Re: The Vocative Plural

[Padraic Brown <agricola@wam.umd.edu>]

On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Peter C. Skye wrote:

> Way back at the beginning of the "problem of the plurals" I dug up this
> communication from Andrew:
> 
>  >For an example a correspondant this week asked me to translate a
> Morning > Invocation into Brithenig which begins: I greet you, Powers of
> Air..., which I
> > translate as Eo w salyd, Cofath lla Aer...  Looking at this I wish
> there was
> > some way to indicate that Cofath, 'power', is a plural noun.  The
> pronoun
> >(g)w, 'you', 'vous', only partially does this.
> 
> In the ensuing discussions, particularly Raymond's last comments on
> French plurals, the question remains how would Brithenig mark a vocative
> plural?

Possibly with the vocative particle before the plural noun.  I believe the
voc. ptc. would lenite; at least in O.Ir. it does.  Therefore: "eo w
salyd, o (or perhaps a, or whatever the particle shall be) Chofathan lla
Aer..."  Would this look right?

> 
> Peter
> 
Padraic.