freknu
Irish does not use "na" to express possesion, "na" (plural of "an") is the definite particle.
Thank god you noticed. Modern Irish indeed does not use "NA" to express possession. But we have all these names and phrases which do use "na" to express possession or relationship. And the modern Irish uses exact equivalent in meaning to express possession, as i pointed to you three times already. They equate possession with having the thing "on you". If we have the equivalent, unambiguously defined construct in the southern Carpathian region, with all the associated words related to possession, and if we find lots of other cultural and linguistic correlations between that part of Europe and Ireland, then we can assume that "na" in Irish originally meant "on" as in belonging, separateness, distinction.
Look at most common uses of the definite article: specific, unique, one, best, distinguishable. When something is specific it is separated, distinguishable in some way from the rest. When something is better than other things it is on top (na). It is also unique, one, distinguishable...When people are proud of something they carry it around. Old chiefs were carried on shoulders. Flags are carried on spears. Children (or their pictures) are carried by parents. Clothes are carried (worn) on people's bodies. In Serbian word to carry is "Nosi" from N + O + S + I = boundary + object + with + continues = carry.
Clothes is nošnja meaning what is carried.
Pride is ponos - what is carried around, on shoulders, in hands, on body.
enthusiasm, fervor is zanos - what carries you with it, which moves you
and so on...
Look at the etymology of the word "one":
From Middle English one, oon, on, oan, an, from Old English ān ("one"; same word as an), from Proto-Germanic *ainaz (“one”), from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“single, one”). Cognate with Scots ae, ane, wan, yin (“one”); North Frisian ån (“one”); Saterland Frisian aan (“one”); West Frisian ien (“one”); Dutch een, één (“one”); German Low German een; German ein, eins (“one”); Swedish en (“one”); Icelandic einn (“one”); Latin unus (“one”) (Old Latin oinos); Russian один (odin).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oneWhy do we have "N" sound in one?
Serbian word "jedan" meaning one comes from je + da + an = is + give + unique
But we also have Serbian word Jen, En meaning one, which comes from (J)E + N = is + boundary, separate, one.
Na in modern Irish "na" has other meanings but they are all related to boundary, exclusiveness, separateness:
n - (nuin ,the ash tree), the eleventh letter of the Modern Irish alphabet.
n - a remnant of case ending projected to the word following, producing what is called eclipsis
of the succeeding inital consonant. It remains n- before vowels, d and g; becomes m before
b, and affects the consonants t, c, p, f, making them sound like d, g, b, f, which latter are
respectively written before them thus dt, gc, bp, bhf. It is found after the numerals seacht,
ocht, naoi, deich; after the pronouns, ar, our; bhar, your; a, their; after prep. i (a); after
relative combined with prep.; after the article when a noun is governed by a prep., though
often aspiration of the initial consonant supplies its place (preps. do and de do not project n);
after preps, ending in a vowel before poss. pr., le n-a láimh, ó n-a cheann; feacht n-aon,
gach nduine, etc., are found in modern MSS.
ná - neg. part., used before imperatives, not, do not; ná buail, do not strike; before vowels h is
inserted, as ná hiarr, do not ask; used imperatively even in 1st sing.: ná cluinim, let me not
hear; used also before some optatives; e.g. ná rabhad, may I not be; dealbh go deo ná
rabhair, may you never be wretchedly poor; ná raibh an fhaid sin de tuigheachán bliadhna
ort; na rabhaid gan teacht, etc., etc. (with other verbs nár is used).
ná - conj., nor, neither; níl ór ná airgead agam, I have neither gold nor silver.
ná (nach), conj., that not, is fíor ná fuil, used indiscriminately with is fíor nach bhfuil, it is true
that there is not, etc. (ná is used generally in M., nach in Leath Chuinn); before pf. tense it
combines with ro, becoming nár (ná + ro), nachar (nach + ro). See nár and nachar.
ná - used as an enumerative and descriptive particle, namely, is iad na fir a bhí ann ná Tomás,
Seaghán, 7c. the men who were there were Thomas, John, etc.
ná - conj., for (Don. and Mayo); prob. the same as nó. See nó (3).
'na - abbrev. for i n-a, in his, in her, in its, in their, in whom, in which, in what.
na, gf. and also pl. of an, def. article, the.
-na - (and -ne), an emphatic particle used after 1st person pl., as ar bhfear-na, our man.
'ná - for ioná, than, used after comparatives; is feárr suidhe i n-'aice 'ná suidhe i n-'ionad, it is
better to sit beside it than sit in its place.
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/Dinneen1.pdfLook at this:
namá, ad., only, alone, except (obs.); old form of amháin.
na + ma = n + m = boundary + me = alone
The meaning of amháin is one, single, separate, what is behind boundary, defined by boundary...So as you can see the new Irish is different from old Irish.
The closest thing to old Irish today is Scots Gaelic or as they call it "Gaeilge na hAlban" meaning the language of (na) the Scots. Here is what McBain has to say about "Na":
n - from, in a nuas, a nìos, Irish, Old Irish an-; See a.
na - not, ne, Irish, Old Irish na: used with the imperative mood solely. It is an ablaut and independent form of the neg. prefix in (see ion-, an-), an ablaut of Indo-European nê, Latin nê, Greek @Gnc-; shorter from Latin ne@u-, Gothic ni, English not (ne-á-wiht), etc.; further Indo-European n@.-, Greek @Ga@'n-, Latin in-, English un-, Gaelic an-. See nach, which is connected herewith as Greek @Gou@'k, @Gou@'; the Welsh is nac, nag, with imperative, Breton na.
na - or, vel, Irish ná, Early Irish, Old Irish nó, Welsh neu: *nev (Stokes, who allies it to Latin nuo, nod, Greek @Gneúw, Sanskrit návate, go remove; but, in 1890, Bez. Beit.@+16 51, he refers it to the root nu, English now). It can hardly be separated from neo, otherwise, q.v. Strachan agrees.
na - than, Irish ná, Middle Irish iná, Early Irish inda, indás, Old Irish ind as, indás, pl. indate (read indáte); from the prep. in and tá, to be (Zeuss@+2, 716-7, who refers to the other prepositional comparative conjunction oldaas, from ol, de). The use of in in Old Irish as the relative locative may also be compared.
na - what, that which, id quod, Middle Irish ina, ana, inna n-, Early Irish ana n-; for an a, Old Irish rel. an (really neuter of art.) and Gaelic rel a, which see. Descent from ni or ni, without any relative, is favoured by Book of Deer, as do ni thíssad, of what would come. Possibly from both sources.
'na , 'na- in his, in her, in (my); the prep. an with the possessive pronouns: 'nam, 'nar, 'nad (also ad, Early Irish at, it), 'nur, 'na, 'nan.
Again all words defining separation, boundaries. And we have the meaning IN which defines possession, something surrounded by boundary, on us, next to us, protected by us....
Look at this:
The Government of Ireland - Rialtas na hÉireann
The state of Irelenad - Stát na hEireann
Poblacht na hEireann - Republic of Ireland
Eireann - Ireland
na hEireann - Of Ireland, Irish
Fianna (singular fian) were small, semi-independent warrior bands in Irish mythology and Scottish mythology.
Fian - soldier
Amh n Na BhFiann - Song of (na) soldier, solder's song
"Tuaisceart na hÉireann" literally translates to "The North of Ireland" ("na" is the definite article "the" and the "h" is required in front of a vowel following the definite article here. In Irish, "the" goes in the middle in genitive structures, not in the front where we might put it in English).
This is etymology of the definite article:
From Middle English, from Old English þē (“the, that”, demonstrative pronoun), a late variant of sē (“that, the”). Originally masculine nominative, in Middle English it superseded all previous Old English forms (sē, sēo, þæt, þā), from Proto-Germanic *sa (“that”), from Proto-Indo-European *só, *to-, *tód (“demonstrative pronoun”). Cognate with West Frisian de, dy (“the, that”), Dutch de, die (“the, that”), Low German de, dat (“the, that”), German der, die, das (“the, that”), Danish den (“the, that”), Swedish den (“the, that”), Icelandic það (“that”).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/theSo definite article, developed from this, that, the one which is separate from the others, the one i am showing you, the one which i own or which i singled out, separated from the others by creating logical or physical boundary.
Na as a definite article is equivalent to An as a definite article. You can see from the previously mentioned word "nama" that there was an inversion from "na" to "an". Let's look at the "an" words to see if that is indeed true. If it is true, you would expect to see the same set or subset of meaning:
an- (aspirates), neg. prefix un-, in-, not-; prefixed to nouns often it signifies bad or evil; cf. use of an in words like anfhlaitheas and anduine, which see.
an - intens. prefix very, when prefixed to adjectives, as tá an lá an-bhog, the day is very soft;
great, when prefixed to substantives, as bhí an-lá againn, we had a great day (pron. ana
very generally).
an - def. art., gsf. na, pl. na (aspirates nom. sing. f. and m. sing. gen., eclipses g. pl.); the,
sometimes also not translated into English, as an bás, death in general; is uaigneach an rud
an bás, death is a lonesome thing; but fuair sé bás, he died; talamh na hÉireann, the land of
Ireland. an is often used in close combination with preps., especially those ending with a
vowel, as do'n or don, i san, 's an or san, i sna or 's na, ó'n or ón, gus an, leis an, do na or
do sna.
an - interr. part., whether? sign of interrogation (eclipses): before past tense becomes ar in reg.
verbs, and aspirates.
án - a., noble; pure, pleasant; elegant.
So again we find negative, definite article, distinguished (separate in some way)
Have a look at this:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/an#IrishWe have singular "an" and plural "na". Definite article is used when we want to point at something that we separated from the rest. "N" is clearly used as a separation sound, boundary.
Look at these Serbian words:
on (he, that man), ona (she, that woman), ono (it, that child), oni (them, these men), one (them, these women), ona (them, these children)
We have sound "n" which separates them, makes them individual. Why then do we have Ja (IA) or As as the word meaning "me" and ti as a word meaning "you"? Because I am the observer, the talker, I am separating the word. And you are with me, we are not separate, we are together.
Why is sound "N" in word man? M + A + N = Me + stand upright + boundary,separate.
From Middle English man, from Old English mann (“human being, person, man”), from Proto-Germanic *mann- (“human being, man”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *man- (“man”) (compare also *men- (“mind”)). Cognate with West Frisian man, Dutch man, German Mann (“man”), Norwegian mann (“man”), Old Swedish maþer (“man”), Swedish man, Russian муж (muž, “male person”), Avestan (manuš), Sanskrit मनु (manu, “human being”).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/manWhy is there sound "N" in woman? For the same reason it is in Man, to specify separateness, boundary of a human being, but this time human being with a womb:
From Middle English wombe, wambe, from Old English womb, wamb (“belly, stomach; bowels; heart; womb; hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *wambō (“belly, stomach, abdomen”), from Proto-Indo-European *wamp- (“membrane (of bowels), intestines, womb”). Cognate with Scots wam, wame (“womb”), Dutch wam (“dewlap of beef; belly of a fish”), German Wamme, Wampe (“paunch, belly”), Danish vom (“belly, paunch, rumen”), Swedish våmb (“belly, stomach, rumen”), Norwegian vomb (“belly”), Icelandic vömb (“belly, abdomen, stomach”), Old Welsh gumbelauc (“womb”), Breton gwamm (“woman, wife”), Sanskrit वपा (vapā́, “the skin or membrane lining the intestines or parts of the viscera, the caul or omentum”).
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wombFrom Middle English woman, wimman, wifman, from Old English wīfmann (“woman, female servant”, literally “female person, female human being”), equivalent to wife + man. Compare Dutch vrouwmens (“wife”, literally “woman-person”). Compare also Dutch vrouwspersoon (“woman”), German Weibsperson (“female person”), and dialectal German Fraumensch ("woman", literally "woman human-being").
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/womanWoman = womb + man
womb = v + o + u + m + b + man = come, move (in or out) + seed + in + man + baby
Woman = man which has this thing from in out of which man babies come...
But in Serbian we also have these words:
Na - take this, take it in your hand, put it on yourself
Nati - Na + Ti = take + you
Naći, Najti - to find. from NaJeti = Na + Je + Ti = take + is + you = It is yours now
Nas - us
Nam - to us
Naš - ours
Njih - them (look at them)
Njima - them (give them)
Njihov - theirs. The old archaic version is Njin = Ne je Naš = Is not ours
You can clearly see the how "N" carries the meaning of boundary, separation, distinction.
There are lots more examples that support this claim and i will present them in next couple of days.
