The Gender Issue In Irish
“I believe that, in the case of most learners, no effective, text-based teaching of any language can be achieved except through the medium which they understand.’ Nollaig Mac Congáil intro Irish Grammer Book
Knowing the 'sex' of words i.e. fem./masc. determines whether you speak or write 'an Ghaeilge cheart'. However, discovering the gender of Irish words is not an easy task because the gender 'markers' involve knowing a whole set of grammer rules. English is a sexless language, so let's use Spanish and German to compare their gender 'markers' with Irish ways of identifying masculine and feminine words.
Spanish uses 'la'(fem.), le(masc.) and lo (neutral.) as gender markers. Add an 's' to those three words for plural nouns e.g. la puerta, the door, las puertas, the doors and that about covers all the grammar you need to know about the definite article gender markers in Spanish. I can only compare the definite article (an, the) as there is no indefinite article (i.e.’a’ ) in Irish
e.g. a house, is ‘teach’ the ‘a’ (indefinite article) does not exist in Irish.
In Spanish each time you speak, read or hear a word re-inforces whether it is masc. or fem. The gender markers 'la', le and ‘lo’ remain the same in all cases (i.e.nom/acc/gen./dat.) in the sentence.
German is grammatically more difficult than Spanish because you need to know the gender markers (i.e. der, die, and das) as well as the case (i.e.nom/acc/gen./dat.). The grammar rules are consistent and just like with Spanish it is possible to build up correct article and noun association with a little practice.
Irish is grammatically much more difficult than German because the definite article 'an' (the) does not indicate masc. or fem. by itself. The Irish gender markers are more complex and confusing because you must know the rules of the cases (i.e.nom/acc/gen./dat.) and the rules affecting vowels and certain consonants (e.g. 's', 'l', 'n', 'r', 't' 'd') before you can distinguish the sex of words in Irish.
In Spanish and German the definite article can be called a 'gender marker' but that is only partly true for Irish. There are many gender markers to learn in Irish. 'Lenition' and 'eclipsis' are used as gender markers. In Irish the front, middle and backside of words are constantly under attack and at times consonants and vowels are entirely obliterated or 'eclipsed' by other consonants.
A Day In The Life Of An Irish Vowel
Bhí a mála leagtha ar an urlár (dat. case)
Bhí an mháthair ina seasamh i lár an urláir (gs., case)
Bhí an t-urlár (nom. case) scuabtha aici,
Bhí an seomra ar an dara hurlár (acc. case)
Now let’s have a look at 'an' as a gender maker.
e.g. an fear Masculine words do not have a 'h' in them when preceded by 'an'.
an bhean Feminine words do have a 'h' in them when preceded by 'an'.
Inserting a 'h' in a word is called 'lenition'. Learning the above rule is only the beginning. There are roughly 30 extra rules listed in the 'Irish Grammer Book' about when and what words suffer 'lenition'( i.e. inserting 'h' in words).
All these rules obliterate any easy way of building a link through the sound of the definite article 'an' with the noun word.
Compare Spanish:
la puerta,
If you read and hear 'la puerta' enough times you sense that 'le puerta' doesn't sound right.
Also, if the Spanish word ends in ‘-a’ it usually indicates the word is feminine.
In Irish the 'h' is not exclusively used in feminine words.
Comparing Bord & Bos
Table & Palm
Bord m. Bos f.
(gs.boird, npl. boird, gpl. bord) (gs.boise, npl.bosa, gpl.bos)
an bord an bhos
mo bhord mo bhos
ag an bhord ag an bhos
Ní bhord Ní bhos
sa bhord sa bhos
barr an bhoird barr na boise
ar bhord ar bhos
‘H’ is used in the genitive case in masc. nouns 'hata an fhir'. Lenition or the 'h' is not used in the genitive case in fem. nouns.
The non-exclusivity of the 'h' sound makes it much harder to recognise masc. and fem. words by sound alone. The sound of the word in Irish is affected by case, special consonants, lenition, and a further complication called 'eclipsis'.
Lenition on Adjective as Gender Marker
Identifying Male vs Female Words (Nouns)
e.g.
Leis an gcloch throm, the ‘h’ in trom(adj.) means 'cloch' is feminine.
Leis an gcasúr trom, no ‘h’ in trom means 'casúr' is masculine
But teaching Irish grammer rules is a teacher's nightmare because of so many exceptions to the rules.
Look at the example above and it seems that rule could work.
But then comes the following caution:
N.B. Adjectives are not inflected ( no lenition) when they follow adverbs.
e.g. daoine measartha saibhir, fairly rich people
Topping that exception comes this rule:
Leis an chloch throm, 'cloch' is feminine.
Leis an chasúr throm, 'casúr' is masculine
Both examples are accepted as correct usage of the dative case in Irish.
The rule here is:
If you put a ‘h’ (lenition) in the noun (cloch)
you can also put a ‘h’ in the adjective (trom)
Note that in the first example ‘eclipsis’ was used on ‘cloch’ and ‘casúr’
i.e. a ‘g’ was placed in front of the two words giving you ‘gcloch’ and ‘gcasúr’
and that is the reason why these two ways of dealing with the dative case are correct.
There is another serious complication when you try to use grammer rules as gender markers illustrated by this rule listed in the Christian Brothers ‘New Irish Grammer’ p.62
8. (c) ‘an adjective is not usually aspirated (‘h’) when it qualifies a masculine noun whose initial cannot be aspirated (e.g. initial d,s,t,l,n,r, etc. or a vowel) or which we do not choose to aspirate:-
den doras bán, sa teach mór, as an mála trom etc’
First, let’s take a look at the list of of consonants d,s,t,l,n,r, that ‘cannot be aspirated’. You will find countless examples where ‘h’ (lenition) follows the first three consonants d,s,t . The ‘etc.’ also implies that other consonants not listed cannot be ‘aspirated’ (i.e. b,c,f,g,m,p.) All of these consonants can be ‘aspirated’ .
Adding to the confusion is that we are told that we can ‘choose’ to aspirate or not to aspirate. I wonder how many Irish teachers would agree on that rule? Any attempt to teach such contradictory ‘rules’ to students or even to native speakers of Irish in a classroom setting would be to risk a nervous breakdown of the teacher and pupils. Trying to teach these ‘rules’ through Irish would be grounds for thinking that the teacher was ‘not of sound mind’.
The Special Consonants
The letters 'l', 'n', 'r', are the ‘untouchables’ among Irish consonants.
There is no gender markers that will tell you the sex of these ‘loner’ consonants.
You cannot ‘lenite’ them or ‘eclipse’ them. How do you discover the gender of words that start with these letters?
If the context does not supply clues (e.g. a lenited adjective could mean the word is fem.) then reach for the dictionary.
Is maith an fear an foclóir.
Try also to set the word in nom./acc./gen./ or dat. case to see what sounds right.
e.g. Scoil
This word starts with ‘sc’ so it cannot be ‘lenited’ or ‘eclipsed’. In this case the genitive case serves us best as we must choose between ‘an’(m.) or
‘na’ (f.) So is it ? ‘ag dul chun na scoile’ or ‘ag dul chun an scoile’.
Ar dhath na luatha, the colour of ash
The Case of The Letter ‘S’ as a Gender Marker
Case Study
You need to be very clear about what case (i.e. Nom/acc./gen./dat.) the word is in if you hope to use ’t’ before ’s’ as a gender marker.
Is fearr an ( f.nom./acc.) tsláinte ná an táinte. (f) (rule an + dot affects ‘táinte’- no lenition)
Health is better than wealth.
Géilleadh don (m.dat.) tsos cogaidh
Ar an (f.dat.) sláinte
In the first example ‘ an tsláinte’ is in the nominative case so the word is fem.
In the second example ‘ tsos’ is in the dative case so the word is masc.
Using 't' with 's' as a gender marker is only reliable in the genitive and nom./acc. case. There are conflicting rules about whether 't' with 's' in the dative indicates masc. or fem.
Irish speakers often put 't' before 's' in masc. and fem. dative case words. See page 68 Christian Brothers Grammer
e.g. don sagart, sa samhradh, x/rule (breaks rule)
Summary
Tips for ’T’
The 't-' before vowels indicates word is masculine. e.g. airgead(noun) is masculine (m.)
chaith sé an t-airgead,
The 't-' before ’s’ in nom./acc. case indicates word is feminine
The 't-' before ’s’ in gen. case indicates word is masculine.
If in doubt put 't-' before ’s’ in Dative case
Irish speakers often put 't' before 's' in masc. and fem. dative case words.
Win/win -Play safe use lenition in Dative case
Leis an chloch throm, 'cloch' is feminine.
Leis an chasúr throm, 'casúr' is masculine
Both examples are accepted as correct usage of the dative case in Irish.
The rule here is:
If you put a ‘h’ (lenition) in the noun (cloch, casúr)
you can also put a ‘h’ in the adjective (trom,)
no ‘t’ and no ‘h’ ever with sc, sm, sp, or st. (Memory link: spot scam)
All of these rules and complications with nouns and adjectives arise from trying to force a grammatical structure derived from Latin onto the Irish language. Lenition and eclipse are stiff formal words that are used to talk about the sounds Irish speakers make when they open their mouths to talk. The meaning of ‘leis an chloch throm’ does not change if you say ‘leis an gcloch throm’. All that changes is the sound of the phrase when spoken. You might have a preference for one way or another depending on which part of Ireland you call home, but centuries of Irish speakers have uttered those words unaware that they were using the dative case with lenition or eclipse. Over 70 of the 222 pages of Irish Grammer Book are devoted to dealing with the mutations of the noun. There are roughly 8 rules for eclipse and 32 rules for lenition listed in the book. Studies have shown that we often have difficulty memorising more than 3 to 7 items in a list. Trying to teach over 40 grammar rules with contradictory information to students of Irish is a nightmare scenario for a teacher. As a result, who can blame teachers for choosing the option of explaining as little as possible about Irish grammar. However, students are still expected to notice all those subtle changes taking place in nouns and convert that knowledge into correctly written exam papers. Is there a way to simplify Irish grammar? Yes! Stop insisting on the failed attempt to write down exactly how the language sounds. Few would dispute that all you can ever expect to get from the written word is an approximation of the spoken word. If we changed the system to accept head words as correct in written Irish we have eliminated over 40 grammar rules on lenition and eclipse, gender issues dissappear, case becomes irrelevant and noun/adjective agreement is no longer a problem.
Instead of accepting just two takes on our ‘heavy brick’ phrase we could have three officially acceptable ways of writing it:
1) leis an chloch throm,
2) leis an gcloch throm
3) leis an cloch trom
A living language is always evolving, it would be interesting to see which of those three phrases would become the dominant one in everyday usage if we were prepared to give change a chance. Certainly, a lot of teachers’ red ink would be saved if we made head words the norm in written Irish.
