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"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
2012, Robert Moore, Where the Gold is Buried, a legend of Old Fort Niagara, →ISBN, page 137:
"It's not two weeks yet," I reminded her, hoping that might somehow cheer her. […] "Tomorrow is two weeks," Ruth said in a distant voice, staring into the flames.
(now colloquial)Used in phrases with existential there (also here and where) when the semantic subject is plural.
“is” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
Aznapra esőt mondtak, és el is kezdett esni. ― Rain had been predicted for that day and, sure enough, it was beginning to rain. (literally, “They had said rain for…”)
Usage notes
When it is used with a concessive adverb (“no matter what/who/when/how”, “however ”, “long as it was”, “even if…” etc.), it is traditionally placed after the verb, though it is common in colloquial style to use it after the adverb instead:
(traditionally, chiefly in literary style) Bármilyen hosszúra nyúlt is az előadás,… (more recently) Bármilyen hosszúra is nyúlt az előadás,…
No matter how long the lecture/performance stretched,…
It applies to verb-final set phrases as well, similarly to érzi magát in this clause: még ha ettől rosszul érezzük is magunkat / …rosszul is érezzük magunkat(“even if it makes us feel bad”).
is in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 1:
wil nə fatī xō mŭȧ, s dūŕc šē?
[An bhfuil na fataí chomh maith is dúirt sé?]
Are the potatoes as good as he said?
1899, Franz Nikolaus Finck, Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect], volume II (overall work in German), Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 1:
ə ʒēĺǵə, l̄aurīr ə gūǵə mūn, ńī h-ønn̥̄ ī s ə ʒēlgə š agń̥ə
[An Ghaeilge a labhraíthear i gCúige Mumhan, ní hionann í is an Ghaeilge seo againne.]
The Irish used in Munster isn’t the same as our Irish.
Is múinteoir é Dónall. ― Dónall is a teacher.(definition: predicate is indefinite)
Is é Dónall an múinteoir. ― Dónall is the teacher.(identification: predicate is definite)
Is féidir liom snámh. ― I can swim.(idiomatic noun predicate)
Is maith liom tae. ― I like tea.(idiomatic adjective predicate)
Is mise a chonaic é. ― I'm the one who saw him.(compare Hiberno-English "'Tis I who saw him"; cleft sentence)
Is é Dónall atá ina mhúinteoir. ― It's Dónall who is a teacher.(cleft sentence)
Used to introduce the comparative/superlative form of adjectives
an buachaill is mó ― the bigger boy; the biggest boy
Is mó an buachaill ná Séamas.
The boy is bigger than James.
Is é Séamas an buachaill is mó in Éirinn!
James is the biggest boy in Ireland! (lit. "It is James (who is) the boy (who) is biggest in Ireland")
Usage notes
Used in the present and future for identification or definition of a subject as the person/object identified in the predicate of the sentence. Sometimes used with noun or adjective predicates, especially in certain fixed idiomatic phrases. Used to introduce cleft sentences, which are extremely common in Irish. It is not a verb.
The copula does not exist in the imperative and does not have a nominal form analogous to the verbal noun. The phrase bíido (literally “be in your”) is used as the imperative instead (e.g. Bí i d’fhear! – “Be a man!” (lit. “Be in your man!”)), and equivalent non-copular nominal constructions must be used in place of their hypothetical copular equivalents: bheithábalta (“to be able”, in place of the non-existent nominal form of is féidir), bheithagiarraidh (“to want”, in place of the non-existent nominal form of is mian), bheithina (“to be”, as with the imperative), etc.
In comparative/superlative formations, is is strictly speaking the relative of the copula, hence an buachaill is mó literally means "the boy who is biggest", i.e. "the biggest boy". The thing compared is introduced by ná(“than”).
Baer, Phillip, Baer, Mary, Chan Kꞌin, Manuel, Chan Kꞌin, Antonio (2018) Diccionaro maya lacandón (Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves”; 51) (in Spanish), Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C., pages 65–66
(pronoun) this or that man, woman or thing; he, she, it, they(previously introduced)
Picks up the subject or object after an intervening clause, to avoid repeating the relative pronoun quī, or substitutes syntactically fronted expressions
'urbīs' an 'urbēs'. Nam cum id genus sīs, quod videō, ut sine iactūrā tuā peccēs, nihil perdēs utrum dīxeris.
'urbīs' or 'urbēs'. For as far as I can see, you're the kind of man who doesn't lose sleep over his mistakes; as such you'll lose nothing whichever one you use.
Latin is is an endophoricpronoun and determiner, which may be employed either as an anaphora or as a cataphora, meaning it serves as a reference to something preceding or following, respectively, in the text. Unlike a demonstrative such as ille or English this, is does not have a deictic function, meaning it cannot point to a referent in the world, but only one named in the text; nor can it be used exophorically as a 3d-person pronoun such as English (s)he that refers to something not already defined in the context but presumed to be known or deduceable by the addressee. Thus we see it used with first, second and third person.
The exophoric demonstratives/determiners in Latin are hic (proximal, near the speaker), iste (medial, near the listener), and ille (distal, far from both). Note that Latin doesn't have any 3rd-person pronouns, using the aforementioned demonstratives in their place.
1The nom./dat./abl. plural forms regularly developed into a monosyllable /iː(s)/, with later remodelling - compare the etymology of deus. This /iː/ was normally spelled as EI during and as II after the Republic; a disyllabic iī, spelled II, Iꟾ, appears in Silver Age poetry, while disyllabic eīs is only post-Classical. Other spellings include EEI(S), EIEI(S), IEI(S). 2The dat. singular is found spelled EIEI (here represented as ēī) and scanned as two longs in Plautus, but also as a monosyllable. The latter is its normal scansion in Classical. Other spellings include EEI, IEI.
This is the so-called "copula", which is distinct from the "substantive verb" at·tá. The copula is used with noun predicates and to introduce a cleft sentence.
Pedersen, Holger (1913) Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen (in German), volume II, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, →ISBN, pages 419–431
^ Falileyev, Alexander (2000) Etymological Glossary of Old Welsh (Buchreihe der Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie; 18), Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, pages 158-159
Is is used when linking the subject of a sentence with an object ("somebody is somebody", "somebody is something", "something is something"), otherwise forms of the verb bi are used:
Ik soe net witte wat myn ‘favorite plakje’ is om te fantasearjen, sa'n plak ha ik net, no ja soms al, mar dat is in plak dêr't ik yn it iepenbier leaver net oer praat, net mei myn learlingen alteast, en al hielendal net oer hoe't ik my dêr hâld en draach en wat myn lichemshâlding is.
1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 49:
Banès is ee-kearnt.
Beans are beginning to ripen in the pod.
1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 50:
Mee hoanès is ee-kimmelt.
My hands are benumbed with cold.
References
Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 44