Bilingual transcription: Emphasis

Bilingual transcription: Cuideam

Watch this clip where Joy explains emphasis using –SA .

To emphasise a personal pronoun in Gaelic, like mi, thu, e, i, we use special emphatic forms: mise, thusa, esan, ise.

And in the plural: sinne, sibhse and iadsan.

We can use the same emphatic endings with prepositional pronouns, with the small difference that the first person pronoun takes the ending -sa rather than the -se of mise: agamsa, leamsa, dhomhsa.

And all the rest follow exactly the same pattern as the personal pronouns. So thusa and agadsa; esan,airsan; ise and leathase; sinne, bhuainne; sibhse anddhuibhse; iadsan, riuthasan.

The same endings can also be used with possessive nouns, for example: ‘my opinion’ is mo bheachd, but my opinion is mo bheachd-sa.

And we hear exactly the same endings with compound prepositions: ‘about you’ is mu do dheidhinn, but ‘about you’ mu do dheidhinn-sa.

Beside them is ri an taobh, but ‘beside them’: ri an taobh-san.

DÈ DO BHEACHD? | WHAT DO YOU THINK?