księżycowy wrote:I came up with the following answers for Exercise 21:
1. Is tigh ana-mhór é. (The answer key has Tigh ana-mhór is ea é.)
5. Is iad san mo bhróga-sa. (Again, the answer key has Sin iad mo bhróga-sa.)
Are my versions correct as well, or are those given in the answer key the only way to phrase those two for some odd reason?
They're correct but not idiomatic for West Muskerry. Munster dialects pretty much always default to
X is ea Y in classificatory sentences (to the point that some even allow this in the interrogative; for details, see Ó Siadhail). And all the dialects prefer null copula + demonstrative pronoun + personal personal in identificational sentences; sentences of the type
is PP det predicate are found in the written standard, but that doesn't allow the Munster form
san.
The way TYI, in its idiosyncratic way, makes this clear(ish) is by calling the alternative versions "common forms". They don't just mean that those versions are common but that they are the most common versions of these sentences.
księżycowy wrote:It's hard to anticipate which they want in regards to Is leabhar é and Leabhar is ea é, and so forth. If I remember correctly there is a slight emphasis in the latter, but other than that, they are the same, right?
I'm not sure I'd say there's any particular emphasis in either version.
księżycowy wrote:I also found it interesting that móin is plural in sentence 7.
It's not though;
móin can be either a mass noun or a count noun (just like the corresponding word
turf, at least in Irish English). In this case, it's treated as a mass noun and so appears in the genitive singular after
cuid.
księżycowy wrote:And last but not least, if a sentence has a location (such as in sentence 8, "sa phortach") is uses tá, not is, correct? I ask because I wasn't thinking and wrote a sentence with is instead and am trying to determine if is can be used in such sentences.
Only for purposes of emphasis, i.e.
Is sa phortach atá mo chuid-se fós (or Munster-style
Sa phortach is ea atá mo chuid-se fós). The main verb is still
tá, as for all locational sentences. It's only with predicate adjectives where you have a choice.
Speaking of which, I'm kind of surprised they give
Tigh ana-mhór is ea é and not
Is ana-mhór an tigh é given that, once again, the latter is described as "the common form" of this sort of sentence.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons