cía

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Middle Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish cía, from Proto-Celtic *kʷei (compare Welsh pwy), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis.

Pronoun

cía

  1. (interrogative) who?
    • c. 1000, “The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig”, in Ernst Windisch, editor, Irische Texte, volume 1, published 1800, section 3:
      Tabair dóibsium dib línaib, cumma cía thóetsat imbi.
      Give it to them both, it doesn’t matter who will fall because of it.

Descendants

  • Irish:
  • Scottish Gaelic:
  • Manx: quoi

Mutation

Mutation of cía
radical lenition nasalization
cía chía cía
pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Middle Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

Old Irish

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *kʷei (compare Welsh pwy), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis.

Pronoun

cía (triggers h-prothesis, neuter (triggers lenition) cid, plural citné or cisné)

  1. (stressed interrogative pronoun) who? what?
    • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 35a17
      Air cía dunaibhí do·foirmsed?
      For to whom would he add?
      (literally, “For who are the ones to whom he would add?”)
Usage notes

The stressed interrogative pronoun cía and its neuter and plural counterparts take:

  • either a relative clause describing an action involving the noun to be identified
    cia dia·fiachaigedar (Ml. 44b3)
    who (is it) to whom it is endebted?
  • or a substantive indicating whose identity is to be found; in this case also the pronoun is understood to contain the copula in it and no overt copula appears
    cia dune ind inni-sseo (Ml. 35c33)
    who is the man of this sort?
Descendants

Pronoun

cía or ce or ci (h-prothesis)

  1. (unstressed interrogative pronoun) who? what?
    • c. 700, Críth Gablach, published in Críth Gablach (1941, Dublin: Stationery Office), edited by Daniel Anthony Binchy, p. 21, paragraph 40, line 536
      Cía cethrar? Rí ⁊ brithem ⁊ dias i manchuini.
      Who are the four people (plural)? A king, judge, and two others in service.
    • c. 775, “Táin Bó Fraích”, in Book of Leinster; republished as Ernst Windisch, editor, Táin bó Fraích, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1974, line 299:
      As·biurt-sa frie: "Cía lóg rom·bia latt ara fagbáil?" As·bert-si frim-sa dom·bérad seirc mblíadnae dam-sa.
      I said to her, "what (is the) reward (neuter) I will have for finding it?" She said to me that she would give me love in one year.
    • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 89b7
      cía·bed flaith
      who would be ruler?
  2. (indefinite) whoever, whatever (followed by the subjunctive in the present tense)
    cía·tíasamwhereever we go (literally, “whatever we go to”)
Usage notes

The unstressed interrogative pronoun is invariable for gender and number. It is a conjunct particle and so is followed by the dependent form of the verb.

cía·accawho did you see?

It is used to in fixed phrases to express an interrogative adverb:

cía airm fwhat is the place? where?
cía indas nwhat is the way? how?
cía méit fwhat is the amount? how much?
cía ered nwhat is the length? how long?

Determiner

cía (triggers h-prothesis, feminine (triggers lenition) cesí or cessi or cisí, neuter (triggers lenition) ced or cid, plural citné or cisné)

  1. which, what (agreeing with following noun in gender and number)
Quotations
  • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 120c7
    cid torbae ara·torsata ⁊ cía gním du·gníat inna dúli
    what use the elements have been created for and what work they do
  • c. 845, St Gall Glosses on Priscian, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1975, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. II, pp. 49–224, Sg. 26a6
    ɔ eperthae cía aiccent ⁊ cisí aimser derb thechtas
    so that it might be said what accent and what certain time it has

Adverb

cía

  1. wherever
  2. however

Further reading

Etymology 2

Uncertain; possibly from the pronoun (Etymology 1).

Conjunction

cía (triggers lenition)

  1. although
  2. if, even if
  3. that (introducing a noun clause)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:cía.

Derived terms
Descendants

Further reading

Mutation

Mutation of cía
radical lenition nasalization
cía chía cía
pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (Spain) /ˈθia/
  • IPA(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˈsia/
  • Rhymes: -ia
  • Syllabification: cí‧a

Verb

cía

  1. inflection of ciar:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative