or verbs.

Where the parallelism breaks down • NOM nouns can fill-in for other forms in certain contexts o After verbal nouns • ‘g ithe feur o Before another noun in GEN • Air cas a’ ghille o After the prepositions gun and eadar • The independent form of the verb, however, never occurs after a governing antecedent

Discussion of morpheme boundaries (Key Points):

• Stressed syllables are with few exceptions, word initial o Munster Irish diverges • Root morphemes are with few exceptions, word initial • Gaelic may be a “mildly synthetic” language