Let's talk about relative clauses

(inspired by Ciara Ní É)

We are all very much interested, yes, enthusiastic about Irish relative clauses, so I reckon it's time to tell more about them. Let's begin.

The two kinds of relative clauses in Irish are the DIRECT RELATIVE CLAUSE and the INDIRECT RELATIVE CLAUSE.

Moreover, there is a third kind of relative clause not often mentioned in grammars. I will call it the "ALL-THAT" RELATIVE CLAUSE in this blog entry.

What is the DIRECT RELATIVE CLAUSE, CLÁSAL COIBHNEASTA DÍREACH?

The direct relative clause is used when the thing the relative clause is relative to is the subject or the object of the main clause. Like this:

Is é Seán an fear a ghlanann an t-urlár uair amháin in aghaidh na seachtaine "Seán is the man who cleans the floor once in a week"

Seo an t-úrlár a ghlanann Seán uair amháin in aghaidh na seachtaine "This is the floor Seán cleans once in a week"

Ba é Seán a ghlan an t-urlár inné. "It was Seán who cleaned the floor yesterday."

Ba é an t-urlár a ghlan Seán inné. "It was the floor that Seán cleaned yesterday."

Is é Seán an fear a ghlanfaidh an t-urlár amárach. "Seán is the man who will clean the floor tomorrow."

Is é an t-urlár a ghlanfaidh Seán amárach. "It is the floor that Seán will clean tomorrow."

Ba í Áine a ghlanadh an t-urlár deich mbliana ó shin. "It was Áine who used to clean the floor ten years ago."

Ba é an t-urlár a ghlanadh Áine deich mbliana ó shin. "It was the floor that Áine used to clean ten years ago."

Ba é an t-urlár a ghlanfadh Seán, dá mbeadh gléasra glantacháin aige. "It is the floor Seán would clean, if he had some cleaning equipment."

Especially in Ulster and Connacht, the verb has in direct relative clauses a special relative form in the present tense and in the future tense. This form ends in a broad -s. Thus, alternative forms:

Is é Seán an fear a ghlanas (a ghlananns) an t-urlár uair amháin in aghaidh na seachtaine.

Seo an t-urlár a ghlanas (a ghlananns) Seán uair amháin in aghaidh na seachtaine.

Is é Seán an fear a ghlanfas an t-urlár amárach.

Seo an t-urlár a ghlanfas Seán amárach.

Myself, I prefer to use the -s form, because it is a handy way to keep the two relative clause types distinct.

Please note that in the direct relative clause, we use a direct relative particle, which is always a, and always lenites - with the well-known exceptions: tá has the direct relative form atá: an fear atá ag obair ansin - and the forms of the verb abair are not lenited either in the standard language: an fear a deir, a dúirt, a déarfas, a déarfadh, a deireadh a leithéid sin de rud. Note also such forms as a bí, a bíos, which are sometimes used in Ulster Irish instead of the more mainstream a bhío(nn)s, a bhíonn "who/which usually is".

In the standard language, this a does not lenite the following d' before a vowel or an initial fh-, though in dialects it is otherwise. An fear a d'éirigh is correct in the standard language, but if my memory serves, an fear do dh'éirigh would be fine in Kerry Irish. I am not an expert on Kerry Irish though, and I will be happy to yield that field to someone more knowledgeable.

Note that the thing the direct relative clause refers to is never written out in the direct relative clause itself. 

Here are examples of direct relative clauses with verbal nouns:

Seo an seomra a bhíos Máirtín a ghlanadh go tráthrialta. This is the room that Martin is regularly cleaning. (Note: the á in á ghlanadh is a combination of a = his, its, and a = do = the particle that is put before the verbal noun when it has a preceding object. But here the object is not written out, so the a = his is dropped, and we have only the particle a.)

Seo an seomra a bhíos á ghlanadh ag Máirtín go tráthrialta. This is the room that is regularly cleaned by Martin. (Now we have a passive clause, i.e. the formal subject an seomra is what the act of cleaning is directed towards. And here, the a = its is written out, because an seomra is the subject, and the á ghlanadh part is only additional material about the subject. "Writing out" the thing the direct relative clause refers to would here mean inserting a sé to refer to the formal subject.) 

When the relative clause refers to a unit of time, it is my opinion (albeit not shared by all) that the relative clause should be a direct one: an bhliain a bhí sé ansin, an lá a bhí muid ansin, rather than an bhliain a raibh sé ansin, an lá a raibh sé ansin. This is because the conjunction nuair is historically speaking an uair, and it is always followed by a direct relative, nuair a bhí Seán in Éirinn. Compare bhí sé ansin an bhliain sin, bhí muid ansin an lá sin, where the units of time are treated as "extra objects", not preceded by a preposition. (Of course, units of time can also be normal objects of transitive verbs, such as caith!/caitheamh, and then they'll be treated as such: an bhliain a chaith sé in Éirinn, an lá a chaith muid i nDún Laoghaire.)

After áit, an áit, indirect relative clauses should always be used, although there usually is no word in the relative clause that refers to the word áit. Thus, (an) áit a raibh muid. To write, say, ?an áit a bhí muid is wrong, or at the very least it is vulgarly colloquial, although I understand why people use that sort of constructions. 

The reason for this is probably that the underlying construction is *an áit ina raibh muid or *an áit a raibh muid inti. To use the preposition would in today's Irish probably feel too pedantic, but it does explain the fact that the indirect relative clause is here correct.

Of course, when áit is in the position of subject or object, it can be followed by a direct relative clause, just like a regular noun:

an áit a chonaic muid inné "the place we saw yesterday"

an áit a chuir draíocht orainn go léir "the place that fascinated us all"

INDIRECT RELATIVE CLAUSE - CLÁSAL COIBHNEASTA INDÍREACH

Then the indirect relative clause, clásal coibhneasta indíreach.

In this kind of clause we use the dependent form of the verb, i.e. the one that is used after the go, nach, ní and similar verbal particles. Thus, a bhfuil, a raibh, a bhfaca and so on. Here are some examples:

an fear a bhfuil mé ag trácht air "the man I am mentioning, talking about"

an fear a raibh mé ag trácht air "the man I was talking about"

an fear a mbím ag trácht air "the man I am usually talking about"

an fear a dtráchtaim air "the man I usually talk about"

an fear a dtráchtainn air "the man I used to talk about"

an fear a dtráchtfainn air "the man I would talk about"

an fear ar thrácht mé air "the man I talked about"

So, basically in this kind of relative clauses you use an a particle which eclipses, with the exception of the past tense, where you use ar. (Of course, in Kerry, where the -r particles have disappeared, you will probably say an fear go dtráchtas air...or actually, more probably, an fear go dtráchtas thairis, because in Kerry, trácht "to mention, to refer to, to talk about" takes the preposition thar. Note that in Kerry, the eclipsing a of the indirect relative clause is perceived to be the same as the eclipsing go of the general subordinate clause.)

The thing that the relative clause refers to is written out explicitly in the indirect relative clause. Typically, it is seen as a form of the preposition:

an fear ar thrácht mé air "the man I talked about"

an tír ar thug muid cuairt uirthi "the country we visited"

an stócach a raibh muid ag caint leis "the lad we were talking to"

an seomra a mbíonn Máirtín á ghlanadh go tráthrialta "the room that Martin is regularly cleaning" (note though that the passive construction an seomra a bhíos á ghlanadh ag Máirtín go tráthrialta is probably more natural - in this construction, the room that is being cleaned is the formal subject of the clause, and thus the clause is a direct relative clause.).

Note that in traditional Irish it is possible to put the preposition before the indirect relative clause:

an fear ar ar thrácht mé

an tír ar ar thug muid cuairt

an stócach lena raibh muid ag caint

This is quite common even in relatively recent literature in Irish, but it seems that it is not part of the spoken language anymore. In fact, you do see such constructions as ?an fear ar a thrácht mé, ?an tír ar a thug muid cuairt, ?an stócach lena bhí muid ag caint, and it is my impression that these constructions are not related to any colloquial simplification of the original form, but that they are an English-based innovation: the old construction has been thoroughly forgotten, and the new one has arisen independently under English influence. My recommendation is not the use the new construction in written Irish, but when using the old one, you should remember that it is not necessarily even known to those native speakers who haven't read their literature.

Now we come to an aspect of the indirect relative clause that many people don't know. I noted that direct relative clauses are used when the word that the clause refers to is the object or the subject of the relative clause: an fear a bhí ann "the man who was there", an fear a chonaic mé "the man I saw" or "the man who saw me". In the example an fear a bhí ann it is obvious that an fear is the subject of the relative clause. However, how do we avoid the ambiguity in such examples as an fear a chonaic mé? Well, IT IS ALLOWED TO USE INDIRECT RELATIVE CLAUSE FOR CLARITY in such situations. So, YOU WRITE OUT THE PRONOUN THAT REFERS TO THE SUBJECT OR OBJECT - AND USE THE INDIRECT CONSTRUCTION. 

Thus, we CAN SAY

an fear a bhfaca mé é "the man whom I saw"

and we CAN SAY

an fear a bhfaca sé mé "the man who saw me".

an seomra a mbíonn Máirtín á ghlanadh go tráthrialta "the room that Martin is regularly cleaning" (you write here á, because you write out the object of the verbal noun)

an seomra a mbíonn sé [i.e. an seomra] á ghlanadh ag Máirtín go tráthrialta "the room that is regularly cleaned by Martin" (you write out the subject as sé - these two examples are formally correct, but they are examples of the kind of grammatical stuntmanship that does not feel entirely natural)

This is not very common, but as far as I can remember, it is mentioned in the lán-Ghaeilge version of the Christian Brothers' Grammar (the syntax of which is based on that used by such commonly revered modern classics as Séamus Ó Grianna), and having sifted through literally thousands of pages of folklore and prose written by native speakers, I can assure you this is a thing. You should use it wherever you need it.

Then, how do we negate the relative clauses? Very simply. The indirect and the direct relative clause both use the nach/nár particle.

an fear nach bhfaca mé "the man whom I didn't see/who didn't see me"

an fear nár thrácht mé air "the man whom I didn't mention"

an fear nach bhfaca mé é "the man whom I didn't see" (unambiguously)

an fear nach bhfaca sé mé "the man who didn't see me" (unambiguously)

an seomra nach mbíonn Máirtín a ghlanadh go tráthrialta

an seomra nach mbíonn á ghlanadh ag Máirtín go tráthrialta

...like that. I am not at all sure whether it would be correct to say or to write "an fear ar nár thrácht mé" for an fear nár thrácht mé air. It is certainly not typical of the kind of Irish I prefer to imitate myself (i.e. modern literature written by native speakers, as well as native folklore), but I might have seen it in some older text. Somehow it strikes me as something you could see in classical Irish, or in postclassical but not-yet-modern texts ("modern" in the sense of beginning with an tAthair Peadar Ua Laoghaire).

THE "ALL THAT" RELATIVE CLAUSE

Then the "all that" relative clause. It uses the a particle of indirect relative sentence (i.e. the one that eclipses and is followed by the dependent form of the verb) -  or in the regular past tense, the leniting ar particle. (Those who want to imitate Munster colloquial Irish, where the -r particles have been disappearing, obviously use the eclipsing a particle even in the regular past tense.) However, in these clauses the particle usually is in subject position. Thus:

Labhair mé lena raibh i láthair ag an ócáid. "I spoke to all who were present at the occasion."

Note that le combines with this a into lena. Similarly, it combines with de, do into dá.

Labhair me le duine dá raibh i láthair ag an ócáid. "I spoke to one person of all those who were present at the occasion."

The "all that" a can be preceded by gach "every", "all", and after that you can use dá (= de + a), the underlying idea being "everyone of them all". Labhair mé le gach a raibh i láthair ag an ócáid, or even Labhair mé le gach dá raibh i láthair ag an ócáid.

The "all that" a can also be the object of the relative clause: Niall Ó Dónaill's dictionary gives us the example Íocfaidh mé as a gceannóidh tú "I will pay for everything you will buy".