On Mon, 17 Mar 2003 14:34:26 +0000 Stephen Mulraney
<ataltanie@...> writes:
> Steg Belsky wrote:
> > On Fri, 14 Mar 2003 06:39:17 -0500 John Cowan writes:
> > >Joe scripsit:
> > >>In Irish, |tá| is the copula, and it goes first.
> > >My understanding is that the Irish copula is "is", and that "tá"
> > >rather asserts predication.
> > >--
> > >John Cowan
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan> > I'm not sure what "predication" means, but my Irish teacher said
> > that the
> > difference between |is| and |tá| is analogous to (although not
> >exactly
> > the same as) the difference in Spanish between |ser| and |estar|.
> > if i can remember correctly (no textbook or dictionary with me at
> > the moment):
> > Is fear é. = "he is a man"
> > Tá bean ag an doras. = "a woman is at the door."
> Yep, that's right, but it reminds me of something odd that the book
> "Teaching Irish" (by Mícheal Ó'Siadhail) says. I haven't been able
> to
> decide whether it's a peculiarity of the Cois Fharraige dialect the
> book teaches (which is, in many respects, odd :) or not. My rather
> rusty semi-native [forcibly] internalised Irish parser can't give me
> a
> straight yea or nay. The thing is, that apparantly when the topic is
> definite, an extra disjuntive pronoun is required, so
> Is fear é = "he is a man"
> *Is an fear é = wrong attempt at "he is the man"
> Is é an fear é = "he is the man"
> At least, I think that's how it is. The last example is certainly
> right, but I prevaricate on the acceptibility of the second example.
> s.
-
Hmm... i can't find that exact sentence in my textbook, but it does have:
Nach é an fear? = "Isn't he the man?"
(assuming that i didn't leave wrong homework answers in my book after
going over the homework in class)
-Stephen (Steg)
"an bhfuil an chaora ar an chnoc?"