query: vocatives in modern Celtic languages
Dorothy Milne
dmilne at MUN.CA
Thu May 10 16:29:31 UTC 2007
Dear Michael :
Answering as best I can for Irish ...
Specific languages.
Irish seems to have the "a"-particle-construction with lenition (e.g.
Siadhail 1989: 149).
>> Yes
>> for Masc 1 declension nouns and names, there is, in addition to
the lenition of the initial consonant, the change of the final
consonant from broad to slender.
Sea/n >> a Shea/in
Do/nall >> a Dhonaill
Ibidem, page 149 he provides a special "vocative"
form, which is not only lenited, but has a distinct flexion ('man' SgVoc
/feara/ as opposed to SgNm /fear/; PlVoc/ feara/ as opposed to PlNom
/fir/). I gather these forms are also only used after the particle a
(although there is no direct indications at that).
>> Yes, these are special forms used only after the
vocative.
However: if the voc. of the word "fear" was formed according to
the
usual rules, it would be " a fhir" , and my grammar books give
' a fhir' as a perfectly correct form of the vocative for
'fear'
>> only a very few words have a special vocative form, I think.
My general questions are the following.
1. First of all, is all the data as interpreted by me and presented
above correct?
>> for Irish, yes. But you have not cited all the rules that apply
in Irish..
2. Do I understand correctly, that in the languages that have a vocative
particle the initial lenition of the following noun is not purely
phonetic / phonological, but morphophonological (i.e. that it is the
presence of the particle triggers it, not e.g. any element preposed to
the noun and ending in a vowel).
>> Not sure what you mean.
The particle 'a' is there, whether it is pronounced (or written)or not
...
As a very brief, unstressed schwa, it is often not distinctly heard,
but it is _there_ in the notional sense, I believe.
3. May the vocative particle "a" in these languages be used
independently (the way "hey" in English is, which can be used both
independently and with a noun). From the descriptions I understand it
can not, is that true?
>> True. It cannot be used alone. It is a clitic.
4. ... while Irish may sometimes drop preserving the lenition.
>> yes, for Irish.
Also, are flectionally distinct vocatives in Irish and Welsh _only_ used
with the vocative particle? From the descriptions I understand the
groups are clearcut - is that true?
>>.. This would be true if the noun has a distinct
vocative only form, but in most cases the noun may have
the same form in another case, particularly the genitive ..
e.g.
a Shea/in leabhair Shea/in
John ! (voc.) John's book
5. Is the presence of a vocative morphologically distinct from the
nominative (including e.g. Welsh where there is no particle and the
lenition is to be considered as a grammatical marking) only
characteristic of common nouns like 'boy', 'child', 'god' etc., as the
examples seem to indicate, or are given names or family names also
included into vocative morphology.
>> yes, names are included ... And other nouns
e.g. A bhe/al cumhra ...
Mind that the example like /a Mha/ire/ in Siadhail 1989 is not distinct from
the nominative, as far as I can understand, except for the lenition
triggered by the presence of
the vocative particle.
On the other hand, Scottish Gaelig names
"Seumas" and "Donnchadh" belong to the relevant 'A1' declension type
(Ball&Fife eds 1993: 173), so they are supposed to have distinct
vocative forms, though no examples are provided. In general, is that not
that the Celtic vocative, where available, tends to combine with common
names rather than proper names such as given names?
>> No. In Irish or Scottish Gaelic, the commonest use of the vocative is
with
common names, I think ...
E.g. Se/amas a She/amais Shay muss >> Hay mish
And what about kinship terms (especially 'mother', 'father')? Does it not
tend to drift
into exclamations ("Oh boy!", "Good lord!") from the pure vocative address?
>> If you address something or someperson, you use the vocative ..
..a mha/thair, a athair, a mhic a Thiarna
mother father son Lord !
But each of these is a true vocative .. Not an interjection or
exclamation.
One exclamation I can think of that would support your idea of
'drift' perhaps
would be:
a Thiarcais ... (darn, damn ! Oh Lordie ! ) ...
Another example might be 'a fheara ' ... 'arrah !' in
HibernoEnglish...
A Thiarcais and a fheara shows that such 'drift' is possible in
Irish,
but I am not sure that such expressions are common ? ? ?
6. Do I understand correctly that the /a /is possible in Irish and
Scottish Gaelig not only with '1A' declension type nouns (that have a
distinct vocative form), but also with other nouns used as address.
>> yes. Used with nouns of all declensions, with the lenition of
the initial consonant in all cases.
However, the final consonant change (broad to slender) occurs
only in the first declension.
What are the semantic constraints on the combinability with /a /in different
languages - only animates? Only humans?
>> Don't know for certain, but I don't think there are _any_
limitations.
Almost anything can be addressed in poetry, for example.
7. How does the suggestion that the vocative lenition without the
vocative particle is a trace of the vocative particle now lost combines
with the fact that in a Manx example (Ball&Fife eds. 1993: 237) both the
adjective and the head noun lenite? (If /a /is a true particle, it is
very unlikely to repeat twice in one NP).
>> No problem. These are two separate phenomena, I think.
The particle 'a' causes the lenition in the noun.
The noun then causes the lenition of the adjective (in those
cases where it does so).
>> True the particle 'a' would _not_ repeat, it appears only in front
of the noun. However,the noun in the vocative case would have had an
ending (historically) and it is this ending which would cause
lenition in the following adjectives. In other words, the
adjectives were also declined and the initial consonant is
(a) either agreeing with the voc. case of the noun (similar to
adjective lenition in agreement with a feminine noun), or is
responding to the terminal inflection of the M 1 noun in the vocative.
I wonder if this is also true in Manx. I can't get my hands on our
copy
of Ball and Fife, so I will have to ask you .. Do they state this
as a rule, or did you infer this from examples ? If the latter, it is
possible that you may be misinterpreting the examples you see.
In a majority of examples from Irish, the adjective in a vocative
expression will also be lenited, but that is not directly caused by
the
'a' particle. The lenition of the noun caused by the vocative
particle.
The adjective may be lenited either because it is agreeing with a
feminine noun, or because the adjective follows a M1 noun that ends
in a slender final consonant.
Masc 1 feminine
e.g. a bha/doi/r mhaith a che/irseach bhinn
a athair dhi/lis a bhean cho/ir
a dheirfiu/r dhi/lis
Furthermore, if the adjective is itself of the Masc.1st decl, it is
inflected too (final broad consonant becomes slender):
e.g. A ghasu/ir bhoicht (adj = bocht)
^
There are however exceptions to this pattern for masc nouns which are
endearments (go figure ! ) :
e.g. a bhe/al cumhra
a cheann dubh di/lis
a sto/iri/n ba/n
That is all I know about this.
I hope others will debate or correct, as necessary..
Doireann
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