Irish

Noun

Ní

1. A prefix used with a woman's maiden surname

   Deirdre Ní Cheallaigh – literally "Deirdre, daughter of a descendant of Ceallach" (anglicized form Deirdre Kelly)

Usage notes

This prefix replaces the prefix Ó found in male surnames, and triggers lenition of a following consonant. It is used by unmarried women, and by married women who have kept their maiden name. Thus Deirdre Ní Cheallaigh's father and brothers would use the surname Ó Ceallaigh.

Related terms

• Ó (used in male names)
• bean Uí, Uí (used with a woman's married name)
• Nic (used in place of the male Mac prefix)

Cogui

Noun

ní

1. water

References

• Grace Hensarli, The function of -ki 'switch' in Kogi

Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n̠ʲiː/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish ní ‎(“anything; thing”)

Alternative forms

• nídh (obsolete)

Noun

ní m ‎(genitive singular ní, nominative plural nithe)

1. thing
2. object

Synonyms

• rud

Derived terms

• neamhní ‎(“nothing”)
• nithiúil

Etymology 2

From Old Irish nige.

Alternative forms

• nighe (obsolete)
• níochán (Cois Fharraige)

Noun

ní f ‎(genitive singular nite)

1. verbal noun of nigh

Verb

ní

1. present subjunctive analytic of nigh

Etymology 3

From Old Irish ní.

Particle

ní

1. not (preverbal particle)

   Ní thuigim.‎ ― I do not understand.

   Ní dheachaigh mé ansin.‎ ― I did not go there.

   Ní bhfaighidh siad é.‎ ― They will not find it.

2. not (present copular form)

   Ní críonnacht creagaireacht.‎ ― Miserliness is not thrift.

   Ní hionann iad.‎ ― They are not the same.

   An gloine é? Ní hea.‎ ― Is it glass? No.

Usage notes

The preverbal particle triggers lenition of a following consonant. It is not used in the past tense except for some irregular verbs. It takes the dependent form of irregular verbs. The copular form triggers h-prothesis of a following vowel.

Related terms

• cha (nonstandard)
• níor (used in the past tense with regular and some irregular verbs, also the past/conditional copular form)

Etymology 4

From Old Irish do·gní.

Alternative forms

• ghní (obsolete)
• níonn

Verb

ní

1. (archaic, Ulster) present analytic independent of déan

Usage notes

Used with a noun or pronoun (in the standard language, tú, sé, sí, muid, sibh, siad, or their emphatic equivalents) as the subject.

Synonyms

• déanann (dependent form in Ulster; independent and dependent form in Connacht and the written standard)
• deineann (independent and dependent form in Munster)

Lakota

Adjective

ní

1. alive

Mandarin

Romanization

ní (Zhuyin ㄋㄧˊ)

1. Pinyin transcription of 倪
2. Pinyin transcription of 呢
3. Pinyin transcription of 坭
4. Pinyin transcription of 埿
5. Pinyin transcription of 妫
6. Pinyin transcription of 婗
7. Pinyin transcription of 尼
8. Pinyin transcription of 屔
9. Pinyin transcription of 怩
10. Pinyin transcription of 泥
11. Pinyin transcription of 淣
12. Pinyin transcription of 狋
13. Pinyin transcription of 猊
14. Pinyin transcription of 秜
15. Pinyin transcription of 籾
16. Pinyin transcription of 臡
17. Pinyin transcription of 蚭
18. Pinyin transcription of 蜺
19. Pinyin transcription of 觬
20. Pinyin transcription of 貎
21. Pinyin transcription of 秜
22. Pinyin transcription of 輗
23. Pinyin transcription of 郳
24. Pinyin transcription of 鈦
25. Pinyin transcription of 霓
26. Pinyin transcription of 鯓
27. Pinyin transcription of 鯢, 鲵
28. Pinyin transcription of 麑
29. Pinyin transcription of 齯

Navajo

Etymology

di- ‎(“oral”) + -Ø- ‎(3rd person subject prefix) + -Ø- ‎(classifier) + -ní (neuter imperfective stem of root -NIID, “to say”).

Pronunciation

Verb

ní

1. he/she says

   Dooda, dishní! — I say no!

Usage notes

This verb is frequently used for quoted speech. To introduce quoted speech, just add the prefix á- ‎(“thus”) to any of the forms of the verb. This modifies the meaning to something like "to say as follows" or "to say thus":

Asdzą́ą́ aní, Beeʼeldííl Dahsinilgóó deekai, ní. — That woman says, “we are going to Albuquerque,” she says.

This is a neuter verb that uses only the imperfective mode. Other modes are suppleted by the active verb niih, reproduced below for convenience.

Conjugation

Paradigm: Neuter imperfective (Ø), with some irregularities .

See also

• ání
• haʼní

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *nīs (compare Welsh ni), from Proto-Indo-European *ne h₁ésti ‎(“is not”) (compare Sanskrit न ‎(na), Latin ne, Gothic 𐌽𐌹 ‎(ni)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n͈ʲiː/

Particle

ní

1. not
   • 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. 24^a38

     Ní epur a n-anman sund.

     I do not say their names here.

Usage notes

Followed by the dependent form of the verb, which (in Old Irish) is not subjected to nasalization or lenition mutation unless a direct object pronoun is implied. Compare:

• Ní ben inna firu‎ ― He does not strike the men: Here the b of ben is unmutated.
• Ní mben‎ ― He does not strike him: Here the b of ben is nasalized to mb.
• Ní ben‎ ― He does not strike it: Here the b of ben is lenited.

In Middle Irish increasingly, and in Modern Irish always, ní lenites the following verb.

Synonyms

• nícon

Descendants

• Irish: ní

Verb

ní

1. is not, isn’t
   • 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. 12^c29

     Ní ar formut frib-si as·biur-sa inso.

     It is not because of envy towards you that I say this.

Conjugation