Re: The Vocative Plural

["Raymond A. Brown" <raybrown@macline.co.uk>]

At 16:53 7/11/97, Padraic Brown wrote:
>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

Just call me ray.  ;-)

>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?

chofathon is spirant mutation; soft mutation would be: gofathon.
[Making the correction of -an to -on which Padraic pointed out in his
second email].

Spirant mutation results from a preceeding -s becoming -h & then combining
with the following consonant.  In Welsh it affects p-, t- and c- only.  The
"softening" of consonants between two vowels, which is what we have after
the Celtic vocative 'a', is the soft mutation of the Brittonic languages &
the lenition of the Gaelic langs.  In both it means voiced plosives become
fricatives & /m/ --> /v/, but the treatment of voiceless plosives differ:
in the Brittonic langs there are voiced, in the Gaelic langs they become
fricatives.

Indeed, the vocative particle 'a'does cause soft mutatation (or lenition)
in both Welsh & Gaelic.  In spoken Welsh the particle is always omitted but
the mutation remains, e.g. 'Bore da, blant!' (Good morning, children) <--
plant (children).

But I recall no use of different vocative particles to distinguish between
singular & plural.  Also 'o', thus much used in ancient Greek as a vocative
particle, is not normal in Latin & there's no evidence of its being used in
vulgar Latin. Of course, we could posit a Brittonic influence in ancient
Brithenig; but this still doesn't solve the singular-plural distinction.
Indeed, Padraic's example above uses the plural ending -an to do so.

If we have the plural ending, then there's no problem: plural is indicated
& we need no vocative particle, thus: cofathon lla Aer!

If we retain the earlier idea that when the -s ending became silent
plurality was indicated by articles & other determiners, then surely
Brithenig would've have followed a similar path to spoken French, i.e. used
the definite article: "Bonjour, les enfants!"   Thus we'd have: llo chofath
di lla Aer!
(Spirant mutation after masc. plural article llo).
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Thus it seems to me that, disregarding for the moment the question of a
vocative particle, we have three choices:

(a) the 'original' - indeclinable nouns + the 'Celtic genitive
construction', i.e.
'Cofath lla Aer' - powers of the air!
- but could also mean 'power of the air'.

(b) mark the plural with a -n suffix + Celtic gen. construction, i.e.
'Cofathon lla Aer'

(c) retain the indeclinable nouns but use Romance 'genitive' with
preposition 'di', i.e.
'llo Chofath di lla Aer'
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As regards the vocative particle, I think this is not really connected with
the singular-plural question, but is a separate matter in itself.

As a purely Romance lang. Brithenig would not have one; but the ancient
Brittonic influence was strong at its formation & this may have led to a
growing use of the literary Latin 'o' or, indeed, Brittonic 'a' as a
vocative particle. This would've caused soft mutation. But such a particle
is possible with all three versions above, thus:

(a) a Gofath lla Aer
(b) a Gofathon lla Aer
(c) a lo Chofath di lla Aer.

[Also, as in modern Welsh (& Gaelic, I think), the 'a' might be omitted in
the spoken language, leaving only the soft mutation.)
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Hopes this helps,
Ray.