GLOSSARY.

a. I. possessive pronoun, his, her, (its), their.
A. Regarding the changes produced by the pronoun on the initial letter following it, it is to be observed that: 1°, a, ‘his,’ aspirates a tenuis original: "tenuis"; a voiceless consonant like p, t, or c, s or f; 2°, a, ‘her,’ prefixes h to a vowel; and 3°, a, ‘their,’ prefixes n to a vowel, and an assimilated nasal to a media original: "media"; a voiced consonant like b, d, or g [m(b), ṅ(d), n(g)]; it sometimes affects f [192. 386. 993], and doubles l [1036. 4628. 29. 4670. 5103, 36. 6658], rarely r [393. 7003]. [There are, however, many cases of merely inadvertent omission of the mark of aspiration; for example after a, ‘his,’ f 70. 80. 418. 494. 576. 2628; s 122; c 85. 87. 943. 1023. 1323. 1680. 2275. 2301. 2440. 2648. 3115. 3309; p 302. 977. 1386. 1595; t 2283, 85, 92, 93. 3118]. Sometimes, in the case of a ‘their,’ it is thinned off into i before the nasal: compare 6685 i ṅdochum towards them. Occasionally the pronoun is omitted after prepositions ending in a vowel: compare 2896 ó ’mullach from his summit; 6637 o ’meor (but 6834 o n-a meor from his finger); 2801 o ’chind co a chois from his head to his foot; 4902 o’athair from his father; 7716 le ’cheli with his companion/each other; 2659. 7776 re’cheli with each other. — The pronoun is frequently met in compound prepositions or adverbial phrases: compare i n-a agaid against him, (as) a aithle after it, im-a-cuairt around it, a dochumm towards him, dí-a deoin of his own will, im-a-sech in turn, i n-a thimcell around him; see under the last element in each case.

B. Besides its familiar use as a possessive pronoun, the following peculiarities may be noticed:—1°. It is used pleonastically redundantly, where the pronoun and the noun it refers to both appear; 134 im a chend in crochda around the head of the crucified one; 857 for a gualaind na mná on the shoulder of the woman; 1037 a n-anmunda in morfesir út the names of those seven men; 1945. 2177. 6299 a ainm in hídail the name of the idol; 5116 a remess in tíí Iúdais the time of that Judas; 6928 a fhot in inntig-sin the length of that house; 6964 a cenel na ṅdruad the race of the druids;—2°. Idiomatically in expressions of quantity, number, resemblance, etc.: for example, a oenur, ‘alone,’ ‘he (she) only,’ 871. 875. 1599. 1746. 3356 léic he a oenur, ‘leave him alone’; 4725 co mbá dó a aenur fhogna, ‘him only shalt thou serve’; 5753. 6645. 7087;—a hoenur 66. 4881 in fhírinde a hoenur, ‘Truth itself’ original Latin: "ipsa Veritas";—a ṅdís, ‘the two of them,’ 862. 4968;—a triúr, ‘the three of them,’ ‘all three,’ 2004;—a bec, ‘a little of it,’ with a negative ‘any whit of it,’ 124 na facbam-ne a bec do neoch do-ronsat, ‘we will not omit any of what they did’; 256 ni dernsat a bec dib they did not do any of them; 266 tucad a bec do’n fhuil a little of the blood was given; 2622 ni ro-pheccaig a becc, ‘he sinned not at all’; 2908 ni mirbuile itir a bec, ‘it is no miracle at all, not a bit!’—[? a chách, ‘at all,’ 1970, 71];—119 denum-ne a choibes 7 a macsamla let us make its equal and its like;—497 tuc a leth dam-sa give half of it to me;—3091 tria tharmcruthugud a letheti, ‘through the transformation of its like’;—61 a lor adartha, ‘their fill of adoration’; 410 cen a lor bíd without his fill of food;—a met, ‘to such an extent,’ 83. 1121. 1590. 1906. 6192. 6589. 8342;—a shamail, ‘its equal,’ 7328.