Post by aondeug on Feb 28, 2015 13:10:57 GMT -6
I want to talk about one of my favorite things I have learned about Irish thus far. And that is how weird prepositions are. From what I've read we've got different kinds of linguistic universals. Absolutes, things that are ALWAYS true as far as we've observed, and tendencies, things that are typically true but we've found deviations. Then implicationals and non-implicationals. Irish falls into a verb-subject-object language and VSO languages ALWAYS have prepositions. The very order implies it. I don't know why though some fancy linguists likely have theories that I don't know about.
What I do know that is that Irish uses prepositions in ways that come off as strange to me. The least strange thing that the prepositions doing are being inflected for person, number, and gender. So you can effectively attach pronouns to them, like in Arabic. That's pretty understandable and what not to me. Like I said I've run across it before in Arabic and such.
Now what I haven't run across is how OFTEN Irish uses prepositions and for what. "Aondeug atá orm" we can translate as "My name is Aondeug" but really that's not what the words in that sentence me. We've got "ar" in there, which means on. So really what it's saying is that the name Aondeug is on me. Which makes sense in English but it's not a common way of expressing that. In most of the books I've seen though it seems to be a common way of expressing name in Irish.
They also can be used when describing states? Yet also not. I'm not really sure what the difference between "Bhi an ceart aici" and "Bhi sí ceart" is. They both mean "She was correct". One uses a verb definite article adjective preposition-pronoun structure though? Whereas the other uses verb pronoun adjective. Why? I dunno. Maybe it's an emphasis thing? Formality? It could lots of things and I don't honestly know.
Prepositions also get used with verbs at times? Tá sé á phlé. Like this thing. It means "He's discussing it" but it comes out more literally as "He is at its discussing". Other prepositions than at also get used with verbs but I'm not really sure why they do. Just that I've noted that when someone is discussing something or riding something it tends to be that the subject is at that riding or discussing. Whereas I'm not at the eating of an apple. I'm just eating the thing.
Prepositions are also used in statements of possession. My nearest guess for why ag gets used in things like tá uisce agam (I have water) is to express that you currently have the water with your right fucking now and right fucking here. The water is at your person. So possibly like the difference between the two words used to express "to have" in Arabic, both of which are prepositions and verbs in reality? Though there could just be one "have" in Irish, I don't know. For the moment I have one way to say it and this is how I'm making sense of the structure. The water is at me. Right now. Here. So I have it.
Irish prepositions are a thing.
What I do know that is that Irish uses prepositions in ways that come off as strange to me. The least strange thing that the prepositions doing are being inflected for person, number, and gender. So you can effectively attach pronouns to them, like in Arabic. That's pretty understandable and what not to me. Like I said I've run across it before in Arabic and such.
Now what I haven't run across is how OFTEN Irish uses prepositions and for what. "Aondeug atá orm" we can translate as "My name is Aondeug" but really that's not what the words in that sentence me. We've got "ar" in there, which means on. So really what it's saying is that the name Aondeug is on me. Which makes sense in English but it's not a common way of expressing that. In most of the books I've seen though it seems to be a common way of expressing name in Irish.
They also can be used when describing states? Yet also not. I'm not really sure what the difference between "Bhi an ceart aici" and "Bhi sí ceart" is. They both mean "She was correct". One uses a verb definite article adjective preposition-pronoun structure though? Whereas the other uses verb pronoun adjective. Why? I dunno. Maybe it's an emphasis thing? Formality? It could lots of things and I don't honestly know.
Prepositions also get used with verbs at times? Tá sé á phlé. Like this thing. It means "He's discussing it" but it comes out more literally as "He is at its discussing". Other prepositions than at also get used with verbs but I'm not really sure why they do. Just that I've noted that when someone is discussing something or riding something it tends to be that the subject is at that riding or discussing. Whereas I'm not at the eating of an apple. I'm just eating the thing.
Prepositions are also used in statements of possession. My nearest guess for why ag gets used in things like tá uisce agam (I have water) is to express that you currently have the water with your right fucking now and right fucking here. The water is at your person. So possibly like the difference between the two words used to express "to have" in Arabic, both of which are prepositions and verbs in reality? Though there could just be one "have" in Irish, I don't know. For the moment I have one way to say it and this is how I'm making sense of the structure. The water is at me. Right now. Here. So I have it.
Irish prepositions are a thing.
