128
AN GAODHAL
same in every case except one (in 4),
in Irish, as in most languages, the
noun has different forms; one for each
case,
THE CASES in IRISH.
45. The NOMINATIVE CASE is used
when the thing is represented as per¬
forming an action; as, the horse went
home.
46. The OBJECTIVE case is used
when the thing is represented as recei¬
ving or suffering an action; as, I kill¬
ed the horse. This case is also called
the ACCUSATIVE case.
47. The DATIVE or PREPOSITIONAL
case is used in modern Irish only
when the noun follows a preposition;
as, leis an g-capall, ar chapall, with
the horse, on a horse. The prepositions
gan, without, idir, between, are excep¬
tional, and are followed by the ACCU¬
SATIVE or OBJECTIVE case.
48. The POSSESSIVE case is used
when the thing is represented as pos¬
sessing something; as, the
horse's head, the horse's bridle. This
case is also called the GENITIVE case.
In English this case is represented by
either the form ending in 's, or by the
objective case with the preposition
of, as a horse's, or, of a horse.
49. The VOCATIVE case is used
when the person or thing denoted by
the noun is addressed or spoken to by
somebody; as, O Lord; O Death; my
good man! etc. This case is also call¬
ed the nominative of address.
50. In modern Irish the forms of
the NOMINATIVE and ACCUSATIVE
cases are the same.
51. In the lessons we shall give
the different case-forms of words in
the following order (the student should
learn this by heart). —
Contractions.
1. NOMINATIVE and ACCUSATIVE,
N. A.
2. GENITIVE,
Gen.
3. DATIVE OF PREPOSITIONAL,
Dat.
4. VOCATIVE,
Voc.
52. For sake of brevity we will use
the contractions opposite or below. —
Singular.
Plural.
1.
N. A.
N. A.
2.
G.
G.
3
D.
D.
4.
V.
V.
We may thus have eight forms
of a word, the four cases of the singu¬
lar number and the four cases of the
plural. They are arranged as in the
preceding paragraph.
53 When we give in some orderly
way the various cases of a noun, we
are said to DECLINE or give the dec¬
lension of the noun.
54. All nouns are not declined
in the same way. In English the
word "boy" has the plural form
"boys", formed by adding s; the
word "man" has the plural form
"men", formed by making a vowel
change in the middle of the word.
Similarly in modern Irish, some
nouns form the genitive case
(which is the case that best indi¬
cates the declension) by making
an internal vowel change, others
by adding e, others by adding a,
more by adding a consonant, and
some remain unchanged. So that
there are FIVE ways in which
nouns are modified in form, in oth¬
er words, there are FIVE DECLEN¬
SIONS OF NOUNS
55 The ARTICLE, ADJECTIVES, and
PRONOUNS are also declined as we
shall see further on. But at pres¬
ent we are to deal with nouns.
LESSON VIII.
DECLENSION OF NOUNS.
56. As stated above, the declen¬
sion of a noun is known by the
way in which the Genitive case
differs from the Nominative case.
57. Words of the FIRST declen¬
sion form the genitive from the
nominative by what is called atte¬
nuation, that is, by inserting i be-
