In most of these compound terms, the fragments of the Pronouns which enter into their composition, especially those of the first and second Persons, are very conspicuous[[82]]. These fragments take after them occasionally the emphatic syllables sa, san, ne, in the same manner as the Personal Pronouns themselves do; as, agamsa at ME, aigesan at HIM, uainne from US.
The two prepositions de and do have long been confounded together, both being written do. It can hardly be supposed that the composite words dhiom, dhiot, &c. would have been distinguished from dhomh, dhuit, &c., by orthography, pronunciation, and signification, if the Prepositions, as well as the Pronouns, which enter into the composition of these words, had been originally the same. In dhiom, &c., the initial Consonant is always followed by a small vowel. In dhomh, &c., with one exception, it is followed by a broad vowel. Hence it is presumable that the Preposition which is the root of dhiom, &c., must have had a small vowel after d, whereas the root of dhomh, &c., has a broad vowel after d. De is a preposition preserved in Latin (a language which has many marks of affinity with the Gaelic), in the same sense which must have belonged to the root of dhiom, &c., in Gaelic. The preposition in question itself occurs in Irish, in the name given to a Colony which is supposed to have settled in Ireland, A.M. 2540, called Tuath de Danann. (See Lh. "Arch. Brit." tit. x. voc. Tuath; also Miss Brooke's "Reliques of Irish Poetry," p. 102.) These facts afford more than a presumption that the true root of the Composite dhiom, &c., is de, and that it signifies of. It has therefore appeared proper to separate it from do, and to assign to each its appropriate meaning[[83]].
Dhiom, dhiot, &c., and dhomh, dhuit, &c., are written with a plain d after a Lingual; diom, domh, &c.
Eadar is not incorporated with the pronouns of the singular number, but written separately; eadar mis agus thusa, between me and thee.
In combining gu and mu with the pronouns, the letters of the Prepositions suffer a transposition, and are written ug, um. The former of these was long written with ch prefixed, thus chugam, &c. The translators of the Scriptures, observing that ch neither corresponded to the pronunciation, nor made part of the radical Preposition, exchanged it for th, and wrote thugam. The th, being no more than a simple aspiration, corresponds indeed to the common mode of pronouncing the word. Yet it may well be questioned whether the t, even though aspirated, ought to have a place, if g be the only radical consonant belonging to the Preposition. The component parts of the word might be exhibited with less disguise, and the common pronunciation (whether correct or not), also represented, by retaining the h alone, and connecting it with the Preposition by a hyphen, as when written before a Noun, thus h-ugam, h-ugaibh, &c.
Improper Prepositions.
Air cheann; at [the] end, against a certain time.
Air feadh, Air fad; throughout, during.
Air muin; on the back, mounted on.