Book 3:
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Preface
Phonetics

exercise CXVII

§ 661. The sentence is liom an leaḃar sin, can be translated into English in three ways: (1) That book is mine (2) that book belongs to me (3) I own that book. Thus, these three English sentences are all translated into Irish the same way.

§ 662. This idiom of is and le (as in is le Cormac an capall, Cormac owns the horse, ní liom an t-uan, etc) with a noun (as capall, uan, above) must be carefully distinguished from another very common idiom of is and le with an adjective.

Is maiṫ liom an áit sin, literally, that place is good with me, is used in Irish as = that place is good in my opinion, or, I like that place. So, ní maiṫ liom sin, I don't like that; an maiṫ leat dul a ḃaile, do you like to go (literally, going) home? Naċ maiṫ liḃ an t-iasg so, do not ye like this fish?

In this idiom the word áit (at) is used in some places as often as maiṫ; as ní h-ait liom é, I don't like it.

§ 663. So, is fearr (faar) leo uisge ion a bainne, water is better with them than milk, i.e., they prefer water to milk.

§ 664. Contrast the two phrases, is fearr liom fíon ioná bainne, I prefer wine to milk, and is fearr dom fíon ioná bainne, wine is better for me than milk. Maċ fearr duit é? Is it not better for you? Naċ fearr leat é? Do you not prefer it? Cia fearr leat, laoiḋ (Lee) nó sgeul? Which do you prefer, a poem or a story?

Ioná (iN-au') than, is usually shortened to ná (Nau).

§ 665. We have seen that adjectives, as a rule, follow the noun which they qualify. As, capall óg, young horse. But a few adjectives precede, viz., sean, old, droċ (dhrŭCH) bad, deaġ (daa) deiġ (dei), good. In a few compound words and in poetry some other adjectives are placed before the noun.

§ 666. We never say fear sean, bean droċ, áit deaġ, but seanḟear, droċ-ḃean, deaġ-áit, or fear aorta, bean olc, áit ṁaiṫ. We never use droċ, deaġ as predicates, i.e., after the verb to be as atáim droċ, atá sé deaġ.

§ 667. Notice the aspiration in sean-ḟear, etc, as in all compound words. But when the first word ends in n and the second begins with d or t, there is no aspiration, as seanduine, sean-tír.

note that
phonetic
symbols
are not
necessarily pronounced
as in English

See § 13-16