Form; as, a mathair her mother, ar brathair our brother. When the Possessive Pronoun a her, precedes a Noun or an Adjective beginning with a vowel, h is inserted between them; as, a h-athair, her father, a h-aon mhac her only son. The Possessive Pronouns ar our, bhur your, usually take n between them and the following Noun or Adjective beginning with a vowel; as, ar n-athair our father, bhur n-aran your bread. Perhaps a distinction ought to be made, by inserting n only after ar, and not after bhur[[99]]. This would serve often to distinguish the one word from the other in speaking, where they are ready to be confounded by bhur being pronounced ur.
3. A Noun beginning with a Lingual, preceded by an Adjective ending in n, is in the primary Form; as, aon duine one man, seann sluagh old people.
Section III.
Of the Agreement of a Pronoun with its Antecedent.
The Personal and Possessive Pronouns follow the Number of their Antecedents, i.e. of the Nouns which they represent. Those of the 3d Pers. Sing. follow also the Gender of their antecedent; as, sheas a'bhean aig a chosaibh, agus thoisich i air am fliuchadh leis a deuraibh, agus thiormaich i iad le gruaig a cinn, the woman stood at his feet, and she began to wet them with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, Luke vii. 38. They follow, however, not the Gender of the Antecedent, but the sex of the creature signified by the Antecedent, in those words in which Sex and Gender disagree, as, an gobhlan-gaoithe mar an ceudn' do sholair nead dh'i fein the swallow too hath provided a nest for herself, Psal. lxxxiv. 3. Gobhlan-gaoithe a swallow, is a mas. Noun, as appears by the mas. Article: but as it is the dam that is spoken of, the reference is made by the Personal Pronoun of the fem. gender. Ta gliocas air a fireanachadh leis a cloinn Wisdom
is justified by her children, Matt. xi. 19. Gliocas is a mas. noun; but as Wisdom is here personified as a female, the regimen of the Possessive Pronoun is adapted to that idea[[100]]. See also Prov. ix. 1-3. In this sentence Och nach b' i mhaduinn e, Deut. xxviii. 67, the former pronoun i is correctly put in the fem. gender, as referring to the fem. noun maduinn; while the latter pron. e is put in the mas. gend. because referring to no expressed antecedent.
If the Antecedent be a sentence, or clause of a sentence, the Pronoun is of the 3d Pers. Sing. masculine; as, dh' ith na bà caola suas na bà reamhra, agus cha n-aithnichteadh orra e, the lean cattle ate up the fat cattle, and could not be known by them.
If the Antecedent be a collective Noun, the Pronoun is of the 3d Pers. Plur. as, thoir àithne do 'n t-sluagh, d' eagal gu m bris iad asteach charge the people lest they break in, Exod. xix. 21.
An Interrogative combined with a Personal Pronoun, asks a question without the intervention of the Substantive verb; as, co mise? who [am] I? co iad na daoine sin? who [are] those men? cia i a' cheud àithne? which [is] the first commandment? In interrogations of this form, the noun is sometimes preceded by the Personal Pronoun, and sometimes not; as, co e am fear? who [is] the man? co am fear? what man? Co am fear? is evidently an incomplete sentence, like what man? in English. The ellipsis may be supplied thus; co e am fear a ta thu ciallachadh? who is the man whom you mean? This example may be abridged into another common interrogation, in which the Interrogative is immediately followed by the Relative; as, co a ta thu ciallachadh? who [is he] whom you mean? ciod a ta thu faicinn? what [is it] that you see?
In an interrogative sentence including a Personal Pronoun and a Noun, as, co e am fear sin? if the Noun be restricted in