'NOTHING' OR 'ANYTHING' TERMS IN IRISH AND SCOTTISH GAELIC
This paper constitutes an analysis of those terms which supply the concepts 'nothing' 'anything' as employed in negative, interrogative or conditional statements in the Gaelic branch of Celtic. The study, based on data published in the Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (1958 69) and supplemented by a small number of additional sources, categorises the results into 2 main classes. One of these consists of inherited terms of diverse origins, such as pronominal and adjectival forms, while the other is based on human activity of various types, including the use of the senses, coinage and other measures, as well as movement and creativity generally. The terms in question may also be qualified by numerous adjectival or adverbial phrases some quite striking in the sense of 'any, at all' The picture which emerges serves to indicate the great range and variety of expression involved. 0.1. The concepts of 'nothing' or 'anything' as employed in negative, interrogative or conditional statements, feature in a number of answers to the 1,180 item questionnaire posed for Irish and Scottish Gaelic dialects in the 1950 60s by the late Professor Heinrich Wagner. These data were published (together with data excerpted from an earlier source for the language of the Isle of Man (Manx) in vols ii iv of his Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (henceforth LASID) The items in question are reproduced at the end of the present article. It is proposed to analyse here the nature of the terms employed by informants at the various LASID points. There are 86 Irish points in the atlas, together with material from 3 supplementary points, indicated by an 'a' following the numeral of the main associated point. Since, however, Wagner employed a reduced version of his questionnaire at a number of points and collected from only 7 points in Gaelic Scotland none of these in the east of the country it is intended to supplement the overall material through the use of a small number of additional sources. (Those headwords taken from LASID are rendered here throughout in bold typeface. In the Gaelic dialects of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man (see Figure 1) the non plural sense of 'nothing' or, in negative, interrogative or conditional or sentences, 'anything' may be rendered by means of one of a large number of lexemes. One method features a noun used with pronominal meaning, 1 For a discussion of these forms, cf. Watson 2002. RRL, LIII, 1 2, p. 205 221 Bucuresti, 2008 Seosamh Watson 2 206 such as Irish ceann 'one' lit. 'head' duine or te 'person' the latter also in Scottish, te, but here with fem. reference. Scottish employs gin, originally 'offspring, creature' with common reference and fear 'man' with masc. reference, as do some N.Irish dialects. These latter also employ bean, lit. 'woman' with fem. reference, cf. O'Rahilly (1972: 230) Dialects of this language also use forms of the first ordinal numeral aon with common reference. Forms of the foregoing pronominal type, unlike the majority of the terms discussed below, can also normally be used in positive sentences (cf. English I have one versus *I have any) and so are excluded from discussion. Also excluded are expressions signifying 'anything else' as distinct from merely 'anything' as well as the range of terms employed in the expression 'not worth a (button, bean) etc, together with various strategies which render the notions in question without the use of a particular substantive lexeme, such as by means of gan/ gun 'without' (except in the expression signifying 'gratis' or the prefixation of deagh'good' as qualifier to the substantive negated by the verb, as exemplified in Wentworth (2003: 521) The items remaining to be discussed here may generally be classified in two groups. One of these refers ultimately to certain of the senses or relates in some way to human activities, while the other, which is more in the nature of a catch all, contains inherited words of diverse origins. Lexemes employed in these various classes may be qualified adjectivally or adverbially with the sense of 'any, at all' and such qualifiers are dealt with under the headword. Phrases used to this end are fairly numerous many of them quite picturesque and no attempt is made here to enumerate them all. What will be seen to emerge overall is the great range and variety of expression used in signifying the concepts in question. 1.0. This second group of terms referred to above will be dealt with first. 1.1.1. ni: this is the commonest term in this category and signifies 'thing, object' The substantive in question originated as the neuter gender equivalent of the indefinite personal pronoun nech 'someone, anyone' cf. Thurneysen 1961: 311. In common with the majority of the words under discussion, it is normally found in combination with a qualifier so as to give the sense of 'any at all' Such qualifiers include the first cardinal numeral aon in the sense of 'any' (which gives rise to orthographic forms such as einni, aoinni, cf. McKenna (1935: 45, 893) and air bith (Scottish sam bith) literally 'in the world' Other well known intensifying expressions, such as (following) go Dia 'unto God' (preceding) dheamhan, diabhal 'devil (the one' in Irish, cf. McKenna (1935: 893) donas 'evil' etc, in Scottish Gaelic, signifying 'not a single one' cf. colloquial English not a damned one! have not been recorded in LASID in connection with the terms under discussion. Within Ireland the form in question, ni, is indicated by LASID as commonest in the southern province, where 61 occurrences are recorded. It appears but rarely in the west (Connacht) and north (Ulster) in each of which 3 'Nothing' or 'anything' terms in Irish and Scottish Gaelic 207 provinces only a single instance is recorded. It does, however, also occur in Scottish Gaelic where LASID notes it as being quite common in the south and southwest. Other sources, however, record its use in northern and eastern areas of Scotland also. 1.1.2. nithinn: in Scotland are also found a number of forms which, though clearly based on ni, have not had their origin satisfactorily explained thus far, except insofar as it can be said that they do not appear to contain a familiar Gaelic diminutive suffix such as an, ein. LASID shows instances of the form in question, namely nithinn [N !ix n] at one Scottish point. To this may be compared instances from other sources, such as /nix !in/ nix n/ ni n from an eastern mainland dialect (O Murchu 1989: 380) A comparable form, namely [N !ixE* which lacks the final nasal, is recorded for south western Scotland in LASID. This, if correct, may point to a plural form as origin. 1.2. a bheag: the second term under discussion in this class consists of the adjective beag 'small, little' Early Irish bec, cf. Welsh bychan, of unknown origin, cf. LEIA B 24) in substantival usage, thus 'a small amount' preceded by 3 sg. m. poss. adj. a, used here with common gender reference, i.e. 'of it/ that /anything) This same sense of beag is recorded in the proverb D'aigne ni aithnim a bheag (lit. 'Your mind I know not its little' 'I don't know your mind at all' and the usage should be compared to expressions such as ni beag sin 'that's enough' ca beag sin? 'isn't that enough? (O Donaill 1977: s.v. beag in which the adjective signifies 'a sufficiency' hence 'some' or, when negatived, 'nothing' The expression in question, a bheag 'any' has been recorded in a number of Scottish dialects and in the Isle of Man, veg, cf. LASID 173) McCone et al. (1994: 720) and is also familiar in north eastern Ireland, cf. Watson (1984: 98) In Connacht and Munster it is often found in the expanded form a bheag na a mhor lit. 'neither a little nor a lot (of it) cf. McKenna (1935: 45) 1.3. cineal: signifying 'kind, type' Early Irish cenel, (cf. Lat. re cens, Gk kainos, LEIA C 64 5, C 103) this term is found qualified by ar bith 'any' and occurs in LASID at one point in Connacht. This latter expression which will be encountered on numerous occasions in the following discussion signifies literally 'on earth [world] and an alternative expression, which involves another word for world, namely domhan, is found in other sources. 2.0. The second major classification of the terms in question consists of a number of categories based on human activities, the majority of these concerning 2 Wentworth (2003: 27) Watson (fieldnotes) O Murchu (1989: 379) Seosamh Watson 4 208 the senses. The first of the categories to be dealt with consists of words which we may say are loosely based on the sense of touch, inasmuch as the terms in question involve spatial existence. 2.1. dada, tada etc: by far the commonest collection of terms used in the entirety of the dialects under consideration comprises those in dad tad forms of which occur in dialects of each of the Irish provinces considered, with comparable ones being general in Scotland. The commonly accepted origin of the forms in question is that they derive from a learned medieval Lat. borrowing, atomus, Middle Irish adom[h] cf. LEIA D 7) to which an unhistorical initial dental has been prefixed. Forms with this initial dare found in LASID materials in the Irish provinces from south to north in the following proportions: Munster 12; Connacht 60; Ulster 34. The Gaelic system of initial mutations has worked analogically on the form in question, giving rise to a separate form in initial t The western province, Connacht, appears to be the focus for this form where LASID records no less than 97 instances, while Munster shows a single case and Ulster, like Scotland, has none at all. Dadforms have evolved final [i] or [u] either as reinforcement of final unstressed a or by analogy with substantival morphology though the [u] may possibly represent original amh while those in tadhave likewise final or [i] The latter forms are r