R3 Adjectives

Position of Adjectives

Almost all adjectives come after nouns:
dooinney mooar - a big man

Exceptionally, two common adjectives come before nouns, causing lenition:
shenn - old: ben - a woman: shenn ven - an old woman
drogh - bad: shuyr - a sister: drogh huyr - a bad sister


Mutation of Adjectives
Attributive adjectives associated with feminine singular nouns in the nominative-accusative are lenited:
ben - a woman: beg - little: ben veg - a little woman

Predicative adjectives are not mutated (lenited):
Ta’n ven beg - The woman is little.
Ta’n ven veg boght - The little woman is poor.

(see also Mutations).

In Classical Manx, adjectives qualifying feminine singular nouns in the genitive would not have been mutated (lenited):
çheer (f) - country: genitive - çheerey
mooadys ny çheerey mooar - the size of the big country

In later Manx, this would be:
mooadys y(n) çheer vooar - the size of the big country


Plural Forms of Adjectives
Some adjectives have a plural form:
dooinney mooar - a big man: deiney mooarey - big men
thie beg - a little house: thieyn beggey - little houses

Usage of these plural forms may be rather variable.
Other common adjectives with plural forms are as follows:
aeg, aegey - young
ard, ardey - high
bane, baney - white
çhing, çhingey - sick
glass, glassey - green
jiarg, jiargey - red
roauyr, roauyrey - fat
trome, tromey - heavy


Comparison of Adjectives
The regular way to form the comparative-superlative is to add -ey to the stem, sometimes with modification, and prefix s’ (the copula):

aalin - beautiful s’aaley - more/most beautiful
bog - soft s’buiggey - softer/softest
çhionn- tight s’çhenney - tighter/tightest
deyr - dear s’deyrey - dearer/dearest
dowin - deep s’diuney - deeper/deepest
gial - bright s’gilley - brighter/brightest
giare - short s’girrey - shorter/shortest
glen - clean s’glenney - cleaner/cleanest
injil - low s’inshley - lower/lowest
liauyr - long s’lhiurey - longer/longest
millish - sweet s’miljey - sweeter/sweetest
moal -slow s’melley - slower/slowest
ooasle - noble s’ooashley - nobler/noblest
roauyr - fat s’riurey - fatter/fattest
thanney - thin s’theinney - thinner/thinnest

In some cases, the stem is modified but there is no addition:

broghe - dirty s’broiee - dirtier/dirtiest
bwaagh - prettier s’bwaaee - prettier/prettiest
çheh - hot s’çhoe - hotter/hottest
garroo - rough s’girroo - rougher/roughest


Adjectives ending in -agh change this to -ee:

berçhagh - rich s’berçhee - richer/richest
trimshagh - sad s’trimshee - sadder/saddest
yindyssagh - wonderful s’yindyssee - more/most wonderful


Adjectives which are classified as having irregular comparative-superlative forms are listed below (the convention here is to prefix the copula s with no apostrophe):

aashagh - easy sassey - easier/easiest
aeg - young saa - younger/youngest
ard - high syrjey - higher/highest
beg - small sloo - smaller/smallest
faggys - near sniessey - nearer/nearest
foddey - far sodjey - further/furthest
lajer - strong stroshey - stronger/strongest
leah - soon sleaie - sooner/soonest
lhean - wide shlea - wider/widest
mie - good share - better/best
mooar - big smoo - bigger/biggest
olk - bad smessey - worse/worst
shenn - old shinney - older/oldest
trome - heavy strimmey - heavier/heaviest
ymmodee - many shliee - more/most (in number)

The non-Gaelic spelling of Manx masks the fact that some of the ‘irregulars’ above are actually regular.

Examples:

Y ven s’aaley - The most beautiful woman/The more beautiful woman.
Y raad s’lhiurey - The longest road/The longer road.
Ta’n speyr ny s’gilley nish - The sky is brighter now.
Ta Ean ny s’melley na Peddyr - John is slower than Peter.
T’eh ny s’çhoe nish - It’s hotter now.
T’eh ny s’yindyssee na shen - It’s more wonderful than that.
Vel Kirree ny saa na Ealish? - Is Kitty younger than Alice?
Ta Lunnin ny smoo na Lerpoyll - London is bigger than Liverpool.