Nouns with Teens (Teens with Nouns??)

Counting in the teens:

• add deug (jook): a h-aon deug, a dhà  dheug, a trì deug, a ceithir deug, a còig deug, a sia deug, a seachd deug, a h-ochd deug, a naoi deug

When using teens with nouns, the noun goes between the number and deug.

• aon fhear deug  (oon ear jook) eleven men
• dà  fhear dheug   (dah ear jook) twelve men
• trì fir deug   (tree fear jook) thirteen men
• ceithir fir deug   (KAY-eer fear jook) fourteen men
• còig fir deug   (KOI-ik fear jook) fifteen men
• sia fir deug   (SHEE-uh fear jook) sixteen men
• seachd fir deug   (shechk fear jook) seventeen men
• ochd fir deug    (awch  fear jook) eighteen men
• naoi fir deug    (NOO-ih fear jook) twelve men

A note about pronunciation: Roderick MacKinnon gives the pronunciation for deug as JAY-ik or JEE-ik.  When I listen to CDs, it sounds like JERK with an English accent.  Like any languages, pronunciations will vary slightly with the particular accent of the speaker.

A few notes about fear/fhear/fir:

• fear is man, or ‘one’
• fhear is used with aon and dà because they both take the singular and lenite
• fir is the plural of fear, so it is used with the rest of the numbers

Today’s Listening: Speaking Our Language Episode 3 Part 2 with numbers:

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