... is the correct irish for "my friends" if you are addressing us.

"mo chairde" means "my friends" - but only if you are talking about them:

Chuaigh me ag ól le mo chairde.

This seems to trip people up slightly...since english abandoned the vocative (or perhaps never had it?)

A Aonghus, a chara,

Go raibh maith agat. Anois tá a fhios agam. A chairde when addressing; mo chairde when talking about. Tuigim, sílim.

Mícheál

A Aonghuis, a chara,

Sin í ceist mhaith. When did English abandon the vocative case? I did a quick Google on 'vocative' and found out that a vocative case is believed to have been part of a Proto-Indo-European language. It seems that Gothic, a primative German language had a vocative case,

However, I could not find anything on English and the vocative case, other than that Old English used to borrow from the Latin vocative. Apparently you would address the local Saxon lord as "Domine," i.e., the Latin vocative, instead of the nominative "Dominus."

Jevoah's Witnesses do not believe in the trinity because the Greek version of John's Gospel does not have Thomas use the vocative case when he says "My lord and my God" in the presence of Jesus. Some interpret this as meaning he was, therefore, not addressing Jesus, but talking about God in heaven. Who would have thunk a theological debate could ensue from the vocative case.

Now I am really curious. Are there any philologists out there who know? ... Jonas? Lughaidh? Dennis?

(Message edited by lúcas on March 14, 2005)

Grammar (and spelling) have caused numerous theological and other disputes: the presence or absence of a single letter "iota" being one.

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/nicene.htm

(Message edited by aonghus on March 14, 2005)