1. Noun declensions – Vocalic Stems

ō-stems and io-stems

ō-stems io-stemsm. ‘fir’ ‘man’ n. ‘dligid’ ‘law’ m. ‘ceile’ ‘fellow’ n. ‘cride’ ‘heart’

S. N fer -C dliged -C [nas] ceile -e cride -e [nas] V á ḟir -C’ [len] dliged -C [nas] ceili -i [len] cride -e [nas]

A fer -C [nas] dliged -C [nas] ceile -e [nas] cride -e [nas] G fir -C’ [len] dligid* -C [len] ceili -i [len] cridi -i [len] D fiur* -(u)C* [len] dligud -uC [len] ceiliu -u [len] cridiu -u [len]

P.N fir -C’ [len] dligeddligeda

-a

[len] ceili -i [len] cride -e [len]

V á ḟiru -Cu dligeddligeda -a

[len] ceiliu -u cride -e [len]

A firu -Cu dligeddligeda -a

[len] ceiliu -u cride -e [len]

G fer -C [nas] dliged -C [nas] ceile -e [nas] cride -e [nas] D feraib -(a)ib dligedaib -(a)ib ceilib -(a)ib cridib -ib

D.N ḟer -C [len] ndliged -C [nas] ceile -e [len] cride -e [nas]

A ḟer -C [len] ndliged -C [nas] ceile -e [len] cride -e [nas]

G ḟer -C [len] ndliged -C [nas] ceile -e [len] cride -e [nas]

D feraib -(a)ib ndligedaib -(a)ib ceilib -(a)ib cridib -ibdá [len] d. dib [nas] dá, dib [nas] dá [len], dib [nas] dá, dib [nas]

A short background:The o-stems are so called because in Primitive Irish, when nouns still had endings, these endings contained the letter ‘o’. Unfortunately, those endings were lost at the end of the Primitive Irish period, as said above. The word ‘fer’, ‘man’, for example, comes from PI *uiros, where -os is the ending. As you can see, there is an ‘o’ there. Since the endings are no longer there, this means that we all have to learn (or look up, what joy!) what the stem of a certain noun is. O-stems all end in a neutral consonant (except for the word Día, ‘God’ which is an o-stem, masculine). O-stems, as you can see in the schedule above, can either be masculine or neuter. All the nouns of the o-stems follow a certain pattern.O-stems neuter:It is typical of neuter words that the nominative and the accusative (and vocative in Old Irish) have the same form, so the nom., acc. and voc. sg. will all look the same; the same goes for the nom., acc. and voc. plural and for the nom. and acc. dual (we have no vocative dual in Old Irish, but if we did, it would have looked the same as the nom. and acc. dual). Of course, in the vocative case, we always have that particle ‘a’ or ‘á’ which lenites, but the form of the noun itself is the same as that of the nominative and accusative.

Please note that there are two different forms in the nominative, vocative and accusative plural of neuter o-stems. The shorter forms (cenél etc.) are generally used when there is no doubt that the meaning of the word is plural, i.e. if it is preceded by the number three: tri chenél, which obviously must mean ‘three tribes’. ‘Three tribe’ makes no sense. If doubt could arise, the longer form is generally used.

Irregularities:1. The m. io-stem duine (‘man’) takes it’s plural like an ī-stem, making Pl.nom/voc/acc. doíni, gen. doíne, dat. doínib; and the m. ō-stem demun (‘devil’) takes acc.pl. demnai. 2. The n. io-stem la(i)the, gen.sg. laithi (‘day’) also has a shorter form: n./a.sg. lae, laa, láa, gen.sg. lai, dat.sg. láu, láo, ló, lóu, n./a./g.pl. lae, lá, dat.pl. laib.