Old Irish and Modern Irish definite articles

Notes on mutations

◌^L — lenites.
◌^N — triggers nazalization/eclipsis.
◌^T — triggers t-prothesis in Modern Irish, that is, prefixes a /t/ to a word that starts with a vowel or with an S (which is lenited to silence with the article). In Modern Irish, prefixed “t” always remains lowercase even if the noun is capitalized. It is written with a hyphen (t-) when the first letter of the word is lowercase (e.g., an t-éan), but simply prefixed if the first letter is capital (e.g., an tAifreann). In Old Irish, that “t” was a part of the article itself, now it is seen as a mutation.
◌^H — triggers aspiration. In Modern Irish, that means prefixing an /h/ to words that start with a vowel (e.g., na hoíche. It always remains lowercase and is never separated from the word (e.g., Poblacht na hÉireann).¹ In Old Irish phonetic aspiration was unmarked.

Articles forms

Old Irish			Modern Irish
Context	Form	Examples	Context	Form	Examples
Nominative singular, masculine
Before consonants	in	in fer, in lebor	Before consonants	an	an fear, an leabhar
Before vowels	int	int én, int Oifrend	Before vowels	an^T	an t-éan, an tAifreann
Nominative singular, feminine²
Before C, P, T, G, B, D, M	in^L	in chíall	Before consonants except S	an^L	an chiall, an long
Before L, N, R, vowels, and F³	ind^L	ind long	Before consonants except S	an^L	an chiall, an long
Before S⁴	int^L	int ṡlige /int liɣʲə/	Before S	an^T	an tslí /ən tlʲi:/
Nominative singular, neuter
Any	a^N	a mbiad, a n-argat	There is no neuter gender, so Old Irish neuter nouns are either feminine or masculine in Modern Irish: an bia, an t-airgead.
Nominative plural, masculine
Before C, P, T, G, B, D, M	in^L	in chaitt, in bhoic	Any	na^H	na cait, na pocáin, na fir, na sagairt, na héin
Before L, N, R, vowels, and F	ind^L	ind ḟir
Before S	int^L	int ṡacairt
Nominative plural, feminine and neuter
Any	inna⁵, na	(in)na insi, (in)na crann	There is no neuter gender, so Old Irish neuter nouns are either feminine or masculine in Modern Irish: na insi, na crainn.
Accusative singular, masculine and feminine
With direct objects	in^N	Gaibmi in mboc. Ad-cíu in n-én.	With direct objects	Accusative no longer exists in Modern Irish, rules for the nominative case apply.	Gabhaimid an pocán. Feicim an t-éan.
With prepositions	Always merged with the preposition: lasin^N (la + s + in), arin (ar + in) (ar + in)	lasin nguide	With prepositions	Not merged with prepositions anymore, but often triggers eclipsis when used with prepositions and never triggers t-prothesis in that case..	leis an nguí, ar an mbóthar, ag an Aifreann
Accusative singular, neuter
With direct objects	a^N	Gaibmi a mbiad. Celait a n-eacnae.	With direct objects	Not applicable, since there is no accusative case or neuter gender in Modern Irish. Rules for the nominative case apply.	Gabhaimid an bia. Ceileann siad an eagnaíocht.
With prepositions	Always merged with the preposition: lassa^N (la + s⁶ + a), isa (i + s + a), foa (fo + a)...	isa ndún, isa n-ubull, foa scáth	Certain prepositions, like sa (“in the” singular), are derived from this form. Sa still triggers eclipsis in the Connacht dialect as the historic isa form would (e.g., sa ndún), in other dialects in lenites now (sa dhún). Before vowels, it becomes san (<isa n-...): san ull, san Eoraip...
Accusative plural, all genders
With direct objects	inna^H, na^H	Benaid ind loéch (in)na crann.	There is no neuter gender, so Old Irish neuter nouns are either feminine or masculine in Modern Irish: Buaileann an laech na crainn.
With prepositions	isna (i + s + na), lasna (la + s + na), etc.	isna crann	There is no accusative in Modern Irish, but traces of this form remain: e.g., trasna — “across”. In Munster Irish, dosna may still be used instead of the standard form do na.
Genitive singular, masculine and neuter
Before C, P, T, G, B, D, M	in^L	tech in chaitt, delb in bhoic	Before consonants except S	an^L	teach an chait, dealbh an phocáin
Before L, N, R, vowels, and F	ind^L	tech ind ḟir	Before consonants except S	an^L	teach an chait, dealbh an phocáin
Before S	int^L	tech int ṡacairt	Before S	an^T	teach an tsagairt
Genitive singular, feminine
Any	inna^H, na^H	catt (in)na lungae, loéch (in)na inse	Any	na^H	cat na loinge, laoch na hinse
Genitive plural, all genders
Any	inna^N, na^N	biad (in)na n-én, glór (in)na ngáeth	Any	na^N	bia na n-éan, glór na ngaoth
Dative/prepositional singular, all genders
Independent	“Bare” dative/prepositional case has a limited use in Old Irish. When it appears with the article, the article lenites and follows the same pattern as other leniting forms, like the masculine genitive singular or feminine nominative singular (in^L, ind^L, int^L).		There is no dative case in Modern Irish and this form appears to be completely extinct.
With prepositions	Always merged with the preposition: cosind^L (co + s + in), don^L (do + (i)n). The endings follow the same patterns as leniting forms of the independent article (-n^L, -nd^L, -nt^L).	fon chrunn, isind ḟeur, cosint ṡcáth	Dative/prepositional case does not exist in Modern Irish. The masculine article an is still often merged with prepositions that were used with the dative case in Old Irish, but such constructs trigger eclipsis rather than lenition now (e.g., faoin gcrann).
Dative/prepositional plural, all genders
Independent	Possibly unattested (please correct me if I am wrong).		Even when historical dative plural forms survive in some phrases, they are used with the nominative plural article now (e.g., na feraibh).
With prepositions	Always merged with the preposition: cosnaib (co + s + -naib), donaib (do + -naib).	fonaib crannaib, cosnaib echaib	This form is completely extinct, prepositions that were used with dative never merge with the plural article now (faoi na crainn).

¹This does not seem to have always been the case: for example, the famous 1916 proclamation of the Irish republic spells it “POBLACHT NA H EIREANN”, although it may have more to do with technical difficulties than with typesetters’ idea how it should be spelled.

²Generally, whenever the article lenites, it will have -n, -nd, or -nt endings depending on the first sound of the noun that follows it. This pattern repeats in the genitive singular of masculine and neuter nouns, in the nominative plural of masculine nouns, in the dative singular for all genders, and in the endings of dative singular preposition+article constructs.

³Lenited F is silent, so the first sound of a lenited word is a vowel if it starts with an F.

⁴S is normally lenited to /h/, but in this context it is completely silent and replaced with the T sound.

⁵The disyllabic form inna is only found in the oldest manuscripts and was replaced with na later.

⁶The historic S appears with prepositions that do not lenite, with a few exceptions — it is a trace of the Proto-Celtic *sindos (masc)/*sinda (fem) forms.

This page was last modified: 2024-02-02