Re: A few more Breathanach notes

[Geoff Eddy <geoff@morven.compulink.co.uk>]

John Cowan wrote:

> The noun form derived from a verb is not a "participle" but a "gerund".
> Therefore, Breathanach does not have two present participles, but
> rather a present participle and a gerund, although the gerund is not
> inherited from the Latin gerund.

Looks like I'll have to update the page again - it looks a bit confused
:-( Seriously, you're quite correct; there's an important difference.

> What is the meaning of "*is* and *sa* are borrowed from Brithenig"?

"Is" = "he", or "it" for masculine nouns. "Sa" = "she", or "it" for
feminine nouns. They correspond to French "il" and "elle", or Gaelic
"se" and "si".

> Does that mean that *there* they have been borrowed, or that Geoff
> have borrowed them from Andrew?  The *fhoil* isn't clear.

Good question! What actually happened was that Geoff couldn't come up
with any better pronouns of his own. What happened *there*, I'm not
sure, although it might have involved the Brithenig pronouns sounding
more attractive to Breathanach speakers (I think they'd be called
Breathaine) than their own. I haven't yet decided.

Oh - it should really be "foil", unless you have "la" in front of it.
Which brings up another interesting question - if you're quoting an
initially-mutated word outside of its mutating context, should you
retain the mutation? Just a thought.

Geoff
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