Mìnich to explain, eadar-mhìnich to interpret.
Gearr to cut, timchioll about—timchioll-ghearr circumcise.
Lot to wound, troimh through—troimh-lot to stab, pierce through.
Examples of words compounded with an inseparable Preposition are already given in Part II. Chap. VII.
Compound Nouns retain the gender of the principal Nouns in their simple state. Thus crith-ghalar palsy, is masculine, because the principal Noun, Galar distemper, is masculine, although the accessary Noun crith, by which galar is qualified, be feminine. So cìs-mhaor is masculine though cìs be a feminine Noun, Luke xviii. 11; cìs-mheasadh ought also to be masculine, Acts v. 37. Except Nouns compounded with
Bean woman, which are all feminine, though the simple principal Noun be masculine, because the compound word denotes an object of the female sex; as, oglach a servant, masculine, but banoglach a maid-servant, feminine, caraid a friend, masculine, bancharaid a female friend, feminine.
Compound words are declined in the same manner as if they were uncompounded.
In writing compound words, the component parts are sometimes separated by a hyphen, and sometimes not. The use of the hyphen does not seem to be regulated by any uniform practice. In the case of two vowels coming in apposition, the insertion of a hyphen seems indispensable; because, by the analogy of Gaelic orthography, two Vowels, belonging to different syllables, are scarcely ever placed next to each other without some mark of separation[[118]]. Thus so-aomaidh, easily induced, propense; so-iomchair, easily carried; do-innsidh, difficult to be told; and not soamaidh, doinnsidh, &c., without the hyphen.
It was formerly remarked, Part I., that almost all Gaelic Polysyllables are accented on the first syllable. When, in pronouncing compound words, the accent is placed on the first syllable, the two terms appear to be completely incorporated into one word. When, on the other hand, the accent is placed, not on the first syllable of the Compound, but on the first syllable of the Subjunctive term, the two terms seem to retain their respective powers, and to produce their effect separately, and instead of being incorporated into one word, to be rather collaterally connected. A rule may then be derived from the pronunciation for the use of the hyphen in writing Compounds, viz., to insert the hyphen between the component parts, when the Prepositive term is not accented. Thus it is proposed to write aineolach ignorant, antromaich to exaggerate, comhradh conversation, dobheart a bad action,
soisgeul Gospel, banoglach a maidservant, &c., without a hyphen; but to write an-fhiosrach unacquainted, ban-fhiosaiche a female fortune-teller, co-fhreagarach corresponding, so-fhaicsin easily seen, &c., with a hyphen[[119]]. By this rule, a correspondence is maintained, not only between the writing and the pronunciation, but likewise between the written language and the ideas expressed by it. A complex idea, whose parts are most closely united in the mind, is thus denoted by one undivided word; whereas an idea composed of parts more loosely connected, is expressed by a word, whereof the component parts are distinguished, and exhibited separately to the eye. Thus also the Gaelic scholar would have one uniform direction to follow in reading, viz., to place the accent always on the first syllable of an undivided word, or member of a word. If any exception be allowed, it must be only in the case already stated of two vowels coming in apposition, as beo-airgiod quicksilver.