Kelly's Manx Grammar: Chapter 5

[From Manx Soc vol 2, Kelly's Manx Grammar]

CHAPTER V.

OF THE NOUN.

And first, of its Cases.

In Manks there are six Cases, though originally we seem to have used but three, viz., the Nominative, Genitive, and Dative.

When the article y or yn is placed before a substantive of the Nominative Case, beginning with a mutable consonant, if the Noun be of the feminine gender, the initial consonant must be either aspirated, mortified, or changed into its soft: as ben, a woman, yn ven; keyrrey, a sheep, yn cheyrrey; feill, flesh, yn eill. But if the Noun be of the masculine gender, the initial consonant remains in its own nature; as yn dooinney, the man; yn coo, the greyhound; yn feiyr, the noise.

When the article y or yn is placed before a Noun beginning with a consonant, if the Noun be of the feminine gender, the article is changed into ny in the Genitive Case singular; but if the Noun be of the masculine gender, the mutable consonant is changed into its soft or aspirated, and the article y or yn remains; as

GENITIVE SINGULAR

	Nom.	Gen.
Masculine.	Guilley, a boy.	Yn ghuilley, of a boy.
Masculine.	Coo, a greyhound,	Yn choo.
Feminine.	Ben, a woman,	Ny mrieh, of a woman.
Feminine.	Kiark, a hen,	Ny giark.
Feminine.	Booa, a cow.	Ny baa.
Feminine.	Cass, a foot,	Ny coshey.

Nouns of the feminine gender, beginning with a vowel change yn into ny in the genitive singular, and require h for their initial in the same case; as,

FEMININE NOUNS WITH INITIAL VOWEL

Nominitive.	Genitive.
Awin, a river,	Broogh ny hawin, the brink of the river.
Eanin, a precipice,	Beinn ny heanin, the summit of the precipice.

As to the Cases of the Plural Number, there is but one termination throughout; so that they are only distinguished by the articles set before them, or in their construction, varying their initial letters, if mutable, answerable to their dependence on the preceding words; as--

PLURAL NUMBER

	Plural.
Nom.	Ny boghtyn, the poor,
Gen.	Ny moghtyn, of the poor,
Dat.	Da ny boghtyn, to the poor,
Acc.	Ny boghtyn, the poor,
Voc.	Y or O voghtyn, O poor,
Abl.	Gyn voghtyn, without poor.

The initial of the Genitive Case plural suffers always, when the genitive article ny is used, as if the possessive nyn were put in apposition, q. v.; as--

Nominitive.	Genitive.
Ny boghtyn	(Bannaght) ny moghtyn, the blessing of the poor.
Ny thieyn, the houses.	(Fer) ny dhieyn, a man of the houses, i.e., a beggar.

The vocative article is more frequently understood than expressed in both numbers, except the English thou be used in the singular; as, magh, y voddee, Out, thou dog; and in the plural, except ye be expressed, which is generally translated by shiuish, ye, yourselves; as, ye friends, or friends, chaarjyn, or shiuish chaarjyn.




Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2001