Graiméar na Gaelg
Gaelg Phrases
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How Are You?
The interrogative greeting in Gaelg tends to give new-learners trouble due to the irregular reduced forms of verbs and pronouns that are used in such constructions, which are not immediately recognisable in speach or writing. The core of the greeting is the phrase cios t' "how is/are", formed of cios "how", and t', an apocopic form of atá. There are certain reduced forms of pronouns found only in this phrase. For example, tú "thou" is lenited to thú, and then reduced to ú. Common and proper nouns are not modified: cios t' Seán? [cɪsˠtˠ ʃaːnˠ] "how is Seán?".
cios t'_? [cɪsˠtˠ] "how are/is_?" reduction of cionnas atá.
cios t'ú? [cɪsˠ tˠuː] "how art thou?" reduction of atá tú.
cios t'é? [cɪsˠ tʲeː] "how is he?" reduction of atá sé.
cios t'í? [cɪsˠ tʲiː] "how is she?" reduction of atá sí.
cios t'ea? [cɪsˠ tʲa] "how is it?" reduction of atá ea.
cios t'inn? [cɪsˠ tʲɪnʲ] "how are we?" reduction of atá shinn.
cios t'ibh? [cɪsˠ tʲɪvʲ] "how are you?" reduction of atá shibh.
cios t'iad? [cɪsˠ tʲɪdˠ] "how are they?" reduction of atá shiad.
cios t'ách? [cɪsˠ taːx] "how is everyone?" reduction of atá chách.
The habitual present is distingiguished from the simple by replacing t' with mb', a reduced form of a mbíonn.
cios mb'ú? [cɪsˠ mˠuː] "how be thou?".
cios mb'é? [cɪsˠ mʲeː] "how be he?".
cios mb'í? [cɪsˠ mʲiː] "how be she?".
cios mb'ea? [cɪsˠ mˠa] "how be it?".
cios mb'inn? [cɪsˠ mʲɪnʲ] "how be we?".
cios mb'ibh? [cɪsˠ mʲɪvʲ] "how be you?".
cios mb'iad? [cɪsˠ mʲɪdˠ] "how be they?".
cios mb'ách? [cɪsˠ mˠaːx] "how be everyone?".
The interrogative is conjugated in the past tense by replacing t' with bh', a reduced form of bhí.
cios bh'ú? [cɪsˠ wuː] "how wert thou?".
cios bh'é? [cɪsˠ vʲeː] "how was he?".
cios bh'í? [cɪsˠ vʲiː] "how was she?".
cios bh'ea? [cɪsˠ wa] "how was it?".
cios bh'inn? [cɪsˠ vʲɪnʲ] "how were we?".
cios bh'ibh? [cɪsˠ vʲɪvʲ] "how were you?".
cios bh'iad? [cɪsˠ vʲɪdˠ] "how were they?".
cios bh'ách? [cɪsˠ waːx] "how was everyone?".
Thank You
FOCAIL
gorm'at [ɡɔrˠmˠətˠ] "thank thee" reduction of go raibh maith agat.
gorm'aibh [ɡɔrˠmˠəvʲ] "thank you" reduction of go raibh maith agaibh.
You Are Welcome
FOCAIL
tá fáilt'ort [tˠaː fˠaːlʲtʲərˠtˠ] "thou art welcome" reduction of tá fáilte romhat.
tá fáilt'oirbh [tˠaː fˠaːlʲtʲərʲvʲ] "you are welcome" reduction of tá fáilte romhaibh.