Due to lenition...
an/nach/go + fuil mé =becomes= an/nach/go + bhfuil mé

My question regards the word "fuil," in its use as a form of the verb "to be."

Thus far in my basic studies, I have not once run across a form of the verb "to be" referenced as "fuil" (aside from the contraction of "níl," which doesn't count because it's become a word in its own right.)

Is the form "fuil" ever used, outright? If so, can you provide an example?

I may be getting ahead of myself, but I'm curious. Thanks.

(Message edited by Domhnall_Ó_h_aireachtaigh on July 17, 2007)

an bhfuil, nach bhfuil, go bhfuil are examples of Eclipsis not lenition.

Yes, you can see fuil after ná: ná fuil Cáit anso?

Not sure which dialect do it, but some of them use "ná" instead of "nach" for indirect speech. In such cases, you'll hear "ná fuil":

Deir sé ná fuil sé sásta.

That's the only time I've ever heard "fuil" when someone was talking about blood.

FnM: ná is Munster...and according to Rahilly's famous book on Irish dialects it is the correct historica form, unlike nach.

Would there be an etemological link between 'blood' and 'intent' or 'existance' such that "fuil" was involved in both?

According to MacBain's dictionary, both fuils come from the same source - the Proto-Indo-European root wel/wol-. But this seems rather unprobable to me.
Daithí

Sorry! Eclipsis, not lenition... what a mistake to make. Many thanks!

Fuil - comes from verb with the meaning "to see", and is related to word "file" which meant "clairvoyant" (spelling?) initially. Go bhfios dom "blood" is unrelated.

I think so too.
There used to be an ergative construction in Old Irish when fuil was combined with a pronoun. Somethin like:
Ní-m fuil and - I'm not here.
Literally it means 'X doesn't see me' (thus I'm not here).

Semantically 'I' is the subject of the sentence (I'm not here) but syntactically it's the object. In other words, the subject of 'fuil' (an intransitive verb) is expressed in the same way as the object of a transitive verb.

However, this probably sounded weird and soon disappeared in favour of the 'normal' construction: ní fhuilim/nílim.

Daithí

"Sorry! Eclipsis, not lenition... what a mistake to make. Many thanks!"

With f in bhfuil native English speakers seem to confuse it with lenition -it might be how they are interpreting the written configuration of consonants

quote:

and soon disappeared in favour of the 'normal' construction: ní fhuilim/nílim.

No so fast. Well into Classic Irish there was still accusative used after níl:

Níl mnaoi ann. Woman is not there.

Accusative ceased to be used with níl only when.. accusative itself disappered.

(Message edited by róman on July 17, 2007)

Fuil - comes from verb with the meaning "to see",

Yes, it is related to Welsh gwel(e)d, Breton gwelet and Cornish gweles, which all mean "to see".
Very often, Old Celtic w- becomes f- in Goidelic and gw- in Brythonic.

quote:

Cornish gweles

Great you mentioned it. It is a long time I wanted to ask somebody's professional opinion about the Cornish. Which variety (in your opinion) is the most legitimate? UCR, KK or Nowega? I am lost already...

I'm not a specialist of Cornish. I know quite well the grammar of that language because it's closely related to Breton. The grammar of these two languages is almost the same. I think you can support all the 'dialects' of Cornish with good arguments. Actually, when I want to write something in Cornish, I use Unified Cornish or UCR because most of my Cornish books use these spellings, and not because of a personal choice. I find Nowedga quite hard to read, but it is interesting since it represents the latest form of spoken Cornish.

Anyway I don't work much on Cornish, I prefer to keep my Irish as fluent as I can, to improve it, and to try to save the most part of native Breton I can (by recording old native speakers and studying their language), before it dies.

Cornish is a joke -look at the sounds of it in IPA -all Cornish English except [x] -*of course* every Celtic language must have that one.

Anyway, I'm a bit pissed off, so better stop there

Ok, UCR that is.

Cornish is a joke -

Dude, have some pity. Cornish was basically exterminated completely and what exists today is an attempt at resurrecting it. No surprise it's something of a revenant.