Why is Taoiseach spelt Taoisigh in Irish, when I thought Taoiseach is an Irish word in first place?

Question

Any fluent speakers out there who can help me. I barely scraped a pass in lower Irish, but does anyone have any ideas. thanks

http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/

Answer 1

I am glad you asked that,I had no idea, but jk has put us all to shame with her excellent answer.

Answer 2

Taoiseach is just the singular noun. It means chief.

Taoisigh is the genitive singular. It denotes possession.

For example you wanted to say "Department of the Chief"

Department = Roinn

the = an

Chief = Taoiseach however if you write,

Roinn an Taoiseach

That reads as "Department the Chief"

To make the word Taoiseach possesive so we know from the sentence whose deparment it is you change the noun to the genitive. Forming the genitive can get complicated because not all nouns change. Taoiseach is an example of one that does.

so "Department of the Chief" = Roinn an Taoisigh

It is also the nomintive plural (although in Roinn an Taoisigh its the genetive and not the plural).

If you ever want to find out what the genetive of a word is then you can go to http://focal.ie/Home.aspx and if you put in Taoiseach you'll see it says gu: taoisigh.

gu means ginideach uatha (genitive singular)

Or say for example man = fear and the gu: fir

so,

an fear = the man

an fhir = of the man

you moght wonder since the plural and genitive are the same how can you tell them apart.

You can because the plural uses na.

So fir is the genitive and the plural but

an fhir = of the man

na fir = the men/ of the men.

Same goes for Taoisigh,

an Taoisigh - of the Chief (the genitive)

na Taoisigh - the chiefs

Answer 3

I think you have answered the question.................It's irish...lololololololol

Answer 4

Braitheann sé ar an gramadach.

Answer 5

Taoiseach is 'a prime minister', just one of them. Taoisigh is the plural, like a flock of taoisigh or something.

Of indeed you can ask the eternal question: how many taoisigh does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer 6

It depends on what context your using it in, what tense and what case, Irish is just soooooooooooo confusing