cía

See also: Appendix:Variations of "cia"

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• ce, ci, cia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʲiːa̯/

Etymology 1

From Proto-Celtic *kʷēs (compare Welsh pwy), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis.

Pronoun

cía

1. (interrogative) who?
   • c. 1000, “The Tale of Mac Da Thó's Pig”, in Ernst Windisch, editor, Irische Texte, volume 1, published 1800, section 3:

     Tabair dóibsium dib línaib, cumma cía thóetsat imbi.

     Give it to them both, it doesn’t matter who will fall because of it.

2. (indefinite) whoever, whatever

Related terms

• cid

Descendants

• Irish: cé
• Scottish Gaelic: cò
• Manx: quoi

Determiner

cía

1. whatever

Adverb

cía

1. wherever
2. however

Etymology 2

Uncertain; possibly from the pronoun (Etymology 1).

Conjunction

cía (triggers lenition)

1. although
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 21^d3

     Niba dimicthe-se libsi cía·béo i fochidib, ar [is] gloria dúibsi ón

     I should not be despised by you although I may be in sufferings: for this is glory to you

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 56^b31

     Cía techtid nach aile ní ad·chobrai-siu ⁊ ní techtai-siu ón immurgu, ní étaigther-su immanísin, .i. ní ascnae ⁊ ní charae; is sí indala ch⟨í⟩all les insindí as aemulari in sin.

     Though another may possess what you may desire and you may not possess, you should not be jealous of that thing, i.e. you should not seek after and love it; that is one of the two meanings that he finds in emulari.

Derived terms

• ceni
• cenid
• cepu
• cesu
• cetu
• cíabo
• cíaptar
• cid
• cinip
• cit
• citis

 

Descendants

• Irish: cé go
• Manx: ga
• Scottish Gaelic: ged

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
cía	chía	cía pronounced with /ɡ(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 cía ‘who’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “2 cía ‘although’”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2017) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 456–57, pages 286–87 (‘who’)
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2017) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 909–10, pages 561–63 (‘although’)

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Spanish

Verb

cía

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of ciar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of ciar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of ciar.