Voice (grammar) - Impersonal in Celtic Languages

Impersonal in Celtic Languages

Celtic languages possess an inflection commonly called the "impersonal" or "autonomous" form, of similar origin to the Latin "passive-impersonal". This is similar to a passive construction in that the agent of the verb is not specified. However its syntax is different from prototypical passives, in that the object of the action remains in the accusative.

It is similar to the use of the pronoun "on" in French. It increasingly corresponds to the passive in modern English, in which there is a trend towards avoiding the use of the passive unless it is specifically required to omit the subject. It also appears to be similar to the "fourth person" mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

The construction has equal validity in transitive and intransitive clauses, and the best translation into English is normally by using the "dummy" subjects "they", "one", or impersonal "you". For example, the common sign against tobacco consumption has its closest direct translation in English as "No smoking":

Ná	caitear	tabac
Don't	use-impersonal	tobacco.

An example of its use as an intransitive is:

Téithear	go dtí	an sráidbhaile	go minic	Dé Sathairn
Go-impersonal	to	the village	often	Saturday

"People often go to the village of a Saturday."

The difference between the autonomous and a true passive is that while the autonomous focuses on the action and overtly avoids mentioning the actor, there is nonetheless an anonymous agent who may be referred to in the sentence. For instance

Théití	ag ithe	béile	le chéile
go	eat	meal	with each other
People used to go	eating	a meal	together

In English, the formation of the passive allows the optional inclusion of an agent in a prepositional phrase, "by the man", etc. Where English would leave out the noun phrase, Irish uses the autonomous; where English includes the noun phrase, Irish uses its periphrastic passive - which can also leave out the noun phrase:

The tobacco was smoked			(by the man)
Bhí	an tabac	caite	(ag an bhfear)
Was	the tobacco	consumed	(by the man)

The impersonal endings have been re-analysed as a passive voice in Modern Welsh and the agent can be included after the preposition gan (by):

Cenir y gân gan y côr.

The song is sung by the choir.