Air (preposition)

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Gaelic preposition, meaning roughly "on". It governs the dative case, but does not usually trigger lenition on following indefinite nouns (except in certain idiomatic phrasings).


Forms

Simple forms

bare form: air 'on a' definite form: air an 'on the'

Basic inflected forms

Like most prepositions, air can be inflected for person, number, and gender. For example, to say "on me", we use the single word orm.

singularplural
1stormoirnn
2ndortoirbh
3rdMascairorra
Femoirre

Emphatic Inflected forms

Special emphatic forms are used if we want to emphasize the pronoun in the inflected preposition. (e.g. ormsa "on **me**")

singularplural
1stormsaoirnne
2ndortsaoirbhse
3rdMascairsanorrasan
Femoirrese


Possessive inflected forms:

No Special forms are used for possessives, although occasionally one might find the abbreviated orraL 'on your' instead of air do (not to be confused with orra "on them"). (Mark 2004:20)

singularplural
1stair moLair arN
2ndair doLair bhurN / air urN
3rdMascair aLair anN
Femair aH

Note: am is used instead of an "their" in front of words beginning with the labial consonants <m, b, p, f>


Uses

References

Mark, Colin (2004) The Gaelic-English Dictionary/Am Faclair Gàidhlig-Beurla. London: Routledge


Notes

In this document, as elsewhere, L indicates lenition and N indicates nasalization, (prefixation of an n- before a word beginning with vowels, and a nasalization of the next consonant (not indicated in the orthography) and H indicates Antilenition (the prefixation of h before words beginning with vowels).