Chapter III The Article
§ 1. The definite article the is an, for all numbers and genders. When the noun that follows is feminine and singular, or masculine and plural, its initial, if mutable, is in the second state. If it is masculine and singular, or feminine and plural, the initial is in the first state. 73
When the article an is preceded by a preposition or conjunction, and sometimes by other words, ending in a vowel, the article loses its vowel and is written ’n. Thus:—
Dên, man, masc. sing.; an dên, the man. dhô’n dên, to the man.
Benen, woman, fem. sing.; an venen, the woman. dhô’n venen, to the woman.
Tassow, fathers, masc. plur.; an dassow, the fathers. dhô’n dassow, to the fathers.
Benenes, women, fem. plur.; an benenes, the women. dhô’n benenes, to the women.
The apostrophe is not written for the elided a of an in the MSS., but the preposition and article appear as one word, dhôn, dren, han, etc., for to the, by the, and the, etc. But it is better to write it, to avoid confusion, especially between a’n, from the, and the simple article, an. There are certain cases of contraction which have been accepted as single words, and in these the apostrophe is not used. Thus pandra (=pa an dra, “what (is) the thing?” i.e. “what is it?”) is used for the interrogative “what?” but is never written pa’n dra. There are occasional further compounds of pandra, e.g. pandrus (or pendrus)=pa an dra es, or pandryu=pa an dra yu, both meaning “what thing is?” pandrama=pa an dra a wrama, “what shall I do?” pandrellen=pa an dra a wrellen, “what should I do?”
As in the other Celtic languages, when a noun is followed by another noun in the possessive appositional genitive, the first noun has no definite article. Thus chŷ an dên, the house of the man, not an chŷ an dên. The same rule applies to a similar appositional genitive in Hebrew—a curious coincidence between two quite unconnected languages.