Irish -(a)i/ocha suffix (fwd)

[Andrew Carnie]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 22:41:23 -0800
From: Dennis King <donncha at eskimo.com>
To: carnie at LINGUISTLIST.ORG, CELTLING at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Irish -(a)i/ocha suffix

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Ar 10:01 PM -0400 9/12/98, scríobh Andrew Carnie:

> Can anyone
> put their finger on the exact meaning of this morpheme
> (or on crannaiocha in particular).

It's an alternative plural:

crann ->  crainn  -or-  crannai/ocha

Mar a deir O/ Se/ e/ fe/in, "is fe/idir -i/ocha a chur le
focail aonsiollacha dar cri/och -nn, -ll, -rr, in ionad an
chaolaithe." (lch. 12)

-ai/ocha is really a combination of two separate plural
endings, -i/ and -acha, just as the plural -anta in uaireanta
is composed of the endings -anna and -ta; and in Conamara
you can get the further ending -i/ added for good measure:
uaireantai/.  Another colloquial type of doubled plural
is found in le/ine -> le/inte -> le/inteacha, and
smaoineamh -> smaointe -> smaointi/.

These longer plurals seemed to be favored mainly for their
clarity.  I've notice that those whose written Irish is
generally very standard will often shun a proper dictionary
plural like "ailt" (= articles) in favor of the more natural
"altanna".

Dennis King