Elements of Gaelic Grammar — Story, Setting & Ideas

The Gaelic article an corresponds to the English definite article _the_. There is in Gaelic no indefinite article corresponding to the English _a_ or _an_. The inflections of the article are but few. They depend on the gender, the number, and the case, of the noun to which it is prefixed. Hence the article is declined by gender, number, and case, as follows:

Singular. Plural. _Masc._ _Fem._ _Masc. & Fem._ _Nom._ an, am an, a' na _Gen._ an, a' na nan, nam _Dat._ an, a', n' an, a', n' na

In the singular, final _n_ of the article is sometimes cut off, and its absence marked by an apostrophe. The same happens to the initial _a_ of the dative singular.

A Noun is the Name of any person, object, or thing whatsoever, that we have occasion to mention. In treating of {38} this Part of Speech, we have to consider the _Gender_ and the _Declension_ of Nouns.

In imposing names on sensible objects, the great and obvious distinction of Sex in the animal world suggested the expediency of inventing names, not only for the particular species of animals, but also for distinguishing their Sex. Such are _vir_, _femina_; _bull_, _cow_; _coileach_, _cearc_, &c. To mark at once identity of species, and diversity of Sex, the same word, with a slight change on its form, was applied to both sexes: as _equus_, _equa_; _lion_, _lioness_; _oglach_, _banoglach_. In most languages, distinction of Sex has been marked, not only thus by the form of the noun, but further by the form of the adjective connected with the noun. Most adjectives were furnished with two forms, the one of which indicated its connection with the name of a male, the other its connection with the name of a female. The one was called by grammarians the _masculine gender_, the other the _feminine gender_ of the adjective. Adjectives possessing thus a two-fold form, must necessarily have appeared under one or other of these forms, with whatever noun they happened to be conjoined. Even nouns significant of inanimate objects came thus to possess one mark of nouns discriminative of Sex, as they happened to be accompanied by an adjective of the masculine or by one of the feminine gender. If any noun was observed to be usually coupled with an adjective of the masculine gender, it was termed by grammarians a _masculine noun_; if it was found usually coupled with an adjective of the feminine gender, it was termed a _feminine noun_. Thus a distinction of nouns into masculine and feminine came to be noted, and this also was called gender.

It is observable, then, that gender, in grammar, is taken in two different acceptations. When applied to an adjective, {39} it signifies a certain _form_, by which _bonus_ is distinguished from _bona_. When applied to a noun, it signifies a certain _relation_ of the word to the attributives connected with it, by which _amor_ is distinguished from _cupido_. As Sex is a natural characteristic pertaining to living objects, so gender is a grammatical characteristic pertaining to nouns, the names of objects whether animate or inanimate. The gender of nouns is not, properly speaking, indicated; it is constituted by that of the attributives conjoined with them. If there were no distinction of gender in adjectives, participles, &c. there could be none in nouns. When we say that _amor_ is a noun of the masculine gender, and _cupido_ a noun of the feminine gender, we do not mean to intimate any distinction between the things signified by these nouns; we mean nothing more than to state a grammatical fact, viz., that an adjective connected with _amor_ is always of the same form as when joined to a noun denoting a male, and that an adjective connected with _cupido_ is always of the same form as when joined to a noun denoting a female[29].