Caibidil a hAon: The Noun (an tAinmfhocal)the irregular declination (an Díochlaonadh Neamhrialta) |
Of those, these are probably the most common:
| Nom. Sing. | m/f | Gen. Sing. | Dat. Sing. | Nom. Plur. | Gen. Plur. | translation |
| an bhean 1 | f | na mná | don mhnaoi, bhean | na mná | na mban | woman |
| an deirfiúr | f | na deirféar | - | na deirfiúracha | na ndeirfiúracha | sister (fam.) |
| an tsiúr 2 | f | na siúrach | - | na siúracha | na siúracha | sister (nun) |
| Dia, an dia | m | Dé, an dé | - | na déithe | na ndéithe | God |
| an lá | m | an lae | don ló, lá | na laethanta | na laethanta | day |
| an leaba 3 | f | na leapa | - | na leapacha | na leapacha | bed |
| an mhí | f | na míosa | - | na míonna | na míonna | month |
| an olann 4 | f | na holla | - | na holanna | na n-olann | wool |
| an talamh 5 | f | na talún | - | na tailte | na dtailte | land |
| Ó/Ua 6 | m | Uí | - | Uí | Ua/Ó | grandchild, descendent |
1: The dative plural is/was mnáibh
2: siúr is mostly 5th declination, except the
-r is broad in the nominative
3: leaba is actually a verbal noun (leabadh).
This places it in the verbal noun class. Genitive: leabtha > leapa
(-bth- is pronounced[p] )
4: Olann is a regular word of the 3rd declination.
The genitive olla is produced via syncopation
(the omission of a in olann) + suffix -a of the 3rd declination (following
the old spelling, olna, today in the new standard olla both spoken
and written, since ln > ll)
5: the genitive talún is actually also regular
(5th declination), its earlier form was talmhan (dative: talmhain).
The variant talamh (masc) - talaimh - tailte is regular (1st declination),
Other nouns ending in -mh also once belonged to the 5th declination,
e.g. breitheamh = judge, old genitive breitheamhan (in the new
standard breithiún), hence the English term "Brehon Laws" for
the Old Irish Law System and the plural breithiúnacha. Today most
of these nouns belong to the 1st declination: breitheamh - breithimh
6: This applies to the Ó in names (the word ó
= grandchild is 4th declination, genitive ó). The vocative is Uí.
The dative plural Uibh is sometimes to be found in town- and region names
(Uibh Ráthach = Iveragh). Ua is also used as the nominative
singular (and Ó also as genitive plural)
More about the declination of verbal nouns see here