Middle Irish

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Etymology

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From Old Irish at·tá.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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at·tá

  1. to be

Conjugation

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  • Third-person singular preterite absolute/conjunct: boí, bui
  • Third-person singular perfect deuterotonic: ro·boí

Descendants

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  • Classical Gaelic: a-tá
  • Irish:
  • Manx: ta
  • Scottish Gaelic: tha

Further reading

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Old Irish

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From ad- +‎ ·tá.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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at·tá (prototonic ·tá, verbal noun buith, buid)

  1. to be
  2. to have (in the construction at·tá X oc Y (Y has X) or with an affixed pronoun)
    Synonym: techtaid

For quotations using this term, see Citations:attá.

Usage notes

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This is the so-called "substantive verb", which takes an adverb, an adverbial phrase, or a prepositional phrase as the predicate. When the predicate is a noun, a pronoun, or an adjective, the copula is is used instead.

As in modern Irish, if there is no other predicate in an existential there is clause, the adverb and is used:

  • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 29a28
    Ní taibre grád for nech causa a pectha ꝉ a chaíngníma: ar bíit alaili and ro·finnatar a pecthe resíu do·coí grád forru; alaili is íarum ro·finnatar. Berir dano fri láa brátha.
    You sg should not confer orders on anyone because of his sin or of his good deed: for there are some whose sins are found out before their ordination, others whose [sins] are found out afterwards. Reference is made, then, to the day of judgment.
    (literally, “…before orders shall go upon them…”)

Conjugation

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Descendants

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Further reading

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