cía

See also: Appendix:Variations of "cia"

Middle Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish cía, from Proto-Celtic *kʷēs (compare Welsh pwy), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis.

Pronoun

cía

1. (interrogative) who?
   • c. 1000, “The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig”, in Ernst Windisch, editor, Irische Texte, volume 1, published 1800, section 3:

     Tabair dóibsium dib línaib, cumma cía thóetsat imbi.

     Give it to them both, it doesn’t matter who will fall because of it.

Descendants

• Irish: cé
• Scottish Gaelic: cò
• Manx: quoi

Mutation

Middle Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cía	chía	cía pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cía”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• ce, ci, cia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʲiːa̯/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *kʷēs (compare Welsh pwy), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis.

Pronoun

cía (triggers aspiration, neuter (triggers lenition) cid, plural citné or cisné)

1. (stressed interrogative pronoun) who? what?
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 35^a17

     Air cía dunaibhí do·foirmsed?

     For to whom would he add?

     (literally, “For who are the ones to whom he would add?”)

Usage notes

The stressed interrogative pronoun cía and its neuter and plural counterparts take:

• either a relative clause describing an action involving the noun to be identified

  cia dia·fiachaigedar (Ml. 44^b3)

  who (is it) to whom it is endebted?

• or a substantive indicating whose identity is to be found; in this case also the pronoun is understood to contain the copula in it and no overt copula appears

  cia dune ind inni-sseo (Ml. 35^c33)

  who is the man of this sort?

Descendants

• Irish: cé
• Scottish Gaelic: cò
• Manx: quoi

Pronoun

cía or ce or ci (triggers aspiration)

1. (unstressed interrogative pronoun) who? what?
   • c. 700, Críth Gablach, published in Críth Gablach (1941, Dublin: Stationery Office), edited by Daniel Anthony Binchy, p. 21, paragraph 40, line 536

     Cía cethrar? Rí ⁊ brithem ⁊ dias i manchuini.

     Who are the four people (plural)? A king, judge, and two others in service.

   • c. 775, “Táin Bó Fraích”, in Book of Leinster; republished as Ernst Windisch, editor, Táin bó Fraích, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1974, line 299:

     As·biurt-sa frie: "Cía lóg rom·bia latt ara fagbáil?" As·bert-si frim-sa dom·bérad seirc mblíadnae dam-sa.

     I said to her, "what (is the) reward (neuter) I will have for finding it?" She said to me that she would give me [her] love in one year.

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 89^b7

     cía·bed flaith

     who would be ruler?

2. (indefinite) whoever, whatever (followed by the subjunctive in the present tense)

   cía·tíasam ― whereever we go (literally, “whatever we go to”)

Usage notes

The unstressed interrogative pronoun is invariable for gender and number. It is a conjunct particle and so is followed by the dependent form of the verb.

cía·acca ― who did you see?

It is used to in fixed phrases to express an interrogative adverb:

cía airm f ― what is the place? where?

cía indas n ― what is the way? how?

cía méit f ― what is the amount? how much?

cía ered n ― what is the length? how long?

Determiner

cía (triggers aspiration, feminine (triggers lenition) cesí or cessi or cisí, neuter (triggers lenition) ced or cid, plural citné or cisné)

1. which, what (agreeing with following noun in gender and number)
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 120^c7

     cid torbae ara·torsata

     for what use (neuter) have they been created?

   • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 26^a6

     ɔ eperthae cía aiccent ⁊ cisí aimser derb thechtas

     so that it might be said what accent (masculine) and what certain time (feminine) it has

Adverb

cía

1. wherever
2. however

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 cía”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2003) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 456–57, pages 286–87
• Stifter, David (2006) Sengoídelc, New York: Syracuse University Press, →ISBN, page 190

Etymology 2

Uncertain; possibly from the pronoun (Etymology 1).

Conjunction

cía (triggers lenition)

1. although
2. if, even if
3. that (introducing a noun clause)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:cía.

Derived terms

• ceni
• cenid
• cepu
• cesu
• cetu
• cíabo
• cíaptar
• cid
• cinip
• cit
• citis

 

Descendants

• Middle Irish: cía

• Irish: cé go
• Scottish Gaelic: ged
• Manx: ga dy

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “2 cía”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2003) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 909–10, pages 561–63

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cía	chía	cía pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /ˈθia/ [ˈθi.a]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /ˈsia/ [ˈsi.a]
• Rhymes: -ia
• Syllabification: cí‧a

Verb

cía

1. inflection of ciar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative