LL-L "Morphology" 2003.05.13 (15) [E/LS]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 13.MAY.2003 (15) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2003.05.13 (10) [E]

Jim wrote:
"I'm far from fluent in Irish, but I've never seen or heard the plural
used as a polite singular, in textbooks or elsewhere."

I've used _sibh_ that way myself on one or two occasions, but I cannot
remember being understood. I would imagine
that Old Irish used the plural as a polite singular for it to be passed
on to Scottish Gaelic.

To bring the issue back to Lowlandic, it is instructive to note that the
form _*yous_ (the plural pronoun) as a polite
singular is not permitted in any form of Gaelic-influenced English -
whether Irish or Scottish by location.

Go raibh maith agaibh

Criostóir.

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From: Colin Wilson <lcwilson at btinternet.com>
Subject: LL-L "Morphology" 2003.05.13 (10) [E]

At 20:44 13/05/03, Jim Rader wrote:
>The chapter on Irish by Cathair Ó Dochartaigh in _The Celtic Languages_,
>ed. D. Macaulay (Cambridge UP, 1992) says categorically  that "the
>distinction between second-person singular and plural is one of
>number only, with no honorific use of the plural pronoun."  Don't know
>where Neil McEwan got his Irish from.

Thanks too to Críostóir Ó Ciardha for his response on this.

Is it possibly a matter of regional variation then?

Colin Wilson.

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