i >' I ». « '' <• HW«i «mi i&bhhBbiiihi IB HI Rll IHifi LMin» / ' ' " "■ V' 111 «1*11 lf}flf?{| lain »mIMsfi8tQuUBShHSTs ■HHH BOIUfiU! it IKKHStiolf 15« fttfJUuiilUtilHiii iHflfil jalit«$ ;■ ; ;< ijíílr |Btí. yi A GRAMMAR OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE. A GRAMMAR OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, PUBLISHED FOR THE USE OF THE SENIOR CLASSES IN THE COLLEGE OF ST. COLUMBA. BY JOHN O'DONOVAN, MEMBER OF THE IRISH ARCH.EOLOGICAL SOCIETY. BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRA* OHBSÍWOTmi^ MASS. HODGES AND SMITH, GRAFT ON-STREET, BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 1845. DUBLIN: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, BY M. H, GITX. TO THE REVEREND JAMES HENTHORN TODD, D.D., FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, ETC., AS AN HUMBLE TESTIMONY TO THE GREAT VALUE OF HIS EXERTIONS IN PRESERVING AND ILLUSTRATING THE MONUMENTS OF THE HISTORY AND LANGUAGE OF IRELAND, AND AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE ASSISTANCE DERIVED FROM HIM IN THE COMPOSITION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE FOLLOWING PAGES, THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED BY HIS OBEDIENT, HUMBLE SERVANT, JOHN O'DONOVAN. PREFACE. The following work was commenced in the year 1828, and has been since continued, with various interruptions. The Author, having in the interval visited every county in Ireland, has had opportunities of becoming acquainted with the provincial dialects of the language, as now spoken ; and he has therefore noticed their more remark- able peculiarities, wherever they appeared to throw light on the Rules of Irish Grammar. He has also introduced copious examples from the remains of the ancient lan- guage still preserved in manuscript ; a source of infor- mation peculiarly important, not only as preserving the original inflexions and forms of the language, but also because it has been hitherto almost entirely neglected by his predecessors, who, with the exception of Haliday, have all taken their examples from the modern verna- cular Irish. The Author has to return his thanks to the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, for a Vlll PREFACE. donation of twenty-five pounds towards the expense of this work ; also to the Founders of the College of St. Columba, who have adopted it as the Class-book of their more advanced students, and have borne the risk of its publication. Amongst his private friends the Author has to re- turn thanks to the Rev. Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin, at whose suggestion the work has been thrown into its present form, and who has read the proofs in passing through the Press ; to Mr. E. Curry, who has sup- plied many examples from ancient manuscripts, and from the living language, as spoken in the west of Thomond ; and to Mr. Hardiman, for the use of several valuable books, and many judicious suggestions as to the mode of arrangement and illustration adopted in the work. He is also indebted to Mr. Petrie for copies of some curious inscriptions from ancient Irish tombstones, and for the use of two woodcuts, representing the most an- cient inscriptions in Irish characters known to exist, which were first published by Mr! Petrie in his valuable Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland. J. O'D. ANCIENT IRISH ALPHABETS B?l. From fee Hook of EáDb. ' r. ,h Ul Century ) a b c t> d e é- p "£ h 1 i m nopq n u s r c lí x v /^ XV .'). From the Autoj>v:\pli Gospeh of S! Moling. f 7* Center? ) &t>c5cle"f L yli.ilTttTio p q |f J C tl X °)V X^l.From the Liber llviiiuonmi. ( ííiirlO'V Center. 1 a6ct) epsti i F I m n o p ( i use u x b e p 5 1i i I m n p )V y c u XV 7. From the Book of Leacaa. Ce::tui;v I a b c *> v> p 5 1) i I m n o p s\ \\ s -p r ii y <•* XV o*. From tlie Autograph Amuils ol" y° Four Masters . .' (Vuhirv ) 4 p c b t j: y ti i 1 ni ii o p H f r- u CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction, xxvii Section 1. — Of the Origin of Writing and Letters in Ireland, . ib. Section 2 Of the principal Writers of Irish Grammar, . . liv Section 3. — Testimonies to the Value of the Study of Irish, . . lxv Section 4 — Of the Dialects of Irish, lxxi PART I. ORTHOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. CLASSIFICATION OF LETTERS. — The modern Irish alphabet, I —Vowels divided into broad and slender, ib. — Consonants divided into mutes and liquids ; also into labials, palatals, and Unguals, ib. Classification of consonants according to Dr. Darwin's system, 2 Commutable consonants in the ancient language, ib. — Aspirable consonants, 3 —-Influence of the vowels on the consonants, ib. CHAPTER II. OF THE VOWELS. Section 1. — Of the Sounds of the simple Vowels, . . . . 5-14 Long, short, and medial sounds, ib. b x Contents. PAGE General position of the accent, 5 Obscure sounds of the vowels, 6 The aspirates ó and j, used as a hyphen or diaeresis, ... 7 The vowels never doubled in modern Irish, ib. General rule for reading Irish, 7 Table of the sounds of the vowels, 8-14 Different sounds of a, 8-1 1 Different sounds of aó, or aj, "... 9 Sounds of e, 11 1 and iu substituted for e final in old MSS ib. Sounds of the vowel l, 12 Diphthongal sound of i in Munster, ib. Sounds of the vowel o, 12 Corrupt sounds of o in Meath and parts of Ulster, ... 1 2 Diphthongal sounds of o in the south of Ireland, .... 13 Sounds of the vowel u, ib. Section 2. — Of the Sounds of the Diphthongs, 14-26 The diphthongs enumerated, 14 Table of the sounds of the diphthongs, 14-26 Sound of ae, . 14 Sounds of ai, ib. Sounds of ao, 16 The diphthong au found only in ancient MSS 17 Sounds of ect, ib. The diphthong ea represented by a single e in old MSS. . 18 Sound of ea medial in Munster, 19 The combination eap often written aup in old MSS. . . . ib. 6a short of the moderns, written iu in old MSS 19 Sound of ea, with the accent on a, 20 Long and short sounds of ei, 20 The diphthong ei of the moderns often represented by a single e in old manuscripts, ib. Long and short sounds of eo, 21 Corrupt pronunciation of eo in Meath and Ulster, . . . ib. The diphthong eu used by modern authors instead of ea, or e long of the ancients, ib. Contents. xi PAGE The diphthong ia always long, 22 Sounds of jo, . . ib. Represented by a simple 1 in old MSS 22 Sound of 10 in Munster, 23 Corrupt sound of 10 in Kilkenny and Waterford, . . . . ib. Short and long sound of iu, ib. Sounds of oi, v 23 The diphthong ou never used in modern Irish, 24 Sound of oi (i accented), . 25 Sound of uct, ib. "Written ue and uo by the ancients, ib. Sounds of ui, ib. Qi, oi, and ui, when short, commutable, ib. Sounds of ui in Munster, ib. Section 3 Of the Triphthongs, 26 Table of the sounds of the triphthongs, ib. Sound of aoi, 26 Qoi not used before the fourteenth century, ib. Sound of eoi, 27 Sound of íai, ib. Sound of iui, ib. CHAPTER III. OP THE CONSONANTS. Section 1 — Of the radical Sounds of the Consonants^ . . . 27-39 Table of the sounds of the simple consonants, .... 28-39 Broad and slender sounds of b, 28 Broad and slender sounds of c, 28 Broad and slender sounds of o, 29 C, or re, often used for o, in ancient MSS ib. Corrupt pronunciation of o slender in Ulster, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, ib. Broad and slender sounds of p, .... 30 xii Contents. PAGE P, in the south of Ireland, prefixed to many words, which in the north begin with vowels, 30 Broad and slender sounds of 5, . ib. (5 often commuted with c in old manuscripts, ib. h no articulation ; and begins no Irish word radical, . . . 31 M sometimes placed over the vowel like the Greek spiritus asper, . . ib. Broad and slender sounds of I, 31 Sounds of I, and 11, in Ulster, 32, 33 In ancient manuscripts lo sometimes used for 11, .... 33 The combination In, how pronounced, ib. Broad and slender sounds of m, ib. In ancient manuscripts m often doubled, ib. Broad and slender sounds of n, 33 Provincial pronunciations of n and nn, 34 Provincial sounds of en, jn, mn, ib. In ancient manuscripts no, and nc, often used for nn, . . . ib. Sound of nj, simple and indivisible, 35 Provincial sounds of ng, ib. Broad and slender sounds of p, 36 Broad and slender sounds of p, ib. Slender sound of p before a broad vowel in the south-west of Ireland, ib. Pronunciation of pp, 37 Corrupt sound of cp in Kilkenny and Waterford, . . . . ib. Broad and slender sounds of p, 37 Broad and slender sounds of r, 38 Corrupt sound of c slender in Ulster, the Highlands of Scot- land, and the Isle of Man, 39 Section 2. — Of Aspiration, and its Effects on the Sounds of the Consonants, 39-57 Aspiration defined, 39 The English language originally guttural like the Lowland Scotch, 40 Remarks on the aspirates c, o, j, broad and slender, , . . ib. Contents. xiii PAGE Aspirated consonants marked in Erse and some Irish books by placing h after them, . 41 System of aspiration used in ancient MSS 42 No mark of aspiration in the inscription on the monument of Lughnaton, the oldest known, 42 M used to aspirate c, p, c, and m, in ancient inscriptions at Clonmacnoise, 43 Marks of aspiration in early printed Irish books, . . . . ib. System of aspiration recommended by the author, . . ib. A tendency to aspiration characterizes Irish and its cognate dialects, 45 Aspiration in the modern languages of Europe, .... 46 Table of the aspirated consonants, 46-57 Broad and slender sounds of b, or bh, 46 Provincial pronunciation of b, or bh, 47 Broad and slender sounds of c, or ch, ib. Provincial sounds of c, or ch, 48 Broad and slender sounds of ó, or oh, 49 Pronunciation of aó throughout the provinces, ib. Pronunciation of Oct in the termination of adjectives, ... 50 Sound of f, or ph, ib. Initial ph often omitted in ancient MSS. ....... ib. Broad and slender sounds of 5, or jh, 50 Curious power of 5, or jh, in the middle of words, ... 51 Broad and slender sounds of rii, or mh, ....... ib. Difference between the sounds of b and rii, 52 N sometimes found with a full dot over it in old MSS. . . 52 Broad and slender sounds of p, or ph, 53 12 sometimes dotted in old MSS ■ ib. Kemarks on the liquids I, m, n, p, : . . . ib. Broad and slender sounds of p, or ph, 54 Aspirated p, sometimes written hp in old manuscripts, . . ib. Broad and slender sounds of c, or ch, 55 Provincial pronunciation of c, or ch, ib. Grammatical use of aspiration, 56 xiv Contents. PAGE Section 3 — Of certain Combinations of Consonants which do not easily coalesce, 57 Section 4. — Of Eclipsis of Consonants, 58-65 Eclipsis defined, 58 The eclipsing consonant always softer than that which it eclipses, 59 The consonant y an exception to the rules of eclipsis, ... 61 Rules for the grammatical use of eclipsis, ib. The eclipsing consonant not always written in ancient MSS. 64 System of eclipsis in MSS. of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ib. System of eclipsis in the more ancient MSS ib. Redundant eclipsis, 65 ♦ PART II. ETYMOLOGY. CHAPTER I. OF THE ARTICLE. No indefinite article in Irish, 66 Inflexions of the article, 67 Combinations of the article with prepositions, ib. Various modes of writing it in old manuscripts, . . . . ib. Changes caused by the article in the initials of nouns, . .68 Rules for these changes, 69-72 CHAPTER II. OF NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE. Section 1.— Of Gender, 72-75 Gender defined, 72 Contents. xv PAGE Rules for determining the gender of nouns, 73 Some names of men and animals naturally masculine are fe- minine in Irish, and vice versa, ib. Some nouns have different genders in the north and south of Ireland, 74 Section 2 Of Cases, 75-77 Case defined, 75 The nominative and accusative always alike in form in mo- dern Irish, ib. On the dative or ablative case in Irish, 76 The nominative and vocative feminine, and the genitive and vocative masculine, always terminate alike, 77 Section 3. — Of Declensions, 77-109 Declension defined, 77 Observations on the number of declensions, ib. Table of Attenuation and making broad, 77 Change of c into j in attenuation, 79 First Declension, 80 General rules for the formation of the cases, 81 Particular rules for the genitive case singular in monosyl- lables, 85 Particular rules for the nominative and dative plural, . . 86 Second Declension, 88-93 Particular rules for the nominative plural, 91 Particular rules for the genitive plural, 92 Third Declension, 93-101 Particular rules for the nominative and dative plural, . 97-99 Particular rules for the genitive plural, ...... 100 Fourth Declension, 101-105 Rule for the genitive plural, 104 Fifth Declension, 105 Irregular substantives, 107-109 xvi Contents. CHAPTER III. ADJECTIVES. PAGE Section 1 — Declensions of Nouns Adjective, .... 109-113 First Declension, 110 Second Declension, Ill Third Declension, 112 Fourth Declension, 113 Section 2. — Adjectives declined with Substantives, . . . .113 General remarks, ib. Examples, 114-117 Section 3. — The Degrees of Comparison, 117-122 The comparative and superlative how distinguished, . . .117 Form of the comparative in rep, or cip, 119 Meaning of the comparative in cep, or cip, when followed by the preposition ppi, or le, 120 Of the particles pop, pó, F'°P» an » U P> & c -> when prefixed to the adjective, 121 Of the preposition oe when postfixed to the adjective, . . ib. Of irregular comparison, 1 22 Section 4 Of numeral Adjectives, 123-125 Of nouns substantive formed from numeral adjectives, . .125 Difference between oó and oá, ceacaip and ceicpe, . . .126 CHAPTER IV. OF PRONOUNS. Classification of the pronouns, 126 Section 1. — Of the personal Pronouns, 127 Remarks upon pé, pi, fiat), and é, í, iao, 128 Section 2 Of possessive Pronouns, 130 How rendered emphatic, ib. Various ancient modes of writing péi n, self, ib. Contents. xvii PAGE Section 3 Of the relative Pronouns, 131 On the various forms and substitutes of the relative, . . .131 Of oá when used as a relative, 132 Section 4 Of interrogative Pronouns, 134 Section 5. — Of the demonstrative Pronouns, ib. Section 6. — Of the indefinite Pronouns, ........ 135 Section 7. — Of Pronouns compounded with Prepositions, 137-149 Personal pronouns compounded with prepositions, . . 137-147 Possessive pronouns compounded with prepositions, . 147-149 CHAPTER V. OF VERBS. Section 1. — Of the Moods and Tenses, 150 Force of tenses of the indicative mood, 151 Analytic and synthetic forms of the verb active, . . . .152 Form of the verb which follows the relative pronoun, . . .155 The historic present tense, . ib. Particles which aspirate the initials of verbs, 156 On oo and po prefixed to verbs, 157 On the particle pul, ib. Particles causing eclipsis of the initial consonant of verbs, . 158 Influence of the relative (when preceded by a preposition) on the initials of verbs, 159 Section 2. — Of 'the assertive or irnpersonal Verb if, . . 159-166 Combinations of if with the personal pronouns illustrated by ancient examples, 160-162 Idiomatic applications of if, 163-166 Difference between lp and cá, 163 Peculiar idiom of rá in composition, 164, 165 Section 3 Of the Verb Substantive ccnm, 166-172 On the persons of the present indicative, 167 On the persons of the imperative, 169 C xviii Contents. PAGE Ancient examples, 170 Of the analytic form of the verb substantive, 172 Section 4 Conjugation of a regular Verb (jlanaim), . 173-187 On the persons of the present indicative active, . . . .173 On the past tense indicative active, 175 Peculiar termination in erect íp, ib. On the persons of the consuetudinal past indicative active, . 177 On the future indicative active, 178 On the use of p future of all regular verbs, except those in i jim, and a few others, ib. No subjunctive in regular verbs, 179 On the persons of the imperative active, ib. On the persons of the conditional active, 181 On the p in this mood, ib. Formation of compound tenses, 1 83 Of the passive voice, ib. On the forms of the pronouns after the verb passive, . 1 83, 1 84 The particles oo, or po, never aspirate the past passive, . .185 On the endings of the past indicative passive, ..... ib. On the consuetudinal past indicative, ib. On the future indicative, 186 On the conditional mood, ib. On the passive participle, 187 Formation of the passive moods and tenses by the verb sub- stantive and participle, ib. Section 5 Formation of the Tenses of regular Verbs, . 187-207 On the Erse or Geelic of Scotland, 1 88 Of the tenses of the indicative active, 191 Of the verbs which form the future in eocao, . . . . . 194 Of the imperative, 1 96 Of the conditional, 1 97 Of the infinitive (General Eule), 197-203 Of verbs which have their infinitive like the root, . . . .198 Contents. xix PAGE Of verbs which form their infinitive by dropping the last slender vowel of the root, 1 99 Of verbs which in the infinitive suffer syncope in the penul- timate syllable, and drop the characteristic slender vowel of the root, ib. Of verbs which form the infinitive in ujaó, ib. Of verbs which, to form the infinitive, add c to the root, . 200 Of verbs which, to form the infinitive, add amain, or earham, to the root, ib. Of verbs which form the infinitive in ail, 201 Of verbs which terminate the infinitive in jail, 202 Of verbs which terminate the infinitive in arh, or earn, . . ib. Of verbs which terminate the infinitive in ace, or eacc, . . ib. Of verbs which terminate the infinitive in cam, or cam, . . ib. Of verbs which terminate the infinitive in pm, ib. Of verbs which form the infinitive irregularly, 203 Of the indicative passive, ib» Of the conditional passive, 204 Formation of the passive participle, 205 Aspiration of ca and ce, in the termination of the passive participle, ib. Section 6. — Synopsis of the Verb Substantive and regular Verbs, 207 Synopsis of the substantive verb cáim, 208 Synopsis of the regular verb molaim, 209 Synopsis of the regular verb ceilim, 210 Synopsis of the regular verb poillpjim, 211 Section 7. — Irregular Verbs, 212-254 General remarks on the irregular verbs, 212 Of Beipim, cujaim, or cabpaim, 213-219 Of beipim, 219-221 Of cim, 221-226 Of cluinim, 226 Of oéanaim, 226-234 Ancient examples of the past indicative active of oéanaim, 228 xx Contents. PAGE Examples of the past subjunctive passive, 233 Of gnim, 235 Of oeipim, 236-240 Of pajcum, or jeibim, 241-245 Of pijim, 245 Of céióim, 247-250 Of C151TT1, 250-254 Section 8.— Of impersonal, defective, and obsolete Verbs, 254-261 CHAPTER VI. ADVERBS. General remarks, 261 Section 1 — Formation of Adverbs, 262 A list of adverbs, 263-269 Section 2. — Of prepositive and inseparable, or consignificant Adverbs, 270-280 CHAPTER VII. OF PREPOSITIONS. Section 1. — Of simple Prepositions, their simple Meanings, and ancient and modern Forms, 280-286 Section 2. — Of compound, or improper Prepositions, . . 287-290 Section 3. — Of the simple and idiomatic Meanings of the Pre- positions, 290-319 CHAPTER VIII. OF CONJUNCTIONS. Section 1. — Of the simple Conjunctions, 320-325 Section 2. — Of compound Conjunctions, or conjunctional Phrases, 325, 326 Contents. xxi CHAPTER IX. OF INTERJECTIONS. PAGE List of interjections, 327 War cries and exclamations of the ancient Irish, .... 327 CHAPTER X. OF DERIVATION AND COMPOSITION. General remarks, 328 Section 1. — Of Derivation, 330-335 Subsection 1 — Of derivative Substantives, . . . 330-334 Subsection 2 Of derivative Adjectives, 334 Subsection 3. — Of derivative Verbs, 335 Section 2. — Of Composition, or the Formation of compound Terms, 336-342 I. Words compounded with a substantive prefixed, . . . 337 1 . Substantives compounded with substantives, .... 337 2. Adjectives with a substantive prefixed, 338 3. Verbs, or participles, with a substantive prefixed, . . ib. II. Words compounded with an adjective prefixed, . . . 339 1. Substantives with an adjective prefixed, ib. 2. Adjectives compounded with adjectives, ib. 3. Verbs, or participles, with an adjective prefixed, . . 340 III. Words compounded with a verb prefixed, ib. IV. Words compounded with a preposition prefixed, . . .341 Of the gender of a word compounded of two substantives, 342 xxii Contents. PART III. OF SYNTAX CHAPTER I. OF C ON C O RD . PAGE Section 1 Of the Agreement of the Article with its Substantive, and of its Collocation, 344 Section 2 Of the Collocation of the Adjective, and of its Agree- ment with its Substantive, 347 Section 3. — Of the Collocation and Agreement of Pronouns with their Antecedents, 354 Section 4. — Of the Agreemeyit of a Verb with its Nominative Case, 356 The verb naturally stands before its nominative case, . 357-361 Agreement of the verb with, the relative in old writings, . . 360 Examples of the nominative before the verb, 361 Examples of the nominative before the infinitive . . 361-364 The assertive verb ip often understood, 365 Agreement of substantives by apposition, ib. CHAPTER II. OF GOVERNMENT. Section 1 Of the Government of Substantives, 367 General rules, ib. Of the government of o and mac in surnames, 368 Section 2. — Of the Government of Adjectives, ... '. . 369 Of the comparative degree, 370 Of the old comparative in icep, ib. Of the comparative with ae suffixed, 371 Contents. xxiii PAGE Of the superlative degree, 371 Influence of the numerals on the initials of nouns, .... 372 Section 3. — Of the Government and Collocation of Pronouns, . 373 Influence of the possessive pronouns on the initials of their substantives, ib. Collocation of the relative, and its influence on the initials of verbs, 375 The relative disguised in synthetic unions with prepositions, 377 Of the relative noc, ib. Ambiguous construction of the relative, 377 Government of possessive pronouns combined with preposi- tions, 378 Idiomatic construction of possessive pronouns with the verb cct, and the preposition a, or ann, ib. Collocation of interrogative pronouns, 379 Collocation of demonstrative pronouns, 380 Collocation and influence of jac, jacci, 381 Section 4. — Of the Government of Verbs, 382 Natural order of an Irish sentence, ib. Of the accusative form of nouns supposed to be different from the nominative, ib. Ancient collocation of the accusative of pronouns, .... 383 Construction of ctj a, 'get, and o'á, with verbal nouns, . . ib. Of verbs active which require a preposition after them, . . 384 Construction of the infinitive mood, 384-386 The infinitive active has sometimes a passive signification, . 386 How the nominative case absolute in English, or the ablative absolute in Latin, is expressed in Irish, ib. Influence of b a, or buo, on the initials of nouns, . ... ib. One verb governs another in the infinitive, . - 387 Ancient verbs not now found in modern Irish, ib. Section 5. — Of the Government and Collocation of Adverbs, . 388 Of adverbs as mere expletives, 389 Of the collocation of compound adverbs, ib. xxiv Contents. PAGE Of adverbs in connexion with verbs of motion, 390 Of adverbs in connexion with verbs of rest, ib. No adverbs in modern Irish to express yes, or wo, . . . . ib. Section 6. — Of the Government of Prepositions, ib. Influence of a, or 1, lap, pia, and 50, or co (with), . . .391 Amalgamation of a or 1, with nouns beginning with I, m, p, in ancient Irish, ib. Influence of ap, oe, bo, pá, mip, map, 6, and cpé, . . . 392 Of nouns following aj, 50, or co (to), le, or pe, and óp, . ib. Of the preposition gun, 393 Influence of prepositions on the initials of articulated nouns, ib. Influence of 00 on the initials of articulated nouns, . . . 394 Influence of íp, jup, po, cpep, 0, ap, leip, and pep, on the initials of articulated nouns, 395 Influence of 00, pop, íp, and lap, on the initials of articu- lated nouns, ib. Provincial peculiarities in the influence of 00 and oe, . . 396 Influence of the relative, when governed by a preposition, on the initials of the verbs which follow it, 397 Forms of arm, a, 50, lap, 1, le, pe, cpe, before the article, . 398 Repetition of the simple preposition, ib. Government of compound prepositions, 399 Section 7. — Of the Government of Conjunctions, ib. Ofajup, ib. Of ace, 400 Of ni, n uc, or noca, muna, an, 50, and map, ib. Of má, ... . 401 Of the particles ap, 00 or po, jup, má, map, nacap,ní, niop, nocap, and pul, ib. Of íoná, ib. Ofoá, 402 Of net, when prohibitive, ib. Of an, 50, oá, lap, map a, muna, nac, noca, ib. Section 8. — Of the Government of Interjections, ib. Contents. xxv PART IV. OF PROSODY CHAPTER I. OF PRONUNCIATION. PAGE Section 1 — Of Accent, 403 Rules to determine the primary and secondary accent, 403-407 Section 2 Of Quantity, 407 General rules for the quantity of simple vowels, . . . . ib. Special rules for the quantity of simple vowels, 408 Rules for the quantity of diphthongs, 409 CHAPTER II. OF VERSIFICATION. Section 1 Of Dan Direach Verse, 412 Requisites of Dan Direach verse, ib. 1. Rann, or quatrain, 413 2. Concord, or alliteration, ib. 3. Correspondence, 415 Classification of consonants by the ancient Irish poets, ib. 4. Termination, or Rinn, 417 5. Union, or Uaithne, 418 6. Head, or Ceann, ib. 7. Amus, 419 Five species of Dan Direach verse, ib. Of Deibhidke, ib. Of Seadna, 420 Of the two kinds of Rannaigheacht, 422 Of Casbhairn, 423 d xxvi Contents. PAGE Section 2 Of Oglachas, 424 Section 3 Of Droighneach, 426 Section 4 Of Bruilingeacht, ib. Of the vulgar poetry called Abhran Burdun, Caoine, and Tuireadh, 427 Appendix. I. Of contractions and abbreviations, 429 II. Specimens of the Irish language from the seventh to the seventeenth century, 436 III. Addenda et Corrigenda, 458 INTRODUCTION. Section I. — Of the Origin of Writing and Letters in Ireland. The question whether the pagan Irish had the use of alpha- betic writing has often been discussed. Bollandus* and Innes b deny that the Irish were a lettered people before they received the Roman alphabet from the Christian missionaries ; but the question has not been as yet handled on either side with a moderation likely to elicit the truth. O' Flaherty states that if Bollandus had consulted any Irishmen, well informed in the antiquities of Ireland, they could have produced for him the names of writers who had flourished in different ages before the mission of St. Patrick . And in this assertion he was per- fectly borne out by the Bardic traditional history of pagan Ireland ; for we read that letters were known not only to the Scotic or Milesian colony, but also to their predecessors, the Tuatha De Dananns d . Several poets of distinction are men- * Acta SS. ad 17 Mart. torn. 2, turn diversis saeculis floruerunt." in Vit. S. Patr. sect. 4. — Ogyg. Part iii. c. 30. b See the arguments of Innes, d No Ogham inscriptions have, quoted hereafter, p. xxxiv. however, as yet been found on c " Certe si Bollandus Hiber- any of the monuments ascribed nos antiquitatum suarum peritos by the Irish writers to the Tua- consuleret, facile in medium pro- tha De Dananns, excepting the ferrent, scriptorum nomenclatu- cave in the mound at New Grange, ram qui ante S. Patricii apostola- which exhibits a few Ogham cha- xxviii Introduction. tioned as of the Tuatha De Danann colony ; and among the rest Ogma Mac Elathain, who is said to have invented one of the species of virgular characters called Ogham e ; and Brigid, daughter of the Dagda, who was worshipped by the poets of after ages as the goddess of poetry. Among the Scotic or Milesian colony, on their arrival in Ireland from Spain, we find Amergin, the brother of the leader of the colony, who is said to have been their poet, and chief Brehon or Judge; and there are on bardic record also the names of many poets and legislators, from this period down to Forchern, who is said to have composed the Uraicecht, or Primer of the Bards, in the first century. But the writers of the traditional history of Ire- land go farther, and give a regular account of the period at which, and the persons by whom, the Irish letters were in- vented. They tell us that Fenius Farsaidh, King of Scythia, the great grandson of Japheth, son of Noah, set up a school of learning on the plain of Shenaar, which the Book of Druim- racters, and near them, a de- begins : cided representation of a palm " Came loc ycnmpn 7 peppu branch. To say that these are 7 pac cnpic in Ojaim? Ninn. forgeries, and that they were en- 60c 00 Ribepnia inpola quam graved on the stone since the cave nopScoci habicamup, 1 n-aimpip was opened in 1699, would be to 6pepe, mic Glarain, pi^Gpinn. beg the question. A great num- peppo 00 Ojma, mac Glarain, ber of the stones within the cham- mic tDelbaic, oepbparaip 00 ber, as Avell as those in the gal- 6pep; áp 6pep, 7 Ojma, 7 lery which leads to it, are carved Oelbaec 111 mic Glarain. with spiral, lozenge-shaped, and " What is the place and time, zig-zag lines, but these are evi- and person, and cause of [invent-, dently intended as ornaments, ing] the Ogum? Not difficult, and not as phonetic characters or The place of it, Hibernia Insola hieroglyphics. quam nos Scoti habitamus ; in the c In the Book of Ballymote, time of Bres, son of Elathan, King fol. 167, b,b, commences a tract oiTreland. Its person [inventor], on the Ogham alphabets, in which Ogma, son of Elathan, son of the first invention of them is Delbhaeth, brother of Bres; for ascribed to Ogma, son of Elathan, Bres, and Ogma, and Delbhaeth, above mentioned. This tract were the three sons of Elathan." Introduction. xxix Sneachta places at Eothica f , two hundred and forty-two years after the deluge, and having two assistants, Gaedhal, son of Eathor, and Iar, son of Nemha, otherwise called Cai Cain- bhreathach : he there taught the Hebrew and the various lan- guages which came into existence after the confusion of tongues. After having presided over the school of Shenaar for twenty years, Fenius returned to his kingdom of Scythia, and there established schools, over which he appointed Gaedhal, the son of Eathor, as president. King Fenius then ordered Gaedhal to arrange and digest the Gaelic language into five dialects, the most polished of which was to be named Bearla Feine, after Fenius himself, while the language generally was to be named Gaidhelg, from Gaedhal. Fenius Farsaidh, we are told, reigned over Scythia for a period of twenty-two years after his return from the plain of Shenaar. He had two sons, Nenual and Niul ; to the elder of whom he bequeathed his kingdom, but to the younger nothing but his learning. Niul continued for many years teaching in the public schools of Scythia, until the fame of his learning spread abroad into the neighbouring kingdoms, and at length Pharoah Cingcris [Cinchres], King of Egypt, invited him to his country to in- struct the Egyptians in the various languages and sciences of which he was master. Niul set out for Egypt, and Pharoah was so pleased with him, that he bestowed upon him the lands called Capaciront, or Capacir, situated near the Red Sea, and gave him his daughter Scota in marriage, from whom the Mile- sian Irish were afterwards called Scoti. After his marriage Niul g erected public schools at Capaciront, and was there, instructing f The Book of Drum- sneachta, tions removed from him, according quoted by Keating. to the genealogical lines preserved g To this royal schoolmaster of in ancient and modern books and Egypt the chief Milesian families MSS. Thus, the present Viscount of Ireland trace their pedigrees, O'Neill is 129 generations re- and are now about 118 genera- moved from him; Sir Richard XXX Introduction. the Egyptians in the arts and sciences, at the very time that Moses took upon him the command of the children of Israel, 797 years after the deluge. At this time Niul had by Scota a son whom he named Gaedhal, in honour of his friend Gaedhal, the son of Eathor, and from him, according to some of our historians, the Irish were called Gaoidhil, and their language Gaoidheilg. The descendants of this famous schoolmaster, after various adventures by sea and land, emigrating from Egypt to Crete; from Crete to Scythia; from Scythia to Gothia, or Getulia ; from Gothia, or Getulia, to Spain ; from Spain to Scythia ; from Scythia to Egypt again ; from Egypt to Thrace ; from Thrace to Gothia ; from Gothia to Spain h ; finally arrived in Ireland under the conduct of two brothers, O'Donel 1 15 ; O'Conor Don 118; O'Dowda 116; the Marquis of Thomond 117; Justin Mac Car- thy, of Carrignavar, 117; and O' Donovan 115. Now by allow- ing thirty years to each genera- tion, it will appear, that Niul may have flourished about 3540 years ago, or 1695 years before Christ. This calculation will shew that the number of generations would sufficiently fill up the space of time ; and that the line is not such a blundering forgery as might be supposed ; but until we discover some real authority to prove by what means the Scotic or Gaelic race were able to preserve the names of all their ancestors, from the time of Moses to the first century, we must re- gard the previous line of pedigree thence to Niul and Fenius, as a forgery of the Christian bards. Certain it is that at the present day oral tradition does not pre- serve the names of ancestors among the modern Irish, with any certainty, beyond the sixth gene- ration. The author has tested this fact in every part of Ireland. h Lhwyd, in one of his letters to Mr. Rowland, the author of Mona Antiqua, expresses himself as follows on this subject: "In- deed it seems to me that the Irish have, in a great measure, kept up two languages, the ancient Bri- tish, and old Spanish, which a colony of them brought from Spain. For notwithstanding their histories (as those of the origin of other nations) be involved in fabulous accounts, yet that there came a Spanish colony into Ire- land is very manifest, from a com- parison of the Irish tongue partly with the modern Spanish, but especially with the Cantabrian, or Basque; and this should en- gage us to have something of more regard than we usually have to such fabulous histories." Sir William Betham, who has laboured more strenuously than even any of the native Irish wri- ters of our times, to support the truth of the pagan history of Ire- Introduction. xxxi Heber and Heremon, sons of Milesius, and the twenty-first in descent from Gaedhal, son of Niul. We are told further in the Uraicecht, preserved in the Book of Lecan 1 , that the ancient Irish alphabet did not begin with the letters a, b, c, like the Latin, nor with a, b, g, like the Greek and Hebrew alphabets, but with the letters b } l 9 f, from which it received its name of Bobel-loth, or with b, /, n, from which it received the appellation of Beth-luis- nion. Each of the letters of the Bobel-loth alphabet took its name from one of the masters who taught at the great schools under Fenius Farsaidh, and in the Beth-luis-nion alpha- bet each letter was named after some tree, for w T hat reason we know notf. The names and order of the letters in the Bobel-loth alpha- bet are as follows: b Bobel. I Loth. p Foronn. p Saliath. n Nabgadon. h Hiruath or Uria. o Davith. land, has attempted to prove, in his Etruria Celtica, " that the Milesian invaders of Ireland were those Phoenician colonists, who, with their brethren of Britain, after the destruction of the Phoe- nician cities and power, became independent, and carried on trade with their neighbours of the Continent, and after many ages were found by the Romans under Caesar in Gaul and Britain ; that the Phoenician Celts, on their first invasion of the British Is- lands and Gaul, were a literate people, possessing alphabetic writ- c Talemon. c CaL q Qualep. m Mareth. 5 Gath. nj Ngoimer. ft> Stru. ing and the elements of learning, and that the Irish is but a modi- fication of the old Cadmean Phoe- nician alphabet, in like manner as are the Etruscan, Greek, and Roman." — Etruria Celtica, vol. i. p. 10. i Fol. 158 a, and 169 a. Ogy- gia, p. 235. There is a still more ancient copy of the Uraicecht in a MS. in the British Museum. J Whoever wishes to read a long dissertation on this subject, a singular specimen of ingenious trifling, may consult Davies' Cel- tic Researches. xxxn Introduction. p" Ruben. a Achab. o Ose. u Uriath. i Etrocuis or Esu. eu Iachim or Iumelchus. 01 Ordinos. ui Judsemos. 10 Jodonius. ao Aifrin. The Beth-luis-nion alphabet is similarly arranged, but the names of the letters are taken from trees or shrubs, as follows : b beich, the birch. P perpoc, unknown. I luip, the mountain ash. z > prpaip, the sloe tree. F peapn, the alder. p puip, the elder. r pail, the willow. a ailm, the fir tree. n nion, the ash. o onn, furze. h huac, the hawthorn. u up, heath. t> ouip, the oak. e eaóaó, the aspen. c rinne, unknown. l íóaó, the yew. c coll, hazel. ea eabaó, the aspen. q queipc, the apple tree. oi oip, the spindle tree. m mum, the vine. Ul uilleann, woodbine. 5 o"opc, ivy. lO lpm, gooseberry. n 5 ngeoal, the reed. ea amhancholl. — unknown k On this simple story, handed down by the Irish bards, O' Flaherty remarks: "What if I should assert that our Fenius was that Phoenix who invented those ancient Greek characters which the Latins speak of. The Irish letters are not very unlike the Latin ; the names of Phoenix and Fenisius, or Phoenius, are not very different, and the inven-. tion supports it ; the time and place in matters of such antiquity are very often confounded. Besides I have the k O'Flaherty acknowledges that he did not know the mean- ing of this name ; but the Rev. Paul O'Brien, to whose etymolo- gical vision nothing presented the slightest difficulty, makes it ampachol (Grammar, p. 210), which he forces to signify witch hazle, being derived, according to him from am pa, vision [although the first portion of the word is anion, not ariipa] and col, hazle. Introduction. xxxiu authority of the above cited poet, Forchern, in favour of my conjecture, in' whom we read : * The book of Forchern begins. The place of the book [i. e. the place where it was written or published] was Emania. The time, when Conquovar, the son of Nessa, ruled Ulster. The person [i. e. the author of the book] was Forchern, the philosopher. Fenius Farsaidh composed the first alphabets of the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Latins, and also the Beth-lius-nin [i. e. the Irish alphabet], and OghumV" 4 " Quid si dicerem Fenisium nostrum istum fuisse Phcenicem literarum auctorem, qui Grsecas eas vetustas depingeret, quas La- tini referunt? a Latinis Hiber- nica3 non omnino abhorrent ; Phcenicis, et Fenisii, vel Phoenii nomen non abludit, et inventio suffragatur ; ternpus et patria in hujusmodi antiquioribus sajpissi- mé confunduntur. Prseterea con- jee turae meae non deest authoritas supra laudati Forcherni poetag, apud quern sic habetur. Incipit liber Forcherni. Locus libri [locus quo in lucem editus] Emania [Ultoniae regia]. Tempus, Con- quovaro jilio Nessce ; sc. Ultoniam moderante. Persona [author li- bri] Forchernus philosophus [file- áÁlaj,Feniu8 [Fenisius] Farsaidh alphabetaprimaHebrcporitm,Grce- corum, Latinontm, et Bethluis- nin [alphabetum Scoticum] an Oghuim composuit." — Ogyg. Part iii. c. 30, p. 221. In the same chapter, O'Fla- herty, after enumerating many of the poets, legislators, and other literati of pagan Ireland, says ex- ultingly (p. 219): " Postremo Dualdus Firbissius patriae anti- quitatum professor hereditarius ex Majorum monumentis Uteris datis refert 180 Druidum, sen Magorum disciplina3 tractatus S. Patricii tempore igni damnatos." This assertion is very bold indeed, but no reference to it is found in any of the old Lives of St. Patrick published by Colgan, or in the Book of Armagh, and it is to be feared, that O'Flaherty has mis- taken the meaning of the words of Mac Firbis, who generally Avrote in the old Irish style, with which O'Flaherty had but a tolerable acquaintance. And he adds, that the same Duald Firbis Avrote him an account of his being in possession of some of the taibhle fileadh, or poets' tablets, made of the birch tree. " Sco- ticis Uteris quinque accidunt, in quorum singulis ab aliarum gen- tium Uteris discrepant ; nirni- rum, Nomen, Ordo, Numerus, Character, et Potestas. Et quia imperiti literarum in chartá, ali- ave idla materia ad memoriam pingendarum harms rerum igna- rus incauté effutiit Bolandus, de materia aliquid praefabor. Ea ante pergamenae usum tabulae erant e betulla arbore compla- natae, quas Oraiun et Taibhh* xxxiv Introduction. These statements of 0' Flaherty were sufficient to satisfy the mere Irish scholars of his day, but not so a Scotch writer, who flourished soon after, namely, Thomas Innes, M. A., a Roman Catholic priest, of acute mind and true learning. In his " Critical Essay on the ancient Inhabitants of the northern Parts of Britain or Scotland" London, 1729, he thus ex- amines O'Flaherty's arguments in proof of the use of letters among the pagan Irish : " We come now to examine the proofs that Flaherty brings, of the ancient use of letters among the Irish, before they re- ceived Christianity. The first is, that they have or had many books, poems, and histories, written in their Pagan ancestors' times. But all that is nothing but to beg the question, and to suppose what is under debate, till these books, or some of them, be published to the world, with fair literal translations, and documents to prove their authority and age, and to shew how, and where they have been preserved during so many ages. "2°. Flaherty, for a proof that the Irish had not the use of letters from the Latins, and by consequence that their letters were much ancienter than the preaching of the Gospel among them, and peculiar to the Irish, tells us, that their let- ters differed from those of the Latins, and all others in name, order, character, number, and pronunciation and force : to shew this, he gives from the Book of Lecan (an Irish MS. about three hundred years old) the copy of the Latin alpha- bet, inverted and digested in a new arbitrary order, with the names of trees attributed to each letter, beginning with the three letters b, l, n ; and from thence called Beth-luis-nion. Fileadh. i. Tabulas Philosophicas virgeos characteres nomine re- dicebant. Ex his aliquas inter censet, non ita pridem ad me antiquitatum niomimenta apud scripsit Dualdus Firbissius rei se superfuisse, ut et diversas cha- antiquarian Hibernorum unicum, racterum formulas, quas ter quin- dum vixit, columen, et extinctus, quagenas a Fenisii usque aetate detrimentum." — Ogygia, p. 233. numero, et Craobh Ogham .i. Introduction. xxxv And this he pretends was the ancient Irish alphabet, before they had communication with the Latins and Romans. " But when Flaherty sets about to prove the antiquity of this Beth-luis-nion, he brings for proofs stories more incredi- ble than the facts themselves, which he intends to prove by them. Flaherty tells us then the story we made mention of already from Keating and Toland : that the first author of this alphabet was Fenius-Farsaidh, who composed, says Fla- herty, the alphabets of the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins ; the Beth-luis-nion and the Ogum. This Fenius Farsaidh (as we said before) was, according to the Irish Seanachies, great grand-child to Jqfeth, son to Noah, and lived in Noah's own time, about one hundred years after the deluge. For this piece of antiquity, Flaherty quotes one Forcherne, an Irish poet, who, as a late Irish writer informs us, lived one hundred years before the incarnation. Now, not to ask how this poet Forcherne, or Feirtcheirne, as old as he is placed, knew so distinctly things past, above two thousand years before the time in which he is classed, it may at least be enquired, by what spirit of prophecy this Fenius Farsaidh composed the Greek alphabets so long before Cecrops and Cadmus, and that of the Romans, some 1700 years before the Romans were a people. And will the authority of Lecan, a MS. of about three hundred years, convince the learned of so rare a disco- very, as that of an Irish writer one hundred years before the birth of Christ ? " But to let that paradox pass, there needs no great skill of the Irish language, to shew that the Beth-luis-nion is nothing else but an invention of some of the Irish Seanachies ; who, since they received the use of letters, have put the Latin alphabet into a new arbitrary order, and assigned to each letter a name of some tree ; and that this was not the genuine alphabet of the Irish in ancient times, or peculiar to them, but a bare inversion of the Latin alphabet. xxxvi Introduction. " For 1°. The genuine Irish alphabet consists only of eighteen letters ; for so many only they make use of in that tongue, viz. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u ; whereas in Flaherty's Beth-luis-nion there are twenty-six let- ters, that is, eight supernumerary, viz. q, x, y, z, oi, io, ng, and ea: of these eight there are four which are never used in the genuine Irish, viz. q, x, y, and z ; at least in such Irish books or MSS. as I could hitherto ever meet with, or hear of: but they are in use in the Latin tongue, and with the other eighteen letters make up the Latin alphabet : which therefore the Irish bard must have had before him when he invented the Beth-luis-nion. As to the syllables oi, io, ea, and double letter ng, which are the other four letters in the Beth-luis-nion, they have no one proper character in the Irish, distinct from the common alphabet, but are expressed by two of the usual letters of it ; and nothing but meer fancy could have placed them in this new alphabet as distinct letters from the other eighteen. So, I think, it is plain that this Beth- luis-nion was neither the genuine Irish alphabet, nor was in use among them till after the times of Christianity, when they received the use of the Latin letters, whereof this is but a bare transposition. "As to the names of trees attributed to each letter, it seems visibly the work of meer fancy, without any reason or motive, there being no resemblance in the character of these letters to these trees, from whence this bard hath named them : whereas in the languages where the names of the letters are significative, as generally those of the Hebrew, the thing meant by these letters hath often some resemblance to the figure of the letter. And as for the term Feadha, Woods, which they gave to this alphabet, it was natural to call by the name of a forest or wood an alphabet whereof each letter was metamorphosed into a tree. " Another proof which the Irish modern writers bring Introduction. xxxvii for the antiquity of their letters, is from the form of their characters, as being peculiar to the Irish, and not agreeing with the Greek or Latin characters, or perhaps any other now in the world. But such arguments as these are only fit to impose upon those that never saw any Latin books or characters, but in vulgar print ; and never had occasion to see any MS. but Irish : for if they had seen any ancient Latin MSS. or characters, they would have found, in the first place, by perusing those of the sixth, seventh, eighth, and following ages, down to the time of printing, as great differences betwixt the figures of letters, and form of the writing in MSS. of all countries, and the common print, as betwixt the usual characters in printed books, and those of the Irish ; and yet originally all of them derived from the ancient Roman or Latin characters or letters. " In the second place, the inspection of old Latin MSS. or charters will furnish new proofs to demonstrate, that the Irish had their letters originally from the Latins, or those that used the Latin characters ; for all the characters of the Irish letters (without excepting the Saxon y, 5, n, r, which seem more extraordinary to vulgar readers) are generally to be met with in the same form in ancient MSS. and char- ters, not only of Britain, but none of them but are in MSS. of other foreign countries™, who had nothing to do with Ireland. m Mr. Mac Elligott, in his Ob- from the Irish." p. 38. It is servations on the Gaelic Lan- very true that the people who guage, published in the Trans- were converted to Christianity actions of the Gaelic Society of by the Irish missionaries in the Dublin, says : " Let any one seventh and eighth centuries, look into Astle, on the Origin and first obtained their letters from Progress of Alphabetic writing, those missionaries ; but it must the Spectacle de la Nature, and be confessed that the oldest in- the early printed Classics, and he scrip tions found in Ireland (ex- will be convinced that the small cepting the Ogham), are in the alphabet used in early ages all Roman alphabet of the fifth cen- through Europe, was borrowed tury, and it is well known that xxxviii Introduction. And in many countries, where no body doubts they had the first use of letters from the Latins, the characters of old MSS. differ much more from the vulgar printed characters of the Latin than the Irish do. Such are the Merovingian and Longobardick characters : for a proof of this I refer the rea- der to schemes of characters, and of old writ, which he will find in the learned F Mabilloris book, De Re Diplomatica, in case he have not the opportunity to inspect Latin MSS. where he will generally find, even in MSS. of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth ages, much the same characters, or forms of letters, that are made use of in the Irish tongue ; and little or no difference, but in the forms of abbreviations : for which, not only the people of different languages, but every different writer, may invent such characters, or forms of contractions, as he fancies will most abridge. " The same thing may be said as to the notes for writing secrets, called by the Irish Ogum ; of which Waraeus says he had some copies ; and one Donald Forbis mentions others : for no body doubts but the Irish had their notes or cyphers for writing short-hand, and keeping their secrets ; especially the Druids, for preserving from the knowledge of Christians the secret of their profane mysteries, made use, no doubt, of secret characters or letters, from the time that once the use of letters was introduced in Ireland, All other nations, and every private man, may have the same, for keeping secrets, and those entirely different from their usual letters : such among the Romans were the Notce Tironis, whereof a speci- men may be seen in F. Mabilloris diplomaticks. Trithemius also hath written a book on the subject, De Steganographia : so I do not well conceive for what this serves towards proving the antiquity of the Irish letters ; or that they were not ori- this, more or less modified, pre- introduction of the Gothic style vailed all over Europe till the of writing. Introduction. xxxix ginally the same as the Roman or Latin character. Since Wararns, who is brought in to prove that the Irish had such characters, tells us, that the Ogum did not contain the Irish vulgar character, but a hidden way of writing for preserving their secrets. " And thus far as to the arguments brought by Flaherty, and other modern Irish writers, against the opinion of the learned Bollandus, concerning the ancient use of letters in Ireland; with which subject, tho' Flaherty fills up about thirty pages of his Ogygia ; yet the far greatest part is spent in useless flourishes on the origin of letters in general, and on the use and new order of the Irish new invention of Beth- luis-nion, there being little in his book, besides what we have mentioned, that looks like proofs of their having had the use of letters before Christianity, unless we call proofs cita- tions of legends of St. Patrick's life, written long after his time. 44 After all, I do not pretend that no private person among the Irish had the use of letters before the coming in of St. Patrick, and the preaching of the Gospel to them : for it may have very well happened, that some of the Irish, before that time, passing over to Britain, or other parts of the Roman empire, where the use of letters was common, might have learned to read and write. It might also have happened that the Druids, who were the magicians of these times, might have had certain hieroglyphick characters to express their diabolical mysteries ; and that the remains of those are what Toland and others make such a noise about. But if the Irish had any distinct character or form of alphabetical letters dif- ferent from those which we have above mentioned, and which were introduced to Ireland by St. Patrick, how comes it that all this time, especially within these last fifty or sixty years, that the matter hath been agitated, and the dispute warm about it, none of them have ever published any specimen of xl Introduction. these peculiar Irish letters, or at least an alphabet of them : such as F. Mabillon hath given of all ancient forms of letters, and Dr. Hickes more particularly of the Runick, and other northern characters ?" vol. ii. pp. 444-452. Not long after Innes, we find Dr. O'Brien reject the Milesian story as utterly unsupported by true history. In his strictures on the author of the Remains of Japhet, he writes as follows in the Preface to his Irish Dictionary : " As for this learned writer's making the Irish language a dialect of the Scythian, formed, as he says, upon the autho- rity of the Irish bards, at the famous school on the plains of Shinar, or Senaar, by a king of Scythia, called Feniusa Farsa, son of Baath, who is pretended to be a son of Magog, I do not conceive how he can reconcile this opinion of the Irish being a dialect of the Scythian or Magogian language, with that circumstance he mentions, p. 119, l that it is called Gaoidhealg, from its first professor at the above school, by name Gadel, a Gomerian/ and that the language he then spoke and taught as an usher of that school under thai; royal schoolmaster Feniusa Farsa, grandson of Magog, is the lan- guage of the native Irish to this day ; a very venerable anti- quity, I must confess. But at the same time I cannot but regret that this worthy gentleman, who appears but too well inclined to favour the antiquities of Ireland and Britain, did not consider that nothing could be of greater prejudice or discredit to them than asserting those fabulous genealogies, and the stories of the travels of the supposed leaders and chiefs of their ancient colonies, such as have been rejected with just contempt by all learned nations, first invented in Ireland by bards and romancers, after they came to some knowledge both of the sacred writings and profane histories ; and in Britain by Nennius and Jeffry of Monmouth." And again, in his remarks on the letter A. " We should not, in the mean time, forget that it is to this Introduction. xli change made in the words Gaill and Galic, doubtless by our heathenish bards who inserted the letter d, that we owe the important discovery necessarily reserved to their successors who embraced Christianity, of those illustrious personages Gadel and Gadelus ; the former an usher under that royal schoolmaster Pheniusa Farsa, king of Scythia, in his famous school on the plain of Sennaar, where this Gadel invented the Irish alphabet and the Gadelian language, so called, as it is pretended, from his name ; and the latter a grandson of that king by his son Kiul, married to Scota, daughter of Pharaoh Cingris, as our bards call him, instead of Cinchres, king of Egypt, under whose reign, they tell us, Moses and our Gadelus were cotemporaries and great friends : and from this Gadelus our learned bards gravely assure us that the Irish derive their name of Gadclians, who, they tell us, were also called Scots, from his wife the ^Egyptian princess Scota. This discovery, I have said, was necessarily reserved to our Christian bards, as their heathenish predecessors most cer- tainly could have no notion of the plain of Sennaar, of Pha- raoh, or of Moses ; objects not to be known but from the Holy Scriptures, or some writings derived from them, such as those of Josephus, Philo, &c. never known to the Irish bards before their Christianity." Charles O' Conor, of Belanagar, also, though in his youth he had believed the pagan traditions with the same facility and enthusiasm as O'Flaherty, yet in his maturer years, gave up all hope of being able to convince the learned of the truth of the pagan history of Ireland, as handed down by the bards. On this subject he writes as follows, in his " Disser- tation on the Origin and Antiquities of the ancient Scots of Ireland and Britain," prefixed to O'Flaherty's " Ogygia Vin- dicated," which he edited in the year 1775. " Our earliest accounts of Ireland have been handed down to us by the bards, a race of men well qualified for f xlii Introduction. working on the barren ground of broken traditions. Poetic invention gave existence to facts vvhich had none in nature, and an origin which included some genuine truths, has been obscured by forged adventures on sea and land. A succession of monarchs has been framed, many of whom never reigned, and the line of genealogy has been opened, to make room for redundancies, without which the succession of so many mo- narchs could not be admitted by the most ductile credulity. " Thus it fared in the infancy of things in Ireland, as well as in every other European country ; and in all, we will find that the introduction of letters, far from limiting, has, in fact, enlarged (for a considerable time) the sphere of the ostenta- tious and marvellous. The registering of facts under the direction of nature and truth, has been the work of ages ad- vanced in civilization. To these we will hasten ; and that we may give no line to a fugitive hypothesis, or the fanciful excursions of ingenious idleness, we will not attempt to pass any of our most antient traditions on our readers, but such as may be supported by parallel documents of foreign anti- quaries, who held no correspondence with the natives of this island 11 ." He does not, however, go so far as to give up all claims of the pagan Irish to the use of letters : far from it; he argues that the ancestors of the Scoti must have had communications with the Phoenician colonies in Spain, from whom they must have borrowed their seventeen letters " so different in their powers, names and arrangement from those of the Greeks and Romans." He then writes as follows . " This people, it is certain, know so little of Greek or Roman learning, that it was only in the fifth century they have learned the use of the Roman alphabet from the Christian missionaries. It was then, or soon after, that they laid aside their own uncouth and virgular characters, their Beth-luis- n pp. xxvii, xxviii. Introduction. xliii nion, and the Ogum ; the form heretofore used, and since pre- served by the antiquaries, either from vanity, or the more rational motives of preserving an antient fact worthy of being recorded. The old manner of writing was indeed useless to the public, after a better and more elegant form was intro- duced ; but yet the retention of the Ogum has had its use in latter times, by convincing us that the heathen Irish had the means of conveying their thoughts in cyphers, and conse- quently of recording memorable events, for the information and instruction of posterity. — Their jurisprudence, partly still preserved, the succession of their monarchs, their accurate chronology, and their genealogies, transmitted with great care from the first to the fifth century, are incontestible proofs of this truth. An earlier or more creditable era of cultivation than that, which began with the monarch Feradach the Just, (a hundred years after the birth of Christ,) no nation in Europe can boast ." Dr. Ledwich, however, argues that the Irish Ogums were secret alphabets invented in the middle ages, like the Runic inscriptions of the northern nations. He says : " Verelius, VVormius, with many existing monuments prove, that the Northerns writ their runes in every possible form ; in circles, in angles, from right to left, and vice versa. Wormius enumerates twelve different ways of making runic inscriptions. The German Buchstab or runes were drawn sometimes in horizontal, and sometimes in perpendicular lines. Here we have, if not the original of our Ogum Craobh, a practice exactly similar. In a word, these wonderful Irish Ogums were nothing, as we see, but a stenographic, or stega- nographic contrivance, common to the semibarbarians of Europe in the middle ages, and very probably derived from the Romans p ." ° pp. xxxviii, xxxix. p Antiquities of Ireland, 2nd edit., pp. 330, 331. xliv Introduction. The pagan antiquity of the Irish Oghams cannot be now established, to the satisfaction of the learned, except by exist- ing monuments. It must be first proved that the monuments are undoubtedly pagan, and secondly, that the inscriptions are cotemporaneous with such monuments, and not fabrica- tions of after ages. The only monument with an Ogham inscription yet discovered, which exhibits all the apparent features of a pagan monument, is an artificial cave near the castle ofDunloe, in the county of Kerry. This interesting remain of ancient Ireland was discovered in 1838, by the workmen of Daniel Mahony, Esq., of Dunloe Castle. In constructing a sunk fence in one of the fields of the demesne, they broke into a subterranean chamber, of a curved form, which proved to be the termination of a gallery. The sides of the cave are constructed of rude stones, without any kind of cement, and the roof is formed of long stones, laid horizon- tally ; an upright stone pillar extends from the centre of the floor of the cave to the roof, and is evidently designed to sup- port it. This pillar stone is inscribed with Ogham characters, as are four of those which form the roof, in such a manner as to impress the conviction that they had been inscribed before they were placed in their present positions. In the passage were found several human skulls and bones, which clearly in- dicated the sepulchral character of the monument, and which Mr. Mahony removed to Dunloe Castle, in order to preserve them. The Author of this Grammar examined this cave in the year 1841, and can testify that the inscriptions are not fa- brications ; but whether the monument be pagan or early Christian, he will not take upon him to decide. Ogham inscriptions are constantly referred to in the oldest Irish his- torical tales, as engraved on the tombs and monuments of pagan kings and chieftains, and from these tales it would appear that they contained simply the names of the persons Introduction. xlv interred. Thus in the story in Leabhar na h- Uidhri, about the identifying of the grave of King Fothadh Airgtheach, in the third century, it is stated that his headstone exhibited, in Ogham characters, the inscription : pochat) curccuhech ino so, " Fothadh Airgthech here/' Also in a very ancient poem, beginning Ogum lllia, lia uap leacc, " Ogum on the stone, the stone over the monument," preserved in the Book of Leinster, p. 28, b, a stone placed over a monument, with an Ogham inscription, situated on the site of a battle fought in the third century, is thus alluded to : In c-ojum úc pil if in cloic, Imma copcpacup móp; Oammapeo pinb piccib jlono, Cian bao cuman in Ojom. " That Ogum which is on the stone, Around which many were slain ; If Finn of the many battles lived, Long would the Ogum be remembered." Again, in the tale of Deirdre, published in the Transac- tions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, pp. 127, 128, the sepul- chral monument of Naisi and Deirdre is thus spoken of: t)o cójBaó a liajjj op a lecc, do pcpibaó a n-anmanna Ojaim, acap oo pepaó a ccluicce caeince. " Their stone was raised over their monument, their Ogham names were written, and their ceremony of lamentation was performed." It would be easy to multiply similar references to pagan monuments inscribed with Ogham characters, but as we have no manuscripts of pagan antiquity, the real proof of the facts above stated must be derived from the monuments themselves ; and it is to be hoped that our antiquaries, in examining the ancient Irish sites of pagan battles, earns, xlvi Introduction. sepulchral chambers, and cromlechs, will have a close look out for Ogham inscriptions. It is highly probable that such inscriptions were generally engraved on that part of the stone which was concealed by the earth, in order to prevent the air from wearing the surface of the stone. This, at least, appears to have been the case with the monument of Fothadh Airg- thech above alluded to ; but from other references it seems that the Ogham inscription was cut on the flag stone with which the monument was covered over head q , but whether on its upper or under surface, or on its external edges, we cannot determine. Ledwich, in his strictures upon O'Flanagan's paper on the Ogham inscription on the Callan mountain, in the county of Clare, asserts that the stone could not have retained the inscription from the remote period to which O' Flanagan ascribed it, and writes as follows : " Can it be imagined, that the Callan inscription has stood almost 1500 years in a naked and wild situation, uninjured by the tooth of time, and all the vicissitudes of a variable climate ? That the great Atlantic ocean, and its briny atmosphere, have had no influence on this rock, and so far from pulverizing its surface, have rendered it unfit for vegetation ? These are wonderful things ! Perhaps the venerable Druid who per- formed the funeral rites to the manes of Conal Colgach (and who has not heard of Conal Colgach ?) not only pronounced the ' sit terra levis,' but washed the stone with a magic com- position of Miseltoe, Semolus, and Selago, and in a fine pro- phetic phrenzy, predicted the amazing discoveries of Irish Antiquaries in the 18th century 1- ." q The South Munster Society subject, in which he will point of Antiquaries have made a con- out the situation and nature of siderable collection of Ogham the monuments on which they inscriptions, and Mr. Windele of are found. Cork, a zealous advocate for the r Antiquities of Ireland, 2nd civilization of the pagan Irish, edit., p. 341. intends to write a paper on the Introduction. xlvii It is, however, stated by some that this stone had lain buried beneath the earth for ages, while others asserted with confidence that the inscription was forged by Mr. John Lloyd, a Munster Irish poet of the last century, who was the first to notice it himself, in his Short Description of the County of Clare, as the monument of Conan, one of Finn Mac Cum- haill's followers! O'Flanagan, without acknowledging that it had been ever deciphered before, actually forges an Irish quatrain, which he cites as a part of the poem called the Battle of Gabhra, to prove that Conan was buried on the Callan mountain, whither he had repaired, after the battle of Gabhra, to worship the sun ! The Ogham inscriptions at Dunloe, and elsewhere in Kerry, are, however, of a more authentic character than that on the Callan mountain, but the clue to their interpreta- tion has not yet been discovered ; and it would be rash in the extreme to assume without positive proof that they are all pagan, as several of the stones, on which they are inscribed, exhibit crosses, and are clearly Christian monuments. There are various kinds of Ogham given in the tract in the Book of Ballymote already referred to, but a complete discussion of the subject would occupy too much space, and it must therefore suffice to give here the most common form, called the Ogham Craobh, or Virgular Ogham, which is as follows : • h b c c q m 5 nj pc p a o u e i ea 01 ui ía ao 1 1 | in i i h mi ' " l!l " l l l l ! " //////////if 1 I I 11 1 l lll l llll x O ^ 6 blp r n Here it is to be noted that the diphthongs beginning with e, as ea, ei, eo, eoi, are all distinguished by a cross ( x ) inter- sected by the stem line. The diphthong 01 is marked by a circle bisected by the line. The diphthongs and triphthongs beginning with u, as ua, ui, ucn, are all marked by a curve xlviii Introduction. (t)) below the line. All the diphthongs and triphthongs be- ginning with i, as ia, 10, iu, iui, are denoted by two strokes drawn below the line, with two others intersecting them at right angles. All the diphthongs beginning with a, as cro, ae, ai, are marked by four parallel strokes intersected at right angles by four others placed above the line. The letter z (ts or dz) which has been decidedly borrowed from the Roman alphabet is represented by a curve of this form t) (" represen- tans inuolutam Draconis caudam") intersected by the stem line, thus, -^; A short line drawn parallel to the stem line *=_ represents the consonant p ; and q, which was unquestion- ably borrowed from the Roman alphabet, and used by the Irish to stand for cu, is indicated by five strokes drawn per- pendicular to the stem line. — See O'Molloy's Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, pp. 135-142. In a MS. in theBritish Museum (Clarendon 15), various Oghams are described, such as Din n- Ogham, in which the name of the letters are borrowed from those of hills ; En- Ogham, in which they are borrowed from those of birds ; Dath-Ogham, from colours; Cell- Ogham, from churches, &c. ; but these are evidently contrivances of later ages. The ancient Irish also used an obscure mode of speaking, which was likewise called Ogham, and is thus described by O'Molloy : " Obscurum loquendi modum, vulgó Ojham, Antiquarijs Hibernise satis notum, quo nimirum loquebantur syllabizando voculas appellationibus litterarum, dipthongo- rum, et tripthongorum ipsis dumtaxat notisV To this mode of speaking distinct reference is made in the following entry in the Annals of Clonmacnoise, as translated by Connell Mageoghegan, in the year 1627 : " A. D. 1328. Morish O'Gibelan, master of art, one ex- ceeding well learned in the new and old laws, civille and s Grammatica, p. 133, Introduction. xlix cannon, a cunning and skillfull philosopher, an excellent poet in Irish, an eloquent and exact speaker of the speech, which in Irish is called Ogham, and one that was well seen in many- other good sciences : he was a cannon and singer at Twayme, Olfyn, Aghaconary, Killalye, Enaghdown, and Clonfert; he was official and common judge of these dioceses ; ended his life this year." But if the Irish are obliged to resign all claims to letters in the time of paganism, they can still historically boast of having writers among them before the general establishment of Christianity in the fifth century; for we must infer, from the oldest lives of St. Patrick, that there were several chris- tian bishops in Ireland on Patrick's arrival ; and we learn from St. Chrysostom, in his Demonstratio quod Christus sit Deus, written in the year 387, that the " British Islands, situ- ated outside the Mediterranean sea, and in the very ocean itself, had felt the power of the divine word, churches having been founded there, and altars erected 1 ." But the most curious information respecting the literate character of Ireland before St. Patrick's time, is derived from the accounts of Celestius, who was certainly an Irishman, and the favourite disciple of the heresiarch Pelagius. St. Jerome, alluding to a criticism of Celestius upon his Commentaries on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, thus vents his rage against this bold heretic : " Nuper indoctus calumniator erupit, qui Commentarios meos in epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios reprehendendos putat. Nee intelligit, nimiá stertens vecordiá, leges Commentariorum, &c, nee recordatur stolidissimus, et Scotorum pultibus c S. Chrysostom, Opp. torn. i. ttjc ^vvá/uecúg rov pii/marog rja- 575, B, Ed. Bened. Kai yap ai Oovto' icai yap kuku 'EkkAtj- BpETavacal vfjo-ot, ai rfjc 9a- oiai Kai OvGiaorripia 7T£7TTrya- Aárrrjc íON mace tmeNueh. " The Stone of Lugnaedon Son of Limenueh." ^^3^ The oldest Irish manu- script extant in Ireland is the Book of Armagh, now in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Brownlow. It contains a copy of the Gospels, and some very old Lives of St. Patrick ; the characters are clearly a slight modification of the Roman alphabet, with a few Greek characters in the titles of the Gospels. The Books of Durrow and Kells, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, said to be coeval with St. Columb- kille, and in his handwriting, are in the uncial character common in Europe at the pe- riod. The latter is, perhaps, the most magnificent specimen of penmanship and illumination now remaining in the western world. There is another manu- script of great age preserved in the Library of Trinity Col- lege, Dublin, called Liber Hymnorum., containing several ancient hymns in Latin and Irish, of which work there is ano- ther copy in the College of St. Isidore at Rome. This, though evidently not so ancient, nor so exquisitely beautiful, as those Hv/>" Introduction. liii already mentioned, is in the same character, and sufficiently proves that the Irish letters are immediately derived from the Roman alphabet. Ussher, in a letter to Vossius, expressed his opinion that this manuscript was then a thousand years old, but I think he increased its age by a century or two. The manuscript of the Psalter, preserved in the Cathach, or Caah, a beautiful reliquary, now the property of Sir Richard O'Donnell, is also very probably coeval with St. Columba, if indeed it be not in his handwriting. This most curious box and reliquary has been deposited, by the public spirit and good taste of its owner, in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. A fac-simile of an Irish passage in a manuscript at Cam- bray, has been recently published by Charles Purten Cooper, Esq., from which it would appear that the manuscript is probably of the eighth century. The character looks as old as that of any manuscript we have in Ireland, and differs from any of them that I have ever seen, in the form of the letter n, which is thus (f ). Pertz, who has read the passage tolerably well, considering that he does not understand a word of the language, ascribes this manuscript to the ninth century. The next oldest Irish manuscript remaining in Ireland is probably the Book of Leinster, preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 2. 18.) ; and next in order of time I would rank Leabhar na h-Uidhri, in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, which was transcribed by Maelmuire Mac Cuinn na m-bocht, at Clonmacnoise, in the twelfth century. Next may be classed the Leabhar Breac of the Mac Egans, the Books of Lecan and Ballymote, and a host of others compiled from more original manuscripts, in the fifteenth century. The characters in these are of a more angular form than those in the more ancient manuscripts y . y Mons. Adolphe Pictet of Ge- June, 1835, seems to incline to neva, in a letter addressed to the the opinion that we had no writ- late Edward O'Reilly, dated 24th ten documents in Ireland before liv Introduction. Specimens of alphabets from the most important of these ancient manuscripts, forming a series, nearly complete, from the sixth to the seventeenth century, will be found in the an- nexed plates. They have been drawn, from the original manuscripts, by George Du Noyer, Esq., one of the Fellows of the College of St. Columba. Section 2. — Of the Writers on Irish Grammar. Having now noticed the bardic accounts of the antiquity of letters among the Irish, and the authorities which prove the existence of learning in Ireland before St. Patrick, we shall next give some account of the labours of those who have the fourth or fifth century, or at least that this is the most remote period to which written docu- ments can be traced. The que- ries which this learned philologer proposes in this letter are very curious, and should not be omit- ted here : " 1°. La seconde edition de votre dictionnaire a t-elle paru, ou doit elle biéntót paroitre ? ** 2°. Existe-t-il quelque bon dictionnaire anglais-irlandais ? "3°. A-t-on publié, depuis O' Conor, ou doit-on publier pro- chain ement, quelques textes an- ciens, soit poetiques, soit histo- riques, soit philologiques? Com- ment l'académie royale d'Irlande n'encourage-t-elle pas la publi- cation des textes anciens des Brehon laws, des poemes encore existans deCenfaolad,deEochoid, de Tanaide, de Maelmuire, etc. du glossaire de Cormac de Tur- aicheapt de Fortchern, etc. ? " 4°. N'a-t-on retrouvé aucun fragment de traduction de la Bible en ancien irlandais, dont ou puisse fixer la date avec quel- que certitude ? par ancien ir- landais j' en tends la langue telle qu'elle existoit anterieurement au dixiéme siécle et depuis le 4ieme ou 5ieme époque la plus re- culée, je crois a laquelle reinon- tent les documens écrits. "5°. Connoissez-vous quel- que ouvrage de topographie sur l'Irelande ancienne ou moderne, qui renferme d'une maniére ex- acte et un peu complete les noms de lieux, fleuves, lacs, montagnes, provinces, tribes, etc. avec l'or- thographie irlandaise ? " Voila, monsieur, bien des questions. Je m'excuse encore de mon indiscretion en prenant la liberté de vous les adresser : l'interet de la science plaidera pour moi. Si vous etes assez bon pour vouloir bien m'aider de vos lumiéres j'espere que mes travaux ne seront pas inutiles á la cause trop méconnue des etudes celtiques, et réveilleront sur le continent un interet nou- veau pour les restes vénérables de la litterature du plus ancienne peuple de l'Europe." Introduction. \v written on Irish grammar. The first work of this kind men- tioned by the Irish writers is Uraicecht na n-Eiges, or Pre- cepts of the Poets. This treatise is attributed to Forchem, orFerceirtne, the son of Deaghaidh, from whom theDeagads, or Clanna Deaghaidh, of Munster, are descended. It is said to have been written at Emania, the royal palace of Ulster, in the first century, but was afterwards interpolated and en- larged at Derryloran, in Tyrone, about the year 628, by Cennfaeladh, the son of Ailill. Copies of this work, as re- modelled by Cennfaeladh, are preserved in the Books of Lecan and Ballymote, in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, and a more ancient one, on vellum, in the British Museum, which the Author has recently perused. This work contains rules for poetical compositions, and is rather a prosody than a regular grammar. In a paper manuscript, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 1. 15), is a larger work, called Uraiceacht, which gives genders and inflections of nouns, and various orthographical and etymological rules ; but this work is a compilation of comparatively modern times. There are several short treatises on Irish grammar, in ma- nuscript, by various writers in the seventeenth century, in the Library of Trinity College, and one, by O'Mulconry, in that of St. Sepulchre's, Dublin ; and we learn from the monument of Sir Mathew De Renzi, at Athlone, who died in 1635, that he composed a grammar, dictionary, and chronicle, in the Irish tongue 2 . The first Irish book ever printed, with instructions for reading Irish, was John Kearney's " Alphabeticum et Ratio legendi Hibernicam, et Catechismus in eadem Lingua, 1571, 8vo." The only known copy of this curious and rare book is preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford a . z See Statute of Kilkenny, 12, note g . edited by Mr. Hardiman for the a The Catechism is a Transla- Irish Archaeological Society, p. tion into Irish of the Catechism lvi Introduction. The first printed Irish grammar is that of the Rev. Francis O'Molloy, written in Latin, and entitled " Grammatica Latino-Hibernica, nunc compendiata, — Authore Rev. P. Fr. Francisco O'Molloy, Ord. Min. Strict. Observantiae, in Collegio S. Isidori S. Theol. Professore Primario, Lectore Jubilato, et Prouincise Hibernise in Curia Romana Agente Generali. Romae, Typographia S. Cong, de Propag. Fide 1677." It contains 286 pages, 12mo., and is divided into twenty-five chapters, of which the first nine treat of the let- ters; the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth, of etymology, of which he treats but very slightly ; the thirteenth chapter is on the oghams and contractions ; and the remaining twelve, of the ancient Irish prosody, into which he enters very copiously. The next grammar of Irish which issued from the press was written by the celebrated antiquary Lhwyd. It was published in his Archceologia Britannica, and prefixed to his Irish-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1707. This work was extracted from O'Molloy's, and from another work on Irish grammar, in manuscript, written by an anonymous author at Louvain, in 1669. It is somewhat more copious than O'Molloy's in the etymology, but is still very imperfect. He omits the defective or irregular verbs altogether, observing that they are very numerous, and that in conjugating them, "the common use and practice of the province, &c, is the only pattern." From the preface to his Dictionary, written in Irish, it appears that this great philologer knew almost nothing of the idioms of the Irish language, for he uses the English collocation in most of his sentences, which gives his Irish composition a strange, if not ridiculous, appearance. The next Irish grammar that made its appearance after Lhwyd's, was written by Hugh Boy Mac Curtin, a native of of the Church of England, which Collects from the Book of Corn- is followed by some Prayers and mon Prayer. Introduction. lvii the parish of Kilcorney, near Corofin, in the county of Clare. It is entitled "The Elements of the Irish Language, gram- matically explained in English, in fourteen chapters : small 8vo. Lovain, 17*28." It was reprinted with his English- Irish Dictionary, at Paris, in 1732. This work is much more copious that its predecessors, particularly in the etymology and syntax, on which the author has every claim to origina- lity. Of the irregular verbs he says, that they are very numerous, and that in the forming thereof, the common use or practice of the kingdom, or the distinct dialects of each pro- vince, is the only guide and rule. He omits prosodv alto- gether. In 1742, Donlevy published, at Paris, his Irish-English Catechism, to which he appended instructions for reading the Irish language, entitled " The Elements of the Irish Lan- guage." This treats of orthography only, but it is by far the best treatise on the subject that had till then appeared. At the end, he says : " Such as desire to get more Insight into the Grammar-Rules of this Language, may have recourse to the laborious M. Hugh Mac Curtin's Irish Grammar. The chief Difficulty of reading, or speaking Irish, consists in pronouncing bh, jh, and some Diphthongs and Triphthongs rightly ; but this is easily overcome by Practice, or a little instruction by the Ear ; whereby the Pronunciation of the Language will become agreeable, there being much Use made of Vowels, and little of Consonants, in it." No other Irish Grammar appeared after this till the year 1773, when Vallancey published his, in quarto, with a preface, which tended to call attention to a subject then but little appreciated. Of this work he brought out an improved edition, in octavo, in 1782, with an " Essay on the Celtic lan- guage, shewing the importance of the Iberno-Celtic or Irish dialect to students in history, antiquity, and the Greek and Roman classics." h lviii Introduction. This work is compiled from those already mentioned, and from O'Brien's remarks on the letters throughout his Irish- English Dictionary. The author has treated of the irregu- lar verbs more copiously and satisfactorily than any of his predecessors, and assures the learner that "they are not so numerous or more difficult than those of Latin, French, or English." His syntax, which is briefly dismissed in twelve rules, is much inferior to that of his predecessor Mac Curtin. On the whole, this work shews considerable research, and curious learning ; but it is more theoretical than practical, and better adapted to assist the comparative etymologist than the mere Irish student. It is by far the most valuable and correct of Vallancey's writings, and is doubtlessly the joint production of the avowed author and several native Irish scholars b . Shortly after Vallancey's, appeared Shaw's Gaelic Gram- mar, Edinburgh, 1778 ; but this is confined to the Erse or Gaelic of Scotland, and its merits are very questionable . In 1801 appeared the first edition of a Gaelic Grammar, by Alexander Stewart, Minister of the Gospel at Moulin. Of b The only other production from the History of the House given to the world by Vallancey of O'Brien, written by the late which shews much ability, is the Doctor John O'Brien, titular Bi- Law of Tanistry exemplified by shop of Cloyne, and published the Pedigree of O'Brien ; but in the year 1774, by Col. Val- this work was written not by lancey." Vallancey, but by the Right Rev. c The Rev. Mr. Stewart, in the John O'Brien, Roman Catholic Introduction to the 2nd edition Bishop of Cloyne, as appears of his Gaelic Grammar, has the from a letter in the hand- writing following reference to this work : of the Chevalier Thomas O'Gor- "I know but one publication man, in the possession of Terence professedly of Gaelic Grammar, O'Brien, Esq., of Glencolumb- written by a Scotsman (Analysis kille, in the county of Clare. of the Gaelic Language ; by Wil- O'Gorman, in referring to a liam Shaw, A. M.) ; I have con- genealogical extract from Val- suited it also, but in this quar- lancey's Collectanea, says: " The ter I have no obligations to ac- above genealogy is extracted knowledge." p. xiii. Introduction. lix this an improved edition was brought out in 1812, which is undoubtedly the ablest work on Gaelic grammar that ever appeared. In 1808 was published, in Dublin, an Irish Grammar, in octavo, entitled Upaicecc na ^ueóilje, " A Grammar of the Irish Language," under the fictitious signature of E. O'C, which, in the Prospectus, is given in full as Edmund O'Connell; but the author, as many living witnesses can attest, was William Halliday, Esq., a solicitor in Dublin, who studied Irish as a dead language, and who died before he reached his twenty-fifth year, having produced this grammar in his nineteenth year. He derived much information from the first edition of Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, and from Messrs. Wolfe, O'Connell, and Casey, three Irish scholars, natives of Munster, with the latter of whom he commenced the study of the lan- guage in 1805, under the fictitious name of William O'Hara. In this work he rejects the modern Irish orthography as corrupt, and strikes out a new mode of classifying the declen- sions of nouns. His syntax is almost wholly drawn from the works of Mac Curtin and Stewart, particularly the latter, whose arrangement and diction he has closely followed ; and indeed he could not have followed a safer model. However, he has pointed out some errors in the first edition of Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, which Stewart himself thankfully acknow- ledges and corrects in the second edition of his work, pub- lished in 1812 d . Haliday gives the ancient Irish prosody, but d Stewart writes in the Intro- and derive some advantage from duction : " The Irish dialect of such Irish philologists as were the Gaelic is the nearest cognate accessible to me ; particularly of the Scottish Gaelic. An inti- O'Molloy, O'Brien, Vallancey, mate acquaintance with its voca- and Lhwyd. To these very re- bles and structure, both ancient spectable names, I have to add and modern, would have been of that of the Rev. Dr. Neilson, considerable use. This I cannot author of 4 An Introduction to pretend to have acquired. I have the Irish Language,' Dublin, not failed, however, to consult, 1808 ; and E. O'C, author of a Ix Introduction. merely as shortened from O'Molloy, with, here and there, a few remarks of his own. This work, however, considering the early age e and disadvantages of its author, must be re- garded as one of much merit ; it bears the stamp of taste, genius, and originality, not at all observable in the works of his predecessors. In the same year (1808) was published, in Dublin, " An Introduction to the Irish Language," by the Rev. William Neilson, D.D., 8vo. This grammar is the joint production of Dr. Neilson and Mr. Patrick Lynch, a native of the parish of Inch, near Castlewellan, in the county of Down. Mr. Lynch had a good practical knowledge of the dialect of Irish spoken in the east of Ulster, but was a rude scholar. The orthography, however, and grammatical rules, are adapted to this dialect, and not to the general language. The arrange- ment of the work is excellent, but it is to be regretted that the examples given to illustrate the rules are, for the most part, provincial and barbaric. In 1808 the Gaelic Society of Dublin published, in their Transactions, " Observations on the Gaelic Language, by R. Mac Elligott." The same writer 1 also compiled an Irish 4 Grammar of the Gaelic Lan- History" [of Ireland], "though guage,' Dublin, 1808 ; to the originally published in Mr. latter of whom I am indebted Lynch's name, was begun and for some good-humoured stric- actually completed by the late tures, and some flattering com- William Halliday, Esq., whose pliments, which, however unme- much lamented death at the pre-' rited, it were unhandsome not to mature age of 24, is a cause of acknowledge." p. xiii. heart-felt regret, not only to the e Mr. Patrick Lynch, the au- Gaelic Society, of which he was thor of the Life of St. Patrick, an active member, but to the has the following note in an ad- lovers of Irish literature in ge- vertisement of his works ap- neral." pended to his Introduction to the f For some account of the liter Knowledge of the Irish Language : rary qualifications of Mr. Mac El- " N. B. The new translation of ligott, the reader is referred to the first volume of Keating's a pamphlet published in London, Introduction. lxi Grammar, which is still extant in manuscript, in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Ryding, of Limerick, but was never printed. He was a native of the county of Kerry, a region in which they studied classics, " even to a fault," in his time, and was for many years a classical teacher in the city of Limerick, where he created a high taste for classical and polite literature. The next year (1809) ushered into light " A Practical Grammar of the Irish Language," by the Rev. Paul O'Brien. This is, perhaps, the worst attempt hitherto made to explain the principles of this language. The author was a native of Meath, and a man of some learning ; but the visionary cha- racter of his mind disqualified him for the important task of writing a grammar of an ancient and neglected language. He does not appear to have had any acquaintance with Irish history or topography, or with any of the correct ancient Irish manuscripts. There are many specimens of his poetry in the native Irish preserved, but they exhibit no merit, except the mere power of stringing together long compound words in jingling rhyme, without poetic genius, or strength of thought. His Irish Grammar is the production of his old age ; and the late Mr. James Scurry says, in his Review of Irish Grammars and Dictionaries, published in the fifteenth in 1844, by his pupil, the Rev. collection of annals, and other Jonathan Furlong, in reply to inestimable monuments. The certain observations by Dr. D. books of Lecan and Ballymote, Griffin, of Limerick, in the life of and theCebctp b pec, or 'speckled Gerald Griffin, the celebrated book,' of Mac Egan are in the novelist. We learn from O'Flana- archives of the Eoyal Irish Aca- gan that Mr. Mac Elligott had demy ; and there are besides got some valuable Irish manu- several valuable tracts in private scripts in his possession in 1 808. hands throughout the island, of In enumerating the collections of -which those in the possession of Irish manuscripts known to him, the learned M 'Elligott, of Lime- O'Flanagan writes : " The Che- rick, are not the least worthy of valier O'Gorman, now living in estimation." — Transactions of the the county of Clare, has a rare Gcelic Society of Dublin, p. 235. lxii Introduction. volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, that " it is not to be taken as a fair specimen of the vigour of his intellect, or the extent of his learning." In 1813 Mr. John O'Connell, of the parish of Tuath na Droman, near Caherciveen, in Kerry, published at Cork an Irish translation of F. Paul Segnary's " True Wisdom," to which he prefixed short " Instructions for reading Irish," which are very correct. This translation is a curious speci- men of the dialect of the Irish spoken in Kerry. In 1815 was published, in Dublin, a small grammatical tract, entitled " Foroideas Ghnath-Ghaoidheilge na h-Eir- eand, An Introduction to the Knowledge of the Irish Lan- guage as now spoken," by Patrick Lynch, Secretary to the Gaelic Society of Dublin. This little work contains some very valuable remarks on the pronunciation and genius of the Irish Language, although it cannot be considered as entitled to the name of a grammar. Mr. Lynch was a native of the county of Limerick ; he kept a classical school at Carrick-on- Suir in 1800, and afterwards removed to Dublin, where, for many years, he taught the classical languages, French and Hebrew. He wrote small works on grammar, chronology, astronomy, geography, and history ; but the most celebrated of his works is his " Proofs of the Existence of St. Patrick," written chiefly to refute Ledwich's assertions. This work was published in Dublin, in 1810, and contains short " Direc- tions for reading Irish." Mr. Lynch was of the Milesian Irish race (and wrote his name Patruic O'Loingsigh), and not of the Galway tribe of that name. In 1817 appeared "A Compendious Irish Grammar," by Edward O'Reilly, annexed to his Irish-English Dictionary. This is chiefly compiled from the Rev. Paul O'Brien's Gram- mar, and partakes of all its faults and defects. His system of making the initials of nouns the foundation of the declensions, in imitation of O'Brien, is quite absurd, as the tables of ter- Introduction. lxiii minational changes, given in both grammars, sufficiently shew. The author was a man of strong mind, good memory, and studious habits, but had little or no acquaintance with the classical languages, or with any, except English. He learned Irish as a dead language, and had not commenced the study of it till he was more than thirty years of age ; but by laudable perseverence, and strong powers of intellect, he acquired a considerable knowledge of the ancient Irish lan- guage and history. In 1820 was published, at Waterford, an Irish translation of John Baptista Manni's " Four Maxims of Christian Philo- sophy," by Mr. James Scurry, of Knockhouse, in the barony of Iverk, and county of Kilkenny. To this is prefixed " An Introduction to the Irish Language, containing a comprehen- sive Exemplification of all the alphabetical Sounds, and their corresponding English Sounds, as a further Illustration of them, as far as could be effected by the Substitution of English characters." This treatise is valuable, as giving the pronunciation which prevails in the diocese of Ossory, with which the writer was most intimately acquainted. In 1828 Mr. Scurry published, in the fifteenth volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, " Remarks on the Irish Language, with a Review of its Grammars, Glos- saries, Vocabularies, and Dictionaries ; to which is added a Model of a comprehensive Irish Dictionary." In this paper, p. 55, the author says, " that he had prepared for press a grammar, both theoretical and practical, formed on the genius of the language, the result of many years' consideration of the subject, which he had been deterred from publishing, from the little encouragement works of that nature had met with from the public." Mr. Scurry was a respectable farmer, and though his education was imperfect, he was a man of so vigorous a mind that he acquired an extensive knowledge of philology lxiv Introduction. and general literatures. He died in Dublin in 1828, and his body was buried in the church of Kilpecan, near the village of Mullinavat, in the county Kilkenny, where it lies without a monument to exhibit even his name. Various other compilations, and abstracts from these grammars, have since been published ; but the limits of this preface would not permit a particular description of them. The largest work of this kind was published in Dublin, in 1841, and compiled for the Synod of Ulster, by S. O'M. Dr. Mason, Librarian of the King's Inns, Dublin, also com- piled an Irish Grammar ; but it is to be regretted that he has adopted the system of O'Brien and O'Reilly to a considerable extent. The Rev. Mr. Nangle, of Achill, has also brought out a second edition of Neilson's Irish Grammar, with some judicious corrections. And Mr. Owen Connellan, who was employed for many years in the Royal Irish Academy, to transcribe the Books of Lecan and Ballymote, for the Royal Library, has recently published a small work on Irish Gram- mar, with examples from Irish MSS., not to be found in any of the works of his predecessors. He also gives the pronun- ciation which prevails in the northern part of Connaught, which will be found very useful, in preserving for posterity the local peculiarities of the Connacian dialect. Some works have also been written on the grammar of the Gaelic of Scotland, by Armstrong and Munroe ; but they contain nothing original, the Rev. Alexander Stewart having exhausted the subject, in his very excellent Gaelic Grammar, published in 1812. 8 The Author of these pages cal grammar. He was the first became acquainted with Mr. that induced the Author to study Scurry in Dublin, in the year the grammatical works of Harris, 1 826, and found that, although Ward, Home Tooke, Pickburne, he had but slight acquaintance and Fearns, and the antiquarian with Latin or Greek, he had still productions of Baxter, Davies, a sound knowledge of philosophi- and Vallancey. Introduction. lxv Section 3. — Testimonies to the Value of the Study of Irish. The testimony of such writers as have mentioned the Irish language, in ancient and modern times, may be now adduced, in order to shew the importance and value of the language as a branch of philological study. Ledwich h quotes Irenseus (a. d. 167), Latinus Pacatus Drepanus (\. d. 361), and Sidonius Apollinaris (a. d. 472), in proof of his assertion, that the ancients "branded the Irish language with the harshest expressions for its barbarism. But even though it were clear that these writers meant what we now call Irish, we should receive their testimony with some allowances, for the Romans described as barbarous the lan- guages of all nations not civilized by themselves, except the Greeks. Our own Adamnan, however, who was born in the year 624, and was one of the best Latin writers of his age, ac- knowledges, in his modest preface to his Life of St. Columba, that his own Latin style was inelegant, and that the Scotic language was to be classed with different other languages of the external nations. His words are : " Beati nostri Patroni (Christo suffragan te) vitam descrip- h Antiq. p. 325. I have not the number of seventeen letters, been able to find any thing of so different in their powers, this kind in S. Irenaeus. Charles names, and arrangement, from O'Conor of Belanagare, thinks those of the Greeks and Romans ? that the original harshness of the Evident it is, that without inter- Celtic must have been softened courses of this nature on the down in Ireland by a communica- Continent, and perhaps after- tion between the Phoenicians and wards in this island, our old in- the ancestors of the Scots. " How habitants might be considered else," he asks, " the number of (as some have laboured to repre- Phoenician words discovered in sent them) the most barbarous, their language ? By what other as they were the remotest, in the means but a communication with west of Europe." — Origin and the Phoenicians could they im- Antiquities of the ancient Scots, prove and harmonize their own prefixed to Ogygia Vindicated, unsonorous Celtic ? From what p. xxxviii. other people could they obtain lxvi Introduction. turus, fratrum flagitationibus obsecundare volens : imprimis eandem lecturos quosque admonere procurabo ; ut iidem dictis adhibeant compertis ; et res magis quam verba perpendant, qua? (ut aestimo) inculta et vilia esse videntur, meminerintque, Regnum Dei non eloquentise exuberantia, sed in fidei floru- lentiá constare : et nee ob aliqua Scoticce, vilis videlicet lin- gua?, aut humana onomata, aut gentium obscura locorumve vocubula (qua?, ut puto, inter alias exterarum gentium viles- cunt linguas) utilium, et non sine divina opitulatione gestarum despiciant rerum pronuntiationem 1 ." By this passage we are to understand that Adamnan re- garded the Scotic language as one of those which had not received the polish of the classical languages ; and in this light must all the vulgar languages of Europe be viewed, till they were cultivated during the last four or five centuries, and received terms of art from the Latin and Greek. Tirechan also, in his " Annotations on the Life of St. Pa- trick," in giving a reason for having composed a portion of them in the Scotic language, though he was able to write the Roman language, says the Scotic names of men and places (" qualitatem non habentia") would not sound well in Latin composition. But the same could be said of the Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and all the eastern languages ; the proper names of which would not sound well in a Latin sentence, as wanting the necessary terminations, and could not be even pronounced by an ancient Roman, or a modern Italian. In the seventeenth century, Archbishop Ussher pro- nounced the Irish to be a language both elegant and copious j : 1 See Ussher's Sylloge, 1st guage, ascribed to a prelate of edition, p. 42 ; Parisian edition, equal dignity in our own time : p. 29. See also Colgan's and " The Irish language is a barba- Pinker ton's editions of Adam- rous jargon, in which all the dis- nan's Life of St. Columba. cordant sounds to be heard in J A curious contrast to this the farm-yard are mixed up ; account is afforded by the follow- there is the drawling running of ing description of the Irish Ian- one note into another of the Introduction. lxvii " Est quidem lingua hsec \scil. Hibernica], et elegans cum pnmis, et opulenta : sed ad rem isto modo excolendam (sicuti reliquas feré Europse Linguas vernaculas intra hoc sseculum excultas videmus) nondum extitit hactenus qui animum adji- ceret k .' , Stanihurst, the uncle of Archbishop Ussher, a Roman Catholic priest, although he wished the Irish language not to be used in the English Pale, still does not venture to condemn it, as uncouth or barbarous. " Idem ipse locus á me olim erat tractatus, in Hiberniae descriptione, quam dictione vernacula edidi : meaq. ibi dispu- tatio dedit sermonem inuidis, me laudes Hibernici sermonis minuisse. Sed in falsa hac criminatione suam produnt male- uolentiam, non redarguunt meam. Nee enim ego turn ora- tione mea suscepi, linguam, cuius essem ignarus et insolens, minus considerate vituperando, adfligere : imó contra gra- vissimorum hominum auctoritas fidem mihi iamdudum fecit, earn, verborum granditate, dictionum concinnitate, atq. dica- citate quadam acutula redundare ; denique cum Hebraica lingua, communi conglutinationis vinculo." Campion, in his Historie of Ireland, written in 1571, thus speaks of the Irish language ; cap. iv. Dublin Ed. p. 17 : " The tongue is sharpe and sententious, offereth great occasion to quicke apothegmes, and proper allusions, where- fore their common Jesters, Bards, and Rymers, are said to delight passingly those that conceive the grace and propriety cock's crow, the squall of the archbishop must have uttered it peacock, the cackle of the goose, in jest. For though, like Sta- the duck's quack, the hog's nihurst, he has of course no wish grunt, and no small admixture to see the Irish language revived, of the ass's bray." — See Etruria still the authority of grave men Celtica, vol. i. p. 48, by Sir Wil- must have convinced him also liam Betham, where that writer that it is not so utterly savage as gravely comments upon the in- this description would make it. justice of this description of the k Ussher's Letters, by Parr, language of the old Irish, not Lett. 193, p. 486. perceiving that the illustrious lxviii Introduction. of the tongue. But the true Irish indeede differeth so much from that they commonly speake, that scarce one among five score can either write, read, or understand it. Therefore it is prescribed among certaine their Poets, and other Students of Antiquitie." The celebrated Leibnitz recommends the study of Irish, as useful in illustrating Celtic antiquities ; but he does not give any opinion as to the elegance or inelegance of the lan- guage. His words are : " Postremo ad perficiendam, vel certe valde promovendam literaturam Celticam, diligentius linguse Hibernicse adjungen- dum esse, ut Lloydius egregie facere cepit Nam uti alibi jam admonui, quemadmodum Angli fuere colonia Saxo- num et Britanni emissio veterum Celtarum Gallorum Cim- brorum ; ita Hiberni sunt propago antiquiorum Britannicse habitatorum Colonis Celticis Cimbricisque nonnullis, et ut sic dicam mediis, anteriorum. Itaque ut ex Anglicis linguse veterum Saxonum et ex Cambricis veterum Gallorum ; ita ex Hibernicis, vetustiorum adhuc Celtarum, Germanorumque, et, ut generaliter dicam, accolarum oceani Britannici cismari- norum antiquitates illustrantur 1 ." It would be tiresome to adduce here the praise of the Irish by the native writers" 1 ; but if the reader is curious to learn the opinion of a profound native scholar, who was acquainted with many other languages, he can turn to Dr. Lynch's Cambrensis Eversus, pp. 16 and 159, where he will find a very curious account of the avidity that some persons pos- 1 Collect. Etymolog., Opp. vi. Dublin, a large quantity of her part 2, p. 129. ancient records, on paper and m Dean Swift, Rabelaius nos- parchment, then in his Grace's ter, though fond of ridiculing the possession, that had been for- Irish people in most of his writ- merly collected and carried off ings, yet, in a letter to the Duke from this country by the Earl of of Chandos, dated 31st August, Clarendon, during the time of 1734, requests that nobleman to his government here. — Swiff s restore to Ireland, by presenting Works by Scott, vol. xviii. p. 224. to the Library of Trinity College, Introduction. lxix sessed, in the writer's time, for studying Irish, and the feeling that existed to discourage such study ; also of the use of the language to preachers and antiquaries. Towards the close of the last century, Vallancey described the Irish in the following laudatory terms : " The Irish language is free from the anomalies, sterility, and heteroclite redundancies, which mark the dialects of bar- barous nations ; it is rich and melodious ; it is precise and copious, and affords those elegant conversions, which no other than a thinking and lettered people can use or acquire"." The Rev. William Shaw, in his Gaelic Dictionary (Lon- don, 1780), calls the Irish language "the greatest monument of antiquity, perhaps, now in the world. The perfection," he says, " to which the Gaelic arrived in Ireland in such re- mote ages is astonishing." Alluding to the Irish MSS. of Trin. Coll. Dublin, which he calls "sealed books," he makes the following observation : " Whilst I surveyed and examined them, and looked back to the ancient state of this once blessed and lettered island, they produced emotions easier conceived than produced." The same writer (Gaelic Gram., Edinb. 1778) has the fol- lowing observations on the state of learning in Ireland : " Whilst Roman learning, by the medium of a dialect of the Saxon, now flourished in Scotland, the Gaelic and Roman in some degree grew together in Ireland, which, for some centuries, was deemed the greatest school for learning in Europe. There letters and learned men, from all countries, found a secure retreat and asylum. Its happy situation, how- ever, did not perpetuate these blessings. Ireland was invaded by the Danes, and, in a subsequent age, made subject to the kings of England. Though there w r ere English colonies in Ireland, the Gael of that country enjoyed their own laws and customs till the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., when the n Essay on the Gaelic Language, p. 3. Ixx Introduction. English laws were universally established. Then, for the first time, the Gaelic ceased to be spoken by the chiefs of families, and at court ; and English schools were erected, with strict injunctions, that the vernacular language should no longer be spoken in these seminaries. This is the reason why the Iberno-Gselic has more MSS. and books than the Caledonian. In Scotland there has been a general destruc- tion of ancient records and books, which Ireland escaped. It enjoyed its own laws and language till a later date, while the Scots- English very early became the language of North Britain ." About the same time, the learned Dr. Samuel Johnson expressed the following opinion of the Irish language and literature, in a letter to Charles O' Conor, of Belanagare : " What the Irish language is in itself, and to what lan- guages it has affinity, are very interesting questions, which every man wishes to see resolved, that has any philological or historical curiosity. Dr. Leland begins his history too late. The ages which deserve an exact inquiry, are those times, for such times there were, when Ireland was the school of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature." The celebrated Edmund Burke was anxious to preserve a knowledge of the Irish language, for the purpose of proving or illustrating that portion of Irish history which precedes the period of Anglo- Irish official records. In a letter toVal- lancey, dated 15th August, 1783, he says : "All the histories of the middle ages, which have been found in other countries, have been printed. The English have, I think, the best histories of that period. I do not see why the Psalter of Cashel should not be printed, as well as Robert of Gloster. If I were to give my opinion to the Society of Antiquaries, I should propose that they should be printed in two columns, one Irish and the other Latin, like Introduction, p. ix. Introduction. lxxi the Saxon Chronicle, which is a very valuable monument, and, above all things, that the translation should be exact and literal. It was in the hope that some such thing should be done, that I originally prevailed on Sir John Seabright to let me have his MSS., and that I sent them by Dr. Leland to Dublin. You have infinite merit in the taste you have given of them in several of your collections. But these extracts only increase the curiosity and the just demand of the public for some entire pieces. Until something of this kind is done, that ancient period of Irish history, which precedes official records, cannot be said to stand upon any proper authority. A work of this kind, pursued by the University and the Society of Antiquaries, under your inspection, would do honour to the nation." Mons. Adolphe Pictet, of Geneva, in our own time, has written the following account of the importance of the Irish language in his work, De VAffinité des Langues Celtiques avec le Sanscrit : " L'irlandais, par son extension, sa culture, et l'ancien- neté de ses monuments écrits, est de beaucoup le plus impor- tant des dialectes gaeliques. Sans entrer ici dans des details qui nous méneraient trop loin, je me bornerai á dire que ces monuments sont fort nombreux qu'ils embrassent 1'histoire, la philologie, la legislation, la poésie, qu'ils datent surement pour la plupart du 10 e au 14 e siécle, et que quelques uns remontent trés probablement jusqu'aux 7 e et 6 e i\" But to collect other testimonies of this kind would exceed the limits which must necessarily be imposed on the present publication. Section 4. — Of the Dialects of Irish. A few remarks must now be made on the dialects of the Irish language. Keating informs us, from the ancient tradi- p Avant-propos, pp, viii. ix. lxxii Introduction. tions of the bards, that Fenius Farsaidh ordered Gaedhal, the son of Eathor, to divide the Gaedhelc language into five dialects, namely, Béarla Feine, Bearla Fileadh, Bearla eadarscartha, Bearla Teibidhe, and Gnath-bhearla. On this subject, Thaddfeus Roddy, of Crossfield, near Fenagh, in the county of Leitrim, wrote as follows, in the year I700 q : " I have several volumes, that none in the world now can peruse, though within twenty years there lived three or four that could read and understand them all, but left none behind absolutely perfect in all them books [sic], by reason that they lost the estates they had to uphold their publique teaching, and that the nobility of the Irish line who would encourage and support their posterity, lost all their estates, so that the anti- quaryes posterity were forced to follow husbandry, &c, to get their bread, for want of patrons to support them. Honos alit artes. Also the Irish being the most difficult and copious language in the world, having five dialects, viz. the common Irish, the poetic, the law or lawyers' dialect, the abstractive and separative dialects : each of them five dialects [sic] being as copious as any other language, so that a man may be per- fect in one, two, three, or four of them dialects [sic], and not understand almost a word in the other, contrary to all other languages, so that there are now several in Ireland perfect in two or three of these dialects, but none in all, being useless in these times." Connell Mageoghegan, who translated the Annals of Clonmacnoise in 1627, says that the " Fenechus, or Brehon law, is none other but the civil law, which the Brehons had to themselves in an obscure and unknown language, which none cou'd understand except those that studied in the open schools they had." q The original (which consists the autograph of Roddy, and is of answers to questions proposed preserved on paper, bound up to the writer, evidently by the with a vellum MS. in the Library great antiquary Lhwyd), is in of Trinity College, H. 2. 16. Introduction. lxxiii Vallancey thinks that there were but two dialects, the Feint and Gfiath, i. e. the Fenian and the common ; and that the former was, like the Mandarin language of the Chinese, known only to the learned; and that the science of jurispru- dence was committed to this dialect. These five dialects cannot now be distinguished with satisfaction. The Brehon Laws and other tracts are distinctly stated to be written in the Fenian dialect ; and Keating informs us that there are words from every primitive language in the Bearla Teibidhe, from which Vallancey assumes that it is the physician's dia- lect, because, I suppose, he found that the old medical Irish manuscripts contain words taken from various languages, such Latin, Greek, and Arabic ; but none of the medical Irish manuscripts are older than the twelfth century. The poets' dialect was the same in construction as the common language, except that the poets were constantly borrowing words from the Bearla Feine, and every other dialect r . The dialects now spoken by the people differ considerably from each other, in words, pronunciation, and idiom, through- out the four provinces. The difference between them is pretty correctly expressed in the following sayings or adages, which are current in most parts of Ireland : Cá blap 5cm ceapc aj an muimneac; Uá ceapc 5cm blap aj an Ullcac ; Mi puil ceapc ná blap aj an 6aijneac; Uá ceapc agup blar* aj an 5-Connaccac. " The Munsterman has the accent without the propriety ; The Ulsterman has the propriety without the accent ; The Leinsterman has neither the propriety nor the accent ; The Conaughtman has the accent and the propriety." r Of this we have a striking beth, by John O'Mulconry, of specimen in the Inauguration Ode Ardchoill, in the county of Clare ; of Brian na Murtha O'liourke, published by Mr. Hardiman, in composed in the reign of Eliza- his Irish Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 286. k lxxiv Introduction. The antiquity of these national Irish sayings has not been determined ; but they must be of considerable age, as they are paraphrased by Lombard, in his work entitled De Regno Hibernice Commentarius, published in 1632, as fol- lows : " Tertió notandum, quod hoc ipsum idioma sit vernaculum totius in primis Hibernise, tametsi cum aliquo discrimine, turn quoad dialectum nonnihil variantem inter diversas prouincias, turn quoad artificij obseruationem inter doctos & vulgares. Et Dialecti quidem variatio ita se habere passim sestimatur, vt cum sint quatuor Hibernise prouincise (de quibus pauló infra) Momonia, Vltonia, Lagenia, Conactia, penes Conactes sit & potestas rectse pronuntiationis, & phraseos vera proprie- tas ; penes Momonienses potestas sine proprietate, penes Vltones proprietas sine potestate, penes Lagenos nee potestas pronuntiationis, nee phraseos proprietas s ." There is another dialect known to some persons in the counties of Cork, Clare, Limerick, and Kerry, called Bear- lagar na saer, or tradesman's jargon, of which Mr. Mac El- 6 Ledwich,who sees everything number of provinces, must have Irish with a jaundiced eye, refers different dialects and local pecu- to this passage of Lombard's, to liarities. Nothing but literature, confirm his assertion, that the and a public communication, can Irish was a barbarous dialect, form a standard dialect of a na- possessing " neither alphabetical tion ; and nothing can possibly sounds, words for ideas, ortho- prevent the language of a nume- graphy, or syntax." He might, rous people from splitting into for the same reason, pronounce dialects. The older the language the Greek a barbarous jargon, is, and the more widely separated because it not only consisted of the tribes are, the greater will four principal dialects, the Attic, be the difference of the respective Ionic, Doric, and JEolic, but each dialects. These facts being fairly of these dialects varied with the considered, it will appear that localities ; and in one colony of Ledwich's observations on the Asia Minor, four different species different dialects of the Irish, are of the Ionic dialect were observa- nothing more than illiterate and ble. Every language, of any impertinent criticisms, antiquity, and spread over a Introduction. lxxv ligott, of Limerick, has given a few words and phrases in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, pp. 11, 12. This appears to be very like the slang of London, for as the latter preserves several Saxon words and phrases, which have become obsolete in the standard dialect of the English, and even in the provincial dialects, so the former preserves many ancient Irish words which have been obsolete in the spoken language throughout the provinces. But passing over all artificial dialects of poets, and slangs of artisans, we will find that the common living language of the country, like the provincial English in the different shires, divides itself into varieties of dialects, merging into each other by almost imperceptible degrees of approximation, and which it would be next to impossible minutely to describe. Donlevy has the following observation on the dialectic variations and incorrect modes of writing Irish prevalent in his own time (1742):— " Poets, not the Ancient and skilful, who took Pains to render their Poems sententious and pithy without much Clip- ping, but the Modem Makers of Doggrel Rhymes and Bal- lads ; to save Time and Labour, introduced the Custom of clipping and joining Words together, in order to fit them to the Measure of their Verses : Others, who wrote in Prose, have, either in Imitation of the Poets, or through Ignorance and Want of Judgment, strangely clipped, and spelled, and huddled them together, as they are pronounced ; let the Pronunciation be never so irregular and defective ; not re- flecting, that a Poetical Licence, even when justifiable, is not imitable in Prose ; or that Writing, as People speak or pro- nounce, is to maim the Language, to destroy the Etymology, and confound the Propriety and Orthography : fur, not only the several Provinces of Ireland, have a different Way of pro- nouncing, but also the very Counties, and even some Baronies in one and the same County, do differ in the Pronunciation : lxxvi Introduction. Nay, some Cantons pronounce so odly, that the natural Sound of both the Vowels and Consonants, whereof, even ac- cording to themselves, the Words consist, is utterly lost in their Mouths. There are too many Instances of these Sup- pressions and Jumblings : A few will suffice here to shew the Abuse thereof: r5 an > F5°j F me > r cu > instead of ajup 5cm, ajup 5 U P> a 5 u F me > or ip me, agup cu or ip ru : And all this Mangling and Confusion without so much as an Apostrophe ( ' ), to let the Reader see, that some Thing is left out. Again, VTIac a nnéap, cuid a npip, instead of an Grap, an pip: The poor Par- ticle an is divided in two, and one Half of it is joined to the subsequent Word, for no other Reason but that in the Pro- nunciation, the (n) comes fast and close upon the following Word, as it frequently happens in all living Languages ; yet ought not to pervert, or alter the Orthography, or Order of Speech in Writing : However, from this Fancy of Writing as People speak, chiefly arise not only the Mangling and Jumbling of Words, but also that puzzling Diversity found in the Writings even of those, who know the Language in Question, infinitly better than he, who has the Assurance to make these Remarks. But, either they have not reflected, or rather were resolved to imitate their Neighbours, who curtail and confound the different Parts of Speech, with far greater Liberty than the Irish do ; for instance : I'll, you'll, he'll, &c. cou'dn't, sha'n't, won't, don't, t'other, they're, ne'er, can't, ha'n't, and thousands of that Kind ; which, although very fashionable, the judicious English Writers look upon as a great Abuse, introduced only since the Beginning of King Charles the Second's Reign ; and endeavour to discredit it both by Word and Example. " It is no Wonder then, seeing the English Tongue, al- though in the Opinion of all, it be otherwise much improved, is thus maimed and confounded, even in Prose, that a Lan- guage of neither Court, nor City, nor Bar, nor Business, ever Introduction. lxxvii since the Beginning of King James the First's Reign, should have suffered vast Alterations and Corruptions ; and be now on the Brink of utter Decay, as it really is, to the great Dis- honour and shame of the Natives, who shall always pass every where for Irish-Men : Although Irish- Men without Irish is an incongruity, and a great Bull. Besides, the Irish Language is undeniably a very Ancient Mother-Language, and one of the smoothest in Europe, no Way abounding with Monosyllables, nor clogged with rugged Consonants, which make a harsh Sound, that grates upon the Ear. And there is still extant a great Number of old valuable Irish Manuscripts, both in public and private Hands, which would, if translated and pub- lished, give great Light into the Antiquities of the Country, and furnish some able Pen with Materials enough, to write a com pleat History of the Kingdom : what a Discredit then must it be to the whole Nation, to let such a Language go to Wrack, and to give no Encouragement, not even the Necessaries of Life, to some of the Few, who still remain, and are capable to rescue those venerable Monuments of Antiquity from the profound Obscurity, they are buried in ? But, to return to our Subject, so prevailing are Habit and Custom, that even those who are sensible of the Abuse of clipping and blending of Words, do sometimes insensibly slip into it*." The grand difference between the dialects of the present living language, consists in the position of the accent, and in the pronunciation of the grammatical termination aó in nouns and verbs, it being pronounced in Conaught and Ulster like oo, or urn, in all dissyllables and polysyllables, but varied in Munster, being sometimes pronounced like a, short, sometimes like ac, and sometimes like ctj. The minor differences consist in pronouncing n like p when coming after 1 Christian Doctrine, pp. 504-507, Paris, 1742. lxxviii Introduction. c, 5 and m, in the north and west. The Munster dialect is also remarkably distinguished by the pronunciation of 5 in geni- tive cases from c, and by throwing the primary accent on the second or third syllable when long. These peculiarities are pointed out in the Orthography and Prosody of the following Grammar with sufficient minuteness. The other dialects which shot off from the Gaelic of Ire- land at an early period, are the Erse, or Gaelic of the High- lands of Scotland, and the Manx, or primitive language of the Isle of Man. OF THE ERSE, OR GAELIC OF SCOTLAND. The Highland Gaelic is essentially the same as the Irish, having branched off from it in the sixth century ; but there are peculiarities which strongly distinguish it, though the spoken Irish of the north-east of Ulster bears a close resem- blance to it in pronunciation and grammatical inflections. The principal peculiarities of the Erse are the following : I. In the Terminations of Words. 1. The frequent ending of the nominative plural in an, as slatan, rods ; mnathan, women ; mullaichean, summits ; clarsaichean, harps; laithean, days. This is not unlike the old Saxon plural termination in en, still retained in a few English words, as eyen, shoen, oxen, women". 2. In writing the personal terminations cupe, oip, and am, or íóe, always air, and aiche, or iche, as sealgair, a huntsman, for peal^cnpe ; dorsair, a doorkeeper, for the Irish oóppóip, or oóinr-eóip ; coisiche, a footman, for coipóe v . 3. In writing the termination ujaó of progressive active nouns, always achadh, as smuaineachadh, for pmuainiujaó ; gradhachadh, for gpaóujaó. u See Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, 2nd edit., pp. 54-57. v Id., p. 46. Introduction. lxxix 4. In writing the passive participle te hard, without vary- ing it to ra, ra, ce, re, as the Irish do. See this discussed more fully at pp. 205, 206. 5. In writing the diminutive termination 05, always ag, as cuachag, sl little cup, for cuacój. This termination is also observable in the living language, and in the names of places in the north-east of Ulster. II. In the Beginning of Words. 1. The genitive plural does not suffer eclipsis, as in Irish, for the Scotch Highlanders say nan cos, of the feet ; nan ceann, of the heads ; for the Irish, na 5-cop, na 5-ceann. But nam is used before a labial, as nam bard, of the bards ; nam fear, of the men w . 2. The possessive pronouns ar, our, bhur, your, do not cause eclipsis, for they write ar buachaill, our boy ; ar Dia, our God ; bhur cosa, of your feet ; for the Irish, ap m-buach- aill, ap n-Dia, bap 5-copa. It should be remarked, however, that the eclipsing letters are often not used in the most ancient Irish manuscripts. The other peculiarities are less general, and consist in the inflection of the verbs, with a greater use of the auxiliary verb cá, and in the total absence of the p in the future tense of the indicative mood, and in the subjunctive mood; also in the constant use of the negative ca, for the modern Irish ni, and the ancient noca, and in the strange orthography of some words, as chaidh, for cucuó, anciently com, he went ; thuirt, for oubaipc, he said ; ghios, for t>' pop, to know, see, or visit ; sometimes written t>up in Irish manuscripts ; seann, for pean, old. OF THE MANX DIALECT. The Manx is much further removed from the Irish ; and it is probable that the Isle of Man had inhabitants from Ire- w See Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, 2nd edit, p. 155. Ixxx Introduction. land long before the emigration of the Scots from Ireland to the coast of Argyle. Its words are principally obscured by being written as they are pronounced, without preserving the radical letters, as in the Irish. It also exhibits extraordinary corruptions, and approximations to the Welsh, of which the following are the most remarkable : 1. The nominative plural ends in n, as in the Erse and Welsh. 2. A final vowel is lost, as " O Hiarn," for O Chijeapna, O Lord ! dooys, for oam-pa, to me, &c. 3. t is added to progressive active nouns derived from verbs, as choyrt, for cup, putting. [This final t is also used in some words in Irish, as peicpinc, for peicpin. — See p. 200.] 4. d is often put for 5, as dy bragli, for 50 bpác. 5. t is often written for c or 5, as tustey, for cuijpe, the understanding ; festor, for pepcop, the evening, &c. 6. The final a, or e, of the passive participle is always dropped, as soillsit, foluit^ for poillpijée, poluijre, illumined, concealed. There are also many peculiarities of idiom, too numerous to be even glanced at here ; and some particles of constant occurrence are so strangely, though analogically different from the Irish, that an Irish scholar would find it difficult to understand a Manx book, without studying the language as a distinct dialect x . OF THE WELSH. It may not be out of place here to make a few observa- tions upon the analogies between the Cymric or Welsh and Scotic or Gaelic dialects, they being considered by some as x The reader is referred to ob- specimens of this dialect from servations on this subject by the Manx Book of Common Richard Mac Elligott, in the Prayer, London, 1767, with sug- Transactions of the Gaelic So- gestions for restoring the pure ciety of Dublin, where he gives original orthography. Introduction. lxxxi cognate, and by others, as belonging to a totally different family of language. That they are very remotely related is quite evident from the fact, that the Gselic dialects of Ireland and Scotland, which separated from each other about the year of Christ 504, may be said to be still the same language : but that the Irish and Welsh were, at a still more remote period, the same language, will appear to any sober-minded philologer, on comparing the great number of words which are identical, or different only in analogical dialectic pecu- liarities in both languages, the almost perfect agreement of their mode of forming grammatical inflections, and even of their idioms, which are considered the soul of language. The number of words, not derived from the Latin, or Danes, in which they agree, having been already sufficiently shewn by Lhwyd and others, it will, therefore, be enough to point out here how far they agree in grammatical inflections ; for when this agreement is duly considered, it will, no doubt, impress the conviction, that nothing but relationship of people, and identity of dialect, could have caused it, be the period of sepa- ration ever so remote. To a casual observer, the difference between the gram- matical inflections of both languages will appear to be very great, because the Welsh have adopted more of the letters of the Roman alphabet, by means of which, and of certain other combinations of their own invention, they write their words, throughout all the grammatical inflections, exactly as they are pronounced, without any regard to the preservation of the radical letters of the word ; whereas the Irish, who have not adopted all the Roman letters, always write their words with the initial letters of the roots, and give notice of the gram- matical influences, either by prefixing an adventitious conso- nant, or placing a mark of aspiration over or after the radical consonants. To make this intelligible, let us take a word common to both languages, and place it under a grammatical 1 lxxxii Introduction. influence, in which both agree : thus, bean, a woman ; Welsh, benyn. Now if we place the possessive pronoun do, thy, Welsh, dy, before this word, the radical letter b suffers what the Irish call aspiration, and they write do bean. But the Welsh, who do not observe the same orthography, although the change of pronunciation is nearly the same, write dy venyn. In this particular both languages, considered orally, are the same, the difference existing merely in the system of writing. This being understood, let us next ascertain how far the initial changes by aspiration and eclipsis actually agree in both languages. In Welsh, the initial consonants of feminine nouns are aspirated (or, as the Welsh grammarians term it, become light) after the articles. In Irish, feminine nouns are always aspirated in the nomi- native singular after the article, as an bean, the woman ; pronounced an ven, or in van. In Welsh, after the possessive pronouns dy, thy, ei, his, aspiration takes place, as dy venyn, thy wife ; ei venyn, his wife. In Irish, aspiration takes place after mo, my ; do, thy ; and a, his; as mo bean, my wife (pronounced mo ven) ; do bean, thy wife ; a bean, his wife. It should be also re- marked, as a striking point of agreement, that ei, in Welsh, and a, in Irish, mean his, or hers ; and that when used to denote hers, they do not cause aspiration in either lan- guage : as, Welsh, ei benyn, her woman ; Irish, a bean. This point of agreement is so remarkable, that nothing but actual relationship of people and dialect could have originated ity. In Welsh, the initial consonants of adjectives are aspirated, or (as their grammarians phrase it) become light, when their substantives are feminine, as benyn vaur, a big woman. In y See Syntax, Rule xxv. p. 374. Introduction. lxxxiii Irish the same takes place in the nominative singular, as bean rhóp ; pronounced ben vore. In Welsh, certain prefixed particles cause aspiration, as rhy vygan, very little ; ni garav, I do not love. In Irish the same prevails as a general principle of the language, as no beaj, very little (ro veg) ; ni capaim, I do not love (ni ga- raim) z . In Welsh, initial consonants are aspirated (made light) after all prepositions, except two. In Irish, many of the principal prepositions cause aspiration a . The system of eclipsis and aspiration somewhat differs, the Welsh having more forms ; however, the agreement is so close, that nothing but original relationship could have caused it. The following table will shew this agreement. b becomes m in Irish and Welsh by eclipsis, and v by aspi- ration. c ,, g in Irish, and g. and ngh in Welsh, by eclipsis, and ch by aspiration, in both languages. d „ w in Irish and Welsh by eclipsis, and by aspira- tion ó or y in Irish, and dh (pronounced like the Saxon J?) in Welsh. f ,, v in Irish by eclipsis, but wanting in Welsh. g ,, ng in Irish and Welsh, by eclipsis, and y by aspi- ration in Irish ; but the true aspirate is wanting in Welsh. p ,, b in Irish, and b and mh in Welsh by eclipsis, and ph by aspiration in both languages. t ,, d in Irish, and d and nh in Welsh, by eclipsis, and th in Welsh, and h in Irish, by aspiration. s ,, t in Irish, by eclipsis, and h by aspiration ; but both are wanting in the Welsh b . z See Composition, p. 336, and b See Prichard's " Eastern Syntax, Rule xxxix. p. 388. Origin of the Celtic Nations," a See Syntax, Rule xliv. page pp. 30, 31. 392. lxxxiv Introduction. Let us next see the analogy between the two languages in terminational inflections. In these we find an equally close agreement, as will appear from the following instances. 1. The formation of the plural by attenuation, as Welsh, bard, a poet ; plural, beird : Irish, bápt> ; plural, bcupo. Welsh, bran, a crow ; plural, brain : Irish, bpan ; plural, bpcnn. Welsh, gur, a man ; plural, guyr : Irish, f eap ; plural, pp. 2. The formation of the plural by adding a vowel, as Welsh, pénau ; Irish, cmt>u, heads c . 3. The ordinals are formed in Welsh by the addition of ved, as saip, seven ; seipved, seventh. The ordinals in Irish are expressed by maó, vadh, as peace, seven ; peaccrhaó, seventh, pronounced sechtvadh. 4. The terminations n and g are diminutive in Welsh, as dynyn, a manikin ; oenig, a lambkin. They have the same import in Irish, as ouin'n, a little man ; uameoj (more usually ucunin), a lambkin ; cuileoj, a little fly. 5. As expressive of an agent, the termination r is common to both languages, as, Welsh, morur, a seaman ; Irish (muip- peccp, seaman), muilneoip, a miller. 6. The termination og in Welsh adjectives is generally c in Irish, as Duw trugarog, a merciful God ; Irish, t)ia qió- caipeac. 7. The termination vaur is used in Welsh adjectives to denote abounding, and rheep, in Irish, as guerpvaur, costly ; Irish, Uonriiap, abounding ; pionmap, abounding in wine. 8. The present participle in Welsh ends in d ; in Irish, the progressive active noun, which stands for the present participle, generally ends in t>. 9. In what the Welsh grammarians call the first form of the verb, the third person singular is merely the verbal root, c See Chap. II. p. 83. Introduction. lxxxv as carav, cert, car, from caru, to love. In Irish, the form of the verb in the past tense for the third person singular is the simple root of the verb. 10. In Welsh, the third person plural ends in ant, ent, ynt. In Irish, in am, it>, a&ap. In this particular the Welsh is more like the Latin. 11. In Welsh, the first person of the preter tense ends in is, or ais. In Irish, in ap (anciently aip), as in the following example of caru, to love. SINGULAR. PLURAL. WELSH. IRISH. WELSH. IRISH. 1. cerais, capap. 1. carasom, cappom, or capamap. 2. ceraist, capaip. 2. carasoch, cap pib, or capabap. 3. carodh, cap. 3. carasant, cappac, or capa&ap. 12. The passive voice is expressed in both languages by endings almost identical ; thus : WELSH. IRISH. carter, caprap, amatur, carid, capaó, amabatur. carir, cappap, or cappaióep, amabitur. The Welsh has a greater variety of distinct terminations to express the persons than the Irish, but the Irish is far more distinct in the future tense, and in having a present and con- suetudinal tense in the active voice, which the Welsh wants altogether. The reader is referred to Dr. Prichard's valuable work, entitled " Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations," for the theory of the personal terminations of verbs, where he shews that the personal endings of the verbs in the Welsh language are abbreviated forms of the personal pronouns. Whether this agreement of the two languages is owing to identity of race, or to an amalgamation of both nations in the lxxxvi Introduction. third and fourth centuries, is a question not easily determined; but the probability is, that it is attributable to both. We are informed by Cormac Mac Cullenan, Bishop of Cashel, and King of Munster, in the ninth century, that Crimhthann Mor Mac Fidhaigh, Monarch of Ireland (of the Munster or Heberian line), subdued the Britons, and established Irish colonies, and erected royal forts, at Glastonbury and in Corn- wall, and throughout the country ; and that the Irish retained this power for a long time after the 'arrival of St. Patrick. It is not impossible, therefore, that it was at this period the Irish built the forts which the Welsh call Ceitir Guidelod, or forts of the Gaels, or Irish. Mr. Lhuyd says : " There are none of the Irish themselves, that I know of, amongst all the writings they have published about the origin and history of their nation, that maintained they were possessed of England and Wales ; and yet whoever takes notice of a great many of the names of rivers and mountains throughout the kingdom, will find no reason to doubt but the Irish must have been the inhabitants, when those names were imposed upon them d ." It is not true, however, that no Irish writers attribute to their ancestors the conquest of Britain, though 1 believe the notice of it had not been published in Lhwyd's time. It is stated as follows in Cormac's Glossary, voce Mogh Eime : — " At the time that the sway of the Gaels was great over the Britons, they divided Albion e between them in holdings, and each knew the habitation of his friends ; and the Gaels did not carry on less agriculture on the east side of the sea than at home in Scotica [Scotia], and they erected habita- d See Archwologia Br., p. 7. Great Britain SeeUssher, Pri- e Albion. — This was originally mordia, and the Irish translation the name of all the island of of Nennius. Introduction. lxxxvii tions and regal forts there ; inde dicitur Dinn Tradui, i. e. the triple-fossed fort of Crimthann Mor Mac Fidhaigh, King of Erin, Alba, and as far as the Iccian sea ; et inde est Glas- timber na n-Gaedhal [Glastonbury of the Gaels], a large church which is on the brink of the Iccian sea, &c. And it was at the time of this division also, that Dinn Map Le- thain, in British Cornwall, received its name, i. e. Dun mic Leathain, for Map in the British is the same as mac. And they continued in this power for a long time after the arrival of St. Patrick. It was at this time Coirpre Muse was dwell- ing in the east [of the Channel], with his family and friends, &c. f " J. O'D. It is right to say a few words here respecting certain manuscript authorities frequently referred to, for examples of grammatical forms and inflexions, in the following work. 1. The copy of Keating's History of Ireland, of which very great use has been made, and which is always quoted by its pages, is a manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 5. 26). It was purchased in London, for the College, a few years ago, by Dr. Todd, and proves to be the most accurate and valuable copy of Keating's work which is known to the Author. It is in the handwriting of John, son of Torna O'Mulconry, of the Ardchoill family, in the county of Clare, a most excellent Irish scholar, and a contemporary of Keating. 2. The medical manuscript, by John O'Callannan, who was Mac Carthy Reagh's physician, sometimes quoted in the following pages, was the property of the Author, but is now by f For the original of this pas- logical Society, note G, pp. 339, sage, see Battle of Magh Rath, 340, published by the Irish Archaeo- lxxxviii Introduction. him deposited in the Library of Trinity College (H. 5. 27). It is a mere fragment, chiefly valuable for the age of its au- thor, who translated it from Latin into Irish, at Kilbritton, in the year 1414, when Donnell Reagh Mac Carthy Cair- breach was on his death-bed. 3. The Irish manuscript transcribed in Ulster, in 1679, quoted as authority for the Ulster dialect of that period, and the extracts from the Book of Fermoy, the original of which is not now in Dublin 8 , were also the property of the Author, and are deposited in the Library of Trinity College (H. 5. 28). The latter of these manuscripts is in the handwriting of old Mr. Casey, formerly of Myler's Alley, Dublin, and was pur- chased for the Author by his friend, Myles John O'Reilly, Esq., of the Heath House, in the Queen's County, at the sale of the manuscripts of the late Edward O'Reilly, author of the Irish Dictionary. An account of the transcriber, Mr. Casey, will be found in Whitelaw and Walsh's History of Dublin. 8 The Book of Fermoy was in the Author into whose hands it the possession of the Chevalier has fallen, or whether it is still O'Gorman, at the close of the in existence, last century ; it is not known to A GRAMMAR OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, PART I. ORTHOGRAPHY. CHAPTER I. CLASSIFICATION OF LETTERS. The modern Irish Alphabet consists of eighteen letters, arranged in the same order as their corresponding letters in the Roman Alphabet. They are as follows : a, b, c> t), e, p, 5, h, l, I, m, n, o, p, p, p, c, u. The va- rious forms of these characters, as found in manuscripts of different ages, have been already shewn in the Intro- ductory Remarks. Of these letters a, e, 1, o, u are vowels, the rest are consonants. The vowels are divided into broad and small. The broad" vowels are a, o, u ; the small e, 1. The consonants are either mutes or liquids. The mutes are b, c, D, p, 5, m, p, u ; the liquids I, n, p, p. B 2 Classification of Letters. [part i. They are also. divided into labials, palatals, and linguals, from the organs of speech by which they are chiefly pronounced. The labials are b, p, m, p ; the palatals, c, 5, and the linguals t>, I, n, p, p, c. The letter h is not included in any of these divisions. Philosophical writers on comparative Etymology have divided the consonants of the Celtic dialects generally into surds and so- nants, and subdivided them into gutturals, palatines, linguals, dentals, labials, semivowels, and sibilants ; but although these dis- tinctions have been found useful in comparative Etymology, it is not necessary to introduce them into a practical grammar. For a curious classification of the consonants of the Celtic dialects see PricharcTs Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, p. 129. The author several years since made a classification of the Irish consonants, according to Dr. Darwin's system of articulate sounds, as explained in his work called the Temple of Nature, and drew up orthographical rules according to such a classification, but he has since been induced to reject these rules, in consequence of the no- velty of the terms, and to adopt the divisions which are in com- mon use. According to Dr. Darwin's system the Irish consonants would be divided thus : c, p, c are mutes, properly so called, as being perceptible stops of the vocal sound ; b, o, 5, orisonants, because they are preceded by a slight vocal sound formed in the mouth ; m, n, narisonant semivowels ; p, p, h, sibilants ; and I, p, orisonant liquids. The aspirated consonants would be thus clas- sified : B, ó, 5, sonisibilants ; c, p, p, r, simple sibilants ; and rii a norisonant semivowel. Although this classification has not been adopted by any of the subsequent writers on the philosophy of articulate sounds, it is de- cidedly the most correct. It should be here remarked, that in ancient Irish MSS. conso- nants of the same organ, particularly b and p, c and 5, o and c, are very frequently substituted for each other, and that where the an- cients usually wrote p, c, c, the moderns write b, 5, o. o for c, as oap for cap, over, across. chap, i.] Classification of Letters. 3 * c for o, as coclcto for coolao, sleep, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. (H. 3. 18.), p. 42; écacfor éaoac, Cor mac's Gloss., voce o\\c rpeich. b for F> as beoil for peoil, flesh, Cor. Gloss., voce ffloj éime. c for j, as cac, every, for jac; cloiceno for cloijeann, the skull, Cor. Gloss., voce TTIoj éime. b for Tin, as noib for naoirh, saints, Ibid., voce Noip; abám for ariicnn, alone ; ap na bapac for ap na vhapac, on the morrow, Vit, Moling. m for b, as a lenrh, her child, for a leanb, Vit. Moling. p for b, as mappacc cac a céile, for mapbaio các a céile, Vit. Moling ; oóip for oóib, to them, Jlnnals of Ulster. p for b, as Qlpu for Qlba, Scotland, Cor. Gloss, (in v. Coipe bpecam) ; Coipppi for Caipbpe, a man's name, Ibid, (in v. ITI05 eime) ; cappac for capbao, a chariot, Ibid, (in v. Ope cpeich). Nine of these consonants, namely, b, c, t), p, 5, m, p, p, c, are called aspirates, because in certain situations their primary or natural sounds are changed into aspi- rated sounds, as b, into b, i. e. the sound b into the sound v, &c, as will be presently shewn. Every consonant, whether in its primary or aspirated state, has a broad or a slender sound, according to the nature of the vowel which it precedes or follows. When it precedes or follows a broad vowel it has always a certain fixed broad sound, and when it precedes or fol- lows a slender vowel it has a fixed small or slender sound, which will presently be described. This influ- ence of the vowels over the consonants, which exists to some extent in every language, has given rise to a general rule or canon of orthography which distinguishes the Irish from all the European languages, namely, that every consonant, or combination of consonants, must always stand between two broad vowels or two slender vowels, as bpipm, I break; molaio, they praise; 4 Classification of Letters. [part i. coppojióa, corporeal; not bjnpaiD, molio, coppeptja, or bpiopiD, rnoleo, coppopóe. O'Molloy, in his Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, published at Home in 1677, explains this great canon of Irish orthography as follows, pp. 50, 51 : " Rursus obserua in voculis polisyllabis quibuscumque saltern ordinarié seruari debere regulam Hibernis tritam turn in scriptura, turn in sono, quae dicitur caol le caol, leachan le leachan, latiné subtilis cum subtili, et larga cum larga. Hoc est dicere, si posterioris syllabse prima vocalis fuerit subtilis, similiter prioris seu antecedentis syllabae ultima vocalis debebit esse subtilis; pariformiter si larga, larga; alias vitium erit turn in enun- ciatione, turn in orthographia : non tamen requiritur quod utraque vocalis semper ; sit eiusdem speciei, vel numeri, tametsi multoties contingat quod sint, sed sufncit quod ambae sint largae, vel ambee subtiles. Dixi ordinarié, nam exceptio datur de quibusdam pau- cissimis, vt ma, map, &c, latiné, quam in quo, &c." Professor Latham, in his chapter on Euphony, and the permuta- tion and the transition of letters, notices this rule as a remarkable one in the Irish. His words are : " The Irish Gaelic, above most other languages, illustrates a Euphonic principle that modifies the Vowels of a word. The Vowels a, o f u, as seen in § 71, are Pull, whilst e, £, y are Small. Now, if to a syllable containing a Small Vowel, as brvil, there be added a syllable containing a Broad one, as am y a change takes place. Either the first syllable is accom- modated to the second, or the second to the first ; so that the Vowels respectively contained in them are either both Full or both Small. Hence arises, in respect to the word quoted, either the form bwalam, or else the form bwilim." — The English Language, p. 122. This rule, which has been so scrupulously adhered to by modern Irish writers, has been condemned as cumbrous by Vallancey, Stew- art, Haliday, Mac Elligott, and others, and it is certain that it is not always strictly adhered to in the ancient Irish manuscripts ; but the principle on which it is founded is observable in the oldest fragments of Irish composition remaining to us, as will appear from the specimens given in the Appendix to this work. chap, il] Sounds of the Vowels. CHAPTER II. OF THE VOWELS. Section 1. — Of the Sounds of the Simple Vowels. All the vowels are sometimes long, and sometimes short or obscure. In the southern half of Ireland they have medial or diphthongal sounds between long and short, which have not been hitherto noticed, or at least, not sufficiently explained by Irish grammarians. These diphthongal sounds, not being strictly analogical, shall not be introduced into the text of this Grammar, with the exception of a few of the most prominent of them, lest they should perplex the learner ; but they shall be carefully described in the notes, in order to preserve the Munster pronunciation of the language. A long vowel is generally marked by an acute ac- cent, thus : bap, death ; min, smooth. In the absence of this accent, it is understood that the vowel is short, as bap, the palm of the hand ; mm, meal. In words of two or more syllables the accent is ge- nerally on the first syllable, or root of the word, whether it be long or short, as plcmui^re, saved; coppojióa, corporeal. — See the Prosody, Chap. L, Sect. 1. There are no quiescent final vowels in this language, as in the English or French ; for although the final e in the words buióe, yellow, cpoióe, a heart, and such 6 Sounds of the Vowels. [fart i. like, as pronounced at present, is nearly quiescent, and looks as if it were merely intended, like the final e in English, to render the preceding vowel long, still we know from the oldest specimens of Irish poetry re- maining, that the final e in such words was distinctly uttered and accounted a syllable. The obscure sounds of the vowels prevail after the accented syllables, or when they are final in pollysyl- lables, as mópóa, majestic; n^eapna, a lord. In this situation the vowels have so transient and indistinct a pronunciation that it is difficult to distinguish one broad or slender vowel from another, and hence in ancient manuscripts we find vowels substituted for each other ad libitum, as plctnui jre, saved, is written plánaijre, plánoijée, and plcmuijci ; where it is to be observed that the long accented á cannot be changed, but the ob- scure vowels are changed ad libitum, because the ear could not possibly distinguish the sound of one from that of the other. Walker, in his observations on the irregular and unaccented sounds of the English vowels, has a remark somewhat similar to this. 44 If," he says, " the accent be kept strongly on the first syllable of the word tolerable, as it always ought to be, we find scarcely any distinguishable difference to the ear, if we substitute u or o instead of a, in the penultimate syllable ; thus, tolerable, toleroble, and toleruble, are exactly the same word to the ear, if pronounced without premeditation or transposing the accent for the real purpose of distinction," &c. However, in writing r-lanuijce, and such other words as present many indistinct vowels, a fixed orthography should be preserved, and the form of the word to be adopted should be decided upon by observing the root and proper grammatical inflections or branches springing from it ; thus, from the root plan, safe, is formed plcm- újaó, salvation, and the u in this form should be retained in the passive participle plcmuijre, and in all other derivatives springing from it, as plcmuijceoip, a saviour; plcmuijreac, sanative. chap, ii.] Sounds of the Vowels. 7 Such as wish to become acquainted with the ancient MSS. should be informed that u before p may be written cmp, ep, or ip, as upncujée, prayers, which may be written cmpncnjre, epnaijre, or 'pnijée ; upoam, a scarcity, ctupoam, epoam, ípoam. — See the remarks on the diphthong cm. According to a principle of the language no number of vowels meeting in a word forms more than one syl- lable ; and therefore when many vowels come together an adventitious 6 or 5 is often thrown in between them to make a second syllable, and to serve the same purpose as a hyphen or a diaeresis; as t>o beóaib, to the living, may be written Oo beoóaib ; aiep, the air or sky, may be written aióép a ; but in ancient manuscripts these adventitious consonants are seldom, if ever, used, and we sometimes find four or five vowels together without any consonant intervening, as cueoin, of the air; cnéupóa, caiuiji, melodious 5 . In modern Irish orthography no vowels are doubled in the same syllable, like ee or 00 in English ; but in the ancient manuscripts all long vowels are found doubled, as oee, gods; laa, a day; moo, greater, as " 00 pálcc laa nano mipi am oenap, I happened to be one day alone." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 34. " ÍTI00 a emeach oloap bic, his bounty is greater than the world." — Id. p. 52. This doubling of the vowels, however, does not in any way affect the pronunciation. In reading Irish, all consonants, whether primary or aspirated, must be pronounced according to their re- spective powers, as they shall presently be described, except such as are eclipsed, as pointed out in the table a See the copy of Keating's brary of Trinity College, Dublin, History of Ireland, by John Mac p. 127, line 36. Torna O'Mulconry, in the Li- b Book of Fermoy. 8 Sounds of the Vowels. [part i. of eclipsis, and also the aspirated p, which is quiescent in every situation, and the aspirated 6 and £ in the middle of words which are not compounds. It should be also remarked, that the aspirated t is but very faintly pronounced in the end of words, as plaiú, a chieftain ; bpeiú, a sentence. Table of the Sounds of the Vowels. a. 1. Q when long, sounds like a in the English words call, Jail, as Ian, full ; apt), high. In Meath and Ulster a long is pronounced like a in the English words mar , father , as these words are pronounced by Walker, and this is also the prevailing long sound of this vowel throughout the Highlands of Scotland ; but it cannot be considered its true original sound. O'Molloy describes the long sound of this vowel as fol- lows : — " Hanc autem A efferes cum Latinis large, ore scilicet de- ducto, flatu valentulo, suspensa modicé lingua, et dentibus inuicem non tangentibus, ut amctocm, latine stultus." — Grammatica La- tino- Hibernica, Romce, 1677, p. 8. 2. Q short, like a in the English word/atf, as anam, a soul ; ^lap, green c . In the end of a word it is pronounced very obscurely, like a in the English word tolerable, as céapca, crucified or tormented ; oéanra, done ; mópóa, majestic d . c In some of the southern tute o and u for it ad libitum, as counties a is pronounced in this Ullcu for Ullca, the Ultonians; situation like a in the English oéanco for oeanca, done, but word what, as cape, thirst ; gap- this should not be permitted, as ccc, acute. it would prevent the orthography d As has been already remarked, of the language from becoming when a has this obscure sound, fixed, it has been the custom to substi- chap, il] Sounds of the Vowels. 9 3. Q6 and a£, when immediately followed by a broad vowel, or by the consonants I, m, n, n, c, 5, are pro- nounced like the English word eye, or the German ei in wein, as aóapc, a horn; aólacaó, burial; aónaó, adoration ; Uaó^, a man's name. This rule holds good throughout the southern half of Ireland, but it must be varied for the pronunciation of the north and west. In Conuaught at> and aj, when followed by a vowel, have the sound laid down in the text, but when followed by I, m, n, p they are pronounced like a long (1), as aópaó, adoration; aólctcaó, burial; ctómao, timber, which words are pronounced as if written ápaó, álacaó, ámao. In the north of Ulster aó and aj, followed by a vowel, or by the consonants c, 5, have a strange sound, not unlike ueeu closely and rapidly pronounced ; but in the southern counties of Ulster, and in Meath, they are pronounced somewhat like ay in the English word mayor, as paoctpc, sight ; aóapc, a horn ; Caój, a man's name, which words are pronounced in the north of Ulster nearly as if written paoióectpc, aoióeapc, Caoióeaj ; but in the south of Ulster and in Meath, as if written pctéóapc, aéóapc, Ccreóaj. Throughout the Highlands of Scotland this combination is pronounced nearly as in the north of Ulster, and Dr. Stewart says that " the sound has none like it in English." It would be now difficult to strike a medium between those various pronun- ciations, and point out what was the true original sound of this combination, but it is highly probable that it was originally pro- nounced á long, as it is in some instances in Connaught at pre- sent. 4. Q6 in the end of words is pronounced in the south of Ireland like a in the English word general; as bualaó, striking; Oeanao, doing ; glacao, receiving; peacaó, sin. This rule holds good in all monosyllabic words throughout Ireland ; but in dissyllables and polysyllables ao, in this situation, is C 10 Sounds of the Vowels. [part i. pronounced like oo nasal throughout Connaught and Ulster. This, however, cannot be considered a sound of ceo, but more properly of am, which is the dialectic termination of most verbal nouns in Connaught and Ulster. For example, the word oéanaó, doing, is pronounced in Connaught as if it were written oiojnarii ; but this should not be considered the pronunciation of the form oéanctó, which is peculiar to the south of Ireland, but of oinjnarh, which is a form of this verbal noun found in very ancient manuscripts. Some Irish grammarians, who had but a local knowledge of the pronun- ciation of the language, not considering the dialectical variations of words, have given very odd sounds to some of the vowels and con- sonants, such as that of oo to the ao in question, and that of í to é, which leads to much confusion and inaccuracy ; for it is in reality making a local peculiarity, or barbarism, the standard of a general principle of the language. The original pronunciation of aó and a j was in all probability like agh guttural, which is still partially preserved in the moun- tainous districts of the counties of Londonderry and Tyrone, as in 'peaó, it is; cpuinneajaó, a gathering, &c. 5. G, when coming before the consonant m, or the double consonants 11, nn, 115, in monosyllabic words, and before nc, nc in dissyllables, is pronounced in the south- ern half of Ireland like the German au, or nearly like ow, in the English word how, as am, time ; ball, a member ; pann, weak ; mang, a bag ; neanuoj, nettles ; p uncon- cern, a tune. But in the province of Ulster the a has its regular analogical short sound (2) in these situations . 6. Q before b is pronounced in the southern half c See the Prosody. In some unknown in Ulster and in the parts of Connaught a before 11, southern half of Ireland, and not m, and nn, has its natural long general even in Connaught ; it sound; as am, time, pronounced must therefore be regarded as a ám ; call, a blind man, pro- local peculiarity, nounced ocdl ; but this sound is chap, il] Sounds of the Vowels. 11 of Ireland like ou in the English word ounce, as abawn, a river; cabaipu, giving; labaipr, speaking. In the County of Kerry a, in this situation, has the regular diphthongal sound of a (5). But in Ulster it has the sound of o long, as abainn, a river; ^abal, a fork; jaba, a smith; jabap, a goat, pronounced in Ulster at present as if written óbcnnn, jdbal, jóba, jobap. e. 1 . 6 long sounds like the Greek tjtcl, or like e long in the French, and all languages except the English, as pé, time ; pé, six ; mé, I. In English e long has evidently lost its original sound, it being now pronounced ee, like i long in all ancient, and most modern languages ; but e short still retains its original sound, as in other languages. E still keeps its ancient long sound in a few words, as where, there, ere, &c, in which words it exactly corresponds with e long in Irish. O'Molloy, in pointing out the primitive character of the pronunciation of the Irish vowels and diphthongs, thus exclaims : " Sistunt ergo Patrum, veterumque vestigijs, nee cum nouatoribus in vicinio mutant religionem Hiberni." — Gram- matica Latino- Hibernica, p. 46. 2. G short is pronounced like e in the English word met, as Dume, a man ; buile, madness. In the modern Irish orthography the vowel e never appears alone in the body of a word or syllable, but is always accompanied by other vowels ; but in the ancient Irish manuscripts it is often written singly, as pép, grass ; pep, a man ; ben, a woman, for the modern péap, peap, bean ; also ppépe, of the firmament, for the modern ppéipe — See notes under the diphthongs ea and ei. In the ancient manuscripts iu is frequently used for the final e short of the moderns, as " moo ocup aipoiu oloap cec pep," for the modern " mó agup áipoe ina jac peap." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 64. " Q n-oul uaic-piu" for "a n-oul uaic-pe." — Id., p. 68. " eipiu" for " eipe."— Id., p. 110. 12 Sounds of the Vowels. [part i. 1. 1. 1 long sounds like i long in all the ancient and modern languages, except the English, and like the usual long sound of the English e, or ee, as laid down by Walker, as min, smooth or fine ; pi, a king d . 2. 1 shorty like i in the English word mill, as mil, honey ; min, meal ; bile, an old tree. Before II and If the short i of the other provinces is pronounced like ei, very slender, in the south-east of Ireland, but in the south- west like í long, as milpe, sweeter ; mill, spoil ; p 1 ^* return; cill, a church. Neither of these sounds, however, can be considered analogical, though the former seems of considerable antiquity in the south of Ireland, and was highly prized by the poets for the sonorous jingles which it produced in their rhymes. It is made up of e-ee, not of d-ee, like the English i long. O. 1. O long, like o in the English word more, as mop, great; op, gold. Throughout Meath, and the adjoining counties of Ulster, o long is pronounced like a in hall, as ól, drink, pronounced all; o short exactly corresponds with it, and is pronounced like o in the English lot, sot ; but this must be regarded a great corruption. 2. O short, always like o in the English words mother, brother, other, as copp, a body ; olc, evil 6 . d The general long sound of i sound of the vowel o, as has been in English is not that of a simple stated by all scientific writers on vowel, but that of a perfect organic sounds. The general diphthong ; but in some few short sound of o in English is words it has the pure sound of a the natural short sound of a long simple vowel, as in machine, &c. and broad, as in kail, all, &c c This is the natural short chap, ii.] Soitnds of the Vowels. 13 In monosyllables closed by the consonants 11, m, nn, and in dis- syllables, when it is followed by 5, or ó, the vowel o is pronounced in the southern half of Ireland like ou in the English word ounce, as poll, a hole; cpom, stooped; lorn, bare ; ponn, desire; eo£a, selection ; poja, choice. These sounds were highly prized by the southern poets for their musical tone, although the inhabitants of the north and west of Ireland considered them unnatural and bar- baric. They are well exemplified in the following rhymes : " Uá copcmn conn a' bojpaó Hawk coip G'p é 5cm im, 3cm rheaó^, jjjan blacaig." William English. " 6a caol a com, a cpaob-polc cpom O5 ceacc 50 bonn léi na ppeacaib." John Claragh Mac Donnell. " t)aé an loca a'p 50pm na o-conn Qj ceacc 50 coljac, copannac, cpom." Brian Merriman. In Ulster, Connaught, and Meath o, in these situations, has its short sound, except before ó and j, where it is made long, as pojlaim, learning. It may be remarked here, once for all, that the principal dif- ference between the Munster and the other dialects of the Irish language consists in the diphthongal sounds of the vowels here pointed out. The Lister and Connaught pronunciation is generally, and particularly in this instance, more analogical and correct, but the Munster dialect is more sonorous and musical. The natives of the different provinces, however, are much divided in their opinions of the different modes of pronunciation, each claiming his own to be the most mellifluous and the purest. — See Preface. U. 1. U long, like u in rule f , as up, fresh ; cul, the back. f The usual sound of u in vowel, as it begins with the con- English is not that of a simple sonantal sound of y. 14 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part i. 2. U short, like u mfull, bull, as ucc, the breast; uppa, a prop. This is the natural short sound of w, and it will be necessary for the English scholar to remember here that the general short sound of u in English, as heard in tub, current, is really that of o short. In the ancient Irish manuscripts cm is often written for the simple u of the moderns, as aunr- a for uppa, a jamb or prop ; au- óaccfor úóacc, a will or testament ; cmpoam for upoam, a portico. Section 2. — Of the Sounds of the Diphthongs. There are thirteen diphthongs in the modern Irish language, ae, ai, ao; ea, ei, eo, eu ; ía, 10, m ; oi ; ua, ui. Of these ae, ao, eu, ía, ua, and most generally, eo are long : the others are sometimes long and sometimes short. Their sounds will be more particularly described in the following Table : Table of the Sounds of the Diphthongs. ae. Qe is always long, and sounds like ae in Latin, as pronounced by the continental nations, and like ay in the English word mayor, as aep, the air, the sky; lae, of a day ; pae, the moon. • This diphthong is very seldom used in modern Irish orthogra- phy, and Dr. Stewart, who had no ancient manuscript authorities to refer to, seems to doubt (Grammar, p. 5) that it properly belongs to the Gaelic at all ; but he is clearly in error, as it is generally used in the most ancient Irish manuscripts for the modern ao (which see). O'Molloy, in 1677, describes its sound as follows: chap, ii.] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 15 " Secunda biuocalis ae effertur sicut á priscis olim Latinis, in Musce, scepé, et similibus, largius nempé quám si scriberentur cum e simplici, vt ael, latiné calx." — Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, pp. 48, 49. en. 1. Qi, with the accent on a, sounds like a long and l very short, as yccul, a shadow; conn, a tribute. The sound of this diphthong is varied in the provinces, accord- ingly as they pronounce the long á broad or slender. 2. Qi short, like a in art, ai in plaid, or ai in the French word travailler, as baile, a town ; cailleac, a hag. This is the ancient and most analogical sound of this diphthong when short, and it now prevails throughout the southern half of Ireland; yet in Ulster it is invariably pronounced like e short, as Clileach, the name of a place ; aiplinj, a dream, pronounced ellagh, eshling. The Rev. Paul O'Brien, who was a native of Meath, and had no general knowledge of the provincial variations of pronunciation, marks en short as pronounced like i in the English word king, as ainjeal, an angel ; and it is true that it has this sound in some parts of Meath, but it should be regarded as a very corrupt sound of this diphthong, which is confined to a narrow district. Throughout Leath Mhogha, or the southern half of Ireland, this diphthong, when it comes before 11, m, nn, ó, j, is pronounced aee, but some- what broader than the English i long, as call, a cliff; cnmpip, time; rnaióm, a knot; mctijoectn, a virgin; ecnóbpe, pride, osten- tation ; pcnóbpeap, wealth. The Munster poets of the last century delighted in jingles formed by this sound, as " O ccuóbpij rné an paióbpeap ba jpeiónijje te péacain." Donnell Mac Kennedy O'Brien. In Connaught, Ulster, and Meath, this diphthong is short in these situations, except before ó and j, when it sounds in Con- naught as in Munster, but in Ulster and Meath like ai in the 16 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part I. English word main. It should be also observed here that the word pnaióm, a knot, which is properly pronounced snime in many parts of Munster, is also pronounced in the south of Leinster, and several parts of Munster also, as if written pnaoim. In the preposition cup, upon, and a few other words, this diph- thong is pronounced like e in err, but the antiquity of this pronun- ciation is doubtful, as that preposition, in its simple form, is almost invariably written ap or F°P in ancient manuscripts. CtO. Cto is pronounced in the south of Ireland like ay in the English word mayor, but in Connaught, somewhat like uee in the English word queen, as maop, a steward; t>aoji, dear. This diphthong is used in all printed Irish books, and is found in manuscripts of some antiquity, say four centuries ; but it never appears in the ancient Irish sepulchral inscriptions, nor in the ear- lier Irish manuscripts, as the Book of Armagh, the Liber Hymno- rura, Leabhar na h-TJidhri, the Book of Leinster, &c, but instead of it ae or oe are always used ; for which reason there can be little doubt that it was anciently pronounced as ae was among the ancient Latins. It still retains this ancient sound all over the southern half of Ireland, In Connaught it is pronounced somewhat like ea in the English word steal, but broader, and with something of a diphthongal sound, not unlike uee in queen. In Ulster and Meath it has a very odd sound, which may be represented by ueeu, closely and rapidly pronounced 8 . This diphthong was evidently introduced into Irish orthography to facilitate the adherence to the rule of Broad with a Broad, &c, g O'Molloy described the sound videlicet modicé aperto, pug- of this diphthong as follows, in nante parce halitu cum superiori 1677, but it is not easy to per- palato, reliquis omnino immotis, ceive which of the sounds here vt Gooh, quod proprium est no- laid down he intends : " Go ef- men viri, tametsi idem significet fertur lato mollique sono, ore quod Latiné, ignis." 1 chap, ii.] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 17 because ae, the diphthong which the ancients employed in its place, always gave the consonant which followed it a broad sound, and in the increments of words in which it occurred, broad vowels were always added, as fctep, r-aepa, where there would be an evident breach of the rule alluded to. Hence, when this great canon of Irish orthography began to be more strictly adhered to than it had been by the ancients, it was thought proper to change e into o, and write pctop, paopct, which fulfils the rule. au. Qu is never used in the modern orthography, al- though frequently found in ancient manuscripts. Its pronunciation is uncertain; but it is often found in words now written with a u short, as ccupcop for up- cup, a shot h ; aupoam for upborn, a porch 1 ; laulgac for lul£ac, or loil£eac, a milch cow J ; aut>pepca for eaOpeapr, or iot)bapc k , an offering; Qulell Gulom for Olioll Olum 1 , a man's name ; Guanine forUgcnne, a man's name ra . — See u long. ea. 1. Ga long, exactly like ea in the English words bear, swear, tear, great, as ^éap, sharp ; péap, grass. The sound which ea represents in these words is the original and correct sound of that English diphthong, and is still preserved in speaking English by the uneducated classes in Ireland, where it had been introduced before the present affected change of its sound to ee took place in England. In the south of Ireland the Irish h MS. Trin. College, Dublin, k MS. Trin. College, Dublin, H. 2. 18. fol. 25. H. 3. 18. p. 361. 1 Book of Ballymote, fol. 245, a. l Cormac's Glossary, voce ITI05 J Cormac's Glossary, voce cli- Gime. rap-peo. m Ibid, voce Sanb. D 18 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part i. diphthong éa long is sometimes very corruptly pronounced ee-ci, somewhat, but not exactly like ea in the English word fear ; but this pronunciation, which never prevailed in any part of Connaught, Meath, or Ulster, cannot be considered analogical, nor is it to be approved of; and it is curious that while the natives of Munster use it in common conversation, they always reject it in repeating poems, songs, and prayers. 2. Get short, like ea in the English words heart, hearth, hearken, as rneap, respect ; fceap, handsome. lo short is often used for ea short by writers of the seventeenth century. In the ancient manuscripts a single e, or the character f, (which is only an elongated e), is always written instead of this diphthong whether short or long, as mep, or mfp, for mean, íinger ; pep, or pfp, for Féap, grass ; mep, or mfp, for meap, swift; oep, or ofp,for oeap, handsome; and it is curious that in the counties of Mo- naghan and Louth, and other parts of Ulster, this diphthong, when short, is pronounced like a single e ; thus, the above words are pro- nounced mer, des, not mar, das, as in the other parts of Ireland. Some Irish scholars have thought that the character f, which fre- quently occurs in the Irish manuscripts, is a contraction for ea, but it can be proved that it stands for a simple e, as it is used to represent the Latin e in very ancient manuscript copies of the Gos- pels. — See some curious observations on this subject by Richard Mac Elligott of Limerick, in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, p. 26. From the present pronunciation of the words in which this character is introduced in the ancient manuscripts, we must conclude that the ancients pronounced the consonant preceding it with a slender sound, and that following it with a broad sound ; and hence after the establishment of the great Gaelic orthographical canon of " Broad with a Broad," &c., an a was thrust in between the e and the following consonant, to mark its broad sound with more certainty, as peap, a man, for pep ; ceapc, just, for cepc. Some have thought that it would improve the modern Irish or- chap, il] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 19 thography to introduce the diphthong eu for ea, when long, as then ea would be always short and eu always long ; for example, for péap, grass, to write peup. O'Molloy, in his Irish Catechism, and Duald Mac Firbis, in his Genealogical Book, have adhered to this distinction 11 . In Munster and south Leinster eu in monosyllables ending in II, m, nn, and nj, is pronounced like the German au (aoo), as peull, treachery ; leam, with me ; gleann, a valley ; peanj, slender; but in dissyllables, formed in the course of grammatical inflection from these monosyllables, it is pronounced short, as peallaim, I deceive ; feanjcm, a pismire ; an jleanna, of the valley ; except when a consonant follows, as meallca, deceived ; jleannca, valleys ; eeannca, a press, a support ; neanncoj, nettles ; geallca, promised. These sounds, which the natives of Connaught, Meath, and Ulster abhor, are exemplified in the following rhymes : " Q h-ctolcopp pecmg, a péió cpob leabaip, Cf caol-rpoij éeann, a oéao, 'p a mailije." John Mac Donnell, surnamed Clarack. "Do rpéi^ mé, íp peap, mo jpeann, Uá an cléip a n-aipio leam, lp baoc mo beapc, if paon mo neapc, Do claon' p oo pcaip mo meabaip." Andrew Magrath. It is necessary to remark here, for the information of such learners as wish to become acquainted with the ancient Irish wri- tings, that ea preceding p is often changed to au in old manuscripts, as aupoalca for eapoalca, certain; aupoam for eapoam, a porch, an apartment; and that these words are also found written with a u, as upoalca, upoam. Also that the ancients wrote iu short for the ea short of the moderns, as " mopra caca maiciupa"' for n Some Irish grammarians Connaught, and obtains in so few have marked another sound of words that it should not be con- ea, like ee in meek, as in oéan, sidered a sound of ea, but a pro- do, or make ; but this is very vincial substitution of io for that corrupt, and confined to lower diphthong. 20 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part i. " móprct jctca mcuceapa." — Battle ofMagh Rath, p. 100. " F e F" cap plairiupa," for " peapcap plaineapa." — Id. p. 122. 3. 6a, with the accent on a, sounds like a in the English word father, as pecqip, better; Secrjip, short; pecTpno^, the alder tree. There are very few words in the language in which this sound obtains, and even in these it is not generally adhered to throughout Ulster. It should be also remarked that the a is seldom written in ancient manuscripts, in which peppoe is written for the modern peáppoe; pepnoj for peápnój, &c. ei. 1. Gi long, like ei in feign, reign, as léini, a leap; céim, a step. 2. Gi short, like e in ferry, as beip, bring ; oeip, says ; ^eip, tallow. In Munster and south Leinster ei, in monosyllables ending in 65, 11, m, óm, nn, t>, and 5, and in dissyllables, when it is followed by t>, 5, or rin , is generally pronounced like i long and slender in English, or the German ei, as peill, of treachery (gen. of peall) ; ceill, a church ; speim, a bit or morsel ; peióm, use ; but in Con- naught, Meath, and Ulster ei in these situations (excepting only before It) is pronounced long, like ei in the English word reign. The Munster pronunciation of ei in these situations is exemplified in the following rhymes : " Clioip TTlcnje net mapc ní puil meióip, O claoióeaó áp 5-ceap a 5-ceill." John O'Tuama. In ancient manuscripts a single e is often found for the ei of the moderns, as reap na jpéne for reap na jpeme, the heat of the sun. — Battle ofMagh Rath, p. 34. Duald MacFirbis, in his ge- nealogical manuscript, and Peter Connell, in his Irish Dictionary, have, in many instances, rejected the diphthong ei and written a chap. II.] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 21 single e in its place; and yet Haliday, who professes to restore the pure ancient orthography of the language, and rejects the diph- thongs ao, ea, eu, as modern and corrupt, retains ei as a pure an- cient diphthong ; for which he certainly has the authority of the Book of Lecan and other manuscripts of considerable antiquity. eo. 1. Go long, like oa in shoal, as feol, a sail; ceol, music ; but it must be borne in mind that the conso- nant preceding this is always slender, so that the e has its use. In Meath, Louth, and Ulster, this diphthong, when long, is pronounced like aw in shawl, and when short like o in mock. This arises from their manner of pronouncing o long, i. e. like a in call. 2. Go short, like u in just, as tjeoc, a drink ; eoccnji, a key. As this short sound of eo is found only in seven or eight words in the whole language, there is no necessity for placing an accent over the o when the diphthong is long, for the learner may con- sider it as always long. The words in which it is short are the following : oeoc, a drink ; eocaip, a key ; Goccnó, a man's name ; eoca, horses; neoc, which ; peoc, a part; and two or three others now obsolete. eu. Gu, always like éa long, as meup, a finger; cneuo, a flock. — See Observations on ea. This diphthong is used by some modern writers for éa long, or the simple e long of the ancient manuscripts. Thus Duald Mac Firbis introduces it in the following lines, where the Book of Lecan has a single e : 22 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part i. " t)ari oo puaip gac aicme, Copancac cláip Gopaipe, X)o jab 50 h-6alpa n-eunaij ólaó o'á eaccpa n-uippgeulaij." Thus in the Book of Lecan, fol. 83, a : "t)aci do puaip jac aicmi, Copancac claip Gopaipi, T)o gab co h-Glpa n-enaig, 6lao oa echcpa n-uippjelaij." ia. la is always long, like ea in the English word /ear, as piaji, crooked, warped; pial, hospitable. la long is in a few words pronounced eea t as in mian, desire ; piaóam, wild. The word oiabal, the devil, forms a singular excep- tion to the usual sound of this diphthong, for it is pronounced oe-orvl in the north and oial in the south of Ireland. IO. 1. lo long, like 1 long, but the o renders the con- sonant which follows it broad, as pion, wine ; lion, flax. 2. lo short, like io in the English word motion, as cion, affection ; pi op, knowledge. In the ancient manuscripts a single 1 is written for this diph- thong, whether long or short, as pip for piop, knowledge ; pin for pion, wine ; bipop for biolap, water cresses ; ilap for íolap, many; pinn for pionn, fair. The o was inserted to render the broad sound of the following consonant certain, and to fulfil the rule of " Broad with a Broad," &c. Dr. Stewart and Mr. Mac Elligott of Limerick recommend the rejection of this diphthong, and Haliday, in his Gaelic Grammar, has actually rejected it, as being modern and corrupt. It is indeed very true that it is not found in the ancient Irish manuscripts ; but still I do not think it advisable to reject it chap, ii.] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 23 altogether from modern Irish orthography, as the o is distinctly- heard in many parts of Ireland, as will be observed by attending to the Munster pronunciation of the following words : pionn, fair ; mionn, an oath ; íonró^aó, turning. The following distich from an elegy by James O'Daly, an Irish poet of Clare, who lived in the last century, will shew that he intended the o in the word pionn, fair, to be pronounced somewhat like u long : " ^aoice an báip do pájiuij oalca na muse, Gajnaió, peapóa, páilceac, peapurhail pionn." Here the poet makes the o in pionn, form a kind of vowel rhyme with the u in the English word muse, and this shews that a single l would not have represented its sound to his ears. In the northern half of Ireland also, although the power of the o in this diphthong is not so easily observed, still it has fully as much power as the o in the English diphthong io in the words notion, motion, million. Hence it is evident that although the sound of this diph- thong may have been at first correctly represented by a single i, it cannot at present, and, therefore, it cannot with propriety be rejected from the number of modern Irish diphthongs. It should be here remarked, that the general Munster pronunciation of io short, before the consonants m, nn, U, is like iu long ; but that in the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, and parts of Kilkenny, it is often sounded like the diphthong ea in these situations.— See Ob- servations on ea. IU. 1. Ill long, like ew in few, as piu, worth, which is pronounced like the English word few, except that the Irish p is somewhat more slender. 2. Iu short, like oo in good, as pliuc, wet; nu£, thick ; but the number of words in which it has this sound is very small. Ol. 1. Oi long is made up of o long and l very short, as coin, just; coin, pursuit. 24 Sounds of the Diphthongs. [part I. 2. Oi short is made up of o short and 1 very short, as roil, the will. In most parts of Leath Mhogha, or the southern half of Ireland, the diphthong 01, before 11, m, nn, ó, and 5, is pronounced like i in mile, as coill, a wood ; poillpe, light; oijpe, an heir ; poijioe, or poijne, patience. This sound is exemplified in the following verses of Irish poets, who lived in Munster in the last century : " tD'éipcinn leo 50 ooimin 'p an n-jleo, 'S mé a 5-coillcib ceo 50 ceolmap, ceacc-binn." Brian Merriman. " 6a jnár mé aj piubal ap ciumaip na h-abann, Gp báinpij úip 'p a' opúcc 50 cpom, Qnaice na 5-coillceaó, a 5-coim an c-pléib, ^an maipj, gan moill, ap poillpe an lae." Idem, " Uá poijeaoa le poillpe 50 ooigpeac am éaeb-pa." Donnell Mac Kennedy O'Brien. " TD'éaj an poijne óoimin gan ouibe." O'Donohoe of Glenflesk . But in the counties of Cork and Kerry, and in the south-west of Clare, it is generally pronounced in these situations like uee in the English word queen, a pronunciation which is not at all to be approved of. In Connaught and Ulster this diphthong, coming before 11, m, and nn, has its analogical short sound as laid down in the text ; but before ó and 5, it is varied, being pronounced in Connaught nearly as in Munster, and in Ulster strangely, somewhat like ai in the English word straight, as poijme, patience, pronounced paéjio. In Ulster 01 short is exactly pronounced like their ai short (see the remarks on ai), as Oileac, the name of a place ; oioe, a tutor p . In his Elegy on the Chief of thography, although the sound Castlelishin. which it represents exists in p The diphthong ou is never many words as pronounced in found in the modern Irish or- the south, as in poll, a hole ; chap, ii.] Sounds of the Diphthongs. 25 3. Of, with the accent on i, sounds exactly like aoi, or uee in the English word queen, as an oíóce, the night; coíóce, ever ; cjioíóe, a heart ; pnoi^re, chipped, po- lished ; but the words in which this sound occurs are very few in number. ua. Ua, always long, like 66a, as puap, cold; ^ual, coal. The ancients often wrote no and ae for the ua of the moderns. Ul. . 1. Ui, with the accent on u, like ú long and i very short, as cinl, a corner ; puil, an eye ; Dull, desire. 2. Ui, with the accent on i, exactly like of, or nee in queen, as buíóe, yellow ; puigle, sounds ; ^uíóe, a supplication ; but this sound occurs in very few words. 3. Ui short is made up of u short and i very short, as puil, blood; Ouille, a leaf; buile, madness; cuile, a flood. In ancient manuscripts the diphthongs ai, oi, and ui, when short, are interchanged ad libitum, as bpeiceamnaip, bpeiceamnoip, bpeiéeamnuip, judgments. It should be remarked here that the in short of Ulster and Connaught is pronounced like uee in South Munster, and eye in North Munster, as opuim, which is pronounced drim in Connaught and Ulster, is pronounced dreem in South Munster and drime in North Munster, and in a few parishes of the county of Gal way, adjoining the county of Clare. poj, a rush, or onset ; but it is aithnea poiUpi ocupah-aipoi," sometimes found in ancient ma- for *' ip an íp mo," &c, Cor. nuscripts, as " ip ano ip mou oo Gloss., voce Sampaó. 26 Sounds of the Triphthongs. [part i. Section 3. — Of the Triphthongs. There are five triphthongs, viz., aoi, eoi, íai, iui, and oei, ucu, of which the first aoi is considered modern and corrupt, and oei ancient and now obsolete. They are formed from their corresponding diphthongs by adding 1, which generally takes place in the inflections of nouns. They differ but little in sound from their corresponding diphthongs, the principal difference be- ing that the 1, which closes each triphthong, gives the following consonant a slender sound. Table of the Sounds of the Triphthongs. aoi. Goi, always long, nearly like uee in queen, as caoin, keen, mild ; maoin, wealth ; aoibneccp, happiness. Haliday, in his Gaelic Grammar, and O'Flanagan, in his edition of the Tale of Deirdre, have rejected the triphthong aoi as modern and corrupt ; and it is true, that before the fourteenth century the Irish writers very generally wrote ai, 01, or oei in its place; but though the diphthong at or oi, with the accent on 1, may have anciently represented the sound, — as indeed it would at present in Munster, South Leinster, and Connaught, — it would not convey the compli- cated and very strange sound which this triphthong represents in Ulster and in the Highlands of Scotland, a sound which may be represented by the English vowels ueeui rapidly and closely pro- nounced ; and for this reason it would not be advisable now to re- ject this triphthong, which has been used in all the printed Irish books, and all the Irish manuscripts of the last three centuries. He who wishes to become acquainted with the ancient manuscripts must bear in mind that he will never meet this triphthong in them, chap, in.] Radical Sounds of the Consonants. 27 but instead of it, as above remarked, generally en, and sometimes 01 and oei. eoi. Goi, always long, like the diphthong eo, with this difference, however, that the consonant following eo is broad, and that following eoi slender, as ceol, music ; ceoil, of music. KH. lai, always long, and sounds like ict, excepting that the l influences the sound of the following consonant, as bpicm, Brian, a man's name, gen. brnenn. mi. lm, always long, as ciuin, silent; the two i's very short, but strongly influencing the sounds of the con- sonants. CHAPTER III OF THE CONSONANTS. Section 1. — Of the radical Sounds of the Consonants. The simple powers of the consonants do not differ much from those of the English consonants, except t), n, z 9 which are much thicker, or more liquid, than the same consonants in English. 28 Radical Sounds of the Consonants, [part i. In the modern Irish orthography no consonants are written double except I, n, and p ; but in the ancient manuscripts all the consonants are doubled ad libitum, particularly p, as coppct, feet, for the modern copa. Table of the Sounds of the Consonants. 6. fc>, broad and slender, is pronounced exactly like the English b, as bápp, top ; bmn, melodious. C. 1. C, broad, like c, in cool, as cul, the back. 2. C, slender, like k in king, as ciall, sense. The learner should know that the Irish c is always pro- nounced like k, never c soft, as in English or French. It is probable that c was pronounced k also in every situation by the ancient Latins, for the Roman c was evidently equivalent to the Greek k, as Caesar, Cicero, K# broad, like g in gall, as ^all, a foreigner; ^opua, famine. In the ancient Irish manuscripts 3 is very often commuted with c, and sometimes written cc, as Uaóc, or Uaócc, a man's name, for ^aój5 ; ecla, or eccla, for eajla, fear ; puce for puj, he brought, Vit. Moling. O'Molloy's remarks on this letter are cu- rious, and worth inserting here: " J>> suae relicta naturae, vt jam dixi, non solum apud Hibernos, verum etiam apud Germanos, atque Latinos, praesertim priscos, vi et sono, á consona c parum abit. Vnde Terentius ille Scaurus ait, c cognationem cum G habet : et ideó alij Camelum, alij Gamelum, item alij Caunacem, alij di- cunt Gaunacem : item Veteres pro agna, acna ; pro lege, lece ; pro agro y aero ; pro Gabino, Cabino, non raró vtuntur. Verum sonus literae g videtur pauló diffusior, molliorque quam eiferes, appulsa ad palatum lingua, modicello interuallo, leneni emittens spiritum, vt jenpe, latiné risus" — Grammatical Latino -Hiber- nica, pp. 21, 22. 2. 5> slender, always hard, like g in give, as geap, sharp. This consonant is never soft, like g in the English word general. chap, in.] Radical Sounds of the Consonants. 31 h. h never appears as an independent radical letter, but is used only in the inflections of words, or thrown in between vowels, like the Greek digamma, to prevent a hiatus, as net h-oi^e, of youth ; a h-Gipwn, out of Ire- land. As no word in Irish begins, in its radical form, with this con- sonant, it has been much disputed among Irish grammarians, whe- ther it is a letter of the language or not ; and the latest writers on the subject of philosophical or general grammar have stated that " the letter h is no articulate sound, but only a breathing." — See The English Language, oy Professor Latham, p. 104. O'Molloy bestows a whole chapter on the nature and influences of this character ; he says, " h, siué litera sit dicenda, siué flatus, aut aspirationis nota, saepius ea vtuntur Hiberni, quám alia ex conso- nantibus vlla : adeóque propter multiplices eiusdem affectiones, in- tegrum hoc meretur capitulum." — Grammatica Hib.-Lat., pp. 23, 24. He then goes on to shew the influences which it has over the other consonants in aspirating them, which he does with great ability and accuracy. But it is of very little consequence, in a prac- tical grammar, whether h be called a letter or not, so as we know its exact power and influences. In the ancient Irish manuscripts h is sometimes prefixed to words beginning with vowels where it has no apparent gram- matical use, just in the same manner as the lower classes in Eng- land prefix h in " the h-eagle flies h-over the h-oaks ;" but this is never found in modern manuscripts or printed books. In the Book of Kells, Leabhar na h-Uidhri, and some of the oldest manuscripts, h is sometimes formed thus, h , and placed over the vowel, like the Greek spiritus asper, as la ulcu for la h-Ulcu, with the Ultonians; and (in combination with the contraction a, est,) u?, for h. est, or hoc est. C. 1 . C, broad, has no sound like it in English, but in 32 Radical Sounds of the Consonants, [part i. some parts of Ireland it is pronounced nearly as hard as the / in the English word steal, as lam, a hand ; piol, seed. 2. L, slender, sounds somewhat more liquid than the English Um million, as mil, honey ; £ile, whiteness. Haliday, in his Gaelic Grammar, and in his edition of a part of Keating's History of Ireland, classes I among the aspirable conso- nants, and marks it, when aspirated, with two dots, thus, V. And it is true, that when coming after all those particles which cause other consonants to be aspirated, it has, in some parts of Ireland, a dif- ferent sound from its primitive one. This, however, is not general throughout Ireland, nor is the sound it receives in these situations such as could with propriety be called an aspirate sound. It will be necessary here to remark that the sounds of the Unguals or liquids, I, n, p, vary a good deal throughout the provinces, and stand much in need of a grammatical standard. Throughout the diocese of Ossory, and in most parts of the counties of Tipperary and Waterford, the sounds of these consonants are regulated by the characteristic vowels, and are under no other influences what- ever ; but in West Munster, Connaught, North Leinster, and Ulster, their sounds, in the beginning of words, are not so much regulated by the characteristic vowels as by the particles which precede them. The sound of I is regulated in Ulster as follows : 1. I, slender, in the beginning of words, in their radical form, has always the liquid sound laid down in the text. 2. If a small vowel precede a single I it is pronounced small, but hard, as baile, a town ; pile, a poet. 3. II double, in the same situation, has the re- gular liquid sound laid down in the text, as cailleac, a hag ; coill, a wood ; cill, a church. 4. If a broad vowel precede I single, it is pronounced like I preceded by a slender vowel, excepting the almost indistinguishable change caused by the broad vowel, as eala, a swan ; meala, of honey ; pál, a hedge. This last sound of I is certainly the same as the hard English sound of the same consonant, for the Ultonians pronounce pat, a hedge, exactly as they do the English fall. 5. U double, in the same situation, has the regular broad chap, in.] Radical Sounds of the Consonants. 33 sound laid down in the text, as eallac, cattle. The hard sound which the Ultonians give the single I, is formed by placing the tip of the tongue against the palate, above the root of the upper teeth, as in pronouncing the English ally. Their sound of U is formed by spreading the tongue and extending it so as to cover one-eighth part of the upper teeth. An English speaker may produce this sound by pressing the tip of the tongue between the teeth. In the ancient manuscripts we find the 11 of the moderns some- times written lo, as Gililo for Gilioll. This, however, is not very general, but it has induced Colgan to Latinize the names which might be so written with a d, as Alildus, or Olildus, &c. 3. Ln, broad and slender, like 11. — See n. m. Ul, broad and slender, sounds exactly like m in English, as mop, great ; mi, a mouth, pronounced ex- actly as if written more, mee. HI is never doubled in the printed Irish books, or correct mo- dern manuscripts, except in some very modern Munster manuscripts, as lomm, bare; cpomm, stooped ; rpo mm, heavy. The Munster Irish scholars of the last and present century thought it necessary to double the m as well as the n or I, to give the preceding vowel that diphthongal sound, or medial quantity, which is peculiar to the southern half of Ireland ; but in Connaught and Ulster, where the preceding vowel has never this medial quantity, the m is never dou- bled. In ancient Irish manuscripts, however, m is frequently found double in the middle and end of words, and sometimes in the be- ginning, as "ctmcul ip lomm in chpuim, as the worm is bare," Cor, Gloss., in voce Cpuimchep ; "cloiceno lomm, a bare skull," Id., voce Coipe ópeccun. — Qmmuij, outside, Book of Leinster, fol. 78, b. b. immeaoon, in the middle. Vita Moling. N. 1. N, broad, has a thick sound which does not exist in English, as nop, a custom ; bean, a woman. An F 34 Radical Sounds of the Consonants, [part i. English speaker may form this sound by pronouncing n with the tip of the tongue first pressed between the teeth, and afterwards rapidly drawn into the mouth. After I it is quiescent, as colna, of the flesh, pronounced colla. 2. N, slender, very like n in new, as pronounced by Walker, but somewhat more liquid, as neapc, strength ; Niatl, a man's name. After I it is quiescent, or rather sounds like I, as muilneoip, a miller, pronounced muil- leóip. In Ulster the sound of n varies like that of I : that is, a single n, in the middle and end of words, is nearly as hard as the English n in not; and nn, slender, has the thick sound referred to in the text. In the diocese of Ossory, and throughout East Munster, nr\ slender sound like ng, as bmn, melodious; nnn, sick; bainne, milk. Throughout the north of Ireland, n, when preceded by c, m, and sometimes by p , is pronounced like p, as cnoc, a hill ; cno, a nut ; cnárti, a bone ; net mnct, the women ; pnecccca, snow, which are pro- nounced as if written cpoc, cpo, cpám, net mpct, ppecca. This change has been made to facilitate the pronunciation, as en and mn would not easily coalesce. Dr. Stewart remarks that the Latins changed n into r for the sake of facility of pronunciation, as canmen, from cano, first pronounced, and afterwards written carmen, genmen, from the obsolete yew, passed into germen. The English have softened similar words which were originally very rough, by sink- ing the sounds of ft, g, and m altogether, as in the words gnaw, gnat, knight, mnemonics. In the south of Ireland the harshness which would be caused by the coalition of these consonants is got rid of by pronouncing them as if a very short vowel intervened, as cnám, a bone, pro- nounced canárii, but the first a is so short that it is scarcely per- ceptible. In the ancient Irish manuscripts we find no almost invariably written for the r\r\ of the modern Irish orthography, as cono for chap, in.] Radical Sounds of the Consonants. 35 ronn, a wave; ceno for ceann, a head ; jleno for jlecmn, a glen, or valley. It is now difficult to determine how the ancient Irish pronounced this no, but it may be conjectured, that as they some- times substituted nn for no, they pronounced them alike. Some manuscripts have even nc for nn, but no is more general. 3. N5. This combination represents a simple sound, which English learners find very difficult to imitate when in the beginning of a word, although its broad and slender sounds are both heard in the English word longing ; the broad sound in long and the slender one in ingy as áp n^páó, our love ; a ngialla, their hos- tages. This nj, which is called by the Irish njecal, is made one of the elements of the Ogham alphabet, and all the writers on the philosophy of articulate sounds have set it down as a simple sound which should be represented by a single character. Pro- fessor Latham speaks of it as follows : " The sound of the ng in sing, Icing, throng, when at the end of a word, or of singer, ringing, &c..&c. in the middle of a word, is not the natural sound of the combination n and g, each letter retaining its natural power and sound, but a simple single sound, which the combina- tion ng is a conventional mode of expressing. The simple sound is related, however, to n and g in a manner that has not yet been determined." — The English Language, p. 110. The true analogical sound of this combination in Irish is de- scribed in the text ; it prevails at present throughout Munster, Con- naught, South Leinster, and North Ulster ; but in the counties of Louth, Cavan, Monaghan, and some parts of Meath, it is pronounced in the middle and end of words, like % very guttural, as r-ecmjcm, a pismire; ceanja, a tongue; cecmjal, a tie ; pronounced rejan, ceja, ce jal. This corrupt pronunciation of nj is strikingly exem- plified in the present pronunciation of Cnoc na r* eanján, now Knock Abbey, near Louth, and of Cuailjne, now Cooley, a celebrated mountainous district situated between Dundalk and Newry. 36 Radical Sounds of the Conso?iants. [part i. In Thomond and Kerry the combination n^ in the middle and end of words is sometimes pronounced as if a short vowel intervened between them, as lonj, a ship, pronounced as if written lon-j'. This sound, which is unheard of in East Munster, is something like the pronunciation of ng among the Cockneys in such words as king, nothing, which they pronounce kin-g\ nothin-g\ P. P, whether broad or slender, sounds like the Eng- lish p, as popr, a bank ; pian, pain. R. 1. 1?, broad, like r in raw, as par, a fort; puaó, red. 4. 1?, slender, nearly like the second r in carrion, but more liquid, as beiji, bring; 2>eip, tallow ; Oeip, says. As this consonant may be said to be the only one in the lan- guage which does not become broad and slender according to the class of vowels which precede or follow it, I shall here, for the use of such readers as wish to obtain a critical knowledge of Irish pronunciation, lay down such rules as will point out when it is broad and when slender. 1. 12, in the beginning of radical words, is always broad, whether the characteristic vowel of the word be broad or small, as puaó, red; pi, a king; péió, ready. To this rule a few excep- tions may perhaps be found in some parts of Ireland, as piarh, ever; pinn pe, he did; but these are scarcely worth notice, and can hardly be called exceptions, as one is an adverb, and the other comes properly under rule 3. 2. 12 is always slender in the middle and end of words, when the characteristic vowel is a slender one, as óip, of gold ; cóip, just ; aipe, care; áipo, state; cpucuijceoip, creator. 3. "R, in the beginning of words after the possessive pronouns chap, iil] Radical Sounds of the Consonants. 37 mo, mine ; do, thine ; a, his ; after the interjections o, a, signs of the vocative case, and in every situation in which the aspirable consonants are aspirated, has always its slender sound in the dis- trict extending from Galway Bay to Cork ; but in the other parts of Ireland its sounds are regulated in these cases by the characteris- tic vowels, as a pi, his king ; a pún, his secret. 4. In the combination pp, it has always its broad sound, as ppicm, a bridle ; ppear, a series. In this we see a reason why the Irish find such difficulty in pronouncing the English words shrill, shrub, shrine, which they pronounce as if they were written srill, srub, srine ; for though the Irish have the sound sh, it being the slender sound of their p, more frequently than the English, still, by a peculiar tendency of the language when p is followed by p, it is never pronounced slender. — See under S. Obs. 1. In summing up these sounds of the letter p it may not be out of place here to notice a barbaric corruption of its sound which prevails in the counties of Kilkenny and Waterford. After the letters c and o it is pronounced in some words like n, as opúip, adultery. This corruption, which the natives of these counties themselves acknowledge to be a vile one, is strikingly exemplified in the local pronunciation of Ceann Cpiaoam (Credan Head, a headland forming the east extremity of the county of Waterford), which is pronounced as if written Ceann Cniaoáin. These tendencies to local corruption of pronunciation cannot be checked except by grammatical knowledge, and reading, or hearing read, correct lan- guage ; and therefore it is difficult to check it among the untaught peasantry of any district. In parts of the county of Westmeath the letter p is sometimes changed to I, as 6oc IJcnp, near Mullingar, to f,och Uail, and Opuim cpiaó, the name of a place near Castle- pollard, to t)puim cliaó. Such local, or baronial barbarities, how- ever, should not be considered as of any weight in regulating the analogies of the pronunciation of the general language. S. 1. S, broad, like s in son, as polur*, light. 2. 8, slender, like the English sh, which is in reality 38 Radical Sounds of the Consonants, [part i. a simple sound that ought not to be represented by two letters, as pliab, a mountain ; imp, an island. This consonant also furnishes some exceptions to the general rule, which it is necessary to point out here for the use of such as wish to obtain a critical knowledge of Irish pronunciation. 1. S, when followed by b, m, p, and n, has its broad sound, whether the characteristic vowel be broad or slender, as pbeac, a kick ; pmiop, marrow ; ppeal, a scythe ; ppian, a bridle. 2. S, in the assertive verb íp, and in the demonstrative pro- nouns po, this, and pin, that, has sometimes its broad, and some- times its slender sound. In the verb ip, when followed by a word beginning with a slender vowel, p has its slender sound, as ip i, it is she, and a broad sound when that verb is followed by a word beginning with a broad vowel or a consonant, as ip olc pin, that is bad; ip mé, it is I. In the pronouns po and pin the p has, throughout the southern half of Ireland, its broad sound, when they are preceded by words in which the last vowel is broad, as an peap po, this man, iao po, these ; and vice versa, when the vowel of the preceding word is slender, as an ouine po, this man, e po, this person ; but in the northern half of Ireland the p is always slender in these pronouns. When the p is slender in the pronoun po some writers spell it peo, and when pin has the p broad, they write it yan, or poin, in order to comply with the great orthographical canon of " Broad with a Broad," &c. There may be found some local exceptions to these rules ; but it is the duty of a gramma- rian to point out all anomalies, and fix a proper standard of pro- nunciation according to the true analogies of a spoken language. This consonant is never doubled in the modern orthography, but it is frequently doubled in ancient manuscripts, as cpepp for qieap, third, Cor. Gloss., voce Clichap-peo; " co ná cepna oepcibal app ocup m pepp a n-oióeaó, so that not one of them escaped, and their death was unknown." — Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópecain. C. 1. "C, broad, like t in the Italian and Spanish, but chap, in.] Of Aspiration. 39 not so sibilant as the English th in thought, as conn, a wave ; copann, noise. It has been stated by some Irish grammarians that c broad is pronounced like th in the English words thumb, thunder, but this arose from their ignorance of the correct sound of th in the English language. It is well known to those who have studied the nature of the English letters philosophically, that the English th is a real aspirate sound ; that is, a sound formed by a continued emission of the breath between the upper surface of the tongue and the edge of the upper front teeth, unimpeded by any contact of the organs of speech with each other ; whereas the Irish c, whether broad or slender, is a mute consonant, properly so called, as being formed by a perceptible interruption of the breath, which is produced by striking the tip and edges of the tongue against the inner surface of the upper teeth. 2. U, slender, nearly like t in the English termi- nation tude, as pronounced by Walker, as eip, a coun- try ; cipm, dry; ciu£, thick. In Ulster, in parts of Meath, in the Highlands of Scotland, and in the Isle of Mann, c slender is pronounced sibilantly, like t in the English word nature, but this must be considered a great corrup- tion. O'Molloy, in his Grammar, pp. 38, 39, 40, rails at the Italians for pronouncing the slender t in Latin like tz, s, or z ; but he should have acknowledged that his own Celtic brethren, the Ultonians, the Caledonians, and the Manx, had borrowed a similar sibilant pronunciation of t and d from their neighbours of the Teutonic race. Section 2. — Of Aspiration, and its Effects on the Sounds of the Consonants. Aspiration, a grammatical accident, the general use of which distinguishes the Irish Gaelic, and other cognate dialects of the Celtic, from all other modern languages, 40 Of Aspiration. [part i. may be defined as the changing of the radical sounds of the consonants from being stops of the breath to a sibilance, or from a stronger to a weaker sibilance. This change of the radical sounds of the consonants has been considered the result of barbarity by some modern writers, among whom may be reckoned Pinkerton, the author of the Inquiry into the History of Scotland, and Davies, author of the Celtic Researches, the latter of whom asserts that men fell into this slovenly mode of pronunciation after they had descended into the vale of savage life ; but this assertion is gratuitous, as there is no proof that the Irish or Welsh, who use those aspirations more, perhaps, than any other people, had been at any period more civilized than they are at pre- sent. Indeed it is much more probable, as we may infer from the Hebrew and the other Semitic dialects, that the original languages of mankind abounded in strong and deep guttural sounds, and that these have been retained or rejected by the different nations accord- ing to their ideas of strength or euphony. Thus the English, or Anglo-Saxon language, originally abounded in strong guttural sounds, as in the words thought, nought, fraught, night, but these have been all rejected by the polished English of the two last centuries, while the Scotch still retain them. On the other hand, the nobles and gentry of Germany pronounce the German consonants with a variety of guttural sounds, while the peasantry sink all the gutturals, as being too grand for people of their rank. There is, perhaps, no language in the world whose original words have suffered more change by aspiration and sinking of consonants than the French, and yet this is never referred to by writers as a proof of the barbarity of the French nation, but, on the contrary, as the highest proof of their advancement in civilization. When these facts are considered, one must feel diffident in pronouncing the existence of guttural sounds in a language to be a sign of the barbarity of the speakers. The English, in whose polished spoken and written language no trace of a guttural sound is now to be found, abhor the rough sound of gh in the broad Scotch, but much more the Irish guttural sibilant sounds of c, chap, in.] Of Aspiration. 41 d, j ; although in reality their own «/, c, ch, and g soft, are equally- sibilant, and as much aspirations, as the Irish c, ó, 5. The fact is, that men will regard this or that sound as polished or barbarous accordingly as it agrees with or differs from the sounds to which they have been themselves accustomed from infancy. The author has often tried the effect of the guttural Irish consonants on the ears of the lower classes of England and Scotland, and always found them to displease or please according to the analogies of their own languages. The Lowland Scotch admire the sound of c very much, but cannot bear that of ó or 5 broad, but they like the slen- der sounds of those aspirates, as they are exactly like their own y. The English cannot bear either c, 5, or ó broad, but have no ob- jection to t> or 5 slender. The Welsh have no dislike to any of the guttural Irish consonants, although they believe that their own gut- turals are much more forcible and grander, but they despise the Irish language for not having the splendid sound of the Welsh //, or lh, which, however, sounds truly barbaric in the ears of the English and French. In some modern Irish, and all Erse printed books, the aspirate h is placed after all the consonants indiffe- rently, to mark their aspirated sounds ; but this gives the words so long and strange a look (the number of letters being in many instances double the number of the ele- mental sounds in each word)," that many have recom- mended the rejection of the b, and the introduction of new characters in place of the primitive Irish consonants combined with the b ; and no doubt this would save the eye some pain, and the printer some trouble. In ancient Irish manuscripts, however, the b is never written after any consonant except c, p, c ; and in modern publications in the Irish character the aspirated consonants are always distinguished by full dots placed G 42 Of Aspiration. [part i. over them, as b, c, 6, &c. ; and this is now generally considered a better expedient than to invent new characters, or to adopt equivalent consonants from the English, Greek, or other alphabets, as Lhwyd has done. In the oldest vellum manuscripts a variety of signs of aspiration appear, which, no doubt, had different powers in early ages, although the ignorance or neglect of copyists has so much confused them in latter times, that it is now difficult to discover the original system. Even in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the Books of Lecan and Ballymote were transcribed, the original sys- tem of aspiration was nearly forgotten ; but a tolerably correct idea of this original system may be formed from Leabhar na h-Uidhri, a manuscript which was transcribed at Clonmacnoise in the twelfth century, as also from the ancient charters in the Book of Kells, the Book of Leinster, and other fragments of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In these the aspirate h is frequently written after the consonants c, p, r, but after no others, and fre- quently also a mark resembling an h is placed over them, thus, c, p, £. Over other consonants a full dot is placed, thus, m, f, p; and even the liquids n and p are frequently marked with full dots, thus, n, p ; which would seem to shew that the ancients varied their sounds in certain situations. It is a curious fact, how- ever, that the consonants b, o, 5, which are so often aspirated in the modern language, never appear with any mark of aspiration in our ancient manuscripts, nor in any of the sepulchral inscriptions still extant. This might naturally lead to the conclusion, that the b, o, and 5 always retained their radical sounds in ancient times, but we have now no sufficient data for the full determination of this question. In the oldest monumental inscription in Ireland, namely, that on the monument of Lughnatan, the nephew of St. Patrick, by his sister Liemania, still preserved on Insi Goill, an island in Lough Corrib, in the county of Galway, no trace of aspiration is observ- able, but h is used as a separate consonant. The inscription is, chap, in.] Of Aspiration. 43 «tie 6U5NCtet)ON mace cmeNueiv " The stone op Lugnaedon, son of Lemenueh." But on the earliest tombstones at Clonmacnoise the letters c, p, and c are frequently aspirated, and sometimes m, not by dots or other marks placed over them, but by h written after them, thus : " 01201U DO CTiUaUhdó." " A Prayer for Tuathal." « orcoiu are chuiNDtess." " A Prayer on CuindlessV «oreoic t)o chotmaN." " A Prayer for Colman." «oreoic t)o maetphacraaic." " A Prayer for Maelphatraic." «OrcOJU t)0 TTiae6TTIhlCril6." u A Prayer for Maelmhichil." But b is never aspirated in any of these inscriptions, as : «orcoiu Do SU161H1U mac maitaehumav " A Prayer for Suibiniu, son of Mailaehumai." The name Suibiniu would be now written SuiBne, and mai- laehuma, maoilúriia. We have in this inscription also an exam- ple of the use of h, as a separate consonant, being introduced between ae and u to prevent a hiatus. Those who first cut Irish type appear to have retained some idea of a variety of marks of aspiration, for in some of the books pub- lished by the Franciscans in the seventeenth century the letter c is aspirated with an apostrophe, c ; m with a mark like a v, as m ; and 5 with a full dot, 5. In the Grammar published by Hugh Mac Curtin, in 1728, six or seven kinds of marks of aspiration are used, but without any apparent system. As the radical and aspirated sound of every consonant must be learned by the ear, it is my opinion that nothing is gained, in a q This Cuindless was abbot of ing to the Annals of Tighernach, Clonmacnoise, and died, accord- in the year 724. 44 Of Aspiration. [paet i. modern Irish alphabet, by varying the mark of the aspirations : any sign whatever that will give notice that the consonant has its aspirated, not its radical sound, will answer the purpose, and this can be as conveniently done by a full dot placed over the consonant as by any other sign whatever. The ancient Greeks gave notice of their aspirations by varying the characters, and the Latins, who have been imitated by the English and other modern nations, by postfixing h ; but as the h retains no part of its original power, it is more philosophically cor- rect to vary the character, as the Greeks did, or to give notice of the change by some conventional sign, as the Irish sometimes did. The best plan always is, to represent every simple or elemental sound by a single character, and when this element receives a slight change of its radical sound in the course of grammatical inflection, to give notice of this change by a mark on the character which represents the radical sound, rather than invent a new one, in order that the eye of the reader may see at once the root or original frame of the word. To illustrate this by example, let us take the Irish word full, an eye, which, under certain grammatical influ- ences, is pronounced huil, but if the aspirated sound of the initial f were represented by a new character, say h, one would be at a loss to know what original consonant to refer this h to r , in order to ob- r O'Molloy illustrates this in si loco 5b esset oh vtrobique, vel the Irish language, by a case of grEecula y pronunciata ab Anglis, ambiguity in w^ords, for it hap- vt supra, vt a yiolla, vel a ohi- pens that o and 5 at the begin- olla phaoohaleaijh, vel phao- ning of words have the same yctlccujh, bhaoohlaioh, non power, and if a new character proindé tamen licebit alterum were invented to represent this pro altero poni, alioquin non aspirate sound one would be at a discerneretur sensus in prosa, loss to know whether to refer it vel metro. Si enim scripsero a to 5 or o. His words are : " J) n J a ^\ nescies quid intendatur ; siué in principio, siué in fine an oall, anne jail, in vocatiuo, dictionis posita, parum quasi vel latiné caece, vel galle, vt iam su- nihil differt quoad sonum a oh prá dixi de ph. Non oportet de qua iam diximus, vt cum dico ergo cum gallo caecum, nee cum a jhiolla phaojhalccugh, bha- caeco gallum hie confundi, raax- ojhlaijh, latiné famule mun- imé in Scripturis." — Gramma- dane, periculose. Istae enim vo- tica Latino- Hibernica, pp. 29, 30. culae efferuntur tamquam fermé CHAP. III.] Of Aspiration. 45 tain the root of the word ; but when the radical consonant p is written, and a notice given of its aspirated sound by a dot placed over it, the eye of the reader sees at a glance the primary and in- fluenced form of the word. This system also prevents the great multiplication of letters which is necessary if h be in every instance used to give notice of the aspirations ; for example, the word a óeapbpáiépeaca, his brethren (or, as written according to the ancient mode, a oepbparpeca), is, according to the Scotch or Erse system, written thus, a dhearbhraithreacha, where eighteen letters are employed in representing a word of four syllables. A tendency to aspiration seems to be a conspicuous characteris- tic of all the dialects of Celtic, and that it belongs to the Irish in particular, will be seen by the forms which some words, bor- rowed from the English, have assumed in some parts of Ireland, as cam pa, a camp, pronounced in Clare and Kerry as if written coumha ; plcn j, the plague, pronounced plaw in many places. It is also perceivable in some words, which are pronounced with an aspiration in some districts, but not generally, as alcóip, an altar, pronounced alcóip ; oeacac, smoke, pronounced in some places oeacac ; jealcan, a lunatic, pronounced gealrán. This tendency to aspiration also shews itself in Irish words obviously derived from the Latin, or at least cognate with it, as in the following list : ANCIENT IRISH. MODERN IRISH. Scpib. Scpiob. Oomnac. Oorhnac. óacull. Óacall. Pijuip. F 10 5 U, P- 6upec. Cúipeac. Clépec. Cléipeac. lTleoon. meaóon. ^ejim. Céijim. Cacaíp. Caéaoip. 5r e 5- 5n e, 5- 1*15. ra* Sagic. Soijeao. lDa^iprep. Wái^ipap. LATIN. Scribo. Dominicus. Baculus. Figura. Lorica. Clericus. Medium. Lego. Cathedra. Grex — gregis. Rex — regis. Sagitta. Magister. 46 Of Aspiration. [r LATIN. ANCIENT IRISH. MODERN IRISH. Imago — imaginis Jmcu^in. lorhcuj. Remus. "Ram. Ram. Similis. Sarhil. Samuil. Humilis. Umal. Umall. Capra. ^abap. gabap. Rota. ttoc. Ror. Gladius. Claoim. Cloióeam. Cor — cordis. CpiOl. Cpoióe. Frater. ópacip. ópácaip. Pater. Gccup. Gécup, Mater. TTIacaip. TTiáraip, [part I. Many of the same words, and others besides, are also aspi- rated in several of the modern languages of Europe, as the French, Moyen from Medium; avoir from habere; caréme (anciently ca- resme) from quadragesima ; eveque (or evesque) from episcopus ; noel (Irish nocluij, or nooluij), from natalis ; pére from pater ; mere from mater; lieu from locus; lien from ligamen ; rayon from radius ; froid from frigidus ; rire from ridere ; lire from legere ; boire from bibere ; croire from credere, &c. In Italian, avere from habere ; povero from pauper ; tavola from tabula, &c. Table of Aspirated Consonants. The following Table exhibits the aspirated sounds of the consonants, as derived from the general analogies of the language, together with the present pronunciation throughout the provinces : 6b, or 6. 1. 6h, orb, as written in the printed Erse and some Irish books, is pronounced in Munster like v, but has a sound nearly as soft as w in the English word wool in the northern half of Ireland, as a bo, his cow ; a baile, his town. In the beginning of words between two short broad chap, in.] Of Aspiration. 47 vowels it sounds softly, like u or w, in every part of Ireland, as sabaji, a goat ; yeabac, a hawk ; cneabaó, ploughing ; apbap, corn. In this situation it loses all its consonantal power, and becomes a vowel, like w in the English word power. — See remarks on the vowel a. But if the vowel preceding or following it be long, then it has the sound of v or w consonant, as gabail, taking ; uógbáil, raising; tnojjbcul, harm, &c. 2. b slender, exactly like the English v, as bi, was; beipim, I give. In the counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary, and Waterford, and in most parts of Munster, b slender is often quiescent in the middle of words, as paióbip, rich; ctoibneap, happiness; Imbecmna, herbs, pronounced sigh-ir, eenis, lueena ; but in the northern half of Ire- land these words are correctly pronounced sevvir, eevnis, luivenna. This consonant, b, never appears with an aspiration in Leabhar na h-Uidhri, which may lead some to conclude that it was anciently pronounced b where we pronounce it v at present. Thus in Tain Bo Cuailgne : ni pip pon em ol TTleob, " that is not true indeed quoth Meave" (for the modern ni piop pin, eim, ol ÍTleaób) : do na pluajaib, for oo na pluajaib. It has indeed been a great puzzle to Irish grammarians whether the consonants left thus unaspirated by the ancients were intended by them to be pronounced according to their radical or aspirated sounds. It is not improbable that the ancient pronunciation differed from the modern in retaining the radical sounds of some consonants which the moderns aspirate; but it may have happened that the ancients thought it superfluous to mark some letters in situations where they were always aspirated, such as in the ablative plural, lb ; in at>, the termination of verbal nouns, &c. &c. Cb, or C. 1. Ch, or c, broad, has a deep guttural sound, which does not at present exist in English, but it is found in 48 Of Aspiration. [part i. the Lowlands of Scotland, in such words as thought, daughter, &c, as Deoc, a drink ; a cor», his foot. It is curious that O'Molloy, who wrote his Irish Grammar at Rome in the year 1677, describes thegh in the English word sought as guttural, and there can be little doubt that it was then so pro- nounced. His words are : " h autem afficiens c proestat vt utra- que sonent gutturaliter, qualiter vel Angli enunciant jh in vocula r-oujhc, vel Florentini litteram c in Duca, vel Hispani litteram g in Angelo, vt each, Latinis equus" — Grammatica Latino- Hiber- nica, p. 25. It is stated by some grammarians that c before the triphthong uu approximates to the sound of F, as cuaió (pro?i. foo-ee) he went ; but this sound is confined to North Connaught. It is unknown in Leinster, Munster, and South Connaught, and should not be re- garded as a sound of c in the general language, but the pucnó of North Connaught should be considered as a dialectic form of cuaió. 2. Ch, or c, slender, has a smooth guttural sound, which may be represented by the Greek x m X íÉ ^> as a ciall, his sense ; a cecmn, his head. In the southern half of Ireland c slender in the middle and end of words is pronounced faintly, like the English h, as eic, horses; oíóce, night; pice, twenty ; but in Connaught and Ulster it has its regular slender sound in these situations. In the counties of Monaghan and Louth, in parts of Meath, and some of the adjoining districts, ac in the termination of words is pronounced very faintly, like ah; and c broad, when coming be- fore r, is totally sunk, as boce, poor, leacc, a monument ; pro- nounced boc, leac. The English have also rejected the guttural sounds of their gh in similar situations, as bought, sought, thought, and there can be little doubt that English analogy has exercised an influence over the pronunciation of the Irish language in South Ulster and Meath. Throughout the southern counties of Ulster c broad, in the beginning of words, is pronounced faintly, like h, as chap, in.] Of Aspiration*. 49 conaic, he saw, pronounced as if written hainíc. In fact, the Irish spoken in these counties has scarcely a single guttural sound, so that it may be said to have, in a great measure, lost one of the most striking characteristics of the language. Oh. or 1. Oh or 6, broad, has a deep guttural sound to which no equivalent is found in English, but it may be described as y, broad and guttural, as a óalca, his fos- ter-son ; a óojiar*, his door. 2. D, slender, sounds, in the beginning of words, exactly like y in year, as a Dhia, O God. In the middle and end of words, which are not compounds, 6, whether broad or slender, is totally quiescent. This consonant seldom, if ever, appears with an aspiration in the Book of Armagh or Leabhar na h-Uidhri ; thus in the latter we find 1 noictio for a n-oiaió, after; folr buioi puippi, for pole buiói puippi (or, as it would be written in the modern Irish, pole buióe uipri), " yellow hair upon her head.'' Do rapelbao a cpora for oo raipealbaó a cpora, to exhibit his personal form. Throughout the northern half of Ireland ao, in the termination of dissyllables and polysyllables, is pronounced like oo, somewhat nasal; but, as already remarked, this in reality is the sound of arh, which is the dialectic termination of verbs in Connaught and Ul- ster, and not a sound of aó, as some have supposed. Thus, oéanaó, doing, should be written, according to the Connaught pronunciation, oionarn; according to the Ulster pronunciation oeunarh ; and, ac- cording to the Munster pronunciation, oeanaó — See the remarks on the pronunciation of aó, pp. 9 and 10, supra. In the past tense of the indicative passive aó is pronounced aj in the counties of Kilkenny, Tipperary, AVaterford, and parts of Limerick, but ac in the other counties of Munster. These, how- ever, cannot be considered real sounds of ao, but dialectic pecu- H 50 Of Aspiration. [part i. liarities in the termination of the verb. In the third person singular of the consuetudinal past tense, active voice, it is pro- nounced eccc in the south, as buaileaó pe, he used to strike. t)ha or oa in the termination of adjectives is pronounced 5a in Munster, as cpóóa, brave ; mópóa, majestic ; oiaóa, divine, pro- nounced as if written cpója, mopja, 010:5a. O'Molloy says that ó after p is pronounced p : " Nota denique si dh'm. vna syllaba sequatur ad p finientem priorem voculae syllabam, quod totum suum tunc sonum commutet in aliud p, vt opoha an peap O ÍTIopDha, latiné, O'Morus est vir aureus, quod effertur ac si scriberetur oppa an peap O lTíoppa." — Grammatica Latino- Hibcrnica, p. 60. This, however, is the Meath pronunciation of the Irish language, and can- not be considered general, original, or analogical, and the broad guttural sound of ó should be used in this instance. Fh or F. p is quiescent in every situation, as a puil, his blood; an pip, of the man. The vowel following this quies- cent p is very forcibly pronounced. In ancient manuscripts this quiescent p is frequently omitted altogether, which often causes great obscurity, as o' opbuó for o' popbaó, to finish. — Chron. Scot., ad ann., 1126. t)' uapaic ocup o' íaónugaó for o' puapaic ajup o' piaónujaó. — See Battle of Mag h Rath, pp. 92, 93. This omission of the radical letter is called, in Cormac's Glossary, oicneó copaij, i. e. initial decapita- tion, or Jlphceresis. Sometimes it is omitted out of mere whim, as óp cuil ocup óp rpeoil for óp c'puil ajup op c'peoil. — Leabhar Breac, fol. Ill, b, b. 5b or g. 1. 55, broad, has a deep guttural sound, to which no equivalent is found in English. It is precisely the sound of 6, broad. In the middle and end of words 5, or 5I1, has the chap, in.] Of Aspiration. 51 same power as the English gh in high, might, sight, namely, gh has no sound, but the preceding vowel is long, as ajitjui£im, I exalt; oli£e, law; u£t)aji, an author ; pu£, juice. It is very probable that 5 had originally a guttural sound similar to that of gh, as pronounced by the Lowland Scotch in the words daughter, sought, &c. It is remarkable, that in those verbs and ver- bal nouns in which the Irish write 5, the Highlanders write ch, as, Irish, poillp íujao, Erse, foillseachadh, &c. This shews that the Irish, like the modern English, have made some progress in getting rid of the guttural sounds of their language. — See Observations on ch. In the middle of proper names of men ja, or ju, is pronounced like ao in Connaught, or uee in the English word queen, as F ean_ jap, Qon jap, £,eapjap, peapjal, t)on£al, pronounced as if written Farrees, Aenees, Larrees, Farreel, Doneel ; jail is pronounced eel in some verbal nouns, as peuojail, pronounced faddeel ; but these must be considered corruptions, although at present almost general throughout Ireland. The surname O'Peapjail is uni- versally pronounced O'Farreel, and written O'Peappaoill in the margin of p. 120 of John Mac TornaO'Mulconry's copy of Keating's History of Ireland, by a bad Irish scholar of the name, who read the book in 1778. 2. ^ nas > when slender, the same sound and power as 6 slender. mh, or m. 1. Til, broad, in the beginning of a word, is pro- nounced, in the south of Ireland, like v, but in the north of Ireland like w, as a mala, his brow; a rharain, his mother. In the middle of wdrds it loses almost all its consonantal power, and becomes a nasal u or w, as parhjiaó, summer ; oampaó, dancing ; carhnac, a field ; Sarhnac, a milch cow. 52 Of Aspiration. [part i. The syllable am in these situations is generally pronounced oo nasal in Munster, except in parts of Kerry, where it retains its real analogical sound of au, as pronounced by the Germans. The broad sound of rh varies a good deal in the provinces, and stands in need of a grammatical standard. The most analogical sound is au Ger- man, but oo nasal is much more general at present. 2. Til, slender, sounds like b or v, but is slightly nasal, as péirh, mild; a rhian, his desire. The only difference between the sounds of rii and b is that the m is somewhat nasal. Some grammarians have erroneously set down the sounds of these aspirates as exactly similar. Neilson {Irish Grammar, p. 143) supposes that both were originally pro- nounced like #, but custom, and the analogy of articulate sounds, are opposed to this opinion. O'Molloy, who published his Irish Grammar at Rome in 1677, takes particular notice of the nasal sound of mh. His words are, p. 30 : "lTlh positavbicumquevolueris Hibernis sonat quod v digamma seu consonans, quasi elata tamen per nares ; vt a mhachcnp mhaich, latine, bona mater : ita tamen vt eiFerantur per nares." Dr. O'Brien also draws a strong line of distinction between them in his Irish Dictionary (Be?narJcs on the letter M). He says : " It is to be noted, that though m aspirated is frequently substituted in the place of an aspirated b, and vice versa, yet it is through want of judgment in the writer, inasmuch as the vowel or vowels which precede the latter, are pronounced with a stronger, clearer, and more open expiration than those that pre- cede the former. This difference of pronunciation is sensibly obser- vable ; for example, between treabh, a tribe, and leamh, insipid, as well as between sclabhuidhe, a slave, and snamhuidhe, a swimmer." N. N is found with a full dot over it in some very old manuscripts, from which some grammarians have classed it among the aspirated consonants, but as the change chap, in.] " Of Aspiration. 53 effected in the situations where it is thus marked seems rather a hardening of its sound, it cannot be called an aspiration with propriety. ph, or p. ph, or p, sounds exactly like ph in English, as a pian, his pain. It is curious to observe the analogy of these aspirations : b be- comes v, p becomes^, and when F, which is an aspiration of p, is as- pirated itself, its sound is totally destroyed. In Connaught p, or ph, is quiescent in the vocative case of proper names derived from the Greek, as a philip, Philip, but the reason is, because the speakers of Irish in that province look upon the name Philip as written with an f in the nominative, not with a p. In other parts of Ireland they pronounce a philip as if written a filib. Stewart remarks, in his Gaelic Grammar (second edit., p. 13), that " Ph is found in no Gaelic word which is not inflected, except a few words trans- planted from the Greek or the Hebrew, in which ph represents the Greek y p rather thanjt?A; and to represent

o, to ; pa, po, or paoi, chap, in.] Of Combinations of Consonants. 57 under; ó from ím, about; rap, over; rue, through; map, as, or like to. 3. After the possessive pronouns mo, my ; Do, thy; a, his. 4. The article aspirates the initials of all feminine nouns in the nominative, and of masculine nouns in the genitive. 5. The interjection a or o, sign of the vocative case, also causes aspiration. 6. In verbs the initials are aspirated by the particle ni, not, and ma, if; and also by the particle t>o, or po, prefixed to the past tenses of the indicative mood, or to the conditional mood, and the aspiration is retained even if this particle be left understood. The initial of the verb is also aspirated (if aspirable) after the relative a, who, whether expressed or understood, and after the particle Do, a sign of the infinitive mood. Section 3. — Of certain Combinations of Consonants which do not easily coalesce. According to the modern pronunciation of the Irish language the following combinations of consonants do not coalesce, and a very short vowel is heard between them : be, as in lúbéa, bent, pronounced lúpctra. ol c , „ olúé, close, „ oolur. lb, ,, pcolb, a scollop, ,, pcol-ob. c In the beginning of words only. I 58 Of Eclipsis of Consonants. [part i. 1$ as in bolj, a belly, pronounced bóllój. Ip, >» colpa, the thigh, »» colópct. nnc, >» t)onncao, a man's name, »> t)onnacaó. pb, >j bopb, fierce, n bopob. pb, >? oeapb, certain, >> oeapab. pc, >> oopca, dark, » oopaca. rs> >> o" a P5> fierce, » japaj. pm, ?> Copmac, a man's name, »> Copamac. W> >> peippeac, a yoke of horses, 5J peipipeac. pn, » copn, a goblet, >> coppón. rn, >> cncne, a commandment, ?> airine. The other combinations of consonants coalesce as readily as in English. In ancient Irish poetry, however, no allowance is made for the short vowel inserted by the modern pronunciation, from which it may fairly be concluded that the ancient Irish pronounced such words as pcolb, bopb, japj, as the English would pronounce similar combinations of consonants at the present day. Thus, in the poem attributed to Torna Eigeas, the word bopb is clearly in- tended to be pronounced as one syllable, not bóp-ób, as it is at present. " óopb a o-cpeachan pop jac epáij Miall mac Barac TTluijriieaóain." Section 4. — Of Eclipsis of Consonants. Eclipsis in Irish Grammar may be defined the sup- pression of the sounds of certain radical consonants, by prefixing others of the same organ. This owes its origin to a desire of euphony, or facility of utterance. All the consonants are capable of eclipsis, except the liquids I, m, n, p. chap, in.] Of Eclipsis of Consonants. 59 5 »5 n )» b >) n »> b J» o 5> c >> in eclipses b, as áp m-bo, our cow, pronounced up mó. c, as up 5-ceapc, our right, ,, áp ^eapc. o, as áp n-oopap, our door, ,, áp nopap. p, as áp b-puil, our blood, ,, áp bull. 5, as áp njopc, our field, ,, áp n$opc. p, as ap b-pian, our pain, ,, áp bian. c, as ap o-cip, our country, „ áp t>ip. p — See p. 61. It appears from this table, that the eclipsing conso- nant is always softer than the initial radical which is eclipsed ; as m, a narisonant semivowel, for b, a sonant mute ; 5, a sonant palatal, for c, a mute ; n, a narisonant semivowel, for t>, a sonant mute ; b, a sonant sibilant, for p, a pure sibilant ; n^, a narisonant semivowel, which should be represented by one character d , for 5, a sonant; d This is a defect in the sys- tem of eclipsis, for in the pro- nunciation 5 is not eclipsed by n, but by a simple sound, which the combination n^ is a con- ventional mode of expressing. O'Molloy, in his Grammar, p. 63, takes notice of this incongruity : "Eclipsis ng, vulgo mpohiú^h- aoh n ideal, hoc habet speciale, quod g non penitús taceatur, sed aliqualiter vno tractu simul cum n efferatur, vt ap njjjopc latiné, nostra segesP Compare the quo- tation from Professor Latham, under n^, p. 35. For this reason n should never be separated from the 5 by a hy- phen. Some have remarked that it would be better to omit the eclipsed consonant, as in the Welsh ; but this would, in Irish, lead to endless confusion, as the radical letter of the word would, in almost every instance, be dis- guised ; and though this is un- avoidably the case in the spoken language, yet it has been thought advisable to preserve, in the written language, the radical consonant in every instance, even at the risk of often giving the words a crowded and awkward appearance. On this subject O'Molloy remarks : "Aduerteex dictis nunquam sequi, quod in scriptione liceat literam mergen- dam omitti, esto omittatur in sono : alias foret magna confusio, et ignoraretur dictio, seu sensus voculae, ej usque turn proprietas turn natura." — Grammatica, p. 66. Many instances could be point- ed out where, if the radical conso- nant were omitted, the eye would be completely deceived, as in up nopo, which might be referred * 60 Of Eclipsis of Consonants. [part i. b, a sonant, for p, a mute consonant ; c eclipsing p is an exception, but t> eclipsing c is a sonant eclipsing a mute. The reader is referred to Dr. Darwin's Analysis of articulate Sounds for a classification of the consonants exactly according to this table of Eclipsis, although the author was probably not aware that such a classification had been observed in the practical gram- mar of any language, but was purely guided by the philosophy of articulate sounds, to which he gave the most careful consideration. Dr. Prichard's remarks on this subject are worthy the conside- ration of the student of this language : " It is a habit common to many of the Indo-European languages to interchange certain letters according to rules founded originally on euphony, or on the facility of utterance ; and from this circum- stance arises the great capability which these languages possess, of composition, or the formation of compound words. The substitu- tion of consonants of particular orders for their cognates, which takes place in Greek, in the composition of words, and in some other instances, is an example of this peculiarity. " In Greek, in Latin, and in the German dialects, the mutation of consonants is confined to words brought together under very peculiar circumstances, as chiefly when they enter into the forma- tion of compound terms, and it is scarcely observed in words which still remain distinct, and are merely constituent parts of sentences. Either the attention to euphony, and the ease of utterance, has not extended so far, or the purpose was attained by a choice of colloca- tion, the words themselves remaining unaltered. But in the San- skrit language, words merely in sequence have an influence upon each other in the change of terminations, and sometimes of initial letters, on the principle above alluded to." — Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, pp. 27, 28. either to ap n-oópo, our chant, m-bctla, our wall ; ap neoca, or ap n-ópo, our order ; áp which might be either áp n-oe- mala, which might be referred oca, our drinks, or áp n-eoca, to ap mala, our brow, or ap our horses. chap, hi.] Of Eclipsis of Consonants. 61 The peculiarity of the Sanskrit here noticed is evidently of the same nature as the eclipsis in the Irish language. But it should be stated that, in Irish, eclipsis answers a further purpose than that of mere euphony or facility of utterance ; for it sometimes helps to point out the cases of nouns and the moods of verbs ; and that the learner may see the exact nature, use, and extent of this very peculiar accidence, rules are subjoined (see p. 62), pointing out every case in which it can take place in the language. The letter p is eclipsed by c; but as it forms an ex- ception to the ordinary rules, it ought not, perhaps, to have been classed among the consonants that admit of eclipsis. In nouns, but not in verbs, the eclipsis of p by c follows the rules of aspiration, not of eclipsis ; that is to say, in all instances where the article aspirates the other consonants, p has c prefixed, excepting where it is followed by b, c, t>, 5, m, p, c, in which case it never suffers any initial variation in either nouns or verbs. The local exceptions to this rule will be pointed out in the pro- per place. Some writers prefix c to p in situations where others aspirate it, as, o'opouij Niul o'a c-pliocc íao péin o'cunmniojaó ap an Scicia, u Niul ordered his progeny to name themselves from Scythia." — Keating. But this is not to be imitated. The letter p never suffers eclipsis in the moods or tenses of verbs, or from the influence of any particle in any situation in verbs, except in the compound verb íoncparhluijim, I imagine, which occurs in some medical Irish manuscripts of the fourteenth century, and in the verb c-piublcnjeann, it extends or proceeds ; but these, particularly the latter, must be considered local, and a mere con- ceit of the writer. The following rules explain the grammatical use of eclipsis to indicate the inflexions and genders of nouns, 62 Of Eclipsis in Nouns. [part i. and the tenses or moods of verbs. They necessarily presuppose a knowledge of Etymology and Syntax, and may be passed over until the student has mastered the second and third parts of this Grammar. They are in- serted here in order to complete the subject of eclipsis. I. — Rules of Eclipsis in Nouns, 1. All initial consonants that admit of eclipsis are eclipsed in all nouns in the genitive case plural, when the article is expressed, as na m-bapo, of the bards; na 5-cop, of the feet ; na n-ftuan, of the poems ; na b-peap, of the men ; na ngopc, of the fields ; na-b-pian, of the pains ; na t)-conn, of the waves. Some writers eclipse these consonants even in the absence of the article, as a n-aimpip b-peap m-bolg 6 , but this is not general, though the adoption of it would tend to clearness and distinctness in the language. 2. When the article comes between any of the sim- ple prepositions and the noun, the initial consonant of the latter, when capable of eclipsis, is eclipsed in the singular number, as ó'n m-bapo, from the bard ; upé an 5-coip, through the foot ; ó'n b-puil, from the blood ; ó'n n^opc, from the field; o'n b-péin, from the pain. But t) and c are generally excepted, as ag an Dopap, at the door ; ap an conn, on the wave. Also after the simple prepositions a or 1, in, pia, before, and iaji, after, with or without the article, as a m-baile, in a town ; 1 n-Oopap, in a door ; pia nvbaipDeaó, before c Keating. chap, in.] Of Eclipsis in Verbs. 03 baptism ; iap n-Oul, after going. The preposition t>o, to, forms an exception in the western, but not in the eastern counties of Munster. 3. After the possessive pronouns áp, our, bup, or bap, your, a, their, all nouns beginning with eclipsable con- sonants are eclipsed in the singular and plural, without a single exception, as dp m-bdpo, our bard ; bap 5-copa, your feet; a n-t>uanca, their poems; ap b-pip, our men; bap n^opc, your field ; a b-pianua, their pains ; dp O-conna, our waves. II. — Eclipsis in Verbs. 1. After the interrogative particle an, which is cog- nate with and equivalent to the Latin an, all verbs be- ginning with eclipsable consonants are eclipsed, as, an m-buaileann pé, does he strike ? 2. After the particle nac, whether it means non, nee; neque, qui non, or annef as Deipim nac m-buaileann pé, I say that he strikes not ; an re nac m-buaileann, he that does not strike; nac n^uilpip, wilt thou not weep? 3. After the particle 50, whether it means ut, or utinam, as 50 n-oeipim, that I say; 50 5-cuipió Dia an paú opu, may God put prosperity on thee, i. e. may God prosper thee. 4. After Oct, if (sign of the conditional mood) ; as Oct m-buailpmn, if I would strike. 5. After the interrogative cá, icbi, where ? as ca 5-cuippip é, where wilt thou put it? G. After the relative preceded by a preposition ex- 64 Of Eclipsis in Verbs. [part i. pressed or understood, as ó a D-caini^, from whom came; 1 n-a b-puil, in which is. In the ancient Irish manuscripts the eclipsing consonant is but seldom prefixed, from which some grammarians have inferred that the ancients pronounced the radical consonants as they wrote them; but this is not certain, as we find the same writer sometimes pre- fixing the eclipsing consonant, and at other times omitting it in the same words, placed under the same influence ; which seems to lead to the conclusion that the consonants, in situations where they would now be eclipsed, anciently changed their sound into that of the letter now used to eclipse them; and that the ancients thought it unnecessary to mark this change where the construction of the sentence, and the ear of the native scholar, would at once suggest the pronunciation. In some manuscripts, particularly those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the letters c, p, p, c are doubled to denote eclipsis; thus, ctp cceapc, our right, for áp 3-ceapc ; áp ppuil, our blood, for áp b-puil ; cm ppian, our pain, for áp b-pictn ; áp ccip, our country, for áp o-cip ; but this is not to be recommended, as the prefixed consonant could not be then said to eclipse the one which follows it, but both combined to assume the sound of a consonant different from either, a system which would neither be philosophically-correct nor convenient. The eclipsing consonant is separated, in some modern books, from the radical one by a hyphen, and sometimes in the ancient manuscripts by a dot placed over it; thus, maccan pe rhbliaoan oec. — Liber Hymnorum, fol. 15, a. Clnjio oan ap cech rhbap ace ec ppi aoapc, " fearful of every death, except death on the bed," Id., fol. 1 1, a. Here the dot over the m is not intended to aspirate it, but to give notice that it is an adventitious consonant. But the hyphen placed by the moderns between the m and the b is now preferable, as in the modern ortho- graphy the dot is always used to denote aspiration, not eclipsis. In some ancient manuscripts p is dotted to denote that it is eclipsed, as óucmcmo, muimme net picmn for óucmctnn, muime net b-pian, "Buanann, nurse of the heroes," Cor. Gloss., in vocebuancmn; and chap, in.] Of Eclipsis of Consonants. 65 in the Leabhar Breac, lap pochujuo cell ocup conbal n-imoa, lap pepcaib ocup aoampaib acra lin gainem mapa, no penoai mme, lap n-oéipc ajup rpocaipe, 7c, "after building many churches and monasteries, after performing miracles and wonders as nume- rous as the sands of the sea, or as the stars of heaven, after works of charity and mercy," &c. — Vita Brigidcn in Leabhar Breac, fol. 33, b. We shall conclude the subject of the grammatical use of eclipsis by observing, that in every situation where an initial consonant is eclipsed, an initial vowel takes n, as ap n-apcin, our bread. In ancient manuscripts eclipsis is sometimes used, for no gram- matical reason whatever, but merely for euphony, as poillpi n-ftpéini, the light of the sun ; and hence also we find n inserted before an initial vowel, without any grammatical necessity, aa cuaipr n-aimpipe, a circle of time. — See p. 71. PART II. ETYMOLOGY. Etymology is that part of practical grammar which reduces to fixed rules the changes of forms which words undergo in one and the same language. It is not to be confounded with general Etymology, which treats of the changes that words undergo in passing from one lan- guage to another. OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. There are nine classes, or divisions of words, or, as they are called, parts of speech, viz., article, noun-sub- stantive, noun-adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, prepo- sition, conjunction, and interjection. CHAPTER I. OF THE ARTICLE. The Irish language has but one article, an, which has, in general, the same signification as the English definite article the, as an peaji, the man ; an bean, the woman. When this article is not prefixed, the noun is chap. I.] Of the Article. 67 translated with the indefinite article in English a , as peap, a man ; bean, a woman. The form of the article is an throughout all cases of the singular, except the genitive feminine, iii which it becomes na ; na is also the form for all cases of the plural in both genders. The prepositions 0:5, at, and ím, with, or about, preceding the article, combine with it, and are written in old, and some modern, manuscripts, icon, con, imon, immon, mun, as no caippen icon pleaó, "he exhibited them at the feast," Cor. Gloss., voce^aúen^ ; icon cenió, "at the fire," Id., voce Ope ; immon am pin, "at that time." — Annals of the Four Masters, passim. In the ancient Irish manuscripts the article is written in, ma, and ino, even in the plural ; and the masculine form an or in is sometimes prefixed, in the genitive case, to nouns of the feminine gender in the singular number, as an or in cípe, for na cipe, of the country; in caiman, of the earth. — See Battle of Magh Rath, p. 114. Tappaijic in pip pcela oe, "the men asked the news of him," Id., p. 76; cpeab-aicmeo in caiman, "every tribe of the earth/' Id., p. 98 ; íp na peljib ma njence, "in the cemeteries of the pagans," Cor. Gloss., voce pe ; acpacc poillpi na ^péine óp opeic an caiman, " the light of the sun shone upon the surface of the land," Vita Moling ; 1 epaig in mapa, "on the shore of the sea," Imramh Curraigh Mailduin, MS. in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dubl. (H. 2. 16.), p. 373. Keating also uses this form of the article before the genitive case of muip, the sea, as " 50 h-imiol an mapa." — Hist. Irel., p. 148. In some very ancient and correct a This is the case in English of remark here, that in many with all nouns in the plural languages articles are wholly number ; thus, the plural of a wanting. In the Latin, for ex- man is men, without any article, ample, the words Jilius viri may where the absence of the a, or mean the son of a man, a son of any form of it, in the plural, a ma?i, a son of the man, or serves exactly the same purpose the son of the man. In Greek as the presence of it does in the there is no indefinite article, singular. It may be also worthy 68 Of the Article. [part II. manuscripts the article is made to terminate in ib, like the noun, as in the following passage in the Annals of Ulster, at the year 891 : Uencup magnup in pepia TTlapcini, conoapp^ap píó-áp \\ naib caillib, ocup con puc na oaupccnjjp a\ a larpcujib, ocup na ccnji olcena, i. e. "A great storm occurred on the festival of St. Martin, which caused a great destruction of trees in the woods, and blew the daurthachs [oratories] from their foundations, with the other houses likewise." Also in a very ancient tract on the consecration of a church, attached to a copy of Cormac's Glossary : O ncub mecncub coicoib, " ex quints radicibus." As the article is so frequently used in the Irish language, and causes very remarkable changes in the beginning of nouns b , it will be necessary in this place b The Rev. Paul O'Brien ar- ranges the declensions of Irish nouns by the initial changes which they undergo, and asserts that the ancient Irish never in- flected their nouns by termi- nations, but by initials. — Irish Grammar, p. 1 7. But we find ter- minational changes in the most ancient Irish manuscripts, in which the initial changes are seldom marked. It matters very little whether the changes caused by the article on the initials of nouns be called declensions or not, but it is absurd to say that these changes are sufficient of themselves to determine the cases of substantives, for they are merely used for the sake of eu- phony, and to help to point out the gender of the noun ; and if the article, which has very little to do with cases, be removed, such initial changes disappear altogether, while the termina- tional inflexions remain. Stewart has the following accurate re- marks on this subject : " The changes expressive of Relation are made on nouns in two ways : 1, On the beginning of the noun ; 2, On its termination. The re- lations denoted by changes on the termination are different from those denoted by changes at the beginning ; they have no necessary connexion together ; the one may take place in the absence of the other. It seems proper therefore to class the changes on the termination by themselves in one division, and give it a name ; and to class the changes at the beginning also by themselves in another division, and give it a different name." And he adds in a note : " It was necessary to be thus explicit in stating the changes at the begin- ning, and those on the termina- tions, as unconnected indepen- dent accidents, which ought to be viewed separately ; because I know that many who have hap- pened to turn their thoughts to- chap. I.] Of the Article. 69 to lay before the learner such rules as will point out distinctly all the changes which it causes, although most of these rules must be considered as strictly belonging to Syntax. 1. In modern printed books the a of the article is cut off after a preposition ending in a vowel, as Oo'n for oo an, to the ; o'n for ó an, from the ; pa'n for pa an, under the, &c. ; but in ancient manuscripts and early printed books the article and preposition are united as if one word, without any mark of elision ; thus, Don, on, pan, &c. In the spoken dialect a simple a is used for an before a conso- nant ; but this should not be written. 2. The article aspirates the aspirable initials of all feminine nouns, in the nominative and accusative sin- gular, and of all masculines in the genitive singular : as an bean, the woman ; an pip, of the man ; and eclipses the eclipsable initials of all nouns, masculine or feminine, in the dative or ablative singular ; but these influences never extend to any case of the plural, except the geni- tive, which is always eclipsed, as na m-bapo, of the bards ; na n-Dpuaó, of the druids ; na 5-cpann, of the trees; na b-pian, of the pains; na o-uonn, of the waves. Exception. — Nouns whose initial consonant is o and r, undergo no initial change in the singular, as ip an cip, in the country ; an oopaip, of the door ; an cijeapna, of the lord ; ó'n oopap, from the door ; aj an cijeapna, with the lord. 'San oiopjan, no 'pan ward the declension of the Gaelic toward forming the cases of noun, have got a habit of con- nouns." — Elements of Gcelic joining these, and supposing that Grammar, second edition, p. 48. both contribute their united aid 70 Of the Article. [part 11. m-beipem, « íq the Fasciculus or little collection," Keat. Hist., p. 110; o'n oecmian, "from the demon," Id., p. 127; t)o'n Caoj po, "to this Tadhg," Id., p. 95 ; oo'n coipj fin, " on that expedition," Id., p. 91 ; 'pan ceinió, "in the fire," Id., p. 94; po'n calarh, "upon the earth, " Id., p. 120. But Keating and other modern wri- ters sometimes eclipse o and c after the article as regularly as the other consonants : ap an o-ceipc, " by the testimony," Id., p. 1 ; ap an o-ceajlac, "on the household," Id., p. 120; qiép in o-ceanjuió 5-ceuona, "through the same tongue," Id., p. 50 ; cpiallaip 'na aonap o'n o-culaij, " he goes alone from the hill," Id., p. 75; cpep an o-cam puj Peapjup uaéa, "on account of the cattle carried oiF from them by Fergus," Id., p. 77 ; leip an o-cpeinpeap, "with the mighty man," Id., p. 80 ; ap an o-ceajopc P 10 o"» " on ( or °0 tne ro y a l precepts," Id., p. 90. 3. Wherever the article causes aspiration on other consonants, it eclipses p by prefixing c (see p. 61); except when y is followed by a mute consonant, in which case it is never either aspirated or eclipsed. Nouns beginning with p, not followed by a mute, are, like other nouns, eclipsed by the article, when pre- ceded by the prepositions t>e, off, t>o, to, and ir», in, as Oo'n c-pao^ctl , to the world ; Oe'n c-pliab, off the c In some parts of Ireland, ar- native of Meath, does not al- ticulated nouns of this class are ways prefix c to p in the dative eclipsed after all the simple pre- or ablative case, in his Irish Ca- positions ; but in north and west techism, published at Eome in Munster, and in the best Irish 1676, for he writes ap an pao£al manuscripts, it is never used, ex- po, in this world, p. 76, except- cept after the prepositions oe, oo, ing after the preposition oo ; and and íp; for they say, ap an paojal, Keating never prefixes c to p in in the world, not ap an c-pao- this situation, except after the jal, ap an plije, on the way ; preposition oo, for he writes ap but the c is prefixed through- an ptije, on the way ; 'p an out the eastern half of Munster, pneacca, iu the snow, Hist.Irel, and in many other parts of pp. 1, 73; o'n Siúip, from the Ireland. O'Molloy, who was a Suire, Id., p. 92 See Syntax. chap, i.] Of the Article. 71 mountain. In the plural, p never undergoes any change whatever. 4. The article requires c to be prefixed to the no- minative singular of masculines, and h to the genitive singular of feminines beginning with vowels, as an c-apan, the bread; na h-aoipe, of the age. 5. The particle a (when an interjection and a sign of the vocative case) aspirates the initial consonants of all nouns in the singular and plural number, as a úi£eapna, O Lord ! a óaoine, O men ! a rhná, O women ! 6. In all cases of the plural (except the genitive) the article requires h to be prefixed to nouns beginning with vowels, as net h-ein, the birds; ó na h-éanaib, from the birds. In the genitive plural, n is prefixed after the article, as na n-ean, of the birds. The learner is to bear in mind this general fact, already stated (p. 65), that the same grammatical accidents which cause an initial consonant to be eclipsed, require n to be prefixed to initial vowels, which explains the exception to rule 6, in the case of the geni- tive plural. It has also been remarked, that a euphonic n is often prefixed to a word beginning with a vowel, merely to prevent a hiatus, and sometimes for no grammatical reason whatever, as, h-i cip n-6penn, "into the land of Ireland," Cor. Gloss., voce TTloj Gime ; jop cuipioó tam n-aipjio aip, Keat. Hist., p. 37, for ^up cmpeaó lam aipjio aip, " so that a silver hand was put upon him;" cuaipe n-aimpipe, "a circle of time," Cor. Gloss., in voce Cepcenn. Some writers eclipse the noun in the genitive plural in the ab- sence of the article, and this is to be recommended, as it gives force and definiteness to the case, which would otherwise be weak and uncertain, as it has seldom any peculiar termination ; as iomao 5-cac, many battles [i. e. a number of battles] ; ap é an ópeojan poin do bpip iomao j-car ap an Bappain, " this is the Breoghan 72 Of Gender. [part ii. who won many battles in Spain," Keat. Hist., p. 49; pillio cap a n- aip cap éip íomao 5-cpeac 00 óeunarh, "they returned back after having committed many depredations," Id., p. 133 ; le h-áppac- cup njnioiri, " by valour of deeds," Id., p. 140; plaic b-peap 5-Cúl, " chief of the Feara Cul," Id. ib. ; TOóp 5-cléipioc 5-cpáib- cioc, o-caoipioc o-co jaióe, a;$up laocpuióe loinnmeap 00 cuic ann beóp, " many pious clergymen, distinguished chieftains, and select heroes fell there," Keat. Hist., 145. CHAPTER II. OF NOUNS-SUBSTANTIVE. To nouns belong gender, number, case, and person, Section 1 . — Of Gender. Gender in Irish grammar is often to be distin- guished from sex, for in this language a fictitious, or conventional sex is attributed to all inanimate objects. Sex is a natural distinction, gender an artificial, or grammatical one. Stewart, in his Elements of Gaelic Grammar, p. 44, after having examined the true nature of grammatical gender, remarks : " it seems therefore to be a misstated compliment which is usually paidto the English, when it is said that * this is the only language that has adapted the gender of its nouns to the constitution of Nature.' The fact is, that it has adapted the Form of some of the most common names of living creatures, and a few of its pronouns, to the obvious chap, ii.] Of Gender. 73 distinction of male and female, and inanimate ; while it has left its nouns without any mark characteristic of gender. The same thing must necessarily happen to any language by abolishing the distinction of masculine and feminine in its attributives. If all languages had been constructed on this plan, it may confidently be affirmed, that the grammatical term gender would never have come into use. The compliment intended, and due to the English, might have been more correctly expressed by saying that i it is the only language that has rejected the unphilosophical distinction of gender, by making its attributives, in this respect, all indeclinable.' " In Irish the following classes of nouns are masculine : 1. Proper nouns of men, and nouns signifying males, as Oiajimcnt), Oonnchaó ; peaji, a man ; pajjapc, a priest ; rapb, a bull ; cullctc, a boar. 2. Derivative personal nouns terminating in aijie, óiji, ac, aióe, oióe, or uióe, as pealgaijie, a hunter; planui^reoin, saviour; mapcac, a rider; pcéalaióe, a story teller ; po£luió, a robber. 3. Diminutives in an, as cnocán, a hillock ; mioncm, a kid- Diminutives in in are of the gender of the noun from which they are derived; as F in ' n > a manikin, masc; ciapóijín, a little chafer, or clock, fern. Except caillin, a girl, which, by a strange anomaly, is masculine. 4. Derivatives in ap, or ear, which are principally abstract nouns, as aoibneap, delight; n^eapnap, lord- ship; maireap, goodness; cainoeap, friendship. 5. Most short monosyllables terminating in at, ucr, up, uú; as car, a battle; ucc, the breast; lup, a leek; pnur, a stream. 6. Most polysyllables, in which the last vowel is broad, are masculine, as poranán, a thistle ; n£eannap, lordship. L 74 Of Gender. [part ii. The following are feminine : 1. Proper names of women, and nouns signifying females, rivers (except the pop£up in Thomond), coun- tries, and most diseases; as TTIeaób, Oéipope, names of women ; 6 anna, the River Bann ; bolgac, the small- pox ; bean, a woman ; maraip, a mother ; bo, a cow. 2. Diminutives in 05, as ciapojj, a chafer, or clock ; opt)Ó5, a thumb. This rule is so general in every part of Ireland, that the peasan- try think that St. Dabeoj of Lough Derg, and St. Oachiapos of Errigal, in Ulster, were women. 3. Derivatives in ace, as mópt>acc, greatness ; pio£acc, a kingdom. 4. Abstract nouns formed from the genitives of adjectives, as uaiple, nobility ; ^ile, whiteness ; pinr.e, fairness. 5. Most nouns whose last vowel is small (except personals in óip), as rip, a country; ppéip, the firma- ment ; lapaip, a flame ; uaill, a howl ; uaip, an hour; onóip, honour. This rule is so strictly adhered to in most parts of Ireland, that some words naturally masculine are made feminine to comply with it, as pccnl, an entire horse ; ip bpeaj an pcail 1, " She is a fine stallion." It should be here remarked that the gender of nouns varies very considerably in the north and south of Ireland ; as for example, the word cucecmn, furze, which is masculine throughout the southern half of Ireland, is feminine throughout Ulster. Some varieties of gender will also be found in ancient manuscripts, as in the word colam, a dove, which is now universally masculine, but is inflected with the feminine article and termination, in a manuscript in Trinity College, entitled, Uraicecht na n-Eigeas (H. 1. 15.) Some chap, ii.] Of Cases. 75 proper names of men are inflected as if they were feminine, in the older Irish Annals and genealogical MSS., as pepjcule, for F ea P" jail; TTlailiouin for TTIaoilouin ; Gncjaile for CCpcjail; this is chiefly the case with names compounded with maol, calvus, or juvenis, and fcal, valour. Section 2. — Of Cases. By case is understood a certain change made in the form (generally on the termination), of a noun to denote relation. According to this definition, there is in the Irish language, strictly speaking, but one case different from the nominative, namely, the genitive, for all the other relations are expressed by the aid of prepositions and verbs ; but as prepositions modify the beginning and ending of some nouns, another case can be admitted, which may properly be called casus prcepositionis, by reason of its de- pending on a preposition always expressed. Most Irish gramma- rians, however, following the plan of the Latin grammars, have given the Irish nouns six cases, and this, though unnecessary, may be done without incommoding the learner in the slightest degree, as the six cases are well suited for the purposes of grammatical construction. The nominative and accusative are always the same in form, and are only distinguished by their position, and connexion with other words in the sentence. The dative and ablative cases are always alike in form, and are never used except after a preposition, which can never be left understood, as in Latin or Greek. These two might therefore be conveniently made one case, and called casus prcepositionis, as Sanctius calls the ablative in Latin, although in that language the 76 Of Cases. [part ii. ablative sometimes expresses the relation without the preposition. Although a change of termination is made in what is called the dative or ablative feminine in the singular, and in both genders in the plural, still the termination does not in any one instance ex- press the relation without the preposition, so that it may be regarded as a form of the noun used in junction with a preposition, to ex- press a certain relation, and not a form which expresses that rela- tion of itself, as the ablative case in Latin sometimes does. Some Irish grammarians have attempted to classify the prepositions ac- cording as they are dative or ablative in signification; but the dis- tinction is useless, as the form of the noun is the same whether the preposition means to or from, and nothing can be gained by any classification of prepositions, except such as would point out the exact relations expressed by them, which the classification under the heads of dative and ablative does not effect. The fact is, that the introduction of an ablative case into Irish is altogether useless, for the reason just given ; or, in other words, it is useless to intro- duce a dative, because it is always the same as the ablative. There is but one case influenced by prepositions, and it would be useful, for the sake of distinction, to give it a name ; but as neither the term dative, derived from the verb do, to give, nor ablative, from the verb aufero, to take away, would be a sufficiently definite name for this case, which comes after all the simple prepositions, the best term that can be invented for it would be the prepositional case. It will be seen also that the accusative of all nouns in the modern language is, without a single exception, the same as the nominative. Stewart, who paid great attention to the analogies of the Erse and Irish dialects, as far as he could become acquainted with them through printed books, came to the conclusion that there is no accusative case of nouns in the Gaelic different in form from the nominative, and no ablative different from the dative. He defines the nominative thus : " The nominative is used when any person or thing is mentioned as the subject of a proposition or question, or as the object of an action or affection." — Elements of Gaelic Grammar, first edit., p. 48. chap, ii.] Declensions. 77 Haliday, however, makes a difference between the accusative and nominative plural, by making the accusative always terminate in a, as bápoa for bcnpo ; but no such difference is observable, at least in the modern language, for the nominative terminates in a as often as the accusative. See O'Brien's Irish Grammar, pp. 50, 51, where he says, that " some writers terminate their nominatives plural generally in a, e, or t>; thus, peapa for pip, coppa for coipp, olca for uilc, bápoa for báipo, ceolnó for ceolca, pijció for pijre, bolja for builj." The nominative and vocative feminine are always alike in the termination. The genitive and vocative masculine are always alike in the termination. Section 3. — Of Declensions. The general rules by which the cases are formed are called declensions. In declining nouns the formation of the cases gene- rally depends on the gender and the last vowel of the nominative, and hence the last vowel of the nominative is appropriately called the characteristic vowel. The number of the declensions is varied by the different writers on Irish grammar ; but the author, after the most attentive compa- rison of their systems, and the closest consideration of the variations of the nouns of the language, as spoken and written, has come to the conclusion that all their inflections can be reduced under five general rules or declensions, as shall be presently pointed out. Stewart makes but two declensions, which he distinguishes by the quality of the last, or characteristic vowel, making the first declension comprehend those nouns whose characteristic vowel is broad, and the second those whose characteristic vowel is small. Haliday took up the notion that the formation of cases depends 78 Declensions. [part II. altogether on the last vowel of the nominative, and thus reduced all the nouns of the language under seven declensions. Dr. Neilson makes but four declensions, and appears to have been guided more by the gender in the arrangement of them than by the characteris- tic vowel ; and it is true that the gender has more influence on the formation of the cases than any ending of the nominative. The fact is, that the declension cannot be discovered until the gender is first known, and that even then the characteristic vowel of the nominative is no absolutely certain guide ; it is, no doubt, a help to suggest what declension the noun may be of, but cannot, in very many instances, be relied on, and the learner will discover that, as in Latin, Greek, and other ancient languages, so in Irish, he must learn the gender and genitive case singular of most nouns by reading, or the help of a dictionary. Before the learner proceeds to study these declen- sions it will be necessary that he should attend to two accidents of inflection which characterize the Irish lan- guage, namely, attenuating and making broad the cha- racteristic vowel. They are called by the Irish caol- u£aó, attenuation, and leaúnú^aó, making broad. Thus á is attenuated by being changed into en ; and ai is made broad by being changed into a, and so with other vowels and diphthongs ; as in the following Table : ATTENUATION. MAKING BROAD. á into 6l. CO into a. a »> ai, irreg. 01,111. aoi » ao. ao >> aoi. ei 5J ea. éa if éi, irreg. eoi. eoi » eo. ea >> ei, irreg. 1. 1 JJ ea. eo >> eoi, irreg. iui. íai » 1a. 10 » 1. iui J> IU. ía » ei, íai. 01 5> 0. 1U » 1U1. uai >> ua. o >> 61. ui 5> u, 0. o >> 01, irreg. ui. u »> Ú1. u >) ui, irreg. 01. ua » ucu. chap, ii.] Declensions. 79 In the spoken language throughout Ireland o short is attenuated to ui, and a to 01; but in Connaught a is seldom so attenuated, for the sound of the a is retained in the oblique cases, as na clcunne, of the children ; na plaice jlaine, of the clean rod, not na ploice, or pluice glome, as in Munster. The orthography found in ancient manuscripts proves the correctness of the Con- naught pronunciation in this particular, as baill for boill, mem- bers, Cor. Gloss., voce Nepcoic — See p. 85. There are some examples of anomalous attenuation, as Po*ian, a knife, fjine, p^in ; biaó, food, bíó ; mac, a son, meic, or mic, &c. In all printed books, and in most manuscripts of the last four centuries, final c becomes 5, when attenuation takes place, as bealac, a road, gen. bealaij ; but in very ancient Irish manuscripts, and in all printed books in the Erse or Scotch Gaelic, the c is retained. In the inscription on the cross of Cong, now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, 5 is used in the genitive, but not aspi- rated, as, Opaio 00 lTlupeoach U tDubchaig do penoip Gpeno, "a prayer for Muredach O'Dubthaig, senior of Ireland.'' But on the stone cross in the village of Cong, the same name is written U t)ub- chaich. Mr. Mac Elligott, of Limerick, in his observations on the Gaelic language, published in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, states it as his opinion, that this ancient form in c is the best mode of orthography, and after giving several examples from the Book of Lecan, and an old copy of the Festiology of Aengus, to shew that the final c of the nominative is retained in the genitive singular and in the nominative plural, recommends it to be gene- rally made use of. But we have seen that the tendency of the language is, in its inflections, to change the harder consonants into the softer ones, as c into 5, c into o, p into b, &c. ; and Mac Elligott himself, who had paid close attention to the analogies and tendencies of this language, finds in the spoken dialect of Munster a fact, which suggests a strong objection to the adoption of ic in the modern orthography, namely, that the final 5 in this inflection is pronounced without an aspiration, as pleapcaij, booaig, apcij, &c, which in other parts of Ireland are pronounced pleapcai j, booaij, apcij, and which in Scotland are written jlescaich, bodaich. 80 First Declension. &c. The fact is, that the 5 in this inflection is so distinctly pro- nounced with its radical sound in Munster, that a native of that province would look upon the substitution of c or ch in its place as a very strange innovation. The pronunciation of 5 in this inflection is one of the strongest characteristics of the Munster dialect. FIRST DECLENSION. The first declension comprises nouns of the mascu- line gender which are attenuated in the genitive singu- lar. In the singular, the nominative, dative, and accu- sative are the same, and the genitive and vocative ter- minate alike. In the plural, the nominative terminates generally like the genitive singular, the genitive like the nominative singular ; the dative is formed by adding aib to the nominative singular. The vocative plural is formed by adding a to the nominative singular. The initial changes caused by prefixing the article and simple prepositions have been already pointed out in treating of aspiration and eclipsis. 6cmt>, a poet, masc. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. bápo. báipo. Gen. báipo. bápo. Dat. bápo. bápocub. Voc. a bcupo. a bápoa. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an bápo. na báipo. Gen. an báipo. na m-bupo. Dat. o'n m-bápo. ó na bápocnb. chap, ii] First Declension. 81 Sjiorcm, a streamlet, masc. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. pporcm. Nom. rporáin. Gen. ppoccnn. Gen. pporcm. Dat. pporcm. Dat. ppoécmaib. Voc. a ppoccnn. Voc. a ppórána. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an pporcm. Nom. na ppocáin. Gen. an c-pporuin. Gen. na pporcm. Dat. ó'n c-ppoccm. Dat. oo na pporánaib. pápac, a wilderness, masc. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. papac. Nom. pápai je, or pápaca. Gen. pápaij. Gen. papac. Dat. pápac. Dat. fápai^ib. Voc. a pápaij. Voc. a pápaca. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an fápac. Nom. na pápai£e,or pápaca. Gen. an pápaij. Gen. na B-pápac. Dat. on b-pápac. Dat. ó na papaijiB. General Rules for the Formation of the Cases. The genitive case singular is formed from the no- minative by attenuating the characteristic vowel, accord- ing to the table already given, p. 78. With the article the initial consonant of the genitive singular is aspira- ted, or (if it be p) eclipsed by c. — See p. 61. Haliday remarks that all polysyllables take both the proper and improper attenuation, unless the last vowel be accented, as oorcuip, M 82 First Declension. [part ii. or oorccup, but this arises more from the unsettled state of the or- thography of the language than any grammatical principle. — See remarks on the obscure sounds of the vowels, p. 6. The dative singular always terminates like the no- minative. With the article the initial consonant is eclipsed. — See p. 62, Rule 2. Haliday states that the dative singular is formed by making broad the genitive, as " nom. copp, gen. coipp, or cuipp, dat. copp, or cupp." And it is true that some ancient, and even modern writers, have attempted to introduce a difference between the dative and nominative forms of some few nouns of this declension, as nom. peap, a man ; dat. piop, anciently pip, as upcup oo'n pip piócilli, " a cast of the chess-man," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 36 ; nom. ceann, a head ; dat. cionn, anciently cino, as pop a cino, "on her head," Id., p. 16 ; also nom. olc, evil ; dat. ulc. In an ancient vellum copy of Cormac's glossary, now in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, the form ulc is found after the prepo- sition o, under the word 6uanano, as jenichep bucm o ambuan, .1. maich ó ulc, i. e. " good is produced from evil." But in a copy of this Glossary preserved in the Library of Trinity College, H. 2. 16, it is written o olc, as in the present spoken language. The word pope, a port, is also sometimes written pupc, in the dative, as a b-pupc Couple, "in Waterford." — Keat.IIist. pp. 158, 168. The word epemn, a tree, is also found written cpunn in the dative, as oo'n cpunn, in an old life of St. Moling. From these examples it will appear that some effort was made by the old writers to make a dative or ablative form for nouns of this declension, but no trace of this form remains in the modern language. The accusative singular is always the same as the nominative in form, and is distinguished from it, as in English, only by its position in the sentence and its re- lation to the verb. The vocative singular always terminates like the genitive singular, and has always prefixed the interjec- chap, il] First Declension. 83 tions a or O, which aspirate the initial consonant, if it be of the aspirable class. The nominative plural is generally like the genitive singular. Some writers form the nominative plural of many nouns of this declension by adding a or u short to the nominative singular, as 51C1II, a hostage ; nominative plural, jialla, or jiallu, for ^eill, as, giallu Bpenn ocup Qlban, " the hostages of Ireland and Scot- land," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 4 ; F^ap, a man, is made pipu m the nominative plural, as pipu in Domain, for pip an Domain, Id., p. 12; maep, a steward, makes maepa, instead of maip, or maoip, vide id., p. 16 ; jap, a sprig, makes japa in the nominative plural, as Ocup íp í a ppoino ceca nona lap cocc punn uj co leir, ocup cpi japa 00 bipop na óoinne, "and his dinner each evening, after returning here, is an egg and a half, and three sprigs of the water cresses of the Boy ne," Id., p. 18; ceann makes ceanna, or cinou, as cinou oejóaine, " the heads of good men," Id., p. 42 ; apm makes apma, vide id., p. 68. — See particular rules for the for- mation of the nominative plural, p. 86. The genitive plural terminates like the nominative singular, but when the article is expressed the initial consonant is eclipsed, p being always excepted. — See p. 62. The dative plural is generally formed by adding ccib to the nominative singular. But when the nomi- native plural does not terminate like the genitive sin- gular, then the dative plural is formed from the nomi- native plural by dropping final e, and adding lb. — See p. 87. This termination ib of the dative plural is very seldom used in the spoken Irish of the present day, except in the county of Kerry, where, however, it is as often made the termination of the nomina- tive plural. It should be remarked also, that this termination is not always found in plural nouns, even in the best manuscripts, 84 First Declension. [Fart ii. after the simple prepositions ; but this is perhaps owing more to the carelessness of Irish writers than to any real grammatical principle. Mr. Patrick Lynch, who had a native knowledge of the modern Irish, states, in his Introduction to the Irish Language, that " a man would be laughed at in the country, were he to say, caBaip peup do na caiplib, or oo capalluib, give hay to the horses; instead of cabaip peup do na capuil. However, peap, a man, and a few other monosyllabic words, are an exception to the above, as we say, na peapaib, op na peapaib, do na peapaib," &c. &c. — p. 11. It should be also remarked, that in the best manuscripts the dative plural is frequently formed by adding a or u short to the nomi- native singular, as Ca naeriiu Gpenn, for Ce naomaib Bipeann, " with the saints of Erin." — Battle of Magh Bath, p. 4; do pep- rain páilci ppip na piju, " to bid welcome to the kings," Id., p. 24 ; ppi h-UUru, "with the Ultonians," Id., p. 34 ; imp na ploju, " between the hosts," Id., p. 36 ; I2o páió Domnall ppi a riiaepu ocup ppi a peccaipiu, " Domhnall said to his stewards and law- givers," Id., p. 16; ppip na h-aonaclu, for leip na h-aonaclaib, " with the graves," Cor. Gloss., voce pe ; " Dicunt hocScoti, Goibne Gobafaciebat hastas, ppi ceopa jpeppa, the Scoti say that Goibne, the smith, made the spears with three processes," Id., ^o^Nepcoic. The accusative plural is, in the modern language, always like the nominative. Haliday makes the accusative plural different from the nomina- tive plural, but no trace of this difference is to be found in the modern Irish language, although in some ancient manuscripts the accusative is sometimes found to terminate in a, or u short, while the nominative terminates like the genitive singular ; as jialla for geill, hostages ; pipu for pip, men ; nnaepa for maeip, stewards; apma, or apmu, for aipm, arms; ^apcc for jaip, sprigs; cinou for cinn, heads; coppa for cuipp, bodies; mupa, or múpu, for múip, as ocup po copamo pium peer múpu mop-aiobli imon oun pin, " and he drew seven great walls around that fort." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 6. But the accusative is also frequently found to terminate exactly like the nominative, as po jab Din orhun na naeim, " then fear seized the saints." — Id., p. 38. chap, ii.] First Declension. 85 Particular Rules for the Formation of the Genitive Case Singular in Monosyllables of the First Declension. Monosyllables whose characteristic vowel is a, or o short, have generally the improper attenuation in the genitive singular, as copp, a body, gen. sing, cuipp ; rope, a hog, gen. cuipe ; epemn, a tree, gen. cpoinn; cnoc, a hill, gen. cnuic ; ponn, land, gen. puinn ; clo^, a bell, gen. clui^; lop^, a track, gen. luip£. Some modern Irish writers have rejected this irregular attenu- ation, and written coipp for cuipp, cnoic for cnuic, poinn for puinn, hut this, although sometimes found in ancient manuscripts, and tending to simplify the language, is not home out by the general authority of the best mauuscripts, nor of the spoken language in any part of Ireland. In the spoken language throughout the province of Connaught, as has been already remarked, the a is scarcely ever changed to 01 in attenuation, and this is in conformity with the ancient language ; as in Cormac's Gloss., voce Pepiup, where in chpenno, of the tree," occurs for the modern an cpoinn ; and in an old Life of St. Moling, where the word epemn, a tree, is similarly inflected, as céic a mullach in cpainn, " he climbs to the top of the tree." Monosyllables characterized by éa (long) or eu, have two forms of the genitive singular, as ^éaó, a goose, gen. 5616, or ^eoió ; écm, a bird, gen. éin, or eoin ; béal, a mouth, gen. bell, or beoil ; p^eal, a story, gen. p^éil, or pgeoil ; cpécm, a hero, gen. cpéin, or upeoin; but the latter form is seldom used, except in poetry, or poetical prose. Monosyllables characterized by ea (short) form the genitive singular by changing ea into ei (short), and sometimes into 1 short, as eac, a steed, gen. eic ; bpeac, 86 First Declension. [part ii. a trout, gen. bpic ; cecmn, a head, gen. cinn ; pectp, a man, gen. pip ; neccpc, strength, gen. neipc, or nipc ; ceapr, justice, gen. ceipc, or cipu. Monosyllables having eo as their characteristic diphthong have also two forms of the genitive singular; the first, which is regular, and the form most generally used in prose, and in the spoken language, is obtained by changing eo into eoi ; the second, which is irregular, and seldom used, except in poetry, by changing eo into iui, as ceol, music, gen. ceoil, or ciuil ; peol, a sail, gen. peoil, or piuil. Monosyllables characterized by ia, form the genitive singular, by changing ia into éi (long), as laps, a fish, gen. eip^; Niall, a man's name, gen. Néill. But from this rule must be excepted bpicm, a man's name, which makes bpicun in the genitive singular; piag, a deer, which makes piai£ ; Dia, God, which makes Dé, not Déi ; biaó, food, which makes bib, and a few others. Duald Mac Firbis, in his genealogical work, which he com- menced in 1650, almost invariably writes such genitives with a single e, as Nell, for Néill. — See Tribes, 8fc, of the Hy-Fiach' rack, p. 16, note m. Peter Connell also adopted the same system in parts of his manuscript Irish Dictionary, but left it off in others. Particular Rules for the Formation of the Nominative and Dative Plural of the First Declension. Some nouns of this declension form the nominative plural by adding a to the nominative singular, as piac, chap, ii.] First Declension. 87 a debt, piaca, debts ; leabap, a book, leabpa, books ; uball, an apple, ubla, apples. Others add za, or ra, as p^eal, a story, pgéalca, stories (but it has also the form p^éala) ; peol, a sail, peolra, sails ; ceol, music, ceolca ; néal, a cloud, makes néalca ; muji, a wall, or mound, makes muria, or múpra ; co^aó, war, makes co^ra. Many nouns of this declension, terminating in ac, form the nominative plural from the genitive singular by adding e, as aonac, a fair, gen. sing. aonaig, nom. pi. aonai^e ; so ualac, a burden, makes nom. pi. ualai^e ; mullac, a summit, ,mullai£e ; eaoac, cloth, éat)ai£e ; bealac, a pass, bealai^e ; óplac, an inch, oplai£e. When the nominative plural has a different form from the genitive singular, the dative plural of regular nouns is, without exception, formed from it in this and all the other declensions ; as p^éal, p^éalua, dat. pi. r^éalccnb ; co^aó, co^ra, co^raib; aonac, aonai^e, aonai£ib; as a n-aonai^ib a^up a 5-corhóáluib coic- cionna, "at general fairs and assemblies' 1 ;" mullac, mullai^e, mullaigib ; bealac, bealai£e, bealai£ib, and, by syncope in old manuscripts, beil£e, beil£ib ; éaoac, éat>ai£e, éaDai^ib 6 . In the spoken Irish some few nouns of this declension, ending in áp, form the nominative plural hy adding aca to the nominative singular, as clap, a board, or a plain, nominative plural, clápaca; but cláip is the plural used by correct writers, as Ip na cláip piop 50 Sionoinn, "and the plains down to the Shannon." — O'Heerin. d Keat. Hist. p. 57- • Cormac's Gloss., voce ^ejam. 88 Second Declension. [part ii. See Battle of Magh Rath, ^Additional Notes, p. 340 ; — learap, leather, learpaca ; others add lctié, as éan, or éun, a bird, éunlair, birds, as jup ab ann cigoíp eunlaic Gipionn o'á njpian-jopaó, " it was thither the birds of Ireland were wont to come, to bask in the sun." — Keat. Hist., p. 32. But ém is the regular plural. Some nouns of this declension, of more than one syllable, suffer syncope in the nominative plural, as uball, an apple, nom. pi. ubla (for uballa) ; and some suffer syncope and attenuation, as oopap, a door; polup, light ; and copaó, fruit ; which make Ooippe, poilpe, coipre, in the nominative plural, and bóippib, poilpb, coipcib, in the dative plural. Some suffer syncope and attenuation, and add e, to form the nominative plural, as cain^ecm, a covenant, nom. pi. cain^ne, dat. pi. cain^nib; Dain^ean, a fast- ness, com^ne, Dcnrvgnib ; pui£eall, a sound, puijle, pui^lib ; jjeirheal, a fetter, ^eirhle, ^eirhlib ; éi$eap, a learned man, éi^pe, éi^pib ; cléipeac, a cleric, cléi- pi£, cléijicib f . SECOND DECLENSION. This declension, which comprises by far the greater number of the feminine nouns of the language, is dis- tinguished by the ending of the genitive singular, which has always a small increase. When the characteristic vowel of the nominative singular is broad, the genitive is formed by attenuation and a small increase 5 , but when slender by the increase only. The dative singular is f Battle of Magh Eath, p. 24. almost invariably the vowel e g I say small increase, because, short, in ancient manuscripts it although in modern Irish books is oftener i, and sometimes iu. and manuscripts this increase is chap, ii.] Second Declension. 89 formed from the genitive by dropping the increase, and the vocative always terminates like the nominative. The nominative plural is formed from the nominative sin- gular by adding a broad increase 11 , when the characte- ristic vowel is broad, and a small increase when the characteristic vowel is small ; the genitive plural termi- nates like the nominative singular, and the dative is formed from the nominative plural by adding ib, as in the following examples : Cailleac, a hag. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. cailleac. Nom. cailleaca. Gen. caillije. Gen. cailleac. Dat. caillij. Dat. cailleacaib. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nora, an cailleac. Nom. na cailleaca. Gen. na caillije. Gen. na 5-cailleac. Dat. <5'n 5-caillij. Dat. ó na cailleacaib. h This broad increase is a in are formed by adding aíó (the 1 the modern language, but in an- long) to the nominative singular, cient manuscripts it is often u, as cailleacaíó, for cailleaca ; and sometimes o. Dr. Neilson capójaíó, for caroja, coats; but makes the nominative plural ter- this form, which is not found in minate in adh, but for this he ancient or correct modern manu- has no authority, or even ana- scripts, should be considered a logy, ancient or modern. . In the provincial peculiarity, and should present spoken dialect in the pro- not be taken into consideration, vince of Connaught, the plurals in fixing the orthography of the of some nouns of this declension general language. N 90 Second Declension. [part ii. To this declension belong all the feminine nouns in the language terminating in 05, which are principally diminutives, and are all declined according to the fol- lowing example : peápnóg, the alder tree. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. peapnós. Nom. peapno^a. Gen. peapnoi^e. Gen. peapnoj. Dat. peapnóij. Dat. peapnojaib. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an peapnoj. Nom. na peapnoja. Gen. na peapnoije. Gen. na b-peapnoj. Dat. ó'n b-peapnóij. Dat. ó na peapnojaib. Many nouns of this declension, like those of the first, take the irregular attenuation, as clann, children, gen. sing, clomne, dat. sing, cloinn;' long, a ship, lumje, luinj; monj, mane, muinje, muinj. But in the province of Connaught the regular attenuation is always preserved, particularly when the characteristic vowel is a, as clann, clainne, damn ; lann, a blade, lainne, lainn ; and these forms are of very frequent occurrence in the Books of Lecan and Ballymote, which were compiled in North Connaught in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Some few nouns of this declension, of more than one syllable, suffer syncope, as imp, an island, gen. inpe, and when broad are attenuated in the penultimate syllable, as pluapao, a shovel ; lopao, a kneading trough; coinneall, a candle; obaip, a work ; which make in the genitive singular pluaipoe, loipoe, comnle, oibpe, which last makes oibpeaca in the nominative plural. t)eoc, a drink, is quite irregular, making oi£e in the genitive, and 015 in the dative singular ; but it has a regular plural, oeoca. chap, ii.] Second Declension. 91 Particular Rules for the Formation of the Nominative Plural of the Second Declension. When the characteristic vowel of the nominative singular is slender 1 the nominative plural is formed from it by adding a small or slender increase. Examples. — TTIaoin, wealth, nom. pi. maoine, as " do bepc maíne mópa oóib, he gave them rich presents," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 42 ; cúip, a cause, nom. pi. cúipe, or cúipi, as " gé oo Bctoap aóbal-cúip eli ic Congal 'man comepji pin, though Con- gal had other great causes for this rebellion," Id., p. 110 ; eapnail, a kind, nom.pl. ectpnaile, Id., -p. 118; jnúip, the countenance, nom. pi. ^núipe, or jnúipi, as "a njnuipi ppi lap, their faces to the earth."— Keat. Hist., p. 125. Some nouns of this class form the plural, either by adding a small increase or the termination ecmna, as luib, an herb, nom. pi. luibe, or luibecmna, but the latter form, which is like the Saxon plural termination en (as in oxen, women), is more general, and better than the former, because more distinct and forcible. But nouns of this declension, terminating in éim, as léim, a leap; céim, a degree ; béim, a blow ; peim, a course, 5 Some words of this declen- in another ; for example, cop, a sion are in the best manuscripts foot, and cluap, an ear, which indifferently made broad or slen- are always broad in other parts der in the nominative singular, of Ireland, are pronounced coip as muinreap, or muincip, a peo- and cluaip in the casus rectus pie, or family ; pinpeap, or pwpip, in the county of Kilkenny. From ancestry ; aimpeap, or aimpip, this and other facts it is quite time ; maioean, or maioin, the clear that all feminine nouns, morning ; aop, or oip, an age. which form the genitive singular And in the spoken language, by a small increase, belong to words of this declension are made one declension, slender in one district, and broad 92 Second Declension. [part ii. or progress, and some others, with their compounds, have the latter form only, and are thus declined : SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an céim. Nom. na céimeanna. Gen. na céime. Gen. na 5-céimeann. Dat. ó'n 5-céim. Dat. ó na céimeannaib. Some nouns of this declension suffer syncope, and form the plural by adding eaócc, as imp, an island, nom. pi. inpeaoa. The word colli, a wood, makes coillce, and linn, a pool, linnce. Particular Rules for the Formation of the Genitive Case Plural. It has been stated above, in the general rules pre- fixed to this declension, that the genitive plural termi- nates like the nominative singular, but it should be added here : 1. That w 7 hen the characteristic vowel of the nomi- native singular is slender, the genitive plural sometimes drops the slender vowel, as uaip, an hour, gen. pi. na n-uap, as "cloicúech ceneaó Do aicpin ic l?up oela ppi pé noi n-uap, a steeple of fire was seen at Rusdela for the space of nine hours J ." 2. When the nominative plural is formed by adding re to the nominative singular, the genitive plural is formed from it by adding aó, or ot>, as coill, a wood, nom. pi. coillce, gen. pi. na 5-coillueaó, or na 5-coill- ciob, as " oip 00 báoap íomao coillnob cimcioll an i Book of Ballymote, fol. 141, a. chap, ii.] Third Declension. 93 onoma poin, for there were many woods around that hill k ." 3. When the nominative plural terminates in anna, the genitive plural is formed from it by dropping the a, as na 5-céimeann, of the steps; na m-beimeann, of the blows ; na luibeann, of the herbs. THIRD DECLENSION. The third declension comprises nouns of the mascu- line and feminine gender, which have a broad increase in the genitive singular. The dative singular always terminates like the no- minative. When the characteristic vowel is broad the nomina- tive plural is formed from the nominative singular by adding a broad increase, and when slender a slender in- crease 1 , and the genitive and dative plural are formed as in the second declension, as in example : Upeap, masc, a battle. SINGULAR. riXRAL. Nom. cpear. Nom. qieapa. Gen. cpear-a. Gen. qieap. Dat. qiear. Dat. qiearaib. To this declension belong all derivative abstract nouns in ace, which are all of the feminine gender, as mallctcr, a curse; oápácr, boldness; cpóóacc, bravery; k Keat. Hist., p. 25. crease is íóe, in modern Irish, 1 This broad increase is gene- and ectóct, or eóa, in ancient rally a, anna; the slender in- manuscripts. 94 Third Declension. [part ii. mópóacc, greatness. Also derivative abstract nouns terminating in eap, which are all of the masculine gen- der, as ccupoears friendship; aoibneap, delight; pu- airhnear', tranquillity ; cinneap, sickness. This latter class sometimes form the genitive like nouns of the first declension, as : Qoibnear*, masc, delight. singular. [Wants the Plural^] Norn, aoibneap. Gen. aoibneapa, or aoibnip. Dat. aoibneccr. TTlallacc, fem., a curse. « SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. mallctcc. Nom. mallacca. Gen. mallacca. Gen. mallacc, or mallaccan. Dat. mallacr. Dat. mallacccnb. These two classes of nouns most generally want the plural number, as being names of abstract ideas. To this declension belong all short monosyllables of the masculine gender, and such as terminate in cíc, ucc, úcc, ul, up, uc, as car, a battle; Dae, colour; ucc, the breast ; Opucc, dew ; gul, lamentation ; lup, a leek ; ppuc, a stream. And many in ác, as ác, a ford ; bpác, the day of judgment; blác, a flower; r^ác, a shadow. Of these such as are characterized by u short change u into o in the genitive singular, as ucc, occa; ppuc, ppoca ; jul, ^ola ; lup, lopa ; also, 511c, a voice, makes ^oca ; spue, curds, ^poca ; cpuc, shape, cpoca, &c. To this declension also belong all verbal nouns in ace, ail, and amain, as ceacc, coming, which makes chap, ii.] Third Declension. 95 in the genitive singular ceacna ; ^abail, taking, ^abála ; rógbáil, raising, có^bála ; ^eallarham, pro- mising, ^ealarhna ; leanarhain, following, leanarhna ; cailearham, losing, caillearhna, those in the latter ter- minations always suffering syncope. To this declension also belong many names of men, as Qo6, Qon£up, OiapmaiD, Oonnchaó, peap£up, TTlupcao, Oilioll, which form their genitives by post- fixing a short. Under it, also, may be classed Qinrmpe, Gocaió, piacpa, Cu^aió, which sometimes form their genitives by suffixing a, and sometimes etc, or eac, as Gocaba, or Gacac, piacpac, Có£a, Lú^óac, or Cufg- óeac. To this declension also belong all short monosyllabic nouns characterized by 10 short (written with a single 1 in old manuscripts), which form the genitive singular by changing 10 into ea short, as bliocc, milk; cioú, a shower; biop, a spit; cpiop, a girdle; epioc, trembling; piop, knowledge; liorm, ale; liop, a fort; pliocu, progeny; pioc, frost ; piocc, shape, which make in the genitive singular blectcca, ceara, beapa, cpeapa, cpeara, peapa, leanna, leapa, pleacca, peaca, peacca. To this declension also belong all verbal nouns ter- minating in aó, eaó, and u£aó, which form their geni- tives singular like their passive participles, as t>ctópaó, condemning, gen. sing, baopúa; poillpiu^aó, revealing, gen. sing, poillpijúe. — See passive verb. They have sometimes, though rarely, a second genitive formed by attenuation, as oaopaió, poillpiu£cnó, but this is 96 Third Declension. [part ii. not to be approved of, as it is seldom to be met with in good manuscripts. Some nouns ending in at>, which have two consonants in the middle, insert a vowel, for the sake of euphony, between these con- sonants, in forming the genitive singular, and change at> to ca, as íonjnaó, wonder, gen. sing, lonjcmca ; cionnpjnao, beginning, nonnfjanca ; cor-ncco, defence, cor-cmca; aópaó, adoration, aóap- ca ; cunnnao, a covenant, cunnctpca. On the other hand, some suffer syncope, as ajallarh, a dialogue, which makes in the genitive singular ajalitia ; piajail, a rule, piajlct; piojan, a queen, pio£na; oiojail, revenge, oiojla ; colann, the body, colna; olann, wool, olna ; ppiocolarii, an attendant, ppiorolma ; pupáilearh, order, pupáitme ; oéanarh, doing, makes oécmrha, but oéanaó makes oéanca. All personal nouns in óip, or éóip, which are all of 7 the masculine gender, belong to this declension, and form the gen. in ópa ; and these masculine nouns amm, a name; speim, a morsel ; ncuóm, a lien, a covenant; pncuóm, a knot ; maíóm, a defeat ; peióm, exertion ; ceióm, a disease, which make, in the genitive singular, cmma, ^peama, naóma, pnaóma, maóma, peaóma, ceaoma, and form their plurals by adding nna to the genitive singular, as cmmcmna, 5peamcmna m , &c. To this declension also belong many feminine nouns ending in íp (short), which make the genitive singular in etc, as lain, a mare, which makes, in the genitive singular, lotpac ; oaip, the oak, t>anac ; lapaip, a flame, lappac ; upeóip, vigour, cpeopac ; beoip, beer, beopac ; and the proper names Uectrhcnp, Tara, and m Haliday erroneously makes which have a small increase in these nouns belong to his fourth the genitive singular. — See his declension, which includes nouns Gaelic Grammar, p. 39. chap, ii.] Third Declension. 97 peóip, the river Nore, which make Uearhpac, peó- pac. From this rule must be excepted moxairi, a mother, which makes márap, not máúpac. The following feminine nouns, which are characterized by 1 short, are somewhat irregular: puil, blood; coil, the will; mil, honey, which make in the genitive singular, pola, cola, meala ; but most others are regular, as cluain, a bog island; cam, tribute; móin, a bog ; cam, a flock; which make in the genitive singular, cluana, cána, móna, ccma. To this declension belong a few masculine nouns, ending in ip, forming the genitive singular by dropping the 1, as acaip, bpácaip, a brother ; which make in the genitive singular acap, bpctcap. A few masculine nouns of this declension, ending in am, make the genitive singular in an, as bpeicearh, a judge; ceioeam, the month of May ; peiceam, a debtor ; ociileam, a cupbearer ; oúileam, the Creator; pealpam, a philosopher ; oipeam, a ploughman; also the feminine noun calarh, which makes caiman ; but some poets make it masculine, and write calaim in the genitive singular, to answer their rhymes. Particular Rules for the Formation of the Nominative and Dative Plural of the Third Declension. It has been stated in the general rule prefixed to this declension, that the nominative plural is formed from the nominative singular by adding a broad or small increase according to the characteristic vowel of the latter. The following rules will further assist the learner in forming the plurals of particular classes of nouns : 1. Some add a, or nna to the genitive singular, as t>ac, colour, nom. pi. Oaúa, or bararma ; ppur, a stream, nom. pi. ppoca, or ppoúanna ; cioú, a shower, nom. pi. ceaúa, or cectúcmna ; and the dat. pi. is o 98 Third Declension. [part ii. formed from the nom. pi. by adding ib, as Oarcnb, or oaúannaib, &c. The following nouns-masculine, cnnm, a name ; Sjieim, a morsel; ncnóm, a lien; rwxióm, a knot; mcnóm, a defeat; ueióm, a disease, form their nomina- tives in the same way ; and their plural, by adding nna to the genitive singular, as cmmanna, gneamcmna, naó- mcmna, p naómcmria, maómanna, ceaómomna ; datives plural by adding ib to the nominative, as cmmcmncnb, gneamarmaib, naómcmnaib, pnaómannaib, maóman- naib, ceaómanncnb. 2. Personal nouns in óip, or eoi]i,form the nominative plural from the nominative singular by adding i6e in the modern language, and eoa in the ancient, as peanoin, an old man, nom. pi. peanóijiióe, or yenoipeoa ; and the dat. pi. is formed from the nom. pi., as y eanóijnbib, or penóipeóaib. Haliday forms the nominative plural of nouns of this class in oipe, opct, or ópca ; but for these terminations he gives no autho- rity. Dr. Neilson forms it by adding 15, as pijeaoóip, a weaver, pi jeaoóipij. But the fact is, that these writers have given these terminations without any written authority, being guided by the pronunciation, or by conjecture, for this termination is written eoa, or ioa, in ancient manuscripts, and íóe by the best modern writers, as in the following examples in Keating's History of Ire- land, where oligceoip, a lawyer, is written in the nominative plural oil jreóipióe ; and aipjéeóip, a plunderer, aipgceoipióe ; ex. a n-olijreóipióe péin o'a n-jaipio ópeiéiorhain, suos Juridicos quos vocant Brehones, p. 15; cillio aipjreóipióe ainoiúioe Gipionnac o'á o-cij, revertuntur impudentes grassatores Hiberni domum, p. 106. 3. The nouns bpeirearh, a judge ; peicearh, a chap, il] Third Declension. 99 debtor ; Oculearh, a cup-bearer ; pealparh, a philoso- pher ; oijiearh, a ploughman, form the nominative plu- ral from the genitive singular by attenuating the final consonant, as bpeiceamain, peicearham, oaileamcnn, pealparhain ; and, somewhat contrary to the usual rule, form the dative plural from the nominative singular by adding ncnb, as bpeirearhnaib, peicearhncub, oáilearh- naib, pealparhnaib. 4. Feminine nouns ending in iji (short) form the nominative plural from the genitive singular by adding a, as lain, a mare, nom. pi. lajictca; lapaip, a flame, la ppaca; fcaip, an oak, t>anaca, and, by syncope, in old manu- scripts, Oaip£e ; macaip, a mother, mácpaca, and by attenuation, monrpeaca ; pamip, a prayer, pampeaca; eapaip, a layer, or litter, eappaca. To these may be added the masculines auaip, a father, and bpacaip, which make aicpe, or airpeaca, and bpáiúpe, or bpctic- peaca. Of all these the dative plural is formed from the nominative plural by adding lb, according to the general rule already laid down, p. 87. 5. A few feminine nouns of this declension ending in in short, form the nominative plural from the nomi- native singular by adding ee, or ci, as clucnn, a meadow, or bog island, nom. pi. clucnnce, or cluainn ; mom, a bog, moinue, or móinci ; cam, a flock, ccnnue, or ccnnci. These also form the dative plural from the nominative plural, according to the general rule, as cluaincib, móincib, cáincib. 100 Third Declension. [part ii. Particular Rules for the Formation of the Genitive Case Plural of Nouns of the Third Declension. The general rule is, that the genitive plural termi- nates like the nominative singular, but the following are exceptions : 1. When the nominative plural ends in anna, the genitive plural is formed from it by dropping the final a, as t>aranna, colours, gen. pi. na n-t>acann ; maó- manna, defeats, gen. pi. na maómann ; bpomanna, ridges, or hills, gen. pi. na n-t)pomann, as 50 t)-uapla impiopain eacoppa um peilb na o-upi n-t»pomann ap peapp baoi a n-Gipinn, " until a contention arose between them about the possessing of the three best hills in Ireland"." 2. Personal nouns in eoip, or óip, form the genitive plural from the genitive singular by adding c, as pean- óip, an old man, gen. sing, peanópa, gen. pi. peanópac, as arhail ap pollup a n-agallam na peanópac, "as is clear in the dialogue of the seniors ." 3. When the nominative plural is formed from the nominative singular by adding ce, or ci, the genitive plural is formed from the nominative plural by adding aó, and sometimes 06, in the modern language, as cluam, cluaince, na 5-cluamueab ; mom, a bog, mómce, na móince ; cáin, cáince, na t>-uámceaó. It may perhaps be said, that this declension comprises so many varieties of formation of the genitive singular and nominative plu- ral, that to class them nominally under the same declension is but n Keat. Hist., p. 60. ° Ibid., p. 29. chap.il] Fourth Declension. 101 of little assistance to the learner. It should, however, be consi- dered that in Latin the third declension, as given in our grammars, merely shews the last syllable of the genitive singular, without laying down rules for the various and uncertain modes in which the additional consonants of the genitive singular are formed from the nominative singular, as in lac, lactis ; onus, oneris ; salus, salutis ; os, oris ; os, ossis ; onus, oneris; corpus, corporis; lapis, lapidis ; poema, poematis ; caput, capitis, &c. And the student must remember, that these various endings of the genitive singular are not learned from a grammar, which merely states that the third declension is known by the genitive singular ending in is, and the dative in i, but from a dictionary, or from a practical knowledge of the language. FOURTH DECLENSION. This declension comprises nouns of the masculine and feminine gender ending in vowels, and which have no final change in the singular number. The nomina- tive plural is generally formed from the singular by adding i6e, or cnóe, in the modern language, and eóa, or aba, in the ancient ; and the dative plural is formed from the nominative plural by adding lb. Gapba, fern., a defect. Simple Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. eapba. Nom. eapbaióe, or eapbaoa. Gen. earba. Gen. eapbaó. Dat. eapba. Dat. eapbaióib, or apbaóaib. Voc. a earba. Voc. a eapbaióe, or a eapbaóa. Articulated Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an earba. Nom. na h-eapbaoa. Gen. na h-eapba. Gen. na n-eapbao. Dat. ó'n eapba. Dat. 6 na h-eapbaoaib. 102 Fourth Declension. [part ii. It should be remarked here, that some writers often close words of this description with a quiescent ó, as eapbaó. In the ancient manuscripts, instead of the plural termination me, or aióe, aóa is almost always used, and the ois generally left unaspirated, as óp ba h-inmeapca a n-eapbaoa, " for their losses were not considerable." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 110. The dative plural is formed from the nominative plural by adding ib, as oalca, a foster-son, nom. pi. oalcaóa, dat. pi. oalcaóaib, as Fop mo óctluaócnb peipn, Id., p" 12, for the modern ap mo óalcaíóib fém, " on my own foster-sons." But Keating and the Four Masters frequently put íóe, or uióe, in the nominative plural, and íóib, or uíóib, in the dative plural, as pe giolluioib, Keat. Hist.,\>. 144; oo rpinpíóib cai- man, "of earthen ramparts." — ^Annals of the Four Masters, ad. ann. 1600. It is highly probable that the ancients pronounced this termination aóa as two syllables, giving ó a guttural sound. In some parts of Ireland, apna, a rib, makes apnaca in the nominative plural. To this declension belong all personal nouns in cube and aipe. The former make the nominative plural in cnóúe, as pnarhuióe, a swimmer, nom. pi. pnarhuióúe ; and the latter in neaóa, and, in the modern language, pióe, as lay^cnpe, a fisherman, nom. pi. íar^aipeaóa, or íar^cnpióe. Keating, however, who may be considered one of the last of the correct Irish writers, often writes peaóa, as 50 o-cáplaoap íapjai- peaóa pip, "so that fishermen met him." — Keat. Hist., p. 71. The termination uióe is pronounced at present nearly like uee, in the English word queen (but without any of the consonantal sound of w), in the singular; but its plural uiore is pronounced short throughout the southern half of Ireland. Many other nouns of this declension ending in aoi, i6e, i£e, form the nominative plural by adding ce, or inserting t before the final vowel, as t)lccoi, a lock of hair ; CHAP. II.] Fourth Declension. 103 paoi, a learned man ; ojiaoi, a druid, flige, a way ; bpi£e, force : t>li£e, a law ; cpoióe, the heart, which make, in the nominative plural, olaoire, yaoice, tmaoi- úe, pligúe, bpi^re, oligre, cpoióúe, and in the da- tive plural olaoicib, yxxoiuib, bpaoicib, flijrib, bmjcib, oligrib, cpoióuib. The nouns cemne, fire; baile, a town; léine, a shirt ; cciúne, a commandment, make, in the nominative plural, ceinnce, bailee, léinue, aiúeanua, and in the dative plural cemnuib, bcnlcib, léincib, aireanuaib. Duine, a person, is quite irregular, making oaoine in the nom. pi. and oaoimb in the dative plural. In the province of Connaught, the plural of baile is made bailceacaíó, which is very corrupt ; and in the same province the termination íó is given to many nouns in the plural number, which is never found in correct manuscripts, and which is unknown in other parts of Ireland, as oaomíó, people, for oaome. And this termination is used not only in nouns, but even in the passive par- ticiples of verbs, as buailcíó, for buailce, or buailci. The word ceinne, fire, is also rather irregularly inflected in the provinces ; it makes na cemneann in the genitive singular, and ceinnceaca in the nominative plural, in the county of Kilkenny ; but in the province of Connaught it makes na ceinneaó (pronounced na ceinniúó) in the genitive singular, and cemncíó, or remneeacaíó, in the nominative plural; and it should be remarked that r\a ceinneaó, the genitive sin- gular form of this word now used in Connaught, is found in ancient manuscripts, as in Corma&s Glossary, in voce aicmne, where we read aicle cheneaó, " remnants of fire ;" and in the Book of Bal- ly mote, fol. 141, where we read cloicrech ceneaó, "a steeple (or column) of fire." The word léine, a shirt, which has no change at present in the singular number, is found written leineuó in the genitive singular, as in Cormac's Glossary, voce caimmre. The word pili, a poet, is also sometimes made pileaó in the genitive 104 Fourth Declension. [part ii. singular, as TTIaen TDac Gtoaine ainm an pileao, " Moen Mac Edaine, the name of the poet." — Cor. Gloss., in voce ITI05 eime. Nouns which end in a long vowel form the nomi- native plural by adding a, as anno, misfortune, nom. pi. anpóa; ían^nó, anguish, nom. pi. lan^noa ; but a 6 is sometimes inserted to prevent a hiatus, as anpoóa, íap^noóa. The genitive plural of this declension is sometimes formed from the nominative singular, and sometimes from the nominative plural ; from the former by adding aó, as ceinne, fire, gen. pi. na o-ueineaó, " of the fires p ;" corhaiple, a council, gen. pi. na 5-corhaijileaó, or na 5-corhainlioó q ; Colla, a man's name, na t>-upi 5-C0I- laó, "of the three Collas 1 " ;" pile, a poet, peulua na b-pilio6, ci the star of the poets s ;" péinne, a hero; o pnuic-linncib pola na b-péinmoó, "from the streams of the blood of the heroes 1 ." But when the nomina- tive plural is formed from the nominative singular by adding ce, or te 9 the genitive plural should be formed from it by adding aó, as na m-bailueaó, na O-ceinnueaó, na paoiceaó; and when the nominative plural ends in aba, the genitive plural should be, and is, by the best writers, formed from it, by drop- ping the a, as eapbaóa, wants, gen. pi. na n-eapbaó. It should be observed that some words are very irregu- lar in forming this case, as t)naoi, a druid, which makes na n-t>puaó, and paoi, a learned man, na puaó, though p Keat. Hist., p. 95. s Id., p. 1 14. «Id., p. 97. «Id., p. 146. r Id., p. 99. chap, il] Fifth Declension. 105 some authors would write them net n-Dpaoiceaó, net pctoiúeaó. FIFTH DECLENSION. This declension comprises nouns of the feminine, and some of the masculine gender, which add a conso- nant, generally n, or nn, in the genitive singular, and are attenuated in the dative. The nominative plural is generally formed from the genitive singular by eliding the vowel preceding n, and adding a ; but some nouns of this declension form their plurals rather irregularly. Lanarhct, fern., a married couple. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. Icmarha. Nom. lemarhna. Gen. tcmariian. Gen. lanaman. Dat. lanaihain. Dat. lánamnaib. Voc. a lánarha. Voc. a lánariina. In this manner are declined ulca, beard; cearpama, a quarter; ealaóa, science; oeapna, the palm of the hand; locla, a hay-yard ; cuiple, a vein ; uille, an elbow ; corhappa, a neighbour; meanma, the mind ; peappa, a person ; uppa, the jamb of a door ; oile, a flood. But juala, a shoulder ; apa, the kidney ; joBa, a smith ; leaca, a cheek ; inja, a nail (of the finger, &c.) ; lupja, the shin, are attenuated in the nominative plural, and make juailne, áipne, joibne, leicne, mjne, luipgne; and in the dative plural, guailnib, aipnib, leicmb, &c. Ueanja, a tongue, makes in the nominative plural ceanjéa, and in the dative plural ceanjraib. The genitive plural of these nouns is exactly like the genitive singular, as jépiéep alcán beppéa paebup a lupjan, " sharper than a razor was the edge of their shins," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 20 ; mipe menman, "madness of mind," Id., p. 32. The following names of places (which want the plural number, P 106 Fifth Declension. [part ii. except Cfpa, which makes CCipne) belong to this declension : Qlba, Scotland ; Gpa, the island of Aran ; Ccullce, Teltown, in Meath ; 6ipe, Ireland; TCaoipe, Reelion, in the county Kildare; and Glrha, Allen, in Kildare ; which make in the genitive singular, Qlban, Gpan, Uaillceann, Gipeann, "Raoipeann, Glman ; and in the da- tive, Cllbcnn, CCpain, Uaillcinn, Gipinn, TCaoipinn, Ctlmain. Lata, a duck, makes rice lacan in the genitive singular and geni- tive plural, and lacuin in the nominative plural ; cu, a greyhound, with its compounds, makes, gen. sing, con, dat. sing, com, and nom. pi. coince ; bpó, a quern, or handmill, bpón, bpóin, bpómce; bo, a cow, bo, boin, ba, and dat. pi. bucnb, as lán oe buaib, ocup jpoijib, ocup ccnncib, " full of cows, flocks, and herds." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 80. There are a few nouns which some Irish writers inflect as if they belonged to this declension, while others inflect them as if they belonged to the fourth, as pile, a poet; ariipa, an elegy; beaca, life; apa, a charioteer; bioóba, an enemy; pi, a king; and a few others, but the inflections of these nouns are not settled, and have been inflected differently by the best Irish writers, for example, one writes pi, a king, pi j, and preserves that form un- altered throughout the singular number ; another makes pi in the nominative, pij in the genitive, and pij^e in the plural, while a third, for the sake of distinction, writes pi in the nom. sing., pij in the gen. sing., pioja in the nom. pi., and na pioj in the gen. pi. Some write beara, life, in the nom. sing., beaéaó in the gen. sing., and bearaio in the dat. sing. ; while others write beaca through- out all the cases of the singular. The noun capct, a friend, makes capao in the gen. sing., capaio in the dat. sing., and caipoe in the nom. pi., as ni h-aipcio capao ap capaio, " it is not the request of a friend from a friend." — Battle of Magh Bath, p. 106. And in like manner are inflected bpctja, the neck; Huaóa, a man's name; but some writers make these bpctjaio, Huaoac, in the nominative singular. Such nouns are therefore unsettled as to the forms of their nominative singular and inflections ; poets have always used such of the forms as answered their measures and rhymes. chap, ii.] Of irregular Substantives. 107 OF IRREGULAR SUBSTANTIVES. The following nouns are quite irregular, and do not properly come under any of the above declensions, viz., Oia, God; la, a day ; cnu, a nut ; ua, or O, a grand- son ; 5a, a javelin ; mi, a mouth ; caopa, a sheep ; cpó, a hovel; bpu, the womb; bean, a woman; ceo, a fog; cpé, clay ; which are declined as follows : Oia, masc, God. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. t)ia. Nom. TDee, or Oéice. Gen. t)e. Gen. t)ia, or t)éiceaó. Dat. t)ia. Dat. t>éib, or Oéiéib. Voc. a Dhé, or t)hia. Voc. a t)hee, or tDhéiée. Cá, masc, a day. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. lei. Nom. laeéa, or láiée. Gen. lae, or laoi. Gen. laecaó, or láiée. Dat. la, or ló. Dat. laeraib, or láiéib. Voc. a lá, lae, or laoi. Voc. a laeca, or láice. £úire is the form of the nominative plural generally found in good manuscripts, but laeca is also to be met with ; and in the spoken language in most parts of Munster it is made lcioéanea. — See Lynch 1 s Introduction to the Irish Language, p. 9. It is sometimes made lcuée in the genitive plural, without the characte- ristic termination ao, as pép an oibpiujaó poineamail pé láiche, "after the glorious work of six days." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 94. 108 Of irregular Substantives. [part ii. Cno, masc, a nut. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. cno. Nom. cnoa, cna, cnai. Gen. cno, cnui. Gen. cnoó, cnuó. Dat. cno, cnu. Dat. cnoaib, cnaib. Voc. a cno, cnui. Voc. a cnoa. . O, or Ua, masc, a grandson, or descendant. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. o, or ua. Nom. uí, i. Gen. ui, or i. Gen. ua. Dat. o, ua. Dat. uib, ib. Voc. a ui, or a i. Voc. a ui, or ai. The Vocative is generally 111, as d ui Ctinmipeach, u O grand- son of Ainmire," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 14 ; & ui Ruópai^e, " descendant of Rudhraighe," Id., p. 204. ^ct, masc., a spear, or javelin. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. ja. Nom. jaoi, jaera, jaoire. Gen. jai, 3001. Gen. jar, jaeraó, jaoireaó. Dat. 5a, Q*ai. Dat. 5001b, jaeraib, jaoirib. Voc. a ja, jaoi. Voc. jaera, jaoire. This noun is also correctly written jar, in the nominative, but in ancient manuscripts ja occurs more frequently, as 50 poibe cpú a cpíói pop pino in jai, " so that his heart's blood was on the head of the javelin," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 36 ; popjum 00 jai, "a cast of a javelin," Annals of Tighernach, ad. an. 234. TTlí, fern., a month. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. mi. Nom. miopa. Gen. míopa, mip. Gen. miop. Dat. mip, mi. Dat. míopaib, mípa, mipu. Voc. a rhi. Voc. a miopa. CI meóon mip TTlai, " in the middle of the month of May," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 106; ppi rpí mipa, Id., p. 24. chap, in.] Declensions of Adjectives. 109 Caojia, fern., a sheep. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. caona. Nom. caoipij. Gen. oaopac. Gen. caopac. Dat. caopcr. Dat. caopcaiB. Voc. a caopa. Voc. a caopca. bpu, fern., the womb. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. bpu. Nom. bponna. Gen. bponn, or bpuinne. Gen. bponn. Dat. bpoinn. Dat. bponnaib. Voc. a bpu. Voc. a bponna. bean, fem., a woman. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. bean. Nom. mncc. Gen. mná. Gen. ban. Dat. mnaoi. Dat. mnaib. Voc. a bean. Voc. a riwá. Ceo, a fog, makes ciac in the genitive singular ; cjié, clay, makes cniaió ; and cjió, a hut, makes gen. sing, cpaoi, and nom. pi. cnaoire u . CHAPTER III. ADJECTIVES. Section 1. — Declensions of Nouns Adjective. There are four declensions of adjectives, which are determined by the characteristic vowel, thus : u Keat. Hist., p. 94. 110 First Declension of Adjectives, [part n. FIRST DECLENSION. Adjectives ending in consonants, and having their characteristic vowel broad, are of the first declension, and are inflected, in the masculine gender, like the first declension of substantives, except that they always form the plural by adding a. In the feminine they are de- clined like the second declension of substantives. Example. — Tilon, great. Singular. MASC. FEM. Nom. móp. Nom. móp. Gen. móip. Gen. móipe. Dat. mop. Dat. móip. Voc. móip. Voc. móp. Plural. Nom. mopa. Nom. mópa. Gen. mop. .Gen. móp. Dat. mópa. Dat. mópa. Voc. mópa. Voc. mópa. A few dissyllabic words of this declension are contracted in the genitive singular of the feminine, and in the nominative plural, as uapal, noble, uaiple; umal, humble, uimle, umla ; peamap, fat, peiriipe, peavhpa ; and some others. The initial letter of the adjective, if an aspirable consonant, must be aspirated in the nominative, dative, and vocative of feminines, and in the genitive and da- tive, and vocative singular, and nominative plural of masculines. When the article is expressed, the genitive plural of the substantive, and its adjective, suffers eclipsis, and the dative singular of the substantive, as already chap, in.] Second Declension of Adjectives. Ill remarked, suffers eclipsis after all the simple prepositions, except Oe and Do ; and in this case also the initial of the adjective is eclipsed as well as that of the substan- tive, as o'n m-bctile 5-ceaona, from the same town. In ancient Irish manuscripts the dative plural of adjectives, as well as of substantives, often terminates in ib, or cub. This termi- nation is very generally used in the old Irish historical tale called Tain Bo Cuailgne, of which there is a good copy preserved in Leabhar na h- TJidhri, and sometimes also in the Battle of Magh Rath, as le h-opocub lmqiomcnb, " with heavy sledges," p. 238; oopbeip a 01 boipp ím aoib lecnib, "he places his two palms on his two cheeks," Cor. Gloss., voce Imbap pop opnae. It is occasion- ally used even by the Four Masters, as in the following passage, at the year 1597: "Ro jabpac t)ia 6uain, Diet ITIaipc, ajup t)ia Ceuoaoin aj oiúbpacaó an baile do caopaib cpomaib, copann- rhópaib ceinncije a jonnaóaib jué-ápoaib, i. e. " on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they continued to shoot at the castle with fiery heavy balls from their loud-roaring guns." This termination is, however, never found in modern Irish books, and no trace of it is discoverable in the spoken language of the present day, except when the adjective is put substantively, as 00 boccaib, to the poor, &c. Some writers form the plural of adjectives of this declension like that of substantives of the first declension, as in the Battle of Magh Rath, p. 22: áp bio lmpepncuj pipu Gpenn impi, " for the men of Ireland will be quarrelsome at it;" but no trace of this mode of inflection is found in the spoken language. — See Syntax. SECOND DECLENSION. Adjectives ending in consonants, and having their characteristic vowel small, belong to this declension. The genitive singular feminine, and nominative plural of both genders are formed by postfixing e to the nomi- native singular. The genitive singular masculine never 112 Third Declension of Adjectives, [part ii. takes any terminational change, as in the following example : Example. — TTlin, smooth. Singular, MASC. FEM. Nora. rain. Nom. mm. Gen. min. Gen. mine. Dat. min. Dat. min. Voc. min. Voc. min. Plural. Nom. mine. Nom. mine. Gen. min. Gen. min. Dat. mine. Dat. mine. Voc. mine. Voc. mine. Some dissyllabic nouns of this declension are contracted in the genitive singular feminine, and in the nominative plural of both genders, as milip, sweet, gen. sing. fem. milr-e; aoióinn, delight- ful, gen. sing. fem. aoióne ; úluinn, beautiful, gen. sing. fem. cnlne, and sometimes áille. THIRD DECLENSION. To this declension belong all adjectives terminating in arhail ; they suffer syncope and take a broad increase in the genitive singular and nominative plural of both genders, and in the dative and vocative plural of both genders. . Example. — ^ecmmcnl, lovely. Singular. MASC. FEM. Nom. jeanamail. Nom. jeanamail. Gen. jeanamla. Gen. jeanamla. Dat. jeanamail. Dat. jeanamail. Voc. jeanamail. Voc. jeanamail. chap, in.] Adjectives declined with Nouns. 113 Plural. MASC. FEM. Noni. jeanarhla. Nom. jeanarinla. Gen. jeanarhcul. Gen. jeanarhail. Dat. jeanarhlcc. Dat. geanamlct. Voc. jeanarhla. Voc. jeanamla. FOURTH DECLENSION. This declension comprises all adjectives ending in vowels. They have no terminational change in the modern language v . Example. — Dona, miserable. Singular. MASC. FEM. Nom. Dona. Nom. óona. Gen. óona. Gen. oona. Dat. óona. Dat. óona. Voc. óonct. Voc. óona. Section 2. — Adjectives declined with Nouns. Adjectives beginning with mutable consonants are aspirated in the nominative singular feminine and in the genitive singular masculine, and also in the vocative singular of both genders ; also in the nominative plural masculine if the noun ends in a consonant. When the article is expressed some writers aspirate and eclipse the v The only exception in the guage some exceptions to this modern language is the word rule may be met with, as beo, ceic, hot, which makes ceó in living, gen. sing, bi, as in lTlac the plural. In the ancient Ian- Oe bi, Son of the living God. * Q 114 Adjectives declined with Nouns, [pakt ii. adjective like the substantive to which it belongs; but this, although perhaps more correct, is not general in the written or spoken language. Examples of a Substantive declined with its Adjective. peap cpéctn (masc), a puissant man. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an peap cpéan. Nom. na pip rpéana. Gen. an pip rpéin. Gen. na b-peap o-cpéan. Dat. ó'n b-peap cpéan, or t>-cpéan. Dat. ó na peapaib rpéana. Voc. a pip cpéin. Voc. a peapa cpéana. Suil 50pm (fern.), a blue eye. SINGULAR. PLURAL. Nom. an c-púil 50pm. Nom. na púile jopma. Gen. na púla juipme. Gen. na púl n-jopm. Dat. fco'n c-púil juipm. Dat. 00 na puilib j^opma. Voc. a púil jopm. Voc. a púile jopma. The late Mr. James Scurry, in his Review of Irish Grammars, pub- lished in vol. xv. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, p. 50, says, that " the dative singular of the adjective should be eclipsed, instead of being aspirated, when the article is used, except m or p followed by any consonant, except I, n, or p, as oo'n b-peap m-bpeaj, &c. In the plural number, the genitive masculine and feminine must suffer eclipsis, instead of aspiration, as na m-ban m-bpeaó ; and the genitive singular masculine must not be eclipsed, but aspirated, as an buine óobpónaic, an pip bpeaj ; and it retains its natural power in the genitive feminine, as na bo báine." The critic is here generally correct, but he should have acknowledged that, in most parts of Ireland, the preposition bo causes aspiration, and that some writers aspirate the dative or ablative after the ar- ticle, as lairh pip an J5 na PP an a P l) j " near Garranard. ,J — Duald MacFirbis, Tribes, §• ir» £ile 'y an Oorhan, the whitest thing in the world. In all perfect sentences the comparative is usually followed by joná, than, and when preceded in the sentence by any verb, except the assertive verb if, it has niop prefixed. The superlative is preceded by the article, as in the French language, or the assertive verb ip, and followed by such words or phrases as oe, or do, of; a meapj, amongst; ap bir, in the world, in existence; as cá pé níop milpe íoná mil, it is sweeter than honey, or ip milpe é ioná mil ; calam ip iple icep oá ralam ij áipoe, "lower land between two higher lands, Cor. Gloss., voce Gcapce ; an lá ip jioppa 'pan m-bliaóain, " the shortest day in the year ;" ip cú ip ailne oe mncnb, u thou art the fairest of women ;" cnlliu oo pepaib Domain oo, icep oeilb ocup oecelc, " he was the fairest of the men of the world, both in his countenance and attire," Id., voce Ppull; ó'n oach ip aipejóa nommacup, " it is named after the most remark- able colour," Id., voce J> a bup ; map ip pepp po péoaoap, " as best they were able," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 222. When the assertive verb ip, or ap, begins the sentence, mop can- not be used, as ip peapp mé íona cu, I am better than thou. The particle niop is a contraction of the noun ni, or níó, a thing, and the assertive verb ip, and is often found written as two words in very an- cient manuscripts, as 510 aipcino pipep ni ip mó, " though a prince w This appears a defect in the Englishman says grand, grander, language, but it should be borne grandest, the Frenchman says in mind that the Irish is not more grand, plus grand, le plus grand, defective in this particular than the superlative being distin- the French, in which no change guished from the comparative by takes place in the adjective to the prefixed article and the defi- denote either the comparative or nitive phrase which follows in superlative degree, and where the the sentence. chap, in.] The Degrees of Comparison. 119 should ask more," Poem attributed to St. Columbkille, preserved in H. 3. 18, p. 320. It is sometimes written map, nipa, and ni- bup. The preterite form of if is also often found after ni, as in the following sentence : Ráióio na "Rorhánaij piu arm pin íap na b-pupcacc oóib, nacap pocap oóib péin ceacc ap eaccpa ni ba mó o'á 5-cabpújaó, " the Romans then said to them, after having relieved them, that it was no advantage to themselves to come any more upon an expedition to relieve them," Keat. Hist., p. 206 ; an can oo cójpaó ni ba mo oo óeunarh, " when he desired to do more," Id., p. 121. — See the Syntax, Part II., Sect. 2, for the con- struction of the comparatives. Another form of the comparative in cep, or cip, frequently occurs in ancient manuscripts, but of which no trace is observable in the present spoken language. The following examples of its use will give the learner a sufficient idea of its nature and construction : ouibicep óp pino a piacal, ''yellower than gold were the points of his teeth," Cor. Gloss., voce ppull ; meoicep oopna mojaó a óupna, " larger than the fists of slaves were his fists," Id. ; jrilecep poconaó a lappaip pium, " brighter than burning firewood was its flame," Id. voce pocorvnav ; íp jlaipoip buga mo ala púil, ip oubi- cip opium in oail in c-puil aile, " bluer than the hyacinth was the one eye, blacker than the back of the beetle was the other eye," Leabhar na Huidhri ; cpi mile ceol n-eiarhail cec oen clap- pac pil oc claipcecul imme, ocup binnidiep llcbeolu Domain cec ceol po leicb oibpioe, "three hundred different kinds of music in each choir which chants music around him ; sweeter than the various strains of the world is each kind of thern," Visio Adam- nani, Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, b ; ocup no lingoip ppip in co- paio écne mópa, ba meoicep colpcaij pipino cec écne oib, and large salmons used to leap the weir, " larger than bull heifers each salmon of them" (H. 2. 16. p. 392.) 6a jilicap pneacca a cupp, ba oepgaicep loipi copcpa a jnuip, "whiter than snow was his body, ruddier than the flame the sheen of his cheek," Vit. .Moling ; ba jiliciop pneacca a púile ajup a b-piacla, ajup ba ouibiciop jrual jabonn jac ball eile oiob, "whiter than snow their eyes and their teeth, and blacker than the smith's coal every other part of them," 120 The Degrees of Comparison. [part ii. Keat. Hist., p. 149. The reader is also referred to Observations on the Gaelic Language, published in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, pp. 36, 37, and to the Battle of Magh Rath, published by the Irish Archaeological Society, pp. 20, 64, where several other examples of this form of the comparative degree will be found. This form comprises in it the force of the conjunction íoncc, than, or of the ablative case in Latin; thus, jilicep pneacca expresses the same idea as níop jile íoná pneacca, whiter than snow, candidior nive. When the noun following this comparative is of the feminine gender it is always in the dative or ablative, from which it is quite clear that the construction is the same as that of the Latin, when the ablative case is used after the comparative ; thus, jilicep jéip, whiter than the swan, is of the same construc- tion as candidior cycno. Sometimes the preposition ppi is placed after this form of the adjective and between it and the noun, in which case it expresses a comparison of equality, as jlaipinp ppi buja, green as the hyacinth ; meoicep ppi mulba oi cappcnc, large as a mass of a rock. Some Irish grammarians, as the late Mr. Scurry, and from him the ano- nymous author of an Irish Grammar lately published in Dublin, have attempted to account for this form by stating that it is an amalgamation of an abstract noun formed from the adjective and the preposition cap, beyond ; so that according to them jilicep 5péin, when properly analysed, and literally translated, would be " a brightness beyond, i. e. exceeding the sun." In my opinion, however, this conjecture is far from being true, for the prepo- sition ppi, the lé of the moderns, which is often found imme- diately following this form, shews that cep could not be a preposition, but that it must be regarded as a termination of the adjective, like the English ter in better, and the Greek npog. Haliday, who had some acquaintance with the Persian language, thinks that it is the same as the Persian comparative in tar, as khub, khubtar, fairer, which he supposes cognate with the Irish caerii, cairiicip. For a curious disquisition on the terminations of the comparative degree in general, the reader is referred to " The English language," by Professor Latham, c. viii. p. 235, ct sequent. CHAP, in.] The Degrees of Comparison. 121 The signification of the adjective is heightened by- various particles prefixed, as páp, pó, piop, an, up, &c, but these do not constitute degrees of comparison, or, at least, what is understood by the term in the grammars of other languages. Hence the Kev. Paul O'Brien is mistaken in his notion that the bards, " in the glow of poetic rapture, upon the common superla- tive raised a second comparative and superlative, and on the second also raised a third comparative and superlative." This, however, is an error of the grammarian's own judgment, founded in igno- rance of the philosophy of language. We might as well call such phrases in Latin, as valde bonum, facile princeps, fyc. second com- paratives or superlatives. The preposition oe, of, is often postfixed to the comparative form of the adjective, so as to form a syn- thetic union with it ; thus, gilioe, the whiter of; piaioe, the longer of; pepptje, the better of. This should not be considered a second form of the compara- tive, as Stewart, and from him Haliday, have stated, but a mere idiomatic junction of oe, i. e. oe é, of it, with the comparative form of the adjective, which has nothing to do with the nature of the adjective more than if it were separated from it, for ip peppoe ru pin, " thou art the better of that," can bear to be resolved to T F e PP cu De P n ' es melius tu de eo, from which we clearly per- ceive that peppoe is not a second form of the comparative degree. — See the Syntax, Part II., Sect. 2. When adjectives are compounded with particles, or other adjectives, the prefixed word or particle aspirates the initial consonant (if aspirable) of the word to which it is prefixed, as pap-rhaic, exceedingly good ; pip-jlic, truly cunning, or acute. O'Molloy and O'Brien, both natives of Meath, have made an B 122 The Degrees of Comparison. [part il exception to this rule, but it is at present general in the south and west of Ireland. The local exceptions, which are chiefly made for the sake of euphony, shall be pointed out in the Syntax, and in Chap. X., treating of derivation and composition. The following adjectives are irregular in their com- parison; that is, they do not form their comparatives like the genitive singular feminine of their positives : POSITIVE. COMPARATIVE. beaj, little, niop luja. paoa, long, niop paioe, or pia, or pipe x . pupup, upup, or) > easy, niop upa, or pupa. po 5 up, near, niop poijpe, or poipje, neapa?. 5 eapp, short, niop jioppa. 5 a P> near, niop goipe. maic, i oeaj, | good, niop peápp, or oeach*. mime, often, niop mionca a . móp, great, niop m<5. olc, bad, niop meapa. ceic, hot, niop ceo. íomóa, many, niop lia, more b . niop cúpca, or caopja, sooner c . x Cor. Gloss., voce Gip. y Keat. Hist., p. 160. Meapa, though not used in the present spoken language, is of frequent occurrence in all the Irish MSS., as Qpa aipcip ap neppa oo Gipinn, " Ara airtkir is the near- est to Ireland." — Cor. Gloss., in voce CCip. z t)eac : íp é luam ay oeacb boi a n-iapchap Goppa, Cor. Gloss., voce ITIanannan. a 5 a ^ a mionca oo pmnioó uipce, "as often as he used to play' upon it," Keat. Hist, p. 71 ; ap a mionca oo beipioó buaió j-cop^aip, Keat. Hist., p. 72 ; ap a menci, Cor. Gloss., voce Cim. b Battle of Magh Rath, p. 204. c Id., p. 12 ; written caopga, by Keat. in Hist, p. 50 ; but cúpca in the Battle of Magh Rath, p. 12. The word has no positive in the modern language; luac is now used to signify soon. chap, m.] Of Numeral Adjectives. 123 Section 3. — Of Numeral Adjectives, As the cardinal and ordinal numbers have an influ- ence on the nouns with which they are connected, a list of them is here subjoined. In the ordinals the sub- stantive is placed between the unit and the decimal. CARDINAL. ORDINAL. 1. aon, éan, as aon cop, one 1st. céao, as an céao cop d . foot. 2. oo, óá, Di, as óá coip. 2nd. oapa, or cánaipce, as cm oapa cop f . 3. cpi, ceopas, as cpi copa. 3rd. cpeap, as an cpeap cop. 4. ceacaip, ceirpe, ceiceopa, 4th. ceacparhaó, as an ceacpa- as ceirpe copa. mao cop. 5. cúij, as ci'115 copa. 5th. cúijeaójasan cúijeaó cop. 6. pé, as pé copa. 6th. peipeaó. d In ancient MSS., céo, có> nuipce, cpep, are used for the modern céao, oapa, cpeap, as In ceo léim cpa po lin^ nip bo mó leo h-é ná piach pop bemn cnuicc ; an léim cánuipce po ling ni pacaoap ecip h-é, ocup ni peacacap inn a neirh no'n a calurh 00 coió; an cpeap léim umoppo pa lin^ íp ano 00 pala h-e pop caipeal na cilli, "after the first bound he made, he ap- peared no larger to them than a hawk on the summit of a hill ; after the second, they saw him not at all, and they knew not whether he had passed into hea- ven or into the earth ; by the third bound, he landed on the cashel [inclosing wall] of the church," Vita Moling.; ceona, the first person, Cor. Gloss., voce Cormac ; ainm pin cecna opce boi a n-Gpino, the name of the first orce [lap-dog] that was in Ire- land, Cor. Gloss., voce ÍTÍ05 eime. f Uanaipce, Cor. Gloss., voce Ctirap peo. 8 Ueopa is used in the best MSS. for the modern cpi, when the noun is expressed, as ceopa pilio in oomain, .1. hebep 6 ^pe- jaib, ocup pepjil ó £acinoaib ocup Ruman o ^oeoelu, i. e. " the three poets of the w r orld were Homer, of the Greeks ; Vir- gil, of the Latins ; and Ruman, of the Gaels," Leabhar Breac, fol. 1 2, a ; ap acaicc na ceopa Qipne ano, " for there are three Arans" [islands], Cor. Gloss., in voce Clip; ceceopa ouilli paip, " four leaves upon him," Id., voce t)opp ; ceopa pepba pipa, .1. cpi ba pinoa, " three w T hite cows," Id., voce F e P°- 124 Of Numeral Adjectives. [part II. CARDINAL. 7. peace, as peace 3-copa. 7th. 8. occ, as occ 5-copa. 8th. 9. not, as noi 5-copa. 9th. 10. oeic, as oeic 5-copa. 10th. 11. aon-oéaj, as aon-cop-oéaj. 11th. 12. oo-oeaj, or oá-oéaj-, as óá 12th. coip oéaj. 13. cpi-oéaj, &c, as cpi copa 13th. oéaj. 14. cearaip-oéaj, &c, as ceie- 14th. pe copa oéaj. 15. cúij-oéaj, as CÚ15 copa 15th. oéa 5 . 16. pe-oéaj, as pé copa oéag. 16th. 17. peacc-oéaj, as peace 5-copa 17th. oéaj. 18. occ-oéaj, as occ 5-copa 18th. oéaj. 19. noí-oéaj, as noi 5-copa 19th. oéag. 20. pice, as Fice CC T« 20th. 21. aon a'p pice, or aon ap 21st. picio, as aon cop ap picio. 22. 00 a'p pice, as oa coip ap 22nd. picio. &c. &c. 30. epiocao, epioca, as epioca 30th. cop. 31. aon ap cpiocaio, as aon cop 31st. ap cpiocaio. &c. &c. 40. oá picio, or ceaepaca, cea- 40th. cpacao, ceaepaca cop. ORDINAL. peaccrhaó. occmaó. naorhaó, or noirheaó. oeacrhaó. aonrhaó-oéaj, as an c-aonmaó cop oéaj. oapa-oéaj, as an oapa cop oéaj, epeap-oéaj, as an cpeap cop oéag. ceacpariiaó-oéaj, as an ceaéparhaó cop oéaj. cúigeaó-oéag, as an cúi- jeaó cop oéaj. peipeaó-oéaj, as an pei- peaó cop oéaj. peaccrháó-oéaj, as an peaccTTiaó cop oéaj. occiriáó-oéaj, as an e-occmaó cop oéaj. naorhaó-oéaQ-, as an nao- maó cop oéaj. piceaó, as an piceaó cop. aonriiaó-ap picio, as an e-aoniriaó cop ap picio. oapa-ap picio, as an oapa cop ap picio. &c. &c. cpiocaoaó, as an cpioca- oaó cop. aonrhaó ap cpiocaio, as an e-aonmaó cop ap cpi- ocaio. Sec. &c. ceacpacaoaó, as an ceaé- pacaoaó cop. chap, iil] Of Numeral Adjectives. 125 ORDINAL. 50th. caogaoaó, as an caojuoao cop. 60th. peapjaoao, as an peapgaoaó coj\ 70th. peaccrhojaoaó, as an poaccmojaoaó cop. 80th. occmojaoaó, as an c-occmo^aoao cop. 90th. nocaoaó, as an noc- aoaó cop. 100th. céaoaó, as an céa- oaó cop. 1000th. mileaó, as an mi- leaó cop. 1000000th. milliúnaó, as an miliúnuó cop. The following nouns are formed from the ordinals up to ten, and applied to persons or personified objects only : t)iap, oíp, or beipc, two persons. Upiup, three persons. Cearpap, four persons. Cinjeap, five persons. Seipeap, six persons. Seacrap, or móp-peipeap (or móp-peipeap, as written in an- cient MSS.), seven persons. Occap, eight persons. "Nonbap, nine persons. tDeicneabap, ten persons. These nouns are evidently compounded of the cardinal numbers and the word p ea P» a man ; Latin, vir ; but the idea suggested by the masculine noun has been long forgotten, as we say ceacpap ban, i. e. four women, quatuor mulierum. CARDINAL. 50. caojao, caoja, as caoja cop. 60. cpi pició, or peapjao, peapja, as peapja cop. 70. peaccmoja, or peace- irio^a, as peaccmo- ja cop. 80. ceirpe picio, occmo- jao, occmoja, as occmoja cop. 90. nocao, noca, as noca cop. 100. céao, as ceao cop. 1000. mile, as mile cop. 1000000. million, as million cop. 126 Of Pronouns. [part n. We also meet in old manuscripts oéióe, two things; rpéióe, three things; ceacapóa, four things ; as oeóe pop mn^aip, "two things so called," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 a P c > cpeioe pop oinjaip, " three things so called," Id., in voce ape ; cecepoa pop omjaip, "four things so called," Id., voce J>all \ but no trace of such words is found in the modern language in any part of Ireland. In the old manuscripts, oá and epi make oib and epib in the dative; and pice, twenty, and all the decades, make eao in the genitive, and 10 in the dative, both in the ancient and modern lan- guage. The learner should observe that the forms t>o, two, and ceaccnp, four, are never employed when the noun is expressed, these forms being used to denote the num- bers two and four in the abstract. It should be also remarked, that pice, twenty, and all the multiples of ten, will have the nouns to which they belong in the singular number 11 . — See the Syntax, CHAPTER IV. OF PRONOUNS. There are six kinds of pronouns, namely, personal, possessive, relative, demonstrative, interrogative, and indefinite. The two first classes are frequently com- h Mr. James Scurry, in his Re- say pice ban, twenty women, nor view of Irish Grammars (Trans- mile oaoineaó, but pice bean, actions of the R. I. A., vol. xv. mile ouine. The fact is, that p. 54), asserts that the noun after the noun is in the singular form, these cardinal adjectives, when which is a peculiarity in the lan- multiples of ten, is in the geni- guage, like twenty foot, or fifty tive plural ; but this is very mile, in vulgar English. — See much to be doubted, for we never the Syntax, Rule 5. chap, iv.] Of Personal Pronouns. 127 pounded with the simple prepositions, a peculiarity which distinguishes this language, and its cognate dia- lects, from all the languages of Europe. Section 1. — Of Personal Pronouns. The personal pronouns are those of the first, second, and third persons, as mé, I; cú, thou ; ye, he ; yi, she. They have a simple and emphatic form, and are thus declined : TTle, I. SIMPLE FORM. Nom. mé, I. Gen. mo, mine. Dat. oarh, to me. Ace. mé, me. SIMPLE FORM. Nom. rwn, we. Gen. áp, our's, or our. Dat. oúinn, to us. Ace. inn, or pnn, us. Singular. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. mepi, or mire, I myself. Gen. mo-pa. Dat. oanVpa. Ace. meri, or mire. Plural. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. pnne, we ourselves. Gen. áp-ne. Dat. oúinne. Ace. inne, or pnne. SIMPLE FORM. Nom. cú, thou. Gen. oo, thine. Dat. ouic, to thee. Ace. cú, thee. Voc. rú, thou. Uu, thou. Singular. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. cura, thou thyself. Gen. oo-ra. Dat. ouic-re. Ace. éu-ra. Voc. ru-pa. 128 Of Personal Pronouns. [part II. Plural, SIMPLE FORM. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. fib, you. Nom. pib-pe, you yourselves. Gen. bap, your. Gen. báp-pa. Dat. oaoib, or oib, to you. Dat. ©aoib-pe, or oib-pe. Ace. ib, or pib, you. Ace. lb-pe, or pib-pe. Voc. ib, orpib, you. Voc. ib-pe, or pib-pe. Sé, he, masc. Singular. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. pé-pean, he himself. Gen. a-pan. Dat. co-pan. Ace. é-pean. Plural. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. piao-pan, they themselves. Gen. a-pan. Dat. oóib-pean. Ace. iao-pan. Si, she, fern. SIMPLE FORM. EMPHATIC FORM. Nom. pi, she. Nom. p - r e > sne herself. Gen. a, her's, or her. Gen. a-pan. Dat. 01, to her. Dat. oi-pean. Ace >, her. Ace. l-pe. In the plural, pi is inflected like pé, as in English. The word péin, self, is often postfixed to these per- sonal pronouns for the sake of emphasis, as mé pew, I myself; uu pern, thou thyself ; é péin, he himself, &c. It should be here remarked, that é, í, and iao, are used as nomi- natives as well as accusatives in the Scotch Gaelic ; and also in the Irish, after the assertive verb íp, and after all passive verbs, as ip e, it is he; ip i, it is she ; ip iao, it is they ; ba h-é, it was he, &c; SIMPLE FORM. Nom. pé, he. Gen. a, his. Dat. oo, to him. Ace. é, him. SIMPLE FORM. Nom. pcto, they. Gen. a, their, their's. Dat. oóib, to them. Ace. iao, them. chap, iv.] Of Personal Pronouns. 129 buailceap é, he is struck ; oíbpeaó iao, they were banished. In ancient Irish manuscripts these pronouns have h frequently pre- fixed, for no apparent grammatical reason, as eucpac leo co 6u jaio h-é, " they took it with them to Lughaidh," Cor. Gloss. , voce Coipe ópecain ; Coipppi TTIupc, mac Conaipe, cue anaip h-é a ópecnu, " Coirpri Muse, son of Conaire, brought it from Britain," Id., voce Hloj Gime. And pi and pe are used after the assertive verb íp, as ip pi inopo in cteip, ''this is the satire," Id., voce J) a, P e - 6at>, or eó, is used for é in such phrases as the following, ip eaó, it is; máipeaó, i. e. má ip eaó, if so it be ; if so. 6at>, when thus applied, refers to the subject, like the neuter id in Latin, or it in English, and may be defined as that form of the pronoun é used to refer to a clause of a sentence for its antecedent ; but it is never used except in connexion with the verb ip, or some particle which carries its force, as an eat>, is it? ip eat>, it is; ní h-eaó, it is not; oeipim gup ab eaó, I say that it is; níop b'eaó, it was not; ó nac eaó, since it is not. Some think that peaó is the Irish word cor- responding with the English word yes ; but this is not the fact, for peaó is an abbreviation of ip eaó, which literally means it is. The emphatic terminations of the pronouns are variously writ- ten in the ancient Irish manuscripts, as mipi and mepiu, for mepi, or mipe, I; cupai, for cupa, thou; epium, eipioe, or eipioein, for épean, he; ípioe, or ípioi, for ipi, she; iao-pum, or íaopom, for iao-pan. The termination pum, or porh, is used after the posses- sives, or genitives a, his, her, or their, for the sake of emphasis, when the last vowel of the preceding word is broad, as ni paib a n-Gpinn oún arhail a óún-pum, " there was not in Erin a fort like his fort." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 16. And pioe, or pium, when the last vowel of the preceding word is small, as tDuboiao t)pai a amm-pioe, i. e. " Dubhdiadh the Druid, was his name," Id., p. 46 ; Q puil-pium, "his eye," Cor. Gloss., voce t)iancechc. The emphatic increase for the first person plural is ne, or ni, whether the last vowel of the preceding noun be slender or broad, as "noca n-i in aimpep pojailcep ace áp njníompaó-ne, " tempus non dividitur sed opera nostra dividuntur." — Book of Bally - mote, fol. 171. And the best writers make the increase of the S 130 Possessive Pronouns. [part ii. genitive or possessive of the third person singular, feminine, always pi, as a bpearh-pi, "her award." — Vit. Moling. The substantive is always placed between these genitives, or possessives, and their emphatic postfixes, as mo lám-pa, my hand ; a 5-copa-pan, their feet; áp 5-cmn-ne, our heads. — See the Syntax. Section 2. — Possessive Pronouns. The possessive pronouns are the same as the geni- tives of the personal pronouns, as above given, viz., mo, my ; Do, thy ; a, his, or her's ; áp, our's ; bap, yours ; a, theirs. Some Irish grammarians will not allow that they are genitives ; but it must at least be acknowledged that they are as much geni- tives as the English mine, thine, his, our's, your's, their's; but they are applied like the Latin meus, tuus, suus> to denote possession ; and very rarely like mei, tui, sui, &c, to denote passion, though in some instances they may admit of a passive meaning, as éáinij pé o'á rhapbao, he came to the killing of him, or, he came to his killing, i. e. venit ad ejus jugulationem. These pronouns can never stand alone, like the English mine, thine, &c, without their substantives, i. e. we cannot say, " this is mine," íp é po mo-pa, but the noun must be expressed, as íp é po mo leabap-pa, u this is my book." The word pém, self, is postfixed to the possessive as well as to the personal pronouns, for emphasis, as mé péin, I myself; mo lárh-pa péin, mine own hand. In ancient Irish manuscripts this word is written variously, péipin, paóépin, buóéin, uoóein, and booepin ; and this variety of spelling in no small degree tends to render the language obscure and impenetrable to modern Irish scholars. chap, iv.] Of the Relative Pronouns. 131 Section 3. — Of the Relative Pronouns. The relative pronouns used in modern Irish are a, who, which, or what ; noc, who, which ; nac, which not; and Oct, which sometimes signifies who, which, and sometimes of which, of what. In the modern language the relative has no genitive form, but in the ancient manuscripts ipa or 'p a frequently occurs as its geni- tive, and we often meet a form which might be called a dative ; thus: Singular and Plural. Nom. a, who, which. Gen. ipa, or 'p a > whose, of which. Dat. oapb, oanaó, oianaó, to which. The simple relative a sometimes has the force of what> that which, or all that, as a b-pml beo oe óaoi- nib, " all that are living of men;" a b-puil ó Oilioc Néit) 50 h-Qch Cliac Lai£ecm, "all that is from Oi- leach Neid to Ath Cliath in Leinster' 1 ." In the modern language the particle do, sign of the past tense of the verb, and in the ancient manuscripts no, nop, pop, &c, often stand for the relative, as cuippectm piop cmn po beorgcm 00 bpeu- jaib na nua-^ball oo pjpiob ap Gipmn, " we will set down here a few of the falsehoods of the modern English who wrote on Ire- land," Keat. Hist., p. 3; mumcip in pip pop mapb, "the people of the man whom he had slain," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 78 ; ópijic bcm-oee no aópccoíp pilio, " Brighit, a goddess, whom the poets worshipped," Cor. Gloss., voce 6pijic; Ocup ip é bcc bép, 5 Keat. Hist. p. 22. 132 Of the Relative Pronouns. [part ii. ocup ba olíjeaó acu-pum, in can buo pi^ ó Uib Neill in oeipcipc no biao pop (3pmo, cumao h-e pij Connacc no biaó pop a lánri óeip, M And the custom and law at this time was, that when the monarch of Erin was of the southern Hy-Niall, the king of Con- naught should sit at his right hand," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 28. In ancient manuscripts the following simple and compound forms of the relative are also frequently found ; ooneoch, for noc, who, which; an, or in, what, or that which; oia, for o'á, to or of whom, or which ; oana, oanaó, oianao, for oapb', to whom, or which ; ípa, whose ; 'pa, in whom, or which ; nao, or nac, for nac, who not, or which not ; as in the following examples : ooneoch po jem ocup jeinpep, " who have been, or will be born," Id., p. 98 ; Qrhalgaió, mac Piacpach Galjaij, nnct)aéi, o'á labpam a ppeacnapcup, ajup Cfmaljaio, mac t)ari peipm, ooneoc o'paj- baiópiom l m-ópeájaib, noca n-pajam jenealac ace Clann phipbipij 50 ceaccap oiob, "from Amhalgaidh, the son of Fiachra Ealgach, son of Dathi, of whom we have just spoken, and Amhal- gaidh, the son of Dathi himself, whom we left in Bregia, I find no descendants, except the Clann-Firbis, who descend from either of them," Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 100 ; capjaó na cpi cpica caip, ooneoch po b'peapp 1m Uempaij, " there were offered him the three eastern cantreds, the best which are around Tara," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 132 ; po pioip íapam in 00 pije- naó ano, " he then knew what was done there," Cor. Gloss., voce ^ailen^; ní maic an do jni, ol paopuic, "what thou dost is not good, said Patrick," Leabhar Breac, fol. 15, b, a; ocmao amm, (i cui nomen est" Battle of Magh Rath, p. 104 ; íp e an c-ápo- plaic Ua Qinmipech clicap oana cpaeb coibneapa po páiópiumap pomaino, ípa jape ocup jmrh, ocup jaipceo, ípa blaó, ocupbaió, ocup beoóacc, ipa cloc &c, moepcap annpo booeapca, " the mo- narch, the grandson of Ainmire, whose genealogy we have given above, is the prince whose renown and achievements, and feats, whose fame, valour, and vigour, whose celebrity, &c, are narrated henceforward," Id., p. 100; 'p a eacpaio ocup 'pa cimpaijic, "in which they unite, and in which they meet," Id., p. 98. The exact meaning, or analysis, of oá, when used as a relative, chap, iv.] Of the Relative Pronouns. 133 has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It is sometimes obvi- ously made up of oe and a, of which, or, of what, as in the com- mon phrase, ni puil ouine oá o-cáinij", "there is not a man of what came" (i. e. of those that have existed) ; co nac bí ni oá j-cluineao gan a beic oo £lan-meabpae aije, " so that there was nothing of what he heard repeated that he had not distinctly by heart," Battle of MaghRagh, p. 284. In such cases it should be always written o'a, to give notice of its being compounded of the preposition oe, or oo, of. and the relative a. But in other sen- tences it would appear to be put simply for the relative, as in the following examples : ní peióm plara ná pip-laic ouie-pi aipc pei- ceamnaip oo cabaipe ap mac oeijpip oa o-cicpaó oo cabaipe a led baja le a bunaó ceineoil a n-imapjail ápo-caéa, " it is not the act of a prince, or a true hero, in thee, to cast reflections on the son of any good man, who should come to give his day of battle to assist his relatives in the struggle of a great battle," Id., ibid. ; 50m cpomaó ap mín-pcoic oá m-bí 'p an macaipe, ná ap blár oá m-bi 1 lubjopc, " without stooping to a fine flower which is in the field, or on a blossom which is in the garden," Keat. Hist., Pre- face ; náp lóp leo ni 00 cabaipe 00 jac aon oá o-ciocpaó o'á íappaió, " that they did not deem it enough to give something to those who should come to ask it," Ibid.; oip ni puil pcapuióe 6 poin alle oá p^piobann uippe, "for there is not a historian from that forward who writes about her," Ibid. In examples like the fore- going, it might be maintained that o'a is oe a, or o'a, of which; but when following jac, each, every, and in other situations, it is, beyond dispute, a simple relative, as bíoó a piaonaipe pin ap jac 501pm pjoile oá o-eujaoap uara, " witness all the proclamations which they issued to invite the learned," Keat. Hist., p. 1 ; an ci ap iple 00 na cuilinib oá n-aici^onn íp in b-ppoibinnpe ^alloa, " the lowest of the colonists who dwell in the English Pale," Id., p. 8. See more on this subject in Chap. VII., Section III., under the prepositions 00, oe, and oa, and also in the Syntax. 134 Of the Demonstrative Pronouns, [part ii. Section 4. — Interrogative Pronouns. The interrogative pronouns are cia, or cé, who; ca, or 5a, what, or where ; cat), or cjieat>, what. Cá is never used in the province of Connaught, where cia is always used in its stead, as cia b-puil pé, where is he ? for cá b-puil pé ; but in the south of Ireland cé is used for cia. who, and cá to express where or what, as ce h-é, who is he? cá b-puil cú, where art thou ? cá calarii, what land ? In ancient Irish manuscripts various other forms of the inter- rogative pronouns occur, as ció, caije, who, what, where, as in the Teagusc High, cic- íp oech do pij ? "what is good for a king?" Caije cóip pecca pig? " what are the just laws of a king ?" Also, in an ancient Life of St. Moling, ció acap 00 full, a cléipi j ? " what swelleth thine eye, O cleric ?" Cai£e is used even by Keating, as caije a ainm ? " what is his name?" Hist.Irel.,\>.90. Coic, or cuic, who, whose, and ciapa, whose, are of very frequent occurrence in old writings, as noca n-pmp mac ouine cuic o'a n-oénann pé cpuinne, " the son of a man knows not for whom he maketh a gathering," St. Columbkille* 8 Poem (MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl., II. 3. 18.), p. 320; po comaipcpeo ciapa ceno, " interro- gaverunt eum cujus [caput] esset" Cor. Gloss. , voce Coipe 6pe- cain ; colano puno cen ceno, ol Pino ; pmoca oúinn, ol in piann coich h-i, " a body here without a head, said Finn ; reveal unto us, said the Fians, whose it is," Id., voce Ope, Cip also occurs as if an abbreviation of cioip, as cip lip, "how many," a phrase which occurs very frequently in the Brehon Laws. Section 5. — Of the Demonstrative Pronouns. The demonstrative pronouns are, po, this, these ; pin, that, those ; piiO, or do, yon. They are inde- clinable, and the same in both numbers. — See the Syn- tax, Rule 32. But sometimes, when yo follows a word chap, iv.] Of the Indefinite Pronouns. 135 whose last vowel is slender, it is written pi, or pe, and sometimes peo, as na h-aimpipe pi, " of this time j ;" and pin, when it follows a word whose last vowel is broad, is written pan, or pom. In ancient Irish manuscripts inp in, inpon, or mopm is used for fin, as pip inpon for piop pin, u that is true," Cor. Gloss. , voce ópi ; cpi h-injena m Oajoai inpin, " these were the three daughters of Dagda," Id., voce Ópijic. Soocnn is also often used for pin, as ppi pooain, " with that," Id., voce tDeac; and mopo is used for po, as íp pi inopo in cteip, " this is the satire," Id., voce <5 a, pé« The in, or ino, in these forms is probably a union of the article and the de- monstrative pronouns po and ym. Ujao and úcuc are used in the best MSS. for úo, yon, yonder, as oip oo bcnóeó ópeccm co n-a riiuinnp uile ipin coipe ujao, "for Brecan with all his people were drowned in that [yon] whirl- pool," Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópeccnn; luió Saób £up in plictb n-úcuc, " Sabia went to that [yon] mountain," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl.,H. 3. 17. p. 849. Section 6. — Of the Indefinite Pronouns. The indefinite pronouns are 6151 n, some ; ^ibé, or cibé, whoever; aon, any; eile, or oile, other; a céile, each other ; gac, each, every ; 50:6 uile, every ; các, all in general ; ceaccap, or neaccap, either ; an cé, or an ci, he who ; uile, all. They are all indeclinable except các, which makes cone in the genitive singular, as a b-piaónaipe cáic, in the presence of all. Various forms of these pronouns occur in the ancient manu- scripts, as cecip, or cecib, for jibe, or cibe, which is an amal- gamation of the pronoun and verb jiba ba é, or cm ba é, i. e. whoever it may be. Nac is used for aon, any, as in the follow- j Keat. Hist., p. 2. 136 Of the Indefinite Pronouns. [part ii. ing examples : ni capopac mumncip uaibpec in pij nac ppeajpa puippi, "the proud people of the king did not make her any an- swer," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 18; poac i n-a B-ppirinj cen nac njníorh n-oipóeipc, "they returned the same road without achiev- ing any great exploit," Annals of the Four Masters, ad ann. 1398 ; ni po pacaijpioc nac ni, "they did not perceive any thing," Ibid.; cen nac cionn, "without any crime," Id., ad an. 1468. Cac ae often occurs for jac aon, every one ; and ann, or ano, which is unknown in the modern language, is used in the ancient manuscripts to denote, certain, quxdem, as peace n-ann, a certain time, una vice, or quodam vice ; peccap ano, on a certain occa- sion. Qpaill is often used for eile, as oo'n tear apaill, "on the other side," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 28. And apoile, or atailiu, for the modern a ceile, each other, as in these examples : cuccpac cacap oia poile, " they gave battle to each other," Annals of the Four Masters, ad an. 1233; po oolbepcap pop alailiu, "they rush at each other," H. 3. 16, p. 60. Cllanai, or alanae, is used to denote " the one," and apoile, when following it, means " the other." 5^ ai r 1D1 P buja mo ala púil, íp ouibicip opium in oail in c-púil aile, "bluer than the hyacinth was the one eye, and blacker than the back of the beetle the other eye," Leabhar na h-Uidhri. Ceaccap, either, is often written neccap in old writings, as áp íp neccap oib cic ppic, "for it is either of them comes against," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 12. Some Irish grammarians have stated that an cé means " he who," and an c"i " she who." But no such distinction is made in correct Irish manuscripts or printed books, in which an cé and an ci are used in the same sense, namely, " the person who," without any reference to gender. That an ci does not mean " she who," is evident from the fact that the feminine noun, when beginning with a vowel, would not take the prefix c before it in the nominative singular ; and more so from the fact that an ci is frequently pre- fixed to the names of men as a mark of respect in the ancient Irish language, as an ci Caillin, Book of Fenagh, fol. 2, et passim ; in ci Suibne, Battle of Magh Rath, p. 38; an ci Cellach, Id., p. 42; in ci Conjal, Id., pp. 46, 64 ; in cí tDuboiao, Id., p. 46; in ci Pepooman, Id., p. 84. chap, iv.] Of Pronouns compounded, fyc. 137 Section 7. — Of Pronouns compounded with Prepositions, The personal and possessive pronouns form a syn- thetic union with certain simple prepositions, so as to look like a simple word. The prepositions with which they are thus amalgamated are the following : 1. ag, at, or with. 9. i, in. 2. ap, on, or upon. 10. im, or um, about. 3. ap, out of. 11. le, or pe, with. 4. cum, or co, to, towards. 12. o, or ua, from. 5. oe, off, or from. 13. poirii, before. 6. oo, to. 14. peac, beside. 7. eioip, ioip, or eaoaip, be- 15. cap, beyond, over, by. tween. 16. cpé, through. 8. pa, po, or paoi, under. 17. uap, over, above. The student should commit the following combina- tions to memory, as they occur so frequently, and are so peculiarly characteristic of this language and its di- alects. The observations which follow them are intended chiefly for those who desire to study the ancient lan- guage. 1. Combinations with aj, at, or with. SINGULAR. PLURAL. ajam, with me. ajainn, with us. ajao, or ajar, with thee. ajcub, with you. aije, with him. aca, with them, aici, or aice, with her. In ancient manuscripts we meet ocum for ajam ; ocuc for ajao, and oca, occa, and even aici, for aige, with him (though in the modern language aici always means with her) ; occu and acu for aca. — See Battle of Mag h Bath, pp. 42, 66, 67, 156. Ana- T 138 Of Pronouns compounded [part n. logy would suggest that in all these combinations the third person singular feminine should end in 1, but as the termination e is found in very good authorities, both forms have been here given. It should be remarked that acu often means eorum, or de iis, of, or among them, as in the common phrase cuio acct, some of them; jibe h-aca, " whichever of them," Keat.Hist., p. 4; though the preposition never has this meaning when set before a noun. It should be here remarked, once for all, that in the union of the different prepositions with the second person singular the c of the pronoun is retained in the south of Ireland, but that in the north and west it is changed into o. Both forms are therefore given, as they are both borne out by authority. 2. Combinations with ap, upon. SINGULAR. PLURAL. opm, on me. oppainn, on us. ope, on thee. oppaib, on you. enp, on him. oppa, or opca, on them. uippe, or uippi, on her. In ancient manuscripts these combinations are generally written popm, f°P c > F ai P> F U1 PP 1 > F°PP a,no (emphatic form, poipne, or oipne), popaib, poipb, or oipb, poppu or opcaib. — See Battle of Magh Rath, pp. 10, 12, 70, 74, 124, 160, 292, et passim. lTlaioic a óeupa paip, jup éuic ppué 6 n-a popjaib, " his tears burst on him, so that streams of water flowed from his eyes," Keat. Hist., p. 119; di ouillino paip-pium, "two leaves upon him," Cor. Gloss., voce Pochlocon. In the south of Ireland, uippe, on,*or upon her, is pronounced as if written eipci; and in Connaught, opcuíó; and oppa, or opra, on them, as if written opca, in Munster; and opcúó, in Connaught. 3. Combinations with ap, out of. SINGULAR. PLURAL. apam, out of me. apainn, out of us. apao, apac, out of thee. apaib, out of you. ap, out of him. apca, out of them, aipce, or aipci, out of her. chap, iv.] with Prepositions. 139 dp , out of him, is sometimes written ctpp in ancient manu- scripts. — See Battle ofMagh Rath, p. 58. The forms for the other persons are the same as in the text, except that one short broad vowel is put for another ad libitum. In the south of Ireland they write these apeam, apcac, ap, aipee, apeainn, apeaib, apca. 4. Combinations witk cum, or co, towards. SINGULAR. PLURAL. cujam, unto me. cujamn, unto us. cugao, cujac, unto thee. cujcub, unto you. cuije, unto him. cuca, unto them, cuice, cuici, unto her. These combinations of cum, or co, with the personal pronouns, are pronounced in the south of Ireland as if written cú^am, cújac, cuije, cújainn, jcúcnb, cújra, but in the north and west the 5 and c in the middle are distinctly pronounced. 5. Combinations with oe, off, or from. SINGULAR. PLURAL. oiom, off me. oinn, off us. oioc, off thee. oib, off you. oe, off him. oiob, off them. 01, off her. In ancient manuscripts, in which the diphthong 10 seldom or never appears, the orthography of these combinations is oim, Die, oe, 01, oinn, oib, oib, or oiu, as ampull a m-beol jac ouine oiu, " the voice of penury in the mouth of each of them." — Jlengus na n-aer. In Connaught oiob is pronounced as if written oaobra, o, thick, which is not analogical, and not borne out by the authority of the written language. In the south of Ireland, and in the High- lands of Scotland, the o is always pronounced slender in these combinations, and correctly, if it be granted that the preposition is oe, not 00. — See Stewart's Elements of Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 129. 140 Of Pronouns compounded [part ii. 6. Combinations with oo, to. SINGULAR. PLURAL. cam, to me. oúmn, to us. ouic, to thee. ouib, oaoib, or oib, to you. oo, to him. oóib, to them. di, to her. It should be here remarked that the o in oam, ouic, oo, &c, is sometimes aspirated and sometimes not; that in the south of Ireland Dam is generally pronounced oum, and sometimes even urn, as Cabaip óam do lám, pronounced as if written cabaip um do lárh. In ancient manuscripts ouic, to thee, is sometimes written oeic, as T2o baó piapac oeic co a coi£, Cupai, mac t)aipe oopn-jlom, 11 Curai, son of Daire of the fine hands, would be obedient to thee with his house," Cormacan Eigeas. In Connaught the o in oi, to her, is pronounced broad and generally aspirated, as well as in do, to him, which is not contrary to analogy, as being made up of do and l, but in the south of Ireland the o in di is always pronounced slender, and aspirated or not according to the termination of the word which precedes it. Thus, if the preceding word ends in an unaspirated consonant the o retains its natural sound, as cabaip di an c-aipgeao, give to her the money. But if it end in a vowel, or an aspirated consonant, the o is aspirated, as caj ré di aipjeao ajup óp, he gave to her gold and silver. This is the only analogy which the author could observe in regulating the aspirations of the initial consonant of the compound pronouns among the speakers of the Irish language in the south of Ireland, and he has found it borne out by the authority of the best Irish manuscripts of the seventeenth century, in which aspiration (which is not always attended to in ancient manuscripts) was carefully marked. The following ex- amples, extracted from a beautiful manuscript, by John Mac Torna O'Mulconry, of Keating 's History of Ireland, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, will shew that the above rule is founded on the genius of the language of Ireland, as it was then spoken and written by one of the best hereditary expounders of the language in existence in the middle of the seventeenth century. JJo D-C115 opnapj óip di, " so that he gave her a chain of gold," chap, iv.] with Prepositions. 141 p. 78; ullriioijic plei^ móip n-oo, "they prepare a great feast for him," p. 100; 0:5 ceacc a n-Gipinn 00, "on his arrival in Ireland;" p. Ill; iap m-beir pice bliaóam 1 b-plaiciop Connacc do, " after his being twenty years in the government of Connaught," p. 115 ; iap maprain oó cpí céo bliaóain, " after having lived three hun- dred years," p. 117; Cuj Ciapcm a rhallacc 00, "St. Ciaran gave him his curse," p. 117 ; ^uj JJuaipe an oealj óip baoi *n a bpuc oó ap pon t)e, " Guaire gave him the golden pin which he had in his garment, for the sake of God," p. 119; caipgip peace m-ba ajup capb ap a pon 01, " he offered her seven cows and a bull in return," p. 120; cpe beir urhol 00, " for being obedient to him," p. 123; 00 bpij jup ab é cuj polup an cpeioim ap cúp 001b, "because it was he that first gave them the light of the faith," lb.; 50 ciUioó a n-Qlbain do, till his return to Scotland," Ib. ; cpe Tnapbao do óeunarh do, "for his committing of murder," p. 124 ; iap D-ceacc 'na piaonaipi do, " on his coming into his presence," p. 125; iap o-ceacc 50 pijceac Chaipil do, "after his coming to the royal house of Cashel," p. 143. tDúinn, to us, or by us, is frequently, but incorrectly written oúm, and even oún, as " aoaij oún aj t)ún Gachoach, " we were a night at Dun Eachdach." — Cormacan Eigeas. In the west of Ireland, and most parts of the north, do, when combined with ib, ye, or you, is pronounced oaoib, and it is some- times so written by Keating (see p. 144), and generally so by O'Molloy and Donlevy ; but in the south it is always written and pronounced oib, the o being slender ; but this is obviously not analogical, for it should be the form to represent the union of oe, off, or from, and ib, ye, or you. 7. Combinations with eioip, or eaoaip, between. SINGULAR. PLURAL. eaopam, between me. eaopamn, between us. eaopao, or eaopac, between thee. eaopaib, between you. eioip é, between him. eacoppa, between them, eioip i, between her. 142 Of Pronouns compounded [part n. The preposition eioip, or íoip, never amalgamates with the pro- nouns é or í in the singular number, and Haliday and O'Brien are wrong in writing them so. Many examples could be produeed from the best authorities to establish this fact, as in the Battle of Magh Bath, ap ínóaib in aipo-pig eicip é ocup in c-upcap, "before the king, and between him and the shot." — p. 152. 6aopaib is often written ecepaib in old manuscripts, as ocup m peccmao each cuippirep ecepaib, " and the seventh battle which shall be fought between you." — Id., p. 12. Gacoppa, between them, is variously written in old manuscripts, but ecuppu, or ecoppu, is the most usual form. — Vide Id., p. 84, et passim. In the modern language, when the two persons between which the relation expressed by eioip is denoted, are emphatically men- tioned, the amalgamation of the pronoun and the preposition does not take place, as eioip me ajup iao, between me and them ; eioip pmn ctQ-up é, between us and him ; eioip mé ajup i, between me and her. 8. Combinations with pa, or po, under. SINGULAR. PLURAL. púm, under me. púinn, under us. púo, or púc, under thee. Fuib, under you. poi, or paoi, under him. púca, under them, púiée, or puici, under her. The union of pa, or po, under, and é, he, is variously written by modern Irish scholars Faoi, puíóe, paióe, &c, but poi is the form most borne out by authority : "Ricaio na h-eocu poi, "the steeds ran under him." — Battle of Magh Bath, p. 82. In Mun- ster this preposition is pronounced pé, and the union of it with the pronoun e is written Feij, which, in the counties of Waterford and Kilkenny, is pronounced péij (the 5 not aspirated) ; but this is not to be approved of. In Connaught púéa, under them, is pronounced as if written púbca, or púpa, and in ancient manuscripts it is written pocaib and púicib See Battle of Magh Rath, p. 70. chap, iv.] with Prepositions. 143 9- Combinations with, 1, in. SINGULAR. PLURAL. lonnam, in me. íonainn, in us. lonnao, or íonnox, in thee. íonnaib, in you. ann, in him. íonnca, in them, innce, or innci, in her. In ancient manuscripts, in which the diphthong 10 seldom or never occurs, these combinations are written innam, mnac, ano, innce ; mnamo, mnaib, inocib. — See Battle of Magh Rath, pp.42, 56, 58, et passim. And the orthography is variously modified by putting one short vowel for another, and substituting no for nn, which renders the orthography exceeding unfixed and uncertain. 10. Combinations with im, or urn, about. SINGULAR. PLURAL. umam, about me. umainn, about us. umao, or umac, about thee. umaib, about you. uime, about him. umpa, about them, uimpe, or uimpi, about her. The preposition with which these are combined is more fre- quently written im ; but I have retained the um, as the form adopted by other grammarians, and that most conformable with the modern pronunciation. In ancient manuscripts they are writ- ten imum, imuc, imi, ímpi, ímuino, ímuib, impu, with several variations, caused by substituting u for 1 in the first syllable, by doubling the m, and one short vowel for another. — See Battle of Magh Rath, pp. 36, 37, 38, 48, 50, 170, 172, 186. 11. Combinations with le, or pe, with. SINGULAR. PLURAL. I10TT1, learn, or piom, with me. linn, or pinn, with us. leac, or pioc, with thee. lib, or nib, with you. leip, or pip, with him. leo, or piu, with them, lé, léire, or pia, with her. 144 Of Pronouns compounded [part ii. It should be here remarked, that the preposition pe, or its com- binations with the personal pronouns, though found in modern printed books and manuscripts, is not used in the spoken language in any part of Ireland, le being invariably used in its place. In ancient manuscripts ppi is very frequently used instead of le, or pe ; and the combinations which it forms with the pronouns are as fol- low : ppim, ppic, Fpip, FP ia > FP inn > FP 1 ^' FP 1U « We also meet in very correct manuscripts the forms, lem, lac, laip, lei, lenn, lib, leo. For these various forms, the reader is referred to the Battle ofMagh Rath, pp. 10, 14, 24, 32, 34, 40, 44, 48, 50, 58, 66, 68, 74, and Annals of the Four Masters, passim. In Cormac's Glossary, voce Coipe ópecám, ppiu j s translated by the Latin eis, ocup aobepc ppiu, " et ille eis dixit." In Mac Quig's edition of the Irish Bible, leacc is used throughout for leac, with thee; but there is no authority for this form, except the pronunciation of the living language in parts of the counties of Westmeath and Longford. 12. Combinations with o, or ua, from. SINGULAR. PLURAL. uaim, from me. uainn, from us. ucnc, from thee. uaib, from you. uaó, from him. uaca, from them, uaiée, or uaici, from her. These combinations are pronounced in the south of Ireland as if written buaim, bucnc, buaij, buamn, buaib, buaca. — See Obser- vations on the Gcelic Language, by Richard Mac Elligott, pub- lished in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, p. 21. And this form is found in manuscripts of considerable antiquity, as in an old life of St. Ceallach, of Kilmore Moy, written in vellum : panjacup co cill ele bai Q-aipio buaca, "they came to another church which was not far from them." Ucto, from him, is variously written, uaó, ucuó, uaóci, and uaióe See Battle of Mag h Rath, pp.50, 64, 232, 264, where it is written uaoct. In the Book of Lecan it is generally written uaó; but Duald Mac Firbis writes it both uaó and uaóa, as Conaó uaó chap, iv.] with Prepositions. 145 ammnigéeap, " so that it is from him the earn is named," Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 100; Qoó, mac Cobraij, ip uaóa Ceneul Ctoóa, "Aodh, the son of Cobhthach; from him the Cinel Aodha are descended," Id., p. 54. It is difficult to decide, from the present pronunciation in the different provinces, which is the true form, but analogy would suggest that the last vowel should be slender. Uctra, from them, is pronounced in the province of Connaught as if written uapu, and in ancient manuscripts is often written uaioib. — See Battle of Magh Hath, p. 38. 13. Combinations with poirh, before. SINGULAR. PLURAL. porham, before me. porhainn, before us. porhao, or poriiac, before thee. pomaib, before you. poufie, before him. pómpa, before them, poimpe, or poimpi, before her. In ancient manuscripts these combinations are often written, pemum, pemuc, or pomuc, peme, peimpe, pemuino, pemuib, pempu — See Battle of Magh Bath, pp. 34, 42, 70, 74, 92, 96. But the o is also used in the oldest authorities. 14. Combinations with peac, beside. SINGULAR. PLURAL. peacam, by, or beside me. peacainn, by us. peacao, or peacac, by thee. peacaib, by you. peac é, by him. peaca, by them, peac i, by her. In ancient manuscripts these combinations are written pecam, pecac, &c. ; or pfcham, pfchae, &c. ; and peocam, &c, is some- times to be met with. 15. Combinations with cap, beyond, over. SINGULAR. PLURAL. chopm, over me. choppamn, over us. chops, over thee. choppaib, over you. chaipip, over him. cháppa, or cháppca, over them, chenppe, or chcuppi, over her. U 1 46 Of Pronouns compounded [pakt il In ancient writings éáppa, over them, is most generally written raippib — See Battle of Magh Bath, p. 194. 16. Combinations with cpé, through. SINGULAR. PLURAL. cpiom, through me. cpinn, through us. cpioc, through thee. cpb, through you. cpío, through him. cpiora, through them. zp'\ze, or cpici, through her. In ancient writings these combinations are often written rpim, or cpeom, epic, or cpeoc, cpío, rpínn, epib, cpicu, cpempu, or cpeompa. — See Battle of Magh Rath, pp. 194, 202. Rom ímoep^ co móp rpeoe, i( I was much reviled for thee," Vit. Moling. In the province of Connaught, cpiora is pronounced as if written rpíopú, but cp'ora in Munster. 17. Combinations with uap, over, above. SINGULAR. PLURAL. uapam, above me. ucepcunn, above us. uapcto, or uapac, above thee. uapaib, above you. uapa, above him. uapca, above them, uaipce, or uaipci, above her. These combinations are never used in the spoken language in any part of Ireland, the phrase op mo cionn, &c, being substituted for uapam ; but it is of frequent occurrence in ancient manuscripts, with the spelling modified as usual, as will appear from the follow- ing examples : Cpípc ípam, Cpípc uapum, Cpípc oeppum, Cpipc cuaehum, " Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ to my right, Christ to my left," Hymn of St. Patrick, in Liber Hyin- norum ; bennachc t)e arap uapum, " the blessing of God the Father over me," Bishop Sanctaris Hymn, ibid. ; po epi$ a Bpur mileo ocup a én gaile pop popluamain uapa, " his heroic fury rose, and his bird of valour fluttered over him," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 32. Uaipcib, or uaipcib, the b not aspirated, is the form generally used in old manuscripts to express over them, though, CHAP. IV.] with Prepositions. 147 according to the analogies of the modern language, it would rather mean over you (ye) : ocur* TDomnall mac Geoa pépin, 1 n' áipo- P'5 1 F°P ^P mn uair-cib fin uile, " and Domhnall, son ofAedh, himself in the sovereignty of Erin over all these," Id., p. 24 ; pil uaipcib ppi h-uaip pepgi, nél na pola popoepji, "there is over them a cloud of deep red blood," Id., p. 78 ; neoill ecapbuapac uaipcib, " hovering clouds over them," H. 3. 18. p. 60. The emphatic postfixes of these combinations are nearly the same as those of the personal and possessive pronouns with which the preposition is amalgamated, viz., pa for the first and second person singular ; pean for the third person singular ; ne, or ni, for the first person plural; pa, or pe, for the second person plural; and pan, or pean, for the third person plural. The possessive pronouns also amalgamate with the pronouns, but not so extensively as the personal pro- nouns. The following are the principal combinations of this class : 1. Combinations with 0:5, or 50, with. SINGULAR. PLURAL. com, or 30m, with my. coáp, cóp, to our. coo, or coc, &c, with thy. co bap, to your, cona, with his, with her's. cona, with their. 2. Combinations with 00, to. SINGULAR. PLURAL. com, to my. oup, to our. 000, 00c, to thy. oabap, to your. oa, to his, to her's. oá, to their. In ancient manuscripts 01a is very frequently used for oa, to his, her's, its, or their, as 01a bennachaó, "for its blessing, i. e. for the blessing of it," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 26 ; 01a bian-poe, 148 Of Pronouns compounded [part n. "of its hide," Cor. Gloss. , voce Cepcaill. '5«, and even 'cá, which is a combination of 0:5, at, and a, his, her's, their's, is very often used in old writings, and in the living language, in some parts of Ireland, for o'a, as '5a b-piaóujaó, "to welcome them," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 30; bui 5a peicem co paoa, "and was viewing him for a long time," Id., p. 72. 3. Combinations with po, under. SINGULAR. FLURAL. pom, under my. F oa P> F°P> under our. poo, under thy. po bap, under your, pona, under his, her's. pona, under their. 4. Combinations with 1, in. SINGULAR. PLURAL. am, in my. 'náp, in our. ao, ac, in thy. ann bap, in your, íona, or ma, in his, or in her's. íona, or ma, in their. 5. Combinations with le, with. SINGULAR. PLURAL. lem, with my. le áp lep, with our. leo, or ler, with thy. le bap, with your, lena, with his, her's. lena, with their. In old manuscripts written lem, ppim, &c. The n in lena, which is merely inserted for the sake of strength and euphony, is not used in the Scotch Gaelic, which often causes a disagreeable hiatus in that dialect; and the Irish use of the euphonic n has been admired by the Erse grammarians. Stewart writes thus on this subject, in a note on the possessive pronoun a, in the second edi- tion of his Gaelic Grammar, p. 70 : " The Irish are not so much at a loss to avoid a hiatus, as they often use ' na,' for ' a,' his, which the [Scotch] translators of the Psalms have sometimes judiciously adopted, as — 6 An talamh tioram le na laimh Do chruthaich e 's do dhealbh.'" Psalm xcv. 5. chap, iv.] with Prepositions. 149 6. Combinations with ó, from. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 6m, from my. óap, óp, from our. oo, <5c, from thy. ó bap, from your, óna, from his, her's. óna, from their. Modern grammarians, however, think that it would add much to the clearness of the written language if these combinations were separated by hyphens and apostrophes, and they recommend íonct, cona, pona, lena, óna, cpéna, to be written i n-a, co n-a, po n-a, le n-a, ó n-a, qié n-a ; and oá, oáp, &c, to be written o'á, o'áp, &c, and an apostrophe to be used where a vowel is omitted at the end, as oom', ooo', lem', cpem', &c. The emphatic particles added to these combinations are the same as those postffxed to the combinations of the prepositions and the personal pronouns, with this difference, however, that they always follow the nouns to which the possessive pronouns belong, and become broad or slender according to the last vowel in such nouns. Thus, if am' ceann, in my head, be rendered emphatic, the em- phatic particle will be placed, not after am, but immediately after the substantive, and its vowel must agree in class with the charac- teristic, or last vowel of the substantive, thus : am' ceann-pa, where, it will be observed, that the a in pa agrees in class with the a in ceann ; but if the last vowel of the substantive be slender, then that of the emphatic particle will be slender also, as am' laivh-pe, "in my hand;" a rhumncip-pióe, "his people." — Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópecain. And if the substantive be immediately followed by an adjective, the emphatic particle will be placed after such adjective, as am' láirh óeip-pe, in my right hand. 150 Of Verbs [part ii. CHAPTER V. OF VERBS. There are three kinds of verbs, namely, active, passive, and neuter. They are inflected by voices, moods, tenses, numbers, and persons. Section 1. — Of the Moods and Tenses. The moods are four, viz., the indicative, imperative, conditional, and infinitive, and some of the irregular verbs have a subjunctive mood. The inflections of verbs, like those of nouns, are made by changes on the termination. Changes also take place at the beginning, but they are more for the sake of euphony than sense (though they sometimes help to point out the moods and tenses), and are caused by certain particles prefixed, which may frequently be left understood. The same particles which are postfixed to personal pronouns are also subjoined to verbs for the sake of emphasis, as picim, I run, piúim-^e ; ólccim, I drink, olaim-pe ; ólcnp, thou drinkest; ólai|i-fe; ólaiD, they drink, ólcntj-pean. The following examples will shew the use of these terminations in correct MSS. : mapb-pct me, " kill thou me," Keat. Hist., p. 76; an j-céin baoi-pom a b-plairiop nflurhan, " while he was in the chap, v.] Of the Moods and Tenses. 151 sovereignty of Munster," Id., p. 142; ap ba íp in cappuc po jenaip-pioen, " for he was born in the chariot," Cor. Gloss. , voce Copmctc; oo bépam-ne cec popcacc picpa a leap ouicc, " we will give thee every necessary assistance," Vit. Moling. There are five tenses of the indicative mood, active, namely, 1, the simple present ; 2, the consuetudinal, or habitual present ; 3, the preterite, or simple past ; 4, the consuetudinal past ; and, 5, the future. 1. The simple present tense of an active verb denotes action in progress in this instant, or now, as ceilim, I conceal, Lat. celo. 2. The habitual, or consuetudinal present, expresses extended or habitual action, as ceileann fé, he conceals, or is used to conceal. The present tense in English has frequently this force, as "he resides in Dublin," in which resides has the same meaning as the consuetudinal present in Irish, comnuíóeann pé a m-6aile Qéa cliaé, i. e. he usually resides, &c. The Irish attempt to introduce this tense even into Englishes " he bees," " he does be," &c. 3. The simple past tense signifies past unextended action, as ceiteap, I concealed, Lat. celavi. 4. The consuetudinal past denotes past extended or habitual action, as ceilinn, I used to conceal, Lat, celabam. This tense is frequently used in Irish conversation, and hence the Irish are fond of it even in English, as " he used to be living in Dublin," or " he did be," &c. 5. The future tense simply foretells, as ceilpeaD, I will conceal, Lat. celabo. There are two modes of expressing the persons ; the first, and that now most generally used in the spoken 152 Of the Moods and Tenses. [paet ii. language, particularly in the province of Ulster, is the analytic form of the verb, with the pronouns separately expressed; the other, which is more general in the south of Ireland, and was used in the ancient language, is the synthetic form, in which the pronoun is concealed in the termination of the verb. When the pronouns are separately expressed the verb has a common form for all the persons, singular and plural, as ceilpió mé, I will conceal ; ceilpió cú, thou wilt conceal ; ceitpió pé, he will conceal ; ceilpió pinn, we will conceal ; ceilpió pib, ye will con- ceal ; ceilpió piat), they will conceal ; the termination pi6 being common to all the persons. In this particular the Irish language nearly agrees with the col- loquial dialect of the English, in which the verb varies its termina- tion in the third person singular only, as : SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I call, voco. 1. we call, vocamus. 2. you call, vocas. 2. you call, vocatis. 3. he calls, vocat. 3. they call, vacant. In the preter-imperfect tense of the English verb this agreement is still closer, thus : SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. I called, vocavi. 1. we called, vocavimus. 2. you called, vocavisti. 2. you called, vocavistis. 3. he called, vocavit. 3. they called, vocaverunt* Some Irish writers, however, among whom may be reckoned the two of the most remarkable Irish antiquaries of the seventeenth century, namely, Dr. Keating and Duald Mac Firbis, use the syn- thetic form of the verb in the present and future tenses of the indicative mood, when the third person plural is expressed, as ceilio pao ? they conceal; ceilpio piao, they will conceal. But in chap, v.] Of the Moods and Tenses. * 153 the past tense this could not be done, for ceileaoctp piao would be incorrect, and seems to warrant the conclusion, that the introduc- tion of the termination 10 for ió, in the other two tenses, is not analogical. When, however, the nominative is a substantive, the synthetic termination is ^retained, as ceileaocm oaoine an mo pin, "men concealed that thing." When the personal pronoun is not expressed sepa- rately, the verb has a distinct terminational form (which in reality indicates the pronoun), for all the persons ex- cept the third person singular, with the termination of which the pronoun is never synthetically combined ; and the form for this person, which ends in 16, or ai6, in the present and future tenses of the indicative, is that which is adopted for all the other persons, singular and plural, in the analytic form of the verb, when the pronouns are separately expressed. The two forms are here given, with their English and Latin parallels. Analytic Form. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ceilió mé, I conceal. 1. ceilió finn, we conceal. 2. ceilió cú, thou concealest. 2. ceilió pb, ye conceal. 3. ceilió pé, he conceals. 3. ceilió pao, they conceal. Synthetic Form, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ceilim, celo. 1. ceilimio, celamus. 2. ceilip, celas. 2. ceilri, celatis. 3. ceilió pé, celat tile. 3. ceilio, celant. As the third person singular has no synthetic form, the pro- noun must be always expressed, unless it be understood, where the construction of the sentence permits an ellipsis of it. Indeed, it is very convenient in this, and all other languages, that this person X 154 Of the Moods and Tenses. [part ii. should be always expressed, because the third person is generally absent, and it becomes, therefore, necessary to express the pronoun, to denote its gender ; whereas the first and second persons, being always supposed to be present, there is no necessity of marking any distinction of gender in them. • It will be observed that in this particular the Irish essentially differs from the classical languages ; for although in Latin it is cor- rect to say tu legis, vos negligitis, yet in Irish we cannot say ceilim mé, or ceilip cú, but ceilió mé, ceilió cú ; for as the verbal termi- nation is actually the personal pronoun amalgamated with the verb, it would be obviously redundant to place the pronoun after this termination, which would be in reality expressing the pronoun twice. To explain this, it must be observed, that the word ceilim, I conceal, is as much a compound of the verb ceil, conceal, and the pronoun mé, I, as the word ajctm, with me, is of the preposition aj, with, and me, I ; and as it would be clearly tautology to place me after ajam, so would it be equally redundant to place it after ceilim ; hence, whenever mé occurs after the synthetic form of any verb active we know it to be not the nominative, but the accu- sative, governed by the verb; for example, ceilim me would not mean "I conceal," but " I conceal me," or " I conceal myself." The other persons are much more disguised in the verb than the first person singular, as ceilimio, for ceili pinn k ; but the same disguising also takes place in the combination of the pronouns with the prepositions, as pompa, before them, for poim íao ; leo, for le íao, &c. Notwithstanding this evident principle of the language, some writers, following the analogies of Latin, often place the pronoun after the synthetic form of the third person plural, in the present and future tenses of the indicative mood. — See above. k So much is the termination sonal pronoun. The author has mio, or mcno, considered to con- also often heard young persons tain the pronoun, that some Irish use it for the pronoun, as cu ipeaó scholars consider it an old form maio-ne 50 o-ci cupa, for cui- of the pronoun retained in the peaó pinne, &c, " we were sent verb, though obsolete as a per- to thee." chap, v.] Of the Moods and Tenses. 155 Each of the tenses has a relative form ending in ap, eap, or lop, in the present and future tenses of the in- dicative mood in the modern language, but licentiously varied in the ancient language to ap, op, up, ep,ip, my», but in all the other tenses it is like the form for the third person singular, as a ceileap, who conceals; a ceilpeap, who will conceal ; a ceil, who concealed ; a ceileaó, who used to conceal. This rule is sufficient to point out the relative form with suffi- cient accuracy, and it will not be, therefore, necessary to repeat the relative form in each tense, in giving the conjugation of the verb, as Haliday has done. This form of the verb in ap is also used as the his- toric present ; namely, when the present tense is put for the past, to express that an action now passed was, at the time of which we speak, present, as uogbap a lám, he raises his hand, i. e. he was, at the time we speak of, in the act of raising his hand. In ancient MSS. this termination is variously written, ap, ep, íp, op, up, íup, exactly like the variations of the relative termina- tion, as will appear from the following examples, selected from various manuscripts of authority: Poraij-ip Colam Cille eclaip l TCpacpaino Oipcip 6pej, ocup pajbap Colmcm Oeocain mce, " Columbkille erects a church on Rachrainn [an island] of the east of Bregia, and leaves Colman, the Deacon, in it," Leabhar Breac, fol. 16, b, a ; pajbup na pilió ap a h-aicle, ocup cimnaip ceileabpaó oóiB, " he then leaves the poets, and bids them fare- well," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 42 ; puióip in pilió aici pop eaeo na relca, ocup íappaijip pcela oe, " the poet sits down with him on the side of the hill, and asks him the news," Id., p. 67 ; eipjip an w% óia aóapc, "the king rises from his pillow," Book of Fer- moy, fol. 52 ; ceiliobpaip oóib lap pin, agup cpiallaip 50 n-a céo 156 Of the Moods and Tenses. [part ii. lccoc o' piop a luinje, " he then bids them farewell, and. proceeds with his hundred heroes towards his ship," Keat. Hist., p. 51. This termination is also used in the simple present tense, and even in the future of the indicative, as cm pió íappup pij Uempaó, "though the king of Tara seeks peace," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 42 ; cec ni cmoep t)ia oo neoch, "whatever God predestines for a person," St. Columbkille (H. 3. 18.); Q5 Spu, mac 6appu pjapup paprálón ajup clanna Neimió pe poile, " In Sru, son of Easru, Parthalon and the Clann Neimhidh branch off from each other," Keat. Hist., p. 33 ; cnárh éipj pluicpeap, " the bone of a fish which he shall swallow," Id., p. 90; map poillpijiop an pann, " as this quatrain shews," Id., p. 50. To account for the initial changes which will appear in the conjugation of the verb, it will be necessary to give here a list of such particles as aspirate the initial consonant of all regular, and most of the irregular verbs 1 : 1. CTp, whether (an abbreviation of an, whether), and po, sign of the past tense. This is never prefixed but to the past tense, as ap ceil pe ? did he conceal ? 2. t)o and po, signs of the past tense, as 00 ceileap, or po ceil- eap, I concealed. 3. J) U P> tna * (compounded of 50, that, and po, sign of the past tense), as gup ceilip, that thou didst conceal. This is never used except before the past tense, save only in its union with the asser- tive verb íp, or ab, as gupab é, that it is he. 4. TTIá, if, prefixed to all the tenses of the indicative mood, as má ceilim, if I conceal ; má ceileap, if I concealed ; má ceilpeao, if I will conceal ; má ceilpeap é, if it will be concealed. 5. map, as, like as; map poillpijeap an pile, " as the poet shews ;" map a n-abaip, " where he says," Keat. Hist. Irel., p. 41. 1 The irregular verbs oeipim, some exception. I say, and pa^aim, I find, offer chap, v.] Of the Moods and Tenses. 157 6. Nacap, which not, that not, ut non ; as nacap ceil pé, that he did not conceal. This is compounded of nac and po, sign of the past tense, and is often contracted to nop, as t>eipim-pé nop ceil, I say that he concealed not. 7. Ni, not, non ; prefixed to the present and future, as ni cei- lim, I conceal not; ni ceilpip, thou wilt not conceal. 8. Niop, not. This, which is compounded of ni, not, and po, sign of the past tense, is never prefixed except to the past tense, as niop ceil, he did not conceal. 9. Nocap, not; as nocap pajaib, " he did not leave," Keat. Hist. Irel, p. 44. 10. Sul, before; as pul ceilpeap é, before it will be concealed. T)o is the only simple prefix used in the modern language to denote the past tense, po being never employed, except as con- tracted in the combinations ap, gup, nacap, nap, niop, which, as has been said, are abbreviations of 50 po, nac po, ná po, ni po. But in ancient MSS. various particles are used, as ao, ac, ace, 00, oop, po, pop, no, nop, noc, pa, po, pooup, pop, pon, pop, poc ; and these frequently carry the force of the relative a, who, and even of a personal pronoun in the accusative case, as shall be shewn in the Syntax. Stewart has fallen into a great error in saying (Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 84, note z), that ono is used in one Irish MS. of high authority as a prefix to the preter tense, for the ono, which occurs in ancient MSS. , is an expletive particle, having nearly the same force as the Latin autem, or vero, or the Greek ^e or uXXoi, as I shall shew in treating of Adverbs and Conjunctions. The niop of the modern language is generally written nip in ancient writings, and sometimes ni po, as ni po aipip, "he did not delay."— Battle of Magh Rath, p. 46. In most parts of Ireland pul, before, has some syllable post- fixed, as a, pá, má ; but such postfixes are seldom found in correct manuscripts. The following examples of its use occur in John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating' s History of Ire- land : pul pujao Qbpaham, " before Abraham was born," p. 30; pul cáinij paopuij a n-6ipinn, " before St. Patrick came to Ire- 158 Of the Moods and Tenses. [part ii. land," p. 41 ; pul do cionnp^jain Peniup an pgol, u before Fenius began the school," p. 43; pul laibeopam ap rpiall Niuil o'n Scicia bo'n Gijipe, " before we shall speak of NiuPs departure from Scythia for Egypt," p. 44 ; pul oo cpiallaoap mic lppael cpe mhuip TCuaió, "before the sons of Israel passed through the Red Sea," p. 47 ; pul pucup báp, " before he died," p. Ill ; pul ranjaoop ^ctill a n-Gipinn, " before the English came to Ireland," Ibid. ; pul pcunij an láraip, " before he reached the spot," p. 124; pul páinij leip péin ceacc, " before he himself could come," p. 167; pul páp cpíocnuíjioó í, " before it was concluded," p. 174. In some parts of the county of Kilkenny, pul is pronounced peap ; but this is a mere local barbarity. The following particles cause ellipses of such conso- nants as admit of eclipsis, and require n prefixed to ini- tial vowels : 1. CCn, whether; Lat. an; as an 5-ceilip ? Dost thou conceal? 2. J5°» that; ut, or utinam ; as 50 5-ceilip, that thou con- cealest, or, mayest thou conceal. 3. t)á, nop, if; in the past tense ; sign of the conditional mood, as oá 5-ceilpinn, if I would or should conceal. 4. lap, after; as iap 5-ceilc, after concealing. But this is placed before verbal nouns, and is never used before any tense of the indicative or other moods. 5. ÍTIap a, where, in which ; as map a n-oeip, where he says. 6. lTluna, unless; as muna 5-ceilpip, unless thou wilt conceal. 7. Mac, which not, that not, non, nee, neque, qui non, anne ; as beipim-pe nac 5-ceilim, I say that I conceal not ; an cé nac 5-ceileann, he that does not conceal. This becomes nacap and nop in the past tense. 8. Noca, not; as noca 5-ceilim, I do not conceal. This causes n to be prefixed to p, as noca n-pajam, we do not find ; noca n-picip mac ouine cuic b'a n-bénann pé cpuinne, " the son of a man knoweth not for whom he maketh a gathering," St. Co- lumbkille > 8 Poem, in H. 3. 18, p. 320. chap, v.] Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb íp. 159 When the relative a, who, is preceded by a prepo- sition expressed or understood, the initial consonant of the verb which immediately follows it will be eclipsed, if of the class which admits of eclipsis; and if the initial of the verb be a vowel it will have n prefixed ; as ó a D-cáini^, from whom came ; ó a n-eipi^eann, from which rises ; but if the particle po, or an abbreviation of it, follows the relative a, then the initial consonant of the verb immediately following it will be under the in- fluence of this particle, and suffer aspiration instead of eclipsis, as Qóarh óp pctpccmap, i. e. Qóarh ó a po papaman, " Adam from whom we have sprung." In the counties of Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tipperary, nac is generally pronounced net, except in those situations where the as- sertive verb if is understood; as oeipim-pe nac b-puil, pronounced as if written oeipim-r-e ná puil. In John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, the initial of the verb is never eclipsed after nac; ex. TCáióip Tílocuoa pip na ceaccaiB nac puicpioó, ajup nac cpéijpioó "Raéam, " St. Mochuda says to the messengers that he would not leave or depart from Rathain." — Keat.Hist., p. 130. When íp is understood, the c is pronounced in these counties, as oeipim-pe nac é, I say that it is not he; mea- paim nac eaó, I suppose it is not. Section 2. — Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb ip. The simplest verb in this language is ip, which cor- responds with the copula of logicians, and may with propriety be called the assertive verb. In the modern language it always takes the accusative forms of the pronouns é, i, and iaD, after it, and is thus inflected : 160 Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb if\ [partii. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present tense, if, it is. Past tense, ba, it was. Future tense, bup, it will be. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 5UJ1 ab, that it is. CONDITIONAL MOOD. oa m-baó, if it were. je m-baó, though it were. Although these are the usual and most correct forms of this verb, still a variety of spellings occur in ancient, and even in modern MSS. and books, to the no small confusion of the learner. These shall be here set down : INDICATIVE MOOD. Present tense, if, ap, it is. Past tense, ba, buó, pa, pobaó, pob, pop, it was. Future tense, bup, buó, bió, pu, it will be. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD, jup ab, copb, that it is. CONDITIONAL MOOD. oá m-baó, oamaó, oiamaó, if it were. je m-baó, jémaó, though it were. co m-baó, comaó, cumaó, conió, so that it might be. A synthetic union of this verb with personal pronouns and con- junctions is often found, in the present and past tenses, in ancient manuscripts. The following synopsis of these forms is here an- nexed, for the use of such as wish to study ancient Irish writings: chap, v.] Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb íp. 161 INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. if am, or am, it is I. 1. if inn, or amne, it is we. 2. ifac, or ac, it is thou. 2. ifib, it is ye. 3. if he, or ic é, it is he. 3. ific, íciac, ic, ac, it is they. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. bam, pobpum, or p oppam, it 1. bam, or pobfamne, it was was I. we. 2. bac, or pobac, it was thou. 2. bapib, or poppib, it was ye. 3. ba h-e, pobe, pobaó, popaó, 3. bac, baoíp, popcap, or pop- or pope, it was he. pac, it was they. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. copbam, that it was I. 1. copbamne, that it was me. 2. copbac, that it was thou. 2. copbpib, that it was ye. 3. copb é, orgupab é, that it was 3. comoap, that it was they. he. Various other combinations of the pronouns and conjunctions with this verb occur in old manuscripts, which the student of the ancient Irish language should become familiar with ; as napbac, be thou not, or mayest thou not be ; comoip, until they would be ; nipbpam, I was not; jéppam, although I was; minab, unless it be; nip, it was not; napdp, that it would not be they; cepcap, who they were ; popp, or pobp, it would be. The following examples of the simple and combined forms of this verb are here subjoined, to point out its application, particularly in ancient compositions : if mé an peap, I am the man ; ba bpó- nac in pi^ oe pin, " the king was sorry for that," Battle of Mag h Ratlin p. 24 ; DeapbpopjaiU pa h-ainm oi, " Dervorgilla was her name," Keat. Hist. y p. 5; Gunna Qijnioc pa h-ainm oo, "Enna Aighnioch was his name," Id., p. 71 ; oip ap cu buf aoin-bean oam-fa 6 fo amac, " for thou shalt be my only wife from this out," Id., p. 90; ni pu pen mair, it will not be good success," Y 1G2 Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb iy\ [part ii. Battle of Mag h Bath, p. 18 ; bio olc ouib, " it shall be evil to you," Id., p. 22 ; dm ua pij, " I am the grandson of a king," Id., p. 202 ; Ipam cuiboi-pi, " I am more fit," Id., p. 68 ; Qm buioec oe, " I am thankful of him;" am mac oo pi£ £ochlano, "I am the son of the king of Lochlann," Id., p. 80 ; am cinnce oe anop, "I am certain of it now," Id., p. 145 ; am uairhnioó pép an pij, 11 1 am fearful of the king," Keat. Hist., p. 126; maó am cail- lioc-pa, ot pip, ap caillioc oo mácaip-pi, "if I am a hag, said she, thy mother is a hag," Id., p. 109; ac mac pij-pa, "thou art the son of a king," Battle of AfagJi Rath, ip. 80 ; ap acjeon-pa ipac pilió, "for I perceive that thou art a poet," Id., p. 68; ac Fipij, " thou art a seer," Id., p. 14 ; po peapp ic pap in Penechup i con- oelj pepb n-t)e, "it is known that the Fenechus law is void in comparison with the word of God," Cor. Gloss., voce pepb ; ípic imoa a loca, "many are its lakes," Irish Version of Nennius ; ac mópa na h-aicipi oo paoac pope, " great are the injuries which were inflicted on thee," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 30 ; ic JJaill po puióepcap a n-6pinn ap cúp, " for it was the Gauls that first fixed them in Ireland," Cor. Gloss., voce ^all ; Ueocoipi pop cnpo-pij in oorhain m can pin, " Theodosius was monarch of the world at that time," H. 3. 17. p. 1; popcap íao baoap aupoapcu, "they were the most illustrious," *4nnals of the Four Masters, ad ann. 1567 ; popcap lia ammapb inna a m-beo, "their dead were more numerous than their living," Book of Lei?zster, p. 25, b ; ocup ba oo apjao baoip mence, "and it was of silver they were oftenest made" Cor. Gloss., voce Qna; napbac bponac-pa, " be thou not sorrowful," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 50; po poinn ooib comoap oaecnaió, " he distributed [the food] among them till they were satiated," Vit. Moling ; piB-pi aj oul pobp pepp anaó, "ye are going, better it were to stay," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 62 ; nap- bac oimoac-pa, " be not thou sorrowful," Id. ; ap beapcacap pioe napoip opuich no beapnpaó a b-pleij ap cúp, "they said that it should not be Druids that would first partake of their banquet," Book of Lismore, fol. 47, b, b ; ap nab cuipleóac, " in order that it might not be slippery, Cor. Gloss., voce t)poicec; ni otp oo pecc mmab maic, "law is not right unless it be good," Id., voce chap, v.] Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb íp. 1 63 JJno ; nip maccaó la nech, "it was not wonderful to any one;" comapc cepcap íao, " she asked who they were," Id., voce Ppull. Having now pointed out the various ancient forms and synthetic combinations of this verb, I shall next exhibit its peculiar idiomatic applications in the modern language. But before I enter upon this subject, it will be curious to notice, that O'Molloy, who calls it by the strange appellation of articulus, has the following remarks on this verb. " Articulus ap in Oratione importat affirmatiuum tanquam esset verbum affirmans, sicut ni negationem de se praesentis temporis, vt ap maich Uaohj, latiné, Thadceus est bonus ; ni maich Caohj, id est, Thadceus non est bonus ; verum si post ni praecedat buoh, significabitur negatio pro futuro, vt ni buoh maich Caoh^, latiné, Thadceus non erit bonus, cuius tamen contradictio significabitur deleto ni, remanente buoh, vt buoh maich Uaohj. Si autem sermo sit de praeterito, ita vt bonitas de Thadaeo negetur, transit ni in nip, vt nip mhaich Uaohj, vel si ita, vt afnrmetur bonitas, sufficit prae- mitti buoh ante maich, si aspiretur m, vt buoh mhaich Uaohj, latiné, Thadceus erat bonus ; si enim non aspiretur m, sensus erit Thadceus erit bonus. Item si praemittatur ni ante buoh, sensus erit Tlmdceus non erit bonus. Similiter b transit in bup, ad affir- mandum de futuro, vt in bhup F ect PP> id est melius erit, sed nee male dicitur in eodem sensu buoh pfpp, cuius contradictio est ni buoh peapp. Sic ou buoh pfpp, de futuro afBrmat quod melius foret. Item transit ni in nach, vt cum dico oeipim nach peapp, latiné dico quod non melius, cuius oppositum significatur commu- tatione praedicti nach in jup. Pórro articulus nach et ap praepo- situs adiectiuo comparatiuo importato per F ea PP> sicuti ap et ni opponuntur sicut aifirmatio et negatio, vt ip Feapp, ni peapp, vel nach peapp. Similiter ni et nach, transeunt in articulum nap aflicientem tempus praeteritum, vt nap pheapp, cui contradicit jupab seu jup appositione bh ad peapp vt jupab pheapp, vel potius gup bhpeapp." — Grammatica Latino- Hiber niece, pp. 103, 104, 105. It has sometimes puzzled Irish grammarians to point out the dif- ference of meaning between the verbs ip, cáim, bíóim, and b-puilim ; 164 Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb iy\ [part ii. but to any one who has studied the genius of the language this dif- ference is obvious. It is this : ip is the simple copula of logicians, being merely used for assertion, that is, to connect an attribute with its subject, or to predicate one thing of another, as if mé r-olur- an oorhain, I am the light of the world. But in all sentences in which existence is combined with locality cá is to be used. Mr. Patrick Lynch, in his Introduction to the Irish Language, has the follow- ing very accurate remarks on this subject, which are well worth quoting here for the consideration of the learner, pp. 16, 17: " Every Proposition or Phrase includes two separate ideas or terms. That of which something is affirmed or denied is called the sub- ject or agent, stiled by grammarians the nominative or preceding case ; the other term, denoting what is affirmatively or negatively asserted of the subject, is called the Attribute. There is another word employed to connect these two ideas, denominated a Copula, or Verb. In various languages there is, strictly speaking, but one Verb for designating this mental affirmation viz. is and the inflec- tions of am, was, be. All other Verbs express not an act of the mind, but so far as they severally include the substantive Verb is, into which all adjective Verbs may be ultimately resolved ; thus Patrick loves, reads, walks, are of equal import with the phrases Patrick love-is, read-is, walk-is, or, as logicians make it, is loving, is reading, is walking. — Vide Lynch's English Grammar in Verse and Prose, pp. 33, 34. In English and Latin the substan- tive verb est, is, serves for this affirmation. But in Irish we have two substantive verbs for designating it : and though is-me and ataim may, to some, appear to be of a similar import, yet they are not in reality so, nor can the one be substituted for the other. The radical Verb is (iss) me seems to have been originally invented for simply shewing, that the subject of discourse barely is, or exists, while atd-me, or , tai?n, denotes existence with reference to its state or locality, thus modifying the affirmation of simple being or essence bv determining its condition place or time : as is me ata ann. It is me (or /), that am here. This with many other peculiarities in our Irish Verbs seems to require further investigation." It is a very strange peculiarity in this language that the sub- chap, v.] Of the Assertive or Impersonal Verb ir. 165 stantive verb cá can never ascribe a predicate to its subject without the aid of the preposition 1, or ann, as cá pe 'n a pajapc, he is a priest; lit. he is in his priest; bi pé 'n a pij, he was a king; lit. in his king. It may be curious to remark, that although in the application of these two verbs a strict attention to logical distinc- tions must be observed, still the native Irish speaker never finds any difficulty in applying them correctly. When one substantive is predicated of another by this verb ip, and an adjective of praise or dispraise is connected with the predi- cate, it is never put in the genitive case, as peap ip móp par, a man who is of great prosperity ; peap ba mop par, a man who was of great prosperity ; an peap ba caoime cputh, the man who was of fairest form; an peap íp m<5 ciall, the man of greatest sense. In such sentences the predicated noun would be in the genitive or ablative case in Latin, and in English would be governed by the preposition of; but in Irish it is actually the nominative case, coming after the assertive verb ip ; and it is not easy to explain grammatically how it comes to have the force of the genitive or ablative in Latin ; yet such it has, beyond a doubt. When no verb is used, the latter noun may be connected by the preposition 50, or co, with, as peap 50 ngnúip beoóa, a man with a lively counte- nance. But when the verb ip is used, this preposition cannot be introduced, but we must say peap ip beoóa gnúip. It should be noticed here, that this form of expression cannot be resolved by peap — ip beoóa a jnúip, a man — lively is his countenance; but that it means fully and distinctly " a man of a lively countenance," though no satisfactory grammatical reason has yet been assigned for this mode of construction. In examining this idiom, the stu- dent should have the following accurate observation on the English language before his mind : " In the English, as in all other languages, a great number of expressions, scarcely warrantable in strict Syntax, become part and parcel of the language. To condemn these at once is unphiloso- phical. The better method is to account for them. The currency of an expression is prima facie evidence of some grammatical reason existing for it." — The English Language, by Professor Latham, p. 358. 166 Of the Verb Substantive. [part ii. Before closing the remarks on this verb, it will be necessary to correct an error of the Rev. Paul O'Brien, who says, in his Irish Grammar, p. 91 , the verb if " can form no sentence without a repetition of itself, the aid of its past tense, or of ca." No error could be greater than this ; for, ip peap me, " I am a man ;" ip puap an la é, " it is a cold day," are perfect sentences, and contain no repetition of the same verb, and require no other verb to com- plete the sense. Section 3 Of the Verb Substantive. The verb substantive ucnm, or bim, is thus conju- gated : INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cáim, I am. 1. cámaoio, we are. 2. cáip, thou art. 2. cácaoi, you are. 3. cá pé, he is. 3. cáio, they are. The particle a is often prefixed to the present tense of this verb, for the sake of euphony, or emphasis, as aucnm. Caip is the synthetic form to express thou art, usually found in modern MSS. and books, and that most generally in use, in com- mon conversation, in the southern half of Ireland. But acai often occurs in ancient writings, and acaoi in modern, as acai ac' aenap, " thou art alone," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 136 ; oip ip ocum-pa acai, "for it is to me thou art, i. e. belongest," Id., p. 48 ; conjrháil na B-pilioó acaoi o'accop a h-Bipinn, "thou art keeping the poets from being banished fr om Ireland, " Keat.Hist., p. 125; Q JJhuaipe, ol an pi, an pam cúrhaccaib-pe oo óol ope a caoi aj cpom-jul oo'n lonnup poin, " Guaire, said the king, is it because my chap, v.] Of the Verb Substantive. 167 powers have prevailed over thee, that thou weepest in that manner?" Id., p. 1 19. In the county of Kerry they say caoin cu, thou art; but this is corrupt, and not to be imitated. The synthetic form for the first person plural of this tense is variously pronounced in the provinces, as cámúio, cámaoio, and cctimío. Keating writes oxctmaio (maio short), as oip cccamcuo aja clop o bél 50 bél, " we are hearing it from mouth to mouth," Hist. Irel., p. 94. But O'Molloy and others write it — maoio. This stands in great need of some established rule. — See Regular Verb. Uacaoi, ye are, is found in the best manuscripts, except that in the more ancient ones it is written caccu, or acácai, as aectccrf a n-oenbaile, " ye are in one place," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 62. The synthetic form for the third person plural is variously written in old manuscripts, ctccno, accuc, acáo, acác ; vide Id., pp. 38, 82, et passim. Consuetudinal Present. SINGULAR. PRESENT. 1. bíóim, or bim, I usually am. 1. bímío, bíomaoio, or bío- Tuccio, we usually are. 2. bióip, or bip, thou usually art. 2. bící, you usually are. 3. bíóecmn pé, or bíonn pe, he 3. bíóio, or bio, they usually usually is. are. Or bíóeann, or bíonn mé, cú, pé, &c, the verb having the same termination, to agree with all the persons, óíóttiío, or bímío, the synthetic form of the first person plural of this verb, is as often written biomuio, or biomaoio, and pronounced biomoio (the m being broad, and the last syllable short or long. — See Regular Verb. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. bíóeap, or biop, I was. 1. Bíóeamap, or biomcm, we were. 2. bíóip, or bíp, thou wast. 2. bíóeabap, or biobup, thou wert. 3. bíó, or bí ye, he was. 3. bíóeaoap, or biooap, they were. 168 Of the Verb Substantive. [part ii. t)o and po are generally prefixed to this tense in ancient and modern writings. In ancient manuscripts the past tense of this verb is written báp, or báóap, báóaip, or báip, bá pé, bamap, bábap, búoap. And this form is used by Keating, the Four Mas- ters, Duald Mac Firbis, and other writers of the seventeenth cen- tury, but no trace of it is now observable in the spoken language. For the modern bi, was, ancient writers often use baoi, boi, bui, boei, uoei, which renders their writings very obscure to modern Irish scholars. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. bíóinn, or binn, I used to be. 1. bíbmíp, or iomctoip, we used to be. 2. bíóceá, or bicea, thou usedst 2. bírí, you used to be. to be. 3. bíóeaó pé, or bíoó pé, he 3. bíoíp, they used to be. used to be. óhíóeaó, or bíoó pé ; the third person singular of this tense is pronounced bíóeac, or bíoc pé, throughout the southern half of Ireland. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. biao, or beióeao, I will be. 1. biaómaoio, or beiómio, we will * be. 2. biaip,or bemip, thou wilt be. 2. biaóaíó, or beióíó, you will be. 3. bicuo, or beió pé, he will be. 3. biaóaio, or beióio, they will be. The emphatic form of beióip, or biaóaip, thou shalt be, is sometimes written biapu for biaip-pe, as in the Battle of Magh Rath, p. 190 : ni biapu aj bajup o'n láiri-pea amac, "for thou shalt not threaten from this day forth." The negative of the third person singular is written noca bia, i. e. " it shall not be," in the Poem attributed to St. Columbkille, preserved in a MS. in Trinity College (H. 3. 18.), already quoted. In many parts of Munster beij pé is used for beio, or bictió pé, he will be, but it must be considered a great corruption, and is ascribed to the tendency of the Munster dialect to terminate in 15. chap, v.] Of the Verb Substantive. 169 IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. bíoómaoip, bimíp, or bio- maoio, let us be. 2. bi, be thou. 2. bíóíó, be ye. 3. bióeaópé,orbíoópé,lethim be. 3. bíoíp, let them be. The form for the third person singular is pronounced bíóeac, or bíoc ré, throughout the southern half of Ireland, but biorh in the north and west. The form for the first person plural varies a good deal throughout the provinces, and wants a grammatical stan- dard. The author would recommend the form bímíp, as it would perfectly agree with bíoíp, the universally approved form for the third person plural. In South Leinster and East Munster they say b'omuipc, and Dr. -Neilson gives bíoómaoio, which is the form used in Ulster. But bíoómaoio is more properly the indicative form, and means we are rather than let us be. óíóíó is the only form for the second person plural found in correct printed books and manuscripts, and yet bíjíó is the form used in the spoken language 1 " in every part of Ireland, and bigidhe is given as the only synthetic form by Neilson, who had little or no acquaintance with the ancient Irish manuscripts. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 b-puilinn, that I am. 1. 50 b-puilmio, 50 b-puilectm, that we are. 2. 50 b-puilip, that thou art. 2. 50 b-puilci, that ye are. 3. 50 b-puil pé, that he is. 3. 50 b-puilio, that they are. m So much is this termination boys, when beginning to speak now established for this person English, are heard to say come- in all the verbs, that in some of aigíóe, for " come ye." the mountainous districts some 170 Of the Verb Substantive. [part ii. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 pabap, that I was. 1. 50 pabamap, that we were. 2. 50 pabaip that thou wast. 2. 50 pababccp, that ye were. 3. 50 pcnb, or paibe pé, that 3. 3 pabaoap, that they were. he was. óh-puilim, in the present tense, and pabcrp, in the past, are called the subjunctive mood of the verb ccum, although, properly speaking, derived from other obsolete verbs. This mood (which the regular verbs want altogether — see p. 1 79) is never used in the modern language, except after the particles an, whether ; 50, that ; cá, where ; ni, not ; nac, not, or which not ; noca, not ; or after the relative when preceded by a preposition, as an b-pu ii pé, is he ? paoilim 50 b-puilip, I think that thou art; ccub-puilio, where are they ? ní puil pé beo, he is not alive ; nac b-puil pe be<5, is he not alive ; an cé nac b-puil paióbip, he who is not rich ; ó a b-puilio, from whom they are; oála Méill ap a b-puilmío aj rpácra, " with respect to Niall, of whom we are treating," Keat. Hist., p. 109. The form cá is never used after any of these particles in the modern language, but in the ancient manuscripts eá is as often used in these situations as puil, or pil, as 5 aeDCt ^ 5^ a f ° C( ^ 1C JJaeoil, " Gaedal Glas, from whom the Gaels are [descended]," B. Ballymote, fol. 11 ; or, as written by Keating, Jy 301 ^ 10 ^ 5^ a f ó o-cáio ^aoioil, Hist. Irel., p. 49; Rumann, mac Colmáin in pilió, ó ccne Sil "Rumainn 1 n-Qch Upuimm, " Ruman Mac Col- main, the poet, from whom are the Sil Ronain, at Ath Truim." Even Duald Mac Firbis, who wrote about the middle of the seven- teenth century, frequently uses eá for b-puil in the situations above mentioned, as peólimió, mac Qmaljaió, 01a o-cá Ceneul pet>- limió, "Fedhlimidh, son of Amhalgaidh, from whom are the Ceneul Fedhlimidh," Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 4, line 13; Cucomjelc, mac Griialjaió, ó o-ccno lTluincip Uhomalcaij;, " Cucoingelt, the son of Amhalgaidh, from whom are Muintir Thomaltaigh," Id., p. 12, line 4. In ancient manuscripts pil is very frequently used for puil, and chap, v.] Of the Verb Substantive. 171 even for acá, particularly in the relative form, as jac luib ptl 'pan moij, " every herb which is in the plain;" óej-Gipe, .1. imp pil pop muip amuij la h-Uib Cemnpealaij, " Beg-Eire, an island which is out in the sea in Hy-Kinsellagh," Irish Calendar, 23rd April; alii oicunc cumao h-e Colmán, mac Qeoa pil 1 n-Qpo bo pop bpu 6ocha Gchach, M others say that it is Colman, the son of Aedh, that is at Ard bo, on the brink of Lough Neagh," Felire Aengus, 17th February. It should be also remarked here that the forms bi, bui, boi, &c., are often used in ancient writings for the subjunctive paib, as co nac bui for 50 nac paibe, Battle of Magh Rath, p. 232; co h-aipm a m-bui for 50 h-cuc a paibe, Id., p. 10; co m-báoap, for 50 pabaoap, Id., p. 24. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 m-biao, that I shall be. 1. 50 m-biamaoio, that we shall be. 2. 50 m-biaip, that thou shalt 2. 50 m-biaóáió, that you shall be. be. 3. 50 m-biaió, that he shall be. 3. 50 m-biaóaio, that they shall be. CONDITIONAL M003>. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. beióinn, orbeinn, I would be. 1. beiómíp, or beimip,we would be. 2. beióéeór, or beiceá, thou 2. beióríó, ye would be. wouldst be. 3. beióeaó pé, he would be. 3. beioip, they would be. The conjunctions do, if, and muna, unless, are signs of this mood, and eclipse the initial consonant ; it can, however, be used independently of any conjunction ; but it has then generally the em- phatic particle 00 before it, as 00 beióinn. The first person singular of this mood is always pronounced in Munster as if written beióinn, which, in the eastern countries, is pronounced beióinj. But in the Battle of Magh Rath, and most ancient writings, it is generally 172 Of the Verb Substajitive. [part n. written beino; beióeccó, the form for the third person singular, is pronounced in Munster as if written beioeac, or beir. In ancient writings we find co m-biao, that it would be; oia m-beo, if it would be ; no beir, it would be, for the modern 50 m-beióeaó, oá m-beióeaó, 00 beióeaó. — See Battle of Magh JRagh, pp. 24, 58, 68. INFINITIVE MOOD. Do beir, to be. By prefixing certain prepositions to the verbal noun beiú, being, various expressions are formed, which are equivalent to participles and ablatives absolute in other languages, as ap m-beiú, on being ; lap m-beir, after being ; ap ci beir, on the point of being, about to be ; cum a beir, or cum t>o beir, to be, or in order to be. The analytic form of this verb is always the same with the form for the third person singular through all the persons, thus : Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cá mé, I am. 1. cá pnn, we are. 2. cá cú, thou art. 2. rá fib, you are. 3. cá pé, he is. 3. ca pao, they are. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. bí mé, I was. 1. bi pmn, we were. 2. bí cú, thou wert. 2. bi fib, ye were. 3. bí r-é, he was. 3. bi fiao, they were. This analytic mode of inflecting the verb is becoming very general in the spoken language, particularly throughout the north- ern half of Ireland. chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Active. 173 Section 4. — Conjugation of a regular Verb. 55lcmami, I cleanse. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlanaim, I cleanse. 1. jlcmamcno, or jlanamaoio, or jlanam, we cleanse. 2. jlanaip, thou cleansest. 2. jlancaíó, you cleanse. 3. glanaió re, he cleanseth. 3. glcmaio, they cleanse. Consuetudinal Present. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlcmcmn mé, I usually cleanse. 1. jlancmn pnn, we usually cleanse. 2. jlcmcmn cú, thou usually cleansest. 2. glcmann pB, you usually cleanse. 3. jlcmcmn re, he usually cleanses. 3. jlcmcmn pao, they usually cleanse. Some modern writers terminate the first person singular of the present indicative in am ; but this is properly the first person plu- ral. The second person singular sometimes terminates in e, or I, in old manuscripts, but never in the modern language. See obser- vations under Cain, p. 166. The third person singular of this tense has no synthetic form, either in the ancient or modern language ; for some observations on which see p. 153. The termination for the first person plural, which always ends alike in the present and future indicative, varies throughout the provinces. In the south of Leinster and east of Munster it is pronounced amino, or mijio (short), whether the characteristic vowel of the root be broad or slender ; and maoio (long) in Thomond ; while in other parts of Ireland it is sometimes pronounced maoio, long ; sometimes 174 Conjugation of a regular Verb Active, [part ii. muiD, or máío, short ; and sometimes mio, long and slender. The terminations found in ancient manuscripts are mam, maic, mio, and mi e; but it is not easy to prove whether these terminations were pronounced long or short. Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis writes maio, in 1417 ; thus, ó Raic ópanouib ap bmo cluij, co ^pcu^ cell, conaip riajmaio, " from Bath Eranduibh of the sweet bells, to Traigh Ceall, a road which we go." — Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, pp. 224, 225. It is written mcnc in the Leabhar Breac, a manuscript of the highest authority; as, £,05 oún dp piachu arhail lojmcnc-ne o'áp pecerhnatb, " dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris" fol. 124, b, a. It is written mum, mair, and mio, in an old vellum Life of St. Moling, and in H. 3. 18.; thus, pctjmuio-ne a comne in cléipij, "we will go meet the cleric;" pecmaic a lep, ol in cléipec, cm ni puapamap páilci 1 C15 cule íp in baile, "we stand in need of it, said the cleric, for we have not received welcome in any other house in the town ;" bemio-ne ppip in pechc pin, " we will be for that law," H. 3. 18. p. 358. It is written mic in a very old vellum copy of Cormac's Glossary, as ppoimpimie ppip, ol, pé, " we shall try it, said he," voce Ppull. It is not easy to decide what termination should be adopted in the general modern language, as the provin- cialists would not agree. The author would recommend it to be settled by the following rule. When the characteristic or last vowel of the root is broad, the first person plural of the present indica- tive active should, in the synthetic form, terminate in máío or maoio, long ; it is difficult to decide which ; the second in cat, caoi, or caíó ; and the third in aio (short). But when the charac- teristic vowel is slender, they should terminate in mio, ci, or cio, and 10 (short). This rule is almost invariably observed by O'Mol- loy, in his Lucerna Fide Hum, which was printed at Rome in 1676, as in the following instances : 1, of the broad termination, — aópa- maoio, " we adore," p. 195 ; oiulcamaoio, " we renounce," p. 279 ; jlacamaoio, "we receive," pp. 257, 279; meapamaoio, "we think," pp.212, 213, 216; oppalamaoio, "we offer," p.251 ; onópamaoio, "we honour," pp. 192, 194, 217. Of the slender termination, cpeioimio, "we believe," p. 235 ; cuipmio, "we put," pp.214, chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Active. 175 224,229; jaipmio, "we call," p. 236; juiomio, "we implore," p. 228 ; cuirmiD, " we fall," p. 222. However, he sometimes deviates from this rule, but not often. In p. 197 he writes, icnpp- mio, "we ask;" in pp. 198, 203, and 228, lappamccoio ; and in p. 214, ictppmuio. Donlevy, in his Irish Catechism, published at Paris in 1 742, keeps more closely to this rule ; and he generally uses maoio, and rarely muio, for the broad termination; ex. lecm- maoio, "we follow," p. 212; pájamuio, "we find," p. 206; cuipmio, "we put," p. 200; caillimio, " we lose," p. 218; coim- ni£mio, " we remember," p. 284 ; cuienuo, " we fall," p. 216 ; epei^imío, "we have forsaken," p. 216. It is impossible to bring the local jargons of the different counties to a grammatical stan- dard, and therefore some general system, drawn from the best manuscripts, must be submitted to, in settling the orthography of this neglected language. In the spoken language, the synthetic form for the second per- son plural is rarely used ; but, instead of it, the analytic form jlanaió pib, or the consuetudinal present, jlanann pib, is always employed. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlornap, or oo jlanap, I did 1. £lanamap, we did cleanse. cleanse. 2. jlanuip, thou didst cleanse. 2. jlanabap, you did cleanse. 3. £lcm pé, he did cleanse. 3. jlanaoap, they did cleanse. The particles t>o, or po, are often prefixed to the past tense in the modern language ; but in ancient writings the prefix is variously given, ap, ac ; t>o, t)op ; po, pop; no, nop; po, pop, pobup ; pou. In the ancient manuscripts the third person singular has a synthetic termination, which is variously written epcap, upcap, epcaip, upecnp, apoaip, upoaip, of which, strange to say, no Irish grammarian has hitherto taken notice ; as, ooipcepccnp, " he poured," Battle of Magli Rath, p. 94 ; o'pecupcap, a j ie viewed," 176 Conjugation of a regular Verb Active, [part ii. Id., p. 24 ; po lmpepncnjepcup, "he quarrelled," Id., p. 110; íonnup jjjup óallupocnp a óeapbpaéaip, " so that he blinded his brother," Keat. Hist., pp. 28, 51 ; po bpeiceavhnapcaip, "Judica- vit," Duald Mac Firbis, in H. 2. 15. p. 208. Of all these, apcccip is the most usual and best form for this termination, and it is to be suspected that ctpcup is a corruption, to be attributed to the negli- gence of transcribers. In the southern half of Ireland, the termi- nation for the first person plural is pronounced as if written máíp, móíp, or mmp (short) ; a form sometimes used by Keating, and always by O'Molloy, and found in manuscripts of the fifteenth cen- tury, as oo péip $ac neic oá n-oubpamoip pomcunn, ''according to every thing which we said before," Keat. Hist., p. 32. When the characteristic vowel of the root is broad, the synthetic form for the first person plural is formed, in the modern language, by add- ing amap to the root, but in the ancient language more generally by adding pam, as jabpcmn, we took; éucpam, we gave; for the modern, jabccmap, cugamap; and when slender, by adding pem. — See Battle ofMagh Rath, pp.38, 43. The termination abap, de- noting the second person plural, is often written abcnp in good manuscripts, and pronounced abcup in the south of Ireland ; this termination is seldom used in Ulster. But the termination aoap, for the third person plural, is still in constant use in Connaught and Munster, and well understood, though not often used, in Ulster. It occurs in manuscripts of considerable antiquity, but not so often as the terminations peo, pec, pao (which are evidently corruptions of the pronoun piao), and pctoap, pacap ; as lenpac, they followed, for the modern lean piao, or leanaoap ; nip pécpac, they were not able, for níop péccoaoap ; jpáóai^pec, they loved, for jpaóuijea- oap ; po cnpijpec, they perceived, for oo aipijeaoap ; cucpaoap, they brought, for cujaoap ; mapbpaoap, they killed, for rhapba- oap. — See Battle ofMagliBatli, pp.28, 38, 66, 178, 246, et passim; po comcnpcpeo ciapa ceno, ocup ac bepcpam ppm, " interrogave- runt eum cujus caput esset, et ille eis dixit" Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe 6pecáin. chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Active. 177 Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlanamn, I used to cleanse. 1. glanamaoip, we used to cleanse. 2. jlancá, thou usedst to cleanse. 2. £lcmcaíó, you used to cleanse. 3. jlccnaó pé, he used to cleanse. 3. jlanaoaoip, or jlanaiofp, they used to cleanse. The particles oo, no, &c., may be prefixed to all the persons of this tense also. The termination aó in the third person singular is pronounced, in Connaught and Ulster, as if written úó, or úih, but in the south, as if etc ; but at>, eao, or eó is the true termination, as appears from the best manuscripts: ocup ní clumeaó ace maó bee, ocup ní céimní^eó pop a copaib, " and he heard but little, and he used not to walk on his feet." — Battle of Mag h Bath, p. 42. The ter- mination for the first and second persons plural in this tense are far from being settled in the modern language, for in some places they are pronounced jlcmamuipc, jlanabuipc; but these forms — though strong and distinct, and adopted perhaps in imitation of the Latin terminations vimus, vistis — are never found in any good authority. The form for the third person plural is fixed, being nearly the same in every part of Ireland : when the characteristic vowel is slender it ends in oip, or íoíp, and when broad in octoip, modern, and oedp, in ancient writings, as in the following exam- ples : oo linjoíp J^aoioil cap an 5-cloioe, " the Gaels used to sally over the fosse," Keat. Hist., p. 2 ; ap jac coéujaó oá o-cuj- oaoip 00 boccaib ccjup 00 óilleaccaib, " of every support they used to give to the poor and to the orphans," Id., p 1 ; qvalluio pop muip, ajup ceajmaio mupóucamn oóib, ajup 00 canoaoip ceol 00 na loinjpiocaib, no cpiallaó cáppa 50 5-cuipoíp coolaó oppa, ajup 00 lingoip pém cuca 01a mapbaó, " they put to sea, and syrens met them, and they used to chaunt music to the sailors as they were passing by, and brought sleep upon them, and then they used to rush upon and kill them," Id., p. 48 ; ópijic banoee 2 A 178 Conjugation of a regular Verb Active, [part ii. no ctopaoíp pilio, " Brighit, a goddess whom the poets used to worship," Cor. Gloss., voce 6pijic ; ip oo no coipepjoccip mi TTlápca, " it is to him they used to dedicate the month of March," Id., voce mctipc. But it should be confessed that, in the south of Leinster, and the eastern counties of Munster, the third person plural of this tense terminates in oip, or íoíp, whether the characteristic vowel be broad or slender ; and the above examples are there pronounced as if written linjioíp; oá o-cujcuoíp; oo ccmcnoíp ; 50 5-cuipioíp; 00 aópaioíp ; 00 coipeapgcnoip. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. glanpao, I will cleanse. 1. jlanpam, or jlanpamaio, or ^lanpamaoio, we will cleanse. 2. glanpaip, thou wilt cleanse. 2. jlanpaíó, you will cleanse. 3. glanpaió pé, he will cleanse. 3. glanpaio, they will cleanse. It should be observed here that the p is scarcely heard in this tense in the spoken language in any part of Ireland, and that throughout the southern half of Ireland it is pronounced like c or h, as jlanrao, I will cleanse; ceiléip, thou wilt conceal; but the p is more frequently found as the sign of the future tense of regular verbs in ancient manuscripts than c, and must, therefore, be re- ceived as its true sign 11 . The r, however, is also sometimes found n Mr. Patrick Lynch, in his ture, and in some verbs not at Introduction to the Irish Language, all used ; neither is it employed seems to think that p is not an in the grammars of the learned absolutely necessary sign of the Messrs. Shaw and Stewart, for future tense. His words are : the Caledonian dialect of our "Some grammarians say that the language." — p. 24. letter/* (p) should be placed as It is very true that in some of a characteristic for the future, the irregular verbs, and in the next to the termination of the class terminating in ui£im, or second person singular of the i^'m, and a few others, the 5 is Imperative mode ; but from the not introduced into the future ; examples adduced above, as well but in all other regular verbs the as those from O'Molloy, it is ob- p should be used, as it is found vious that p (/*) is not an abso- in the most correct Irish manu- lutely necessary sign of the fu- scripts. chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Active. 179 in good authorities, as ip mipi poc pubrct, " it is I that shall wound thee," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 294. In ancient writings the second person singular of this tense also ends in e or 1, as well as the present, as ní vhúipbpe-piu mipi, " thou shalt not kill me," Id., p. 190. F a, ^> °r pit>, the analytic termination for all the persons when the pronouns are expressed, is pronounced fwee, ox fee, in Connaught, but fwí, or ft, in Munster. This termination is writ- ten pccó by the Eev. Paul O'Brien and others, which is very incorrect. In the ancient manuscripts it is often written pa, or pi, without the final d, as gonpa pé, " he will wound ;" paicpi pé, " he will see," Battle of Magh Rath, pp. 136, 194; jpompa, ,i. aeppa, "he will satirize," Cor. Gloss., voce JJpoma. Sometimes, but rarely, the termination ab is found for the first person singular of this tense after a negative, as ni rholab, " I shall not praise," Teige Mac Dary ; ní puicéab oamna oo'n opoinj, " I will not omit one of the people," Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis, A. J). 1417. The termination peam, or piom, pam, pern, is often found in the best manuscripts for the first person plural, as 50 n-jlanpam, till we shall cleanse; 50 n-guiopeam, till we shall implore. — Keating. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Properly speaking, no regular verbs in Irish have any subjunctive mood ; the form of the verb which fol- lows the particles governing the subjunctive (seep. 170), always terminates like the indicative. But in irregular verbs these particles are followed by a peculiar form. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. jlanam, or jlanamaoip, let us cleanse. 2. jlan, cleanse thou. 2. glanaíó, you cleanse. 3. ^lanaó pé, let him be 3. jlanaioip, let them cleanse. cleansed. The third person singular is pronounced ^lcmac pé throughout 180 Conjugation of a regular Verb Active, [part n. the southern half of Ireland, but jlanarh, or glanúó p e in Con- naught and Ulster. In the topographical poems of O'Dugan, O'Heerin, and Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis, the termination am, or earn, is almost invariably used for denoting the first person plural, as in the following examples: cpiallam cimceall na Poóla, "let us travel round Ireland," O'Dugan; labpam oo clomn Choppmaic Chaip, cpiallam cap Sionainn ppuc-jlaip, "let us speak of the race of Cormac Cas, let us proceed across the green- streamed Shannon," O'Heerin; Clann Piacpa uip ap m'aipe, leanam lopj na laecpaióe, "the race of the noble Fiachra are my care, let us follow the track of the heroes," Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis. In the county of Kilkenny the first person plural of this mood terminates in muipc, as jlanamuipc, but this is never found in correct manuscripts, and must be regarded as a local bar- barism. The termination íó is that most generally found in ancient manuscripts for the second person plural of this mood, as eipjíó, eipjíó, a 05a! "arise, arise, O youths," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 122; cójbaíó ocup caipbena'o, " raise and shew," Id., p. 178; cabpaíó ceno na plepci pilió Faip, place ye the end of the poet's wand upon it," Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópecain ; cuipíó amach m ceno, " put ye out the head," Id., voce Ope. In the Book of Ballymote it is sometimes written íói, as ocup ci^epnaíói do íapcaib in mapa, ocup 00 eacaicib in nime, ocup 00 na h-uilib anmannaib, " and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over all the animals." At present, however, the ter- mination 15ÍÓ is that used in every part of Ireland except the county of Kerry, and parts of Cork, where it is I5. This West Munster termination, which sounds so strangely in the ears of the inhabitants of the provinces of Connaught and Ulster, is strikingly exemplified in the following verses by Andrew Magrath, a Munster poet of the last century : " Sin agaib an c-am, ajup jabaij le n-a céile, Ppeabaij le ponn, ajup planncaij méic-puic, 6eanaij Fo ó a ap ópeam an éicij, 'S ná h-ionncoigeaó aen le pjác o'n ngleo." The East Munster form, which also extends into Connaught chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Active. 181 and Ulster, is exemplified in these lines, from a Jacobite song by Timothy O'Sullivan, a native of the county of Waterford : " Ceóncnjíó, léancujíó, léapcugíó, leaóbcnjíó Céapaigíó, claoiógíó bap nárhcuo." CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlanpamn, I would cleanse. 1. ^lanpamaoip, we would cleanse. 2. jlcmpá, thou wouldst cleanse. 2. jlanpaíó, you would cleanse. 3. jlanpaó pé, he would cleanse. 3. jlcmpcuoip, they would cleanse. The particles Do, no, &c, may be prefixed to this mood, and the conjunctions Oa, if, and muncc, unless, are usually its signs. In ancient writings pcnnn, the termination for the first person sin- gular, is written paino, poino, or puino, and, when the characteristic vowel of the root is slender, pmo, as po amicpmo pib, " I would protect you," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 78 ; no aipipp ino, " I would stay," Id., p. 66. The p is sometimes omitted, as po rpiallcnno for oo épiallpainn, " I would proceed," Id., p. 172 ; co clanoaino for 30 5-clannpcunn, " that I would thrust," Id., p. 42. The termination pá is not always used in the spoken language, for, in the south-east of Ireland, rá is most generally substituted in its place, and this termination often occurs in ancient writings, as 01a n-jabcá, " if thou wouldest take," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 42; muna ímjaibreá m inao, " if thou wouldst not quit the place," Id., p. 202. This termination is also used in John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, as 00 jeabrd ní ba mó ucum-pe oá pípéeá opam é, "thou wouldst obtain a greater request of me if thou wouldst ask it of me, p. 118. The termina- tion for the third person singular is pronounced ac, or eac, in this mood, throughout the south of Ireland, but inConnaught and Ulster úó, or íúó, the p being very seldom heard. The p, however, should 182 Conjugation of a regular Verb Active, [pakt ii. not be rejected, as it adds force and distinctness to the termination, and is found in Irish manuscripts of the highest authority, as no péopaó, "he would be able," Battle of Mag h Bath, p. 68; ni unpaó " he would not stay," Id., p. 192 ; nop po^cnlpeo, " he would distribute," Id., p. 56 ; o'pcupnépeó, << ne WO uld relate," Id. t p. 318 ; oo ruicpeao, " he would fall," Id., p. 280. In an analytic form this mood always terminates in cto, or eaó (in old writings eo, or io), whether the p be used or not, and Haliday is wrong (Gcelic Grammar, p. 75) in writing oo céppcnó pinn as the analytic form of the oo céppamccíp. It should be oo céppaó pinn. It should be here remarked, that the terminations for the first and second persons plural of this mood vary throughout the pro- vinces, and stand in great need of a grammatical standard. But it is not easy to establish a standard, as the differences are so great and the ancient authorities so uncertain as to quantity. In the county of Kilkenny they are pronounced muipe, buipe, and the other parts of Munster mctoip, baoip. In most parts of Ireland, however, the second person plural has no synthetic form, but is pronounced jlanpaó pib, which shews that the language is suf- fering decomposition from the want of Irish literature. The third person plural is fixed, and is paioip, or píoíp, in most parts of Ire- land, except that the p is often aspirated, or pronounced like h or r. INFINITIVE MOOD. Do ^lanaó, to cleanse. Phrases equivalent to participles in other languages are formed by prefixing the prepositions cqi, upon ; 0:5, at; and lap, after, to the infinitive or verbal noun, as ap n^lanaó, on cleansing ; 0:5 glancco, a' cleansing ; lap n^lartaó, after cleansing. G5 glcmao, a' cleansing, building. The very recent rejec- This is exactly like the old Eng- tion of the a in such phrases, and lish participle a' hunting, a' doing, the adoption of being done, being - «' building, which some explain built, have much altered the ori- as abbreviated forms of at hunt- ginal character of the English ing, at doing, at building, and language, others of on hunting, on doing, on chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular- Verb Passive. 183 The Rev. Paul O'Brien and others call these phrases by the name of participles ; but though they are equivalent to the participles of other languages, it is quite obvious that they do not merit this appel- lation. The fact is, that there are no participles of the active voice in this language, which, adjective like, agree with their nouns, as in Latin, and their place is supplied by verbal nouns preceded by prepositions. — See Syntax, Rule 36. The various modifications of time maybe expressed by compound tenses formed of the verb substantive and the verbal noun, or the infinitive mood of the verb. Stewart has attempted to reduce these compound expressions into regular tenses, like the Latin and Greek ; but nothing is gained by so doing, as it is merely adding the tenses of cairn, to the verbal noun preceded by prepositions, as cáim 0:5 glctnaó, I am a' cleans- ing; biooctp 0:5 jlcmao, they were a' cleansing; biao lap nglanao, I will be after cleansing. Passive Voice. The passive voice has no synthetic form to denote the persons or numbers ; the personal pronouns, there- fore, must be always expressed, and placed after the verb ; and by a strange peculiarity of the language they are always in the accusative form. For this reason some Irish scholars have considered the passive Irish verb to be a form of the active verb, expressing the action in an indefinite manner, as buculeecm me, i. e. some person or per- sons, thing or things, strikes or strike me ; buaileao é, some per- son or thing (not specified) struck him. But it is more convenient in a practical grammar to call this form by the name passive, as in other languages, and to assume that éu, é, í, and iao, which follow it, are ancient forms of the nominative case, which, indeed, is not unlikely, as they are placed as nominatives, even after active verbs, in the Erse dialect of this language. Be this, however, as it may, we never place ye, pi, or p aD > after any passive verb. In Latin and 184 Conjugation of a regular Verb Passive, [part ii. most other languages, when a verb active is turned into the passive, the accusative of the verb active becomes the nominative of the verb passive ; but in the Irish the accusative still retains its form and position, thus, in buail íao, strike them, and buculeeap íao, let them be struck, íao has the same form and position ; and some have thought that it is the accusative case, governed by buailceap, like the accusative after the Latin impersonal verbs, as oportet me, tcedet me vitce, &c. In ancient manuscripts the termination cup is found instead of the modern cup, as allaip, he is fostered ; ^enaip, he is born. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlancap mé, I am cleansed. 1. jlcmccm pinn, or inn, we are cleansed. 2 jlctncap cú, thou art cleansed. 2. glancap pib, or ib, you are cleansed. 3. jlancap é, he is cleansed. 3. glancap íao, they are cleansed. This tense is used also for the imperative, and its several persons signify, according to the context, either I am cleansed, Thou art, &c. ; or, Let me be cleansed, Be thou cleansed, &c. The consuetudinal present is the same as the simple present. Past Tense, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 . jlanao me, I was cleansed. 1 . glcinaó pinn, or inn, we were cleansed. 2. jlanaó cú, thou wast cleansed. 2. jlcmaó pib, or ib, you were cleansed. 3. jlanaó é, he was cleansed. 3. glanaó iao, they were cleansed. chap, v.] Conjugation of a regular Verb Passive. 185 Do, or ]io, is prefixed to this tense as well as in the active voice, but with this peculiarity, that it never causes aspiration, as in the active. In the spoken Irish throughout the provinces, and in all printed books and most manuscripts of the last three centuries, the past passive of the indicative mood is formed by adding aó, or eaó, to the root of the verb ; but in ancient writings it is often formed exactly like the present passive participle, that is to say, by adding ca or ee, ra or re, to the root, as po mapbca, "he was killed ;" po h-inoapbra eipium, "he was expelled;" po oicuiprea na oib- eapjaig, " the rebels were banished,'' Battle of Magh Rath, pp. 48, 52, 100; piapiu oo ponca na muilino, " before the mills were made," Cor. Gloss., voce Curhal ; po panoea í n-oó, " it was divided into two parts," Tighernack, ad ann. 162. In some parts of Munster the termination ao in this tense is pronounced aj (5 hard and broad) ; and in others, particularly in Kerry, ac; but in Connaught and Ulster, úó, urn, or arh. This and other differences of termination in the verb, added to the difference in the position of the accent, often render it difficult for the inhabitants of the northern and southern parts of Ireland to understand each other, when speaking Irish. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlancaoi mé, or oo jlaneaoi 1. glaneaoi pinn, or inn, we mé, I used to be cleansed. used to be cleansed. 2. glancaoi éú, thou usedst to 2. ^lancaoi pib, or lb, you be cleansed. used to be cleansed. 3. jlancaoi é, he used to be 3. glancaoi íao, they used to cleansed. be cleansed. In ancient Irish manuscripts this tense often ends in ce and cea, as FPT a pá'eea, for leip a paiócí, Four Masters, passim. But in the best modern manuscripts it is written caoi, or ci, accord- ing to the characteristic vowel of the root, as a oeip nac oíolcaci an oeacrhuiú a n-Gipinn, " he says that tythes used not be paid in 2 B 186 Conjugation of a regular Verb Passive, [part ii. Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 5 ; ace pop jup ab innce do cumoaijci luce na 5-cpioc oile 6 TCómáncaib, " but that it was in her [Ire- land] the inhabitants of the other countries were preserved from the Romans," Id., ibid. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 5lanpap,or jlanpaíóeap mé, 1. jlanpap, or glanpáióeap I shall be cleansed. inn, or pmn, we shall be cleansed. 2. glcmpctp, or glanpaíóeap éú, 2. jlanpap, or jlanpáióeap thou shalt be cleansed. ib, or pib, you shall be cleansed. 3. glcmpap, or glanpaíóeap é, 3. ^lanpap, or jlanpáióeap he shall be cleansed. iao, they shall be cleansed. The termination pap is used in Munster, and paíóeap in Con- naught. In ancient manuscripts, paíó-ep is sometimes found for this tense, as cabaip a bel puap, ocup línpaióéep é, " turn its mouth up, and it shall be filled." — Vit. Moling. IMPERATIVE MOOD. This mood is always the same form as the present indicative. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jlanpaióe mé, I would be 1. jlanpaióe pinn, we would cleansed. be cleansed. 2. jlanpaióe éú, thou wouldest 2. jlanpaioe, pib, you would be cleansed. be cleansed. 3. jlanpaióe é, he would be 3. jlcmpcnóe iao, they would cleansed. be cleansed. In ancient manuscripts the termination for this tense is often written sect, as 01a n-epcamrea mipi lib, " if I should be cursed by you." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 38. But paíóe, or píóe, in chap, v.] Formation of the Tenses, fyc. 187 the best modern manuscripts, as in the following examples in John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating' 's History of Ireland : 50 rnctó ópucia no ópucica do joippióe ói, "that she should be called Brutia, or Brutica" p. 6 ; eocctip íapainn le m-bpippíóe baiciop ap bir, " an iron key by which any skull would [might] be broken," p. 14 ; 30 5-ccciépíóe, " that there would be spent," p. 30; cia 00 cuippíóe o'á óeunarh, "who would be sent to do it," p. 50 ; íonnup gup ab móioe oo cuigpíóe an ni pi, " in order that this thing might be the better understood," p. 99. INFINITIVE MOOD. Do beir jlanca, to be cleansed. Passive Participle. JJlcmca, cleansed. The termination of the participle passive is generally written ca, or ci, in ancient manuscripts ; and it is pronounced in the province of Connaught, and sometimes written cam, or ció, by Connaught Irish scholars ; thus, glancaió, bpipció (with the 1 long, but not accented). But in the southern half of Ireland it is more correctly pronounced glancá, bpipcé, or bpipcí. The passive voice may also be formed, as in English, by prefixing the different moods and tenses of the verb ccnm to the passive participle, as zá mé ^Icmua, I am cleansed ; bí pé ^lcmca, he was cleansed ; biaió uú ^lcmca, thou wilt be cleansed ; bíoó, or bíóeotó pé ^lancet, let him be cleansed; oá m-beinn glanca, if I would or should be cleansed. Section 5. — Formation of the Tenses of regular Verbs. The root, or theme of the verb is found to be the second person singular of the imperative mood, as ^lcm, 188 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. cleanse thou ; bpip, break thou ; or it may be generally found by cutting off the aim, or ím, of the first person singular present indicative active, as ^lanaim, I cleanse, root glan ; bpipm, I break, root bpip ; meallaim, I deceive, root meall. Shaw and Stewart, the ablest writers on Erse grammar, have attempted to make it appear that, as the Erse dialect has not the inflections in the termination of its verbs which characterize the Irish, it is therefore more original than the Irish ; and this argument has been urged by them, without producing any speci- men of the language in proof of the statement on which it rests, except the corrupt patois spoken in the Highlands. But it is well known that the Albanic duan of the tenth century, published by O'Flaherty, and by Pinkerton in his Inquiry into the Antiqui- ties of Scotland, is exactly the same, in words and inflections, as the Irish poems of that age. And it may be here remarked, that the oldest specimen of the Erse dialect, given by Stewart himself, in the second edition of his Grammar — (namely, the Epistle Dedi- catory to Bishop Carsuel's Gaelic translation of the Confession of Faith, &c, used in the Reformed Church of Scotland, and first printed in the year 1567) — is identical with the Irish, both in its words, grammatical inflections, and orthography. It is indeed strange that Stewart, who had this specimen before him — a speci- men which ought to be sufficient to satisfy any rational mind that the Erse dialect has been adulterated since that period, — should nevertheless repeat his favourite argument in support of the origi- nality of the oral patois of the Highlands, in the following words : " It may appear a strange defect in the Gaelic" (of Scotland), " that its verbs, excepting the substantive verb ' Bi, Is,' have no simple Present Tense. Yet this is manifestly the case in the Scottish, Welch, and Cornish dialects (see Arch. Brit., page 246, col. 1 ; and page 247, col. 1) ; to which may be added the Manx. ' Creiddim,' I believe; 'guidheam,' I pray ; with, perhaps, one or two more Present Tenses, now used in Scotland, seem to have been imported from Ireland]; for their paucity evinces that they belong not to our chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 189 dialect. — The want of the simple Present Tense is a striking point of resemblance between the Gaelic and the Hebrew verb. " I am indebted to a learned and ingenious correspondent for the following important remark ; that the want of the simple Pre- sent Tense in all the British Dialects of the Celtic, in common with the Hebrew, while the Irish has assumed that Tense, furnishes a strong presumption that the Irish is a dialect of later growth ; that the British Gaelic is its parent tongue ; and consequently, that Britain is the mother country of Ireland." — Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 97, note m . That the Erse originally wanted the simple present tense, is far from being certain. Shaw gives the simple present throughout his Grammar, and it is hard to believe that it even now lacks it altoge- ther. We cannot, however, receive the present oral patois of the Highlands as evidence, whereas the early printed specimens totally differ from it. Why have not the Scotch published any manu- script specimens of their Gaelic, with faithful translations ? The spoken Irish is also fast falling into the decomposed state of the Erse of the Highlands, and will, no doubt, if it continues to be spoken for a few centuries longer, without being cultivated, lose its simple present tense, as well as all its synthetic forms, which it has indeed already lost, to a great extent, in many parts of Ireland. It is quite clear, from the older specimens of the Erse given by Stewart, in the second edition of his Grammar, that this dialect had a simple present tense when they were written ; and as we have the authority of Shaw, who wrote in 1778, for making a simple present tense at that period, the conclusion is inevitable, that Stewart was induced to reject this tense, in order to establish a striking point of resem- blance between the Erse and the Hebrew, which the Irish, supposed to be the mother tongue, had not. But this is an idle attempt, altogether unworthy of his learning, and will not now for a moment stand the test of criticism ; for it is now universally acknowledged by the learned, that the Celtic dialects of the British Isles have little or no affinity with the Hebrew or Semitic dialects, they being clearly demonstrated to be dialects of the Indo-European family of languages. It is also incontrovertible that the mode of inflection 190 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. by varying the termination, is more ancient than the use of par- ticles ; so that the analytic form of the verb found in the Erse dialect, instead of proving it ancient, affords the best argument to shew that it must have assumed such a form in comparatively modern times. The Goths, Vandals, Moors, and other barbarians, finding it too troublesome to recollect the various terminations of the Greek and Latin nouns and verbs, had recourse to a number of detached particles and auxiliaries, to represent the cases and tenses, and these have been gradually introduced into all the modern languages of Europe ; and it is more than probable, that if the Irish and Erse continue to be spoken among the peasantry for a few centuries longer, they will gradually lose their termina- tions, and adopt particles and auxiliaries in their stead ; and who- ever will take the trouble to compare the ancient with the modern spoken Irish, he will perceive that the language is fast progressing towards this state of decomposition. Notwithstanding the ability of Shaw, Stewart, and other scho- lars, who have attempted to prove, from the oral dialect of the Highlands, that it is the parent of the Irish language, they have made no impression on the minds of the learned of Europe. Mons. Pictet, of Geneva, who has used the second edition of Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, has, in his work on the Affinity of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, Paris, 1837, a work which was crowned by the Koyal Academy, given us his valuable opinion of the nature of the Erse in the following words : " Uerse est la langue des montagnards de l'Ecosse. Ses monu- ments écrits sont bien moins anciens, et moins nombreux que ceux de l'lrlande, et ne paraissent pas remonter au-delá du 15 e siécle. Les poesies traditionelles recueillies et publiées sous le nom d'Ossian, vers la fin du siécle dernier, sont ce qu'elle posséde de plus remarquable. Compare á l'irlandais ancien l'erse offre de nom- breuses traces de cette decomposition qui s'opere sur les langues par l'effet du temps, et il se rapproche á cet égard de l'irlandais oral moderne." — Introduction, p. ix. From the root all the tenses and moods of the regu- chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 191 lar verbs are formed, by a mechanism extremely simple and regular, as follows : Active Voice, indicative mood. The present tense is formed by adding to the root aim, or ím, for the first person singular ; ctiji, or íp, for the second ; aió, or id, for the third ; amaoio, imio, earn, or am, for the first person plural ; raoi, or úí, for the second ; and ait), or 10, for the third. Here it should be remarked, that when the characteristic vowel of the root is broad, the terminations are aim, aip, aió, &c. ; but when slender, im, in, ió, &c. The ancient terminations have been already pointed out. Sometimes the root suffers syncope, as labaip, speak thou; labpaim, I speak ; bujaip, threaten thou ; bajpaim, I threaten ; cooail, sleep thou ; coolaim, I sleep. The relative form terminates in ap, or eap, accordingly as the characteristic vowel of the root is broad or slender, as a £lanap, who cleanses ; a bpipeap, who breaks; a rheallap, who deceives. The consuetudinal present is formed by adding ann, or eann, according to the characteristic vowel, to the root, as ^lannan pé, he cleanses; bpipeann pé, he breaks, or usually breaks. This tense has no syn- thetic form, but always has the persons postfixed, as bpipeann mé, cú, pé, &c, the verb having the same form to agree with all the persons, singular and plural ; and also with the relative, as a bpipeam, who breaks. In old manuscripts this tense sometimes ends in inn, intended for the modern íonn, as oibpi^inn maille bpij concpápóa, "it works with a contrary effect." — Med. MS. A. D. 1414. The preterite or simple past tense, in its analytic 192 Formation of the Tenses [part it. form, is the same as the root, except that the initial consonant is aspirated, if of the aspirable class, as, root ^lan, preterite jjlan pé, he cleansed; root bpip, preterite bpip pé, he broke. But when the consonant is not of the aspirable class, then it is exactly like the root, or second person singular imperative active, as root la- baip, speak thou ; labaip p é, he spoke. But they are distinguished by the collocation, and often by the par- ticles Do, no, &c, which are generally prefixed to the preterite, but never to the root, or imperative. The synthetic form has ap or eap for the first person singu- lar, accordingly as the characteristic vowel is broad or slender ; aip, or íp, for the second ; while the third terminates, in the modern language, like the root. The relative form for this tense always terminates like the root, as a bpip, who broke. In ancient manuscripts the third person singular of this tense frequently terminates in apecup, or epcaip, as glanapccnp, he cleansed ; bpipepccup, he broke ; for the first person plural, amap, or pam ; for the second, ubap ; for the third, aoap, or pao. The consuetudinal past has an analytic and a syn- thetic form. The analytic is formed from the root by adding aó, or eaó, as £lanaó mé, c6, pé, &c. ; bpipeaó me, uu, pé, &c. ; and the synthetic by adding inn, or ainn, for the first person singular; uá, or ceá, to the second ; while the third is, as usual, the analytic form, with the pronoun postfixed ; maoip, or mip 5 for the first person plural ; úcrió, or éíó, for the second ; and at>aoip, or ioip ? for the third. The relative form of this tense terminates like the chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 193 third person singular, as a £lanaó, who used to cleanse; a bpipeaó, who used to break. The future tense has also an analytic and synthetic form. The analytic is formed by adding paió, or pió, to the root of the verb, that is, paió (in ancient manu- scripts sometimes pa), if the characteristic vowel of the root be broad ; and pio (in ancient manuscripts often pi), if it be small, as glanpaió me, cú, pé, &c. ; bpip- pió mé, cú, pé, &c. In the synthetic form the first person singular ter- minates in pat), or peao ; the second in paip, or pip ; but the third has no synthetic form. The first person plural ends in pamaio, pamaoit), or pimio ; the second in paíó, or píó, and sometimes without the final 6 ; and the third in paio, or pit). The relative terminates in pap, or peap, as a £lanpap, who will cleanse ; a bjup- peap, who will break. The f in this tense has totally disappeared from the Erse, or Gaelic, of Scotland, as Stewart laments (Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 85, note b) ; and though it is found in all the correct manuscripts and printed books in the Irish, it is fast disappearing from the modern spoken language ; and throughout the southern half of Ireland a r is substituted in its place, as jlancao, pro- nounced glanhad, for glanpao ; bpipceao, pronounced brish-had y for bjuppeao. In the Erse, the future is formed by adding aidh to the root, which marks the analytic present indicative of the Irish ; and the learned Mr. Stewart, who, blinded by national predilections, looks upon many of the imperfections of this corrupted dialect as so many beauties, says, that in giving a negative answer to a request, no sign of a future tense is used. Of this form of reply some traces are indeed found in the old Irish ; but a future termination in ab, or 2 c 194 Formation of the Tenses [partii. ecb, is used to distinguish it from the present, as already shewn in the observations under this tense, p. 179. Stewart's words are as fol- lows : " In all regular verbs, the difference between the Affirmative and Negative Moods, though marked but slightly and partially in the Preterite tense (only in the initial form of the second conjuga- tion), yet is strongly marked in the Future Tense. The Future Affirmative terminates in a feeble vocal sound. In the Fut. Neg. the voice rests on an articulation, or is cut short by a forcible aspi- ration. Supposing these tenses to be used by a speaker, in reply to a command or a request ; by their very structure the former expresses the softness of compliance, and the latter the abruptness of a refusal. If a command or a request be expressed by such verbs as these, * tog sin,' ' gabh sin,' ' ith sin,' the compliant an- swer is expressed by ' togaidh, gabhaidh, ithidh ;' the refusal by 'cha tog, cha ghabh, cha ith.' May not this peculiar variety of form in the same Tense, when denoting affirmation, and when denoting negation, be reckoned among the characteristic marks of an original language?" — Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 93. Verbs of more than two syllables, ending in 151m or ui£im, in the first person singular, present indicative active, make the future in eocat) ; and the last vowel in the preceding syllable, if broad, generally suffers attenuation, as ajit)ui£im, I exalt, fut. áipoeocaí) ; poillpi£im, I reveal, fut. poillpeócat) ; milpi£im, I sweeten, fut. milpeocatj; ímcí^im, I go away, fut. imeocat> ; panncui£im, I covet, fut. pamnceocao ; ceapcuigmi, I rectify, fut. ceipueocat). This is the termination used in printed books and correct manu- scripts of the last three centuries, as in Keating' s History of Ire- land, as transcribed by John MacTornaO'Mulconry, pp. 136, 167, 170, where the verbs, poillpjim, I shew ; panncu 151m, I covet ; ceapcui^im, I rectify, are made poillpeocam, we will shew ; r-amnceocao, I will covet ; ceipceocam, we will rectify ; and it is CHAP. V.] of regular Verbs. 195 still used in the Connaught dialect. Cut in the south of Ireland, the future of verbs of this class always terminates in eo^ao, or ójao, asapoójao, I will exalt; poillpeo^ao, I will shew; and this termination is used by O'Molloy, in his Lucerna Fidelhim, as cpuéojao, I will prove, p. 302 ; oo puipeojap, who will remain, p. 369. In ancient manuscripts the regular termination in peo is found in verbs of this class, as apocujpió, " he will rise up," Battle of Magli Rath, p. 12 ; puioi^pec, " I will arrange," Id., p. 178. And écac, and even eobox, are sometimes found in old writings for the eocao of the moderns, as cóipécox, "I will array," Id., p. 178; noccc ceipceoba, " there shall not be wanting," St. Columbkille. To this class may be added some others, which, though not ending in ljim, form the penultimate of the future in eo, and in ancient manuscripts in e long. The principal of these are the following : PRESENT. aomuim, I confess, aicnim, I know, airpipim, I relate, coolaim, I sleep, conjbaim, I keep, copnaim, I defend. Dibpim, I banish, oionjbcum, I repel, oio^laim, I revenge, eiblim, I die. pojlamaim, I learn, popjlaim, I open, ppeajpaim, I answer, impim, I play, mnipim, I tell, labpcum, I speak, palcpctim, I trample, ccupnjim, I draw, cogbaim, I raise, cojpaim, I desire. FUTURE. cuoeórhao. aiéeónao. curpeópao. coioeólao. coinjeóbao. coipeónao. oibeópao. omjeóbao. oijeólao. eibeólao. poigleómao. poipgeólao. ppeigeópao. ímeópao. ínneópao. laibeópao. pculceópao. eaipeóngao. cóijeóbao. coijeópao. 196 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. In the county of Kilkenny, and throughout Munster, however, the attenuation does not always take place in these verbs ; and the long syllable is transposed, as if those verbs were of the regular class in Í51TT1, or uijim, as aorhójao, I will confess ; aicneójao, airpi- peójao ; coioleójao; coinjeójao; copaineójao ; oíbpeójao, &c. But these forms are not found in printed books, nor in the correct Munster manuscripts, as will be seen in John Mac Torna O'Mul- conry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, pp. 20, 44, 78, where coijeopao, laibeopao, and cnceonao, occur as the futures of cogpaim, I desire; labpaim, I speak ; and cucnim, I know. Ex- amples of this future in eó, in the penultimate, also occur in the poems of the Munster bards of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies, as in the inauguration Ode of Donell O'Donovan, by Mul- downy O'Morrison, in 1639: 55ccipm pocaip na njlún óp' cm Coipeóncuó o'aip no o'eijin. " The title to the wealth of the generations from whom he sprung He will maintain by consent, or force." Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis often writes this future é long, as in the poem addressed to Teige Heagh O'Dowda, chief of Tireragh, in 1417: 6laó a rejlaij eoijéba. " The fame of his household I will extol." IMPERATIVE MOOD. The second person singular of this mood may gene- rally be considered the root of the verb, as glan, cleanse thou; brny\ break thou. The third person singular is formed from it by adding aó, or eab, accordingly as the characteristic vowel is broad or slender, as ^lanaó pé, let him cleanse ; bnir^ecco pe, let him break. The first person plural by adding am, earn, amaoir»; the second, Í6 (very long) ; the third, arjaoip, it)ir\ chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 197 CONDITIONAL MOOD. This mood, which has but one tense, has an analytic and synthetic form. The analytic is formed from the future indicative by changing paió, or pió, into paó, or peaó, as Do £lcmpaó pi ao, they would cleanse ; Do bjuppeaó pé, he would break, &c. The synthetic form has painn in the first person singular ; pá in the second ; but the third, as before remarked, has no synthetic form. In the first person plural, the termination is pamaoip, or pimip ; in the second, paíó, or pió (very long) ; in the third, paDaoip, or paioip, or piDip. Verbs in i£im, or ui^im, and those which form the penultimate of the future in eo, also form the condi- tional mood from the future indicative, by changing the final syllables to ainn, for the first person singular ; cá, for the second ; at), for the third, &c. In ancient manuscripts, the termination oboro, or obaó, often appears in this mood, as in can nop claeclobaó, "when it would change." — Cor Gloss., voce ÍTlanannán. INFINITIVE MOOD. General Rule. — The infinitive mood is formed by adding aó, or eaó, to the root of the verb, as Do £lanaó, to cleanse ; Do bjnpeaó, to break. But it may be generally observed, that if there be a diphthong, or triphthong, closed by 1 in the root, the 1 is most gene- rally dropped in forming the infinitive, as buailim, I 198 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. strike, infin. bualaó (not bucnleaó p ) ; loipcim, I burn, infin. lopcab ; ooipuim, I spill, infin. oopcaó ; opoui- 51m, I order, infin. onousaó. When, however, 1 is the only vowel in the last syllable of the root, the slender inflection is used, as bpipm, I break, infin. bjnpeaó ; poillpijjim, inf. poillpiu^aó. The infinitive mood is, however, variously formed. The fol- lowing classification of the modes of formation will assist the learner. 1. Some verbs have their infinitive like the root, as : caoió, to lament. oeapmcco, to neglect. par, to grow. jaipm, to call. mear*, to think, or estimate. mún, mine/ere. ol, to drink. pic, to run. pnárh, to swim. pjpior, to rub, scrape, sweep, destroy. cappainj, to draw. cuipling, to descends 2. Some form the infinitive by dropping the 1 of the root, or making it broad, as : p The anonymous author of an has collected many useful re- Irish Grammar, lately published marks from other writers on in Dublin, writes it bucnleaó, Grammar, and is often original, in which he differs not only from though sometimes mistaken, all the Irish, but also all the q In some parts of the south of Erse Grammarians, and from the Ireland these are made cappainc spoken language in every part of and cuiplinc in the spoken Ian- Ireland. His labours, however, guage ; but these forms are not are well intended, and though found in correct printed books, he evidently does not understand nor in the earlier Munster inanu- the genius of the language, he scripts. CHAP. V.] of regular Verbs. 199 IMPERATIVE. coipg, check, cuip, put. pulainj, suffer. o"uil, weep, pcuip, cease, ceanjail, bind, cocpaip, wind, roipmipc, forbid, cionóil, gather. INFINITIVE. 00 corj, to check. do cup, to put. o' pulanj, to suffer. 00 £ul, to weep. do pcup, to cease. do ceanjal, to bind. do rocpup, to wind. do roipmeapc, to forbid. do éionól, to gather. 3. Some suffer syncope in the penultimate syllable, and drop the characteristic slender vowel of the root, thus : IMPERATIVE. caoThain, protect, coram, defend, contend, pogcup, warn, pojain, serve, popjcnl, open, puapjail, relieve, múpjail, awake, peaccnn, avoid, rionpjam, begin, cojaip, desire. INFINITIVE. do caorhnao. do copnam. o' pójpaó. d' po jnaó. d' popglao. d' puapglao. do múpglaó. do peacnaó. do éionpnaó. do éójpaó. Most of these verbs have infinitives different from those here laid down, in the spoken language, and in very good manuscripts, as copainc for copnam ; pojaipc for pó^paó ; popgailc for popjlao ; múpjailc for mupglaó ; peacainc for peacnaó, &c. These termi- nations of the infinitive mood vary a good deal throughout the pro- vinces, and stand in need of a standard. Many of the terminations given by Neilson and Stewart would not be understood in the south of Ireland. 4. Verbs in ui^im and 151m make the infinitive in u$ao and uijaó, as : 200 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. INDICATIVE. crpouijim, I exalt, root, apouij. milpijim, I sweeten, root, milpij. mopuijim, I exalt, root, mopuij. poillpijim, I shew, root, poillpij. poillpijim, I shine, root, poillpij. INFINITIVE. do apoujaó. do milpiujaó. do rhopugaó. d' poillpiujao. do poillpiujaó. 5. Some add c to the root, but these have also a second form. INFINITIVE. IMPERATIVE. ajcnp, claim, ceil, conceal, copain, defend, contend, cuimil, rub. bajaip, threaten. Dibip, banish, copjaip, slaughter, póip, relieve, ppeajaip, answer. imip, play, loóbaip, offer, labaip, speak, lomaip, strip, peel, meil, grind, palcaip, trample, múpjail, awake, cabaip, give, peacain, avoid, romail, eat. o' ajaipc, or agpao. do ceilc. do copainc, or do copnarh. do cuimilc. do bagaipe, bajpao, or bajsjap. do óíbipc. oocopgaipc, copjpaó, orcopjap. d' póipinc, or o' póipirm. do ppeajaipc, or ppeajpao. lmipe. do íoóbaipc. do labaipc, or labpaó. do lomaipc, lompao. do me lie. do palcaipc, or palrpaó. do rhupjailc, or mupjlao. do cabaipc. do peacainc, or peacnaó. do romailc. 6. Many add amain, or eamain, to the root, as IMPERATIVE. caill, lose, cpeio, believe, pan, wait, stay, can, say, or sing, cinn, to resolve. INFINITIVE. do cailleamam. do cpeioeamain. o' panamain, or o' puipeac. do canamain, or cancain. do cmearhain. chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 201 IMPERATIVE. INFINITIVE. Jin, beget. do jineamuin. jeall, promise. oo ^eallamain. lean, follow. do leanarhain. cuill, earn. oo éuillearhain, or oo ruilliorh. oil, nurse. o' oilearhain. oip, fit, adapt. o' oipearhain. pjap, separate. oo p^apurhain. These words are sometimes written caillearhuin, cailliorhuin. &c, and pronounced in most parts of Ireland as if written cailli- inn, cpeioiúm, canúin, &c. In some parts of Munster and South Leinster a c is added to this termination, as caillearhainc, cpeioe- arhamc, jeallarhainc, but this c is seldom found in any correct manuscripts. 7. Several add ail, or bail, to the root, as, IMPERATIVE. IKFIHITfT». confab, keep. oo conjbail. ^ab, take. do ^abáil. paj, find. o' F a £Úil, or F a 5 Da ' 1 - paj, leave. o' pújbáil. puai^, sew. o* pua^ail. cój, raise. 00 rójbúil. In all verbal nouns borrowed from the English this termination is used in the corrupt modern Irish, as bojtnl, to box ; cicáil, to kick ; pollúil, to roll ; pmúoáil, to smooth, kc. It should be here remarked, that in the south of the county of Kilkenny, the infinitive mood of roj, raise, is do róijean, and that in the dialect of Irish spoken in that county several infinitives end in an, as leajan for leagao, to knock down ; leig, let, or permit, léijean, or lijean; epéig, forsake, cpeigean ; ceilj, cast, ceiljean. In other parts of Ireland, however, these are written and pronounced leajair.c, léiginc, cpéijinc. Many such irregularities in forming the infinitive mood, or verbal noun, will be observed throughout the provinces, but as they are not found in good manuscripts they should be avoided in correct writing. 2 D 202 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. 8. Some add jail, as : IMPERATIVE. ppap, bounce, jump, peao, whistle, lmpeap, contend, ^pág, to cackle. This termination, which is now pronounced aoil in the south- east of Ireland, occurs three times in the Battle of Magli Rath, to wit, in the words ppapjail, bonnjail, and mealljail — See p. 256. It is frequently given by Peter Connell in his MS. Irish Dictionary. 9. Some add earn, or arh, as : INFINITIVE. do ppapjail. o' peaojcul. o' ímpeapjáil. do jpajaojail. IMPERATIVE. caic, spend. apcain, advance, proceed. oean, do. peic, await. cionpcam, begin. peap, stand. 10. Some add eacc, or ace, as éipc, listen, jluaip, move, cag, come. ímrij, go. 1 1. A few end in cam, or cam, as : can, say, or sing, peap, pour out. pi j, reach, maip, live. 12. A few in pin, as : INFINITIVE. do caiceam. o' ape nam. do óéanam. o' peicearh. do cionpcnam. do peapam. o'éipceacc. do jluaipeacc, or jluapacc. do ceacc. o' ímceacc. do cancam. o' peapéam. do poccain, or p'jpm. do rhapcam, or maipeaccan. peic, or paic, see. cuij, understand, caipj, offer, pi^, reach, cápaic, finish. d peicpin, or o paicpin. do cuijpm. do caipgpm. do pippin. do cáipcpm. CHAP. V.] of regular Verbs. 203 13. The following are irregular cup5, plunder, despoil, coppuij, move, cuinij, request, eipij, arise, lonnpcnj, approach, piappcti j, ask. téim, leap, jlaoó, call, jeini, low. iapp, ask. cuic, fall. reapapg, spare, save, luió, lie. puiD, sit. pnij, spin, claoió, subdue, paoil, think, imagine, leaj, knock down. léi£, let, or permit, eeilg, cast, péac, look, cpeij, forsake. o apjam. coppuije, or coppujaó. do cuinjio. d' eipijió, o' eipjió. d' íonnpaijió. d' piappaijió. oo léimnió, léimneac. oo jlaooac. oo jéimneac. o' íappaió. do éuicim. do ceapapjain. do luióe. do puióe. do pníje. do claoióe. do paoileaccam. do leajan, or do leajaó. do léijjjean, or do léijinc. do éeiljean, or 00 éeiljmc. o' péacain, or o'péaccunc. do rpéigean, or do épeijinc. Passive Voice. There is no distinction of number or person in the tenses of the passive voice, and, as already observed, the personal pronouns connected with it are always in what is considered to be the accusative case. INDICATIVE MOOD. The present tense is formed from the root by adding cap or ceap, cap or reap, as mealluap, is deceived ; bpipceap, is broken; lubrap, is bent; apoui^ceap, is 204 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. exalted. For General Rule, see formation of passive participle, pp. 205, 206, which also regulates the aspi- ration of the c in this termination. In ancient manuscripts this tense is found terminating in icep, and sometimes, though rarely, in aip, as allaip i pio, "it is reared in the woods," Cor. Gloss., voce Cenocno ; cuipichep, " is put," Id , voce pepb. The past tense is formed by adding aó, or eaó, to the root, as meallaó, was deceived ; bpipeab, was broken. In ancient manuscripts this tense is like the passive participle, as cujca, was given ; oo ponoca, was made. — See Battle of Magh Hath, pp. 8, 22, 24; pucchae, was horn. — Book of Armagh, fol. 18. The consuetudinal past adds caoi, or ci,as mectlcaoi, was used to be deceived; bpipci, was used to be broken. The future tense adds pap, peap, or paibeap, pióeap, to the root, asmeallpap, or rneallpaióeap, will be deceived ; bpippeap, or bpippióeap, will be broken. Verbs in ui£im, which make the future active in eócaO, form the future passive from the future active by changing eocctt> into eócap, as poillpi£im, I shew; future active, poillpeócat), I will shew ; future passive, poillpeócap mé, I will be shewn. In the ancient manuscripts the termination pirep is often found for this tense, as in peccmao car cuippirep eccpcub, i. e. " the seventh battle which shall be fought between you." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 12. CONDITIONAL MOOD. This mood, which has but one tense, is formed by adding paióe, or pme, to the root, or by adding e to chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 205 the future indicative active, as rheallpcnó, would be deceived ; bpip píóe, would be broken. Verbs in ui^im, and those which have eo in the penultimate of the future indicative active, form the conditional mood from the future indicative active, by- changing at) into cube, as poi Upturn, I shew ; poill- peoccto, I will shew ; t)' poillpeoccnóe, it would be shewn, innirim, I tell ; fat. inneopao, I will tell ; condit. o' wneopaioe, it would be told ; unpim, I play ; fut. lmeojiao, I will play; condit. o' ímeopctióe, it would be played. The passive participle is formed by adding ra, ra ; re, úe, to the root, as meallca, deceived; lubra, bent; bpipce, broken; poillpi^re, shewn. Verbs in 151m, or ui^im, always aspirate the c, as ópt>ui£im, I order, passive participle opoui^re ; as do also many others for the sake of euphony. In the Erse, or Scottish dialect of this language, the t is never aspirated in the passive participle ; but it is marked with a decided aspiration in the oldest Irish manuscripts, as ocup in hicc in cpa- paijche pin cucao TCoppcopp oo h Ua Suanaig, "and in satisfaction for this profanation, Ross Corr was given to Ua Suanaigh." — L. Breac, fol. 35, b ; ap mer in cpapaijre, " for the greatness of the profanation," Ibid.; and it has always its slender sound in the Erse, whether the characteristic vowel of the root be broad or slender. Stewart, therefore, recommends the termination of the passive participle to be always written te y without regard to the charac- teristic vowel. But this is not admissible in Irish ; for the ter- mination of the passive participle is pronounced broad or slender according to the last vowel of the root, as bpip, break, pass, part, bpipce ; 61, drink, pass. part, ólca, drank (not oilte, as in the modern Erse) ; and the c is frequently aspirated, even in the oldest 206 Formation of the Tenses [part ii. manuscripts. It should, however, be confessed, that in the county of Kilkenny, and some other parts of the south of Ireland, the passive participle is pronounced slender in a few verbs, of which the cha- racteristic vowel is broad, as cpocca, pronounced cpocee; leacca, spread, pronounced lecccce ; meaéea, decayed, stunted, pronounced meacre. But this is most decidedly a corruption, for in the pro- vince of Connaught, and in the western portion of Minister, the c in these words is pronounced with its proper broad sound. It should be remarked also, that the c in this termination is frequently as- pirated in Kerry, and parts of Cork, in positions where it has its radical sound in most other counties, as jeallra, promised, pro- nounced gealllia ; meallca, deceived, pronounced meallha. But in all other parts of Ireland the c has its radical sound after c, d, 5, 1, 11, n, r\r\, p, c, as cpoccct, hanged, or suspended; ppocca, emas- culated; bcuóce, drowned; pppéióee, spread; púijce, absorbed; bpúi^ee, bruised; molccr, praised; mealtca, deceived; oéanca, done; capca, twisted; bpipee, broken; olúicce, closed. But in verbs in 151m, or uijim, which make the future in eoccco, and in all verbs of which the root terminates in b, c, o, 5, m, p, p, c, the c is aspirated, whether the characteristic vowel be broad or slender, as lubcct, bent ; peacca, bowed ; jgieaoca, lashed; cpéijée, for- saken; becmnuijée, blest; cornea, dipped; pcaipce, scattered; lomapéa, peeled ; peapcra, entombed. The exceptions to these rules will be found to be very few, if any, in the present spoken language, except, as above remarked, in the county of Kerry, where the c is generally aspirated in the passive participle, without much regard to the consonant which precedes it, but this is contrary to the rules of euphony, and should not be imitated, or taken into consideration, in fixing a standard pronunciation for this language. When the root terminates in o, or c, the ccc, or ce, may or may not be aspirated, as both consonants have nearly the sound of a single c ; but it is, perhaps, better to aspirate the participial c for the sake of system. INFINITIVE MOOD. This mood has no synthetic form, but is expressed, chap, v.] of regular Verbs. 207 exactly as in English, by prefixing the infinitive mood of the verb substantive to the passive participle, as t)o beic bpipce, to be broken; Do beir mealkxt, to be deceived. Sect. 6. — Synopsis of the Verb Substantive and regular Verbs. For the convenience of the learner it has been thought advisable to give here, in a tabular form, para- digms, or synopses of the verb substantive, and also of three regular verbs, viz., molaim, I praise, whose cha- racteristic vowel is broad; ceilim, I conceal, whose characteristic vowel is small ; and poillpi^im, I shew. These examples will exhibit all the varieties of the in- flexions to be found in regular verbs, and the student should make himself thoroughly familiar with them before he proceeds to the study of the irregular verbs, which will then present no difficulty, as they are regular in their personal terminations. The learner will observe that when he has commit- ted to memory the terminations of the present indicative active of the regular verbs, he has no difficulty in com- mitting those of the future, the only difference being the insertion of an p for the latter. He should also bear in mind that the third person singular has no synthetic form in any of its moods and tenses, and that none of the moods of the regular verbs has more than one tense, except the indicative, which has five. I. — 'Cónm, I am. Singular. Plural. « o o > M H 0) S-3 (< ° Ph 1. bíó-im. 2. -ip. 3. -ecmn, or bíonn pé. 1. bímío 2. bící. 3. bío. "E e ■<-> e Eh Ph 1. bíó-eap. 2. bíó-ip. 3. bí pé. 1. bíomap. 2. bíobap. 3. bíooap. 3 -*-> _ -1 . 3 c S g -3 PUi 1. bíó-inn. 2. -ceá. 3. -eaó, or bíoó pé. 1. bímíp. 2. bicí. 3. bíoíp. 3 1. biao. 2. biaip. 3. bia, or biaió pé. 1. biamaoio. 2. biacaoi. 3. biaio. á © o > O B *-> M P •** C CD O CO co c CD a, Ph H 1. jo b-puil-im. 2. -ip. 3. -pé. 1. jo b-puil-imío. 2. -cí. 3. -io. 3 -1-3 Si e3 o> — C 05 CO .3 CD 3 *3 t, O Qj 1. jo m-bíó-mi. 2. -ip. 3. -ecmn pé. 1. jo m-bí-mío. 2. -cí. 3. -ío. 0) -4-a £ O S-. Ph 1. jo pab-ap. 2. -aip. 3. paib pé. 1. jo pab-amap. 2. -abap. 3- -aoap. .a eJ a 1. jo m-bíó-inn. 2. -ceá. 3. -eaó pé. 1. jo m-bí-míp. 2. -cí. 3. -oíp. ? ■+-> 3 PH 1. jo m-biao. 2. jo m-biaip. 3. jo m-biaió pé. 1. jo m-biamaoio. 2. jo m-biacaoi. 3. jo m-biaio. Imperative Mood. 1 2. bí. 3. bíóeaó, or bíoó pé. 1. bímíp. 2. bíóíó. 3. bíoíp. Conditional Mood. 1. beió-inn. 2. -ceá. 3. -eaó pé. 1. beimíp. 2. beicí. 3. beioíp. Infinitive Mood, t)o beic. Participle, Qp m-beir. 3 D 1-3 c o J «< H N © C © ^ cf - D £ Pk M O t-4 cs „ © ° Q c ~ o c - o c so a c 3 ^ "S . £ *£ 2 P C - D a C - •o £ *2 2 o a 1=2 2 8 •o 5 < c4 B a D d- Urn rJ f-3 •-a 1-3 ,_a r-3 B o £ •13 O o O o O o o > £ £ £ £ •£ — C^ CO — • c^' CO ^ C^ CO -« et OQ <-* C* 00 p> H^ _f • tf3 «1 < £ l vu *<3 . £ 'D M) £ w> vo £ u vu £ -k> vo •D O Q n4 c o C c. O p a •D a a a a o C5 g 1-3 • i 1-3 u. 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C 5 Ó £ a g i i i •o o (D Í- ^> g;2 d i i < •K) &1 O . cl £ D - 1 1 ) ■o o ►H H 05 *j[ "O Ml) £ w s— c c D — Í— •4) Ó £-2 vi3 •o D 4) i •Kb c s_ £ »ó -o -k) 1 I 1 PÍ Ph P Í £-'2 •K> P- T ' • •K) ^-3 a a a i i i •o o a> O 1— i F-3 •o* •tO CO .-j i-j O •p- o u. 1-3 1-3 o •p- i— > 5 o ^ o • o d o P- p- u- . ti. o •p- "b p? o o — i CM CO* ph CM CO i— i 11 Oh < O Q •npnsuoQ -nj3nsuo3 I— 1 •a00J\[ 3ALLVC )iaNj rH o O t— i 212 Irregular Verbs. [part ii. Section 7. — Irregular Verbs. There are eleven irregular, or more properly de- fective verbs in this language, viz., beipim, I give ; beipim, I bear ; cim, I see; cluinim, I hear; oeancnm, I do; nim, or ^ním, I do ; Oeipim, I say ; pa^cnm, I find; pijim, I reach; céióim, I go; n^im, I come. O'Molloy and Mac Curtin tell us that the irregular verbs of this language are very numerous, and mostly heteroclites, subject to no general rules ; but it is now quite evident that neither of these writers had given the subject sufficient consideration ; for the fact is, that there are but eleven irregular verbs, and these certainly not more difficult to be learned or remembered than the irregular verbs of any ancient or modern language of Europe. O'Molloy writes : " Verborum alia variantur valdé apud Hibernos, velut heteroclita, et diuersimodé, ita vt vniversalis regula pro eijs nequit dari, adeóque insistendum sit Auctoribus vbique probatis. Alia autem in suis manentia formis, aliquando personaliter, ali- quando temporaliter, interdum modaliter, nonnunquam numeraliter mutantur, aliqualibus circa vltimas, vel penultimas syllabas factis variatiunculis." He then gives an example of the verb pgpiobhu ím, scribo, and adds : " Heteroclita sunt multa, vt a caim, oeipim, oo paoh, do cimh"' [read do chim], "vbi et vsus maximé, et autho- ritas obseruanda." — Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, pp. 124,125. 126. It happens, however, that in Irish there are, strictly speak- ing, no irregular verbs at all. The eleven verbs above given are defective rather than irregular. All other verbs are perfectly re- gular in all their moods and tenses — not like the regular verbs in Latin, very many of which are irregular in their preterperfect tenses and supines ; and even the eleven so called irregular verbs of the Irish are perfectly regular in their numbers or persons; their irregularity consists only in this, that they want certain tenses, which they borrow from certain other verbs, which are themselves chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — bheipim. 213 regular, as beipim, I give, which borrows some of its tenses from the verb cnjaim, and some from cabpaim ; also oeipim, I saw, which borrows some parts from abpcnm, and some from pcnóim ; cím, I see, which borrows from peicim, &c. I. — bheipim, cu^cum, or cabpaim, I give. Active Voice. The present, and consuetudinal present indicative, and the conditional mood, of the three verbs, are still in use, and are perfectly regular. The past tense is that of cugaim only. The consuetudinal past is taken both from beimm and cu^aim ; the future from beipim and uabpaim, which last has a double form in the future, differing chiefly in spelling. The imperative is from cabpaim and cugaim, and the infinitive from cabpaim only. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. beipim. 1. beipimio. 2. beipip. 2. beipci, 3. beip pé. 3. beipio. The analytic form of this tense is beip mé, beip cú, beip pé, &c. Uu^aim and cabncnm are also in use, and the persons are regu- lar, like molcnm. Example. — Oip ni cugamaoio an onóip óligreap do t)hia amain d' aon oile, u for we do not give the honour which is due to God alone to any one else." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 195. Consuetudinal Present. beipeann mé, I usually give, &c. Uugann and cabpann are in use, and are quite regular. 214 Irregular Verbs — bheipim. [paut ii. Simple Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cujap. 1. rugamap. 2. cujaip. 2. cujabap. 3. ruj pé. 3. cujaoap. In ancient writings, bepc, the now obsolete preterite of beipim, and capo, capac, cucapcaip, and cue, are used for cuj, or cug pé, he gave; also cucpac, capopac, and bepepac, for cuj-aoap, they gave, as in the following examples : cáinic an pig, ocup do pacpom a peip oo phacpaic ó beolu, ocup ni capuc o cpioiu, " the king came and gave his own demand to Patrick by word of mouth, but did not give it from his heart," Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a; do bepc buille do hujo gup bean a ceann oe, "he gave Hugo a blow, so that he cut off his head," Jlnnals of the Four Masters, A. D. 1 186 ; " Copmac Cap cucupcaip car Samna o' Gochaió Qbpacpuaó, " Cormac Cas fought the battle of Samh- ain against Eochaidh Abhratruadh," Book of Lismore, fol. 209 ; ni capopac íapum mumncip uaibpec in pi£ nac ppeagpa puippi, " but the proud people of the king gave her no answer," Battle of Magh Hath, p. 18 ; cucpac a lama 'mon cloich, " they brought their hands about the stone," Book of Lismore, fol. 219, a; do beapepac pciac cap lopec, " they covered the retreat," literally, " they placed a shield on the track (of the retreat)," annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 1434. When the particle po is prefixed in this tense, the c is often dropped from cue, as pouc [.i. po cue] nech eli m bpech pemi, " another person passed the sentence be- fore him," Cor. Gloss., voce ópech. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. beipinn. 1. beipimip. 2. beipcecr. 2. beipci. 3. beipeaó pé. 3. beipioíp. The first person plural is often beipmip, as in the following example: cac páma do bepmíp ílloch Ceamnacca co cocpaó a mup-jpian millpen pop uaccap, " every oar which we used to put chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — bheipim. 215 into Loch Leamhnachta used to raise the sweets of the bottom to the surface," Mac Conglinris Dream, in Leabhar Breac. Uujainn is also used, and is quite regular. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. béappcco. 1. béapamaoio. 2. béappaip. 2. béappaíó. 3. Béappaió pé. 3. béappcno. Cabappao, from cabaip (pronounced tourhad), which is quite regular in its persons, is the form now in use in the south of Ire- land ; but another form ciubpao/ also from cabaip, and regular in its persons, was used by the Munster poets of the seventeenth century, as in the following stanza from the inauguration ode of Daniel O'Donovan, composed by Muldowny 0' Morrison, about the year 1639: Hi éiubpa uaóa an onáip, Inrhe íp oual o' O'Úonnabáin. Keating and several other writers make the form derived from beipim, oo bép in the first person singular of the future tense, without adding the termination pao, as Oo bép eopccc net ponna po oo'n fflhióe, " I shall give the first place in this division to Meath," Hist. Irel., p. 23; t)o bép learn cu, "I shall take thee with me," Id., p. 70; and bépam-ne in the first person plural, emphatic form, as ni pa mapba íac ícip, ol piac, ace puain-bpeacc peaccmaine oo pac in opai poppa, ocup do bépam-ne oo pioipiu ap culai, "they are not dead at all, said they, but the druid has brought on them a magical sleep for a week, but we shall bring them back again," Book of Lismore, fol. 175. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. cabpamaoip. 2. cabaip. 2. cabpaíó. 3. cabpaó pé. 3. cabpaioíp. 216 Irregular Verbs — bheipim. [part ii. The form from cu 50:1m is cuj, which is regular throughout the persons. It is now very seldom used in the spoken Irish, but it frequently occurs in ancient writings, written cue, as Net cue h'aipe pe pijipib aióce, for the modern ná cabaip c'aipe ap pípib oíóce, " do not give heed to nocturnal visions," Battle ofMagh Bagh, p. 8. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. The subjunctive mood is always the same as the indicative. Example. — t)eipemione 50 o-cujcaoi an meap oppa nac olijceap ace 00 t)hia amain, " we say that ye give them [the saints] the honour which is not due, except to God alone." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 206. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. béappainn. 1. béappamaoip. 2. béappá. 2. béappaíó. 3. béappaó pé. 3. béappaioíp. The form from cabpaim is either cabappainn, or ciubpamn, both which are regular throughout the persons. O'Molloy writes the first person plural of this mood, beupmaoip, without the characteristic p, as mup nac paibe oíoluióeacc ajamn péin 00 beupmaoip uamn, " because we ourselves had not a suffi- cient satisfaction which we might give from us," Lucerna Fide- Hum, pp. 45, 46 ; and he as often writes it 50 o-ciubpamaoip, as a 3-cap 50 o-ciubpamaoip ouic, " in case we should grant to thee," Id., p. 297. In ancient and some modern writings the third person singular is often written cibpeó and capcaó (the final o generally left unaspirated), and the third person plural bépoaíp, or bep- oaoip, and cibpicip, as po pecap-pa, ol in ben, ni nac cibpeo ooic, " I know, said the woman, a thing which he would not give thee," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 al P e j ac bepc ppi pácpaic oul 1 n-a n-oiaio co Ueampaij co capcao a piap 00 h-i piaonuipe chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — bheijum. 217 pep n-Gpeno, " he told Patrick to go after them to Tara, that he might give him his demand in the presence of the men of Ireland," Leahhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a; cinnup do bépoaoip oluije no oianpjaoileaó oppa, " how they would bring dispersion or scatter- ing upon them," Ann. Four Masters, A. D. 1570 ; co na cibpacip oál lai na aióci ouic; mé péin ní concibép, "so that they should not give thee respite for a day or night; myself will not give it," Leábhar Breac, fol. 107. INFINITIVE MOOD, oo rabcnpc. This is the usual spelling in the modern language, but it is pro- nounced in the south of Ireland as if written do hou-irt, and in the north as if oo éóipc. Passive Voice. In the passive voice the present indicative and con- suetudinal past are from beipim and cu^cnm ; the pre- terite from cu^cum only; the future indicative, and the consuetudinal mood, from beijum and cabpaim ; and the imperative from all three. As the persons of the passive voice are formed quite regularly, by adding the pronouns me, cú, é, &c, it will not be necessary to do more than give the funda- mental form in each tense. indicative mood. Present Tense. beipéeccp > mé, rú, é. é, &c. eujrap The regular present passive of this verb is beipceap, but it is often written bepap in old manuscripts, without the characteristic c, as bepap biaó do, " food is given to him," Cor. Gloss., voce 2 F 218 Irregular Verbs — bheipim. [part ii. lerech. Qcajap, or arna^ap, is often found in old writings as if a form of this tense, as acnajap biaó oóib, " food was given to them," Battle of Magh Hath, p. 10; acnajap Scoca do TOilió, " Scota was given [in marriage] to Milidh," Book of Bally mote, fol. 11 ; cleanup céca ocup pepeóa oo, "ropes and cords were given to him, " Leabhar Breac, fol. 108. But it should not be assumed as a positive certainty that aenajap is a form of cugaim, though it unquestionably means u was given." Simple Past, cujaó mé, ru, é, &c. Consuetudinal Past. beiprióe, or rujraióe mé, rú, é, &c. The simple past tense is variously written cucaó, euccha, bpear, and even pucao. The first of which forms is exemplified in the following sentence: Ocup arhail lp a n-uaceap Slébi Sina cucaó rail pechc oo TTIacu Ippael, pic po poillpij in Spipar "Hoeb moiu a jlanpúine oo na h-appcalaib í ngpianan po-apo Sléibi Siom, .1. íp in cenoacail, thus translated in the original MS. : " ct sicut lex in sublimi Montis Sinai loco tradita est, ita Spiritus Sanctus in cenaculo primitias spiritual ium misteriorum aperuit" Leabhar Breac, fol. 27, a, a. For examples of the other forms, see Cor. Gloss. , vocibus 6erec and Coin poooipne. Future Tense. béctppap mé, z , é, pinn, or inn, &c. cabappap nobaprap ribéprep Examples of the first four forms are common in Irish books. O'Molloy writes ciobaprap, as cpeuo iao na beoa ap a o-ciobaprap bpear an uaip pi ? " who are the living on whom sentence shall be passed at this time," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 50. The form cibeprep often occurs in old manuscripts, as in the Battle of Magh Bath, rabap biao oún, ol iao, má cá lib. lp cubup oún, chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — beipim. 219 ol pecccupe inpij, ni eibépéep, ««give us food, said they, if ye have it. By our word, said the king's steward, it shall not be given," Battle ofMagh Bath, p. 22. IMPERATIVE MOOD. beipéeap " cujéap l mé, cú, é, &c. rabapéap^ CONDITIONAL MOOD. béappaióe ^ . ,. . > me, cu, é, &c. caoappaioe ) The forms capocai and rapca are very frequently found in the best manuscripts for this mood, as oict capoccn oo neach ele h-e, " if it should be given to any one else," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 58 ; ocur* po f opconjpao la ópecnu na capca oipcne do ^aeoelu, " and it was ordered by the Britons that no oircne [lap- dog] should be given to the Gaels," Cor. Gloss., voce niojBime. II. — beipim, I bear, or bring forth. This verb takes the simple past tense of the active voice from an obsolete verb pu^cnm, which is, perhaps, an amalgamation of po and Ú115, for cu^cum also means to bear, or bring forth ; in other respects it is regular. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. beipim. I. beipimio. 2. beipip. 2. beipé'ó. 3. beipio pi. 3. beipio. Simple Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pugar. 1. pujamap. 2. pujaip. 2. pujabap. 3. pujpi. 3. pu^aoap. 220 Irregular Verbs — beijiim. [part il Example. — ^ug lpial fjiar cap lopj cap éip a iriumcipe, 50 puj íomplán leip lao, lap mapbaó mopán oo'n opoinj do lean é. " Irial covered the retreat after his people, so that he brought them safe, after having slain many of those who pursued him," Battle of Mosnaree ; puccpac opong 00 muincip Ui "Rajallaij pop Uil- liam oe Caci, "some of O'Reilly's people overtook William de Lacy," Ann. Four Mast., A.D., 1233. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. beipinn. 1. beipimip. 2. beipceá. 2. beipcí. 3. beipeaó pé. 3. beipioíp. Future Tense, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. béappao. 1. béappamaoio. 2. béappaip. 2. béappaíó. 3. béappaió pé. 3. béappaio. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ... 1. beipimip, or bejpeamaoip. 2. beip. 2. beipíó. 3. beipeaó pé. 3. beipioíp. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Is like the Indicative. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. béappainn. 1. béappamaoip. 2. béappá. 2. béappaíó. 3. béappaó pé. 3. béappaioíp. INFINITIVE MOOD. do bpeic. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Chim. 221 Passive Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. beipceap mé, cú, é, &c. Consuetudinal Past. beipéí mé, éú, é, &c This tense is often written bepéa in old manuscripts, as Cip oo bepca á pepaib Gpeno cup in loc pin, " tribute used to be brought by the men of Ireland to that place," Cor. Gloss. , voce Caipel. Future Tense. béappap mé, cú, é, &c. IMPERATIVE MOOD, beipéeap mé, rú, é, &c. CONDITIONAL MOOD, bíappaíóe mé, cú, é, &c. INFINITIVE MOOD. do beic beipce. Passive Participle. beipce. III. — Chím, cióim, paicim, or peicim, I see. In this verb, in the active voice, the simple past tense is from an obsolete verb, connapccnm, or coin- oeancaim. The imperative, subjunctive, conditional, and infinitive moods are from peicim, and the remain- der from cióim, or cim. In the passive voice, the simple past tense is also taken from connajiccum. The other tenses and moods from both cióim and peicim. 222 Irregular Verbs — Chím. [part n. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cíóim, or cim. 1. ciómio, or cimio. 2. cioip, or cip. 2. cíóri, or cící. 3. ció pe, or ci ré. 3. cíóio, or cio. This verb is pronounced cim in the north of Ireland, and parts of Meath, and is sometimes so written by local writers, as cim uaim ap bhinn óhcule phobaip meipje Chumn Ui Chonchobaip, " I see from me, on the hill of Fore, the standard of Conn 0' Conor," MS. penes auctorem. But no ancient or correct authority has been found for this form. The first person singular is often written ciu, instead of cim, as poccnoe a ciu, " a host I see," Book of Leinster, fol. 105; and the second and third persons singular are written chi, as peapgcnjchep Coejcnpe <5c chi in cenio, "Loeghaire becomes enraged when he sees the fire," Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a,a; linn Cuimnij m linn polopmop úcac chi, "that luminous water thou seest is the river of Luimnech." But it is probable that in these latter instances, chi is intended as the analytic form of the verb, and that cú and pé are left understood. Consuetudinal Present. cíóeann mé, cú, pé, &c. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. connapcap. 1. concamap. 2. connapcaip. 2. concabap. 3. connaipc pé. 3. concaoap. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cíómn. 1. cíómíp. 2. cíóceá. 2. cíócíó. 3. cíóeaó pe. 3. cíóoíp. Or, cínn, cíceá, &c, without the ó in the middle. CHAP, v.] Irregular Verbs— Chim. 223 The simple past tense of this verb is often written conncnc in the best manuscripts, a form obviously compounded of con, an intensitive prefix, like the Latin con, and F a,c > as i s connctipc of con, and oeapc, to look, or view ; Greek, c'tpKOj. Examples of con- nctipc are very common in every Irish book. The following example ofconnuic, which corresponds with the Latin conspexit, will be sufficient : do connuic cléipec pmnliaé a n-oppam na h-eajailpi, ocup leabap 'na piaónuipe, " he saw a fair-grey cleric at the jamb of the church, and a book before him," Book of Fermoy. Various barbaric forms of the personal inflections of the plural will be found throughout the provinces, as connaipceamaip, cnuiceamaip, &c, we saw; but these should not be introduced into correct writing. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cíópeao. 1. cíópirmo, or cípimaoio. 2. cíópip. 2. ciópiéió. 3. cíópió pé. 3. cíópio. Or, cípecto, cípip, &c, without the ó in the middle. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. peicimip, or peicimió. 2. peic. 2. peicíó. 3. peiceaó pé. 3. peicioíp. Haliday makes péc the imperative mood of this verb, but this is decidedly a different verb, signifying view, or look. The Rev. Paul O'Brien, who had a good vernacular knowledge of Irish, cor- rects Haliday in this instance, for he says in .his Irish Grammar, p. 145, that this verb takes its imperative and infinitive moods and participles from peicim, I see, and not from féacaim, I view. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Haliday makes ni pcocim the subjunctive mood of this verb, which is correct according to the present spoken language ; that is, 224 Irregular Verbs — Chím. [part ii. the form pa m , or peicim, is now used instead of cioim, after ni, nac, See. ; but paicim, or peicim, is as often used in the indicative as cióim. Paicim is inflected in this mood like a regular verb, and it is therefore unnecessary to give its tenses here, as mup nac. b-paicpirió jniiip oe oo piop, "where ye shall never see the face of God," O'Molloy, in Lucerna Fidelium, p. 51 ; a oubaipc in pij pia mumcip oipipíó bee co paicem, ocup co peapam cia pon agaillinn, u the king said to his people, wait a little till we see and know whom we address," Book of Fermoy, fol. 30. CONDITIONAL MOOD. d paicpmn o'peicp inn") . ' cíormn^ . . . V o'paicpea, &c. Or, ., \ apicea, &c. innj cipmn J ' Qp ac man: oo caióbpiuó ocup c'páipcpiu pop nac ni ac cipi- ceá, " for good is thy survey and examination of whatsoever thou shouldst see," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 24 ; oa pjpuoaoaoip na neice oeipmio oo cipioip, &c, "if they would examine the things we say, they would see," &c, Lucerna Fidelium, p. 260. INFINITIVE MOOD. o'paicpm, or o'peicpin. Dr. Neilson writes the infinitive mood of this verb paiceal throughout his dialogues, which is the corrupt modern form used in "Ulster, and the greater part of Connaught ; but in conju- gating the verb he makes it paicpm. Throughout the south of Ireland peicpin, or peicpinc, is used, but pronounced peipcin, or peipcinc, by metathesis. Passive Voice, indicative mood. Present Tense, cíóceap "I paicéeap }> mé, cú, é, &c. peicéep J chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Chim. 225 Simple Past. 1 \. me, cu, e, &c. conncaó J Consuetudinal Past. cióéí ) , . , , . > me, ru, e &c. d pcncci J Concap is often used impersonally, as in the following sentence by O'Molloy, in the dedication of his Lucerna Fidelium : uime pn do conncap oampa, &c,, an oiopgan beaj po D'cunmniugao óibpi, "wherefore it seemed [proper] to me, &c, to dedicate this little Fasciculus to you." Future Tense. ciópean 1 paicpeap l mé, cú, é, &c. peicpeap J IMPERATIVE MOOD. paicreap peicéeap > or\ . > me, cu, é, &c. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Present Tense, 50 b-peicreap mé, &c. Pas£ Tense. 50 b-peacaó mé, &c. Consuetudinal Past. 50 b-peiccí mé, &c. Future Tense. 50 b-peicpeap mé, &c. CONDITIONAL MOOD, o'paicpíóe, or o'peicpíóe mé. 2 G 226 Irregular Verbs — Cluimm. [part ii. INFINITIVE MOOD. t)o beic paicre, or peicce. Passive Participle, Paicre, or peicre. IV. — Clinnim, I hear. This verb is regular, except in its past tense indica- tive (and those formed from it), which is cualap, I heard, and its infinitive mood, which is clop, or cloiynn. It is, therefore, not necessary to give its moods and tenses here. In the south of Ireland, cloipim is used, instead of cluinim. Clop very frequently occurs as the past indicative passive of this verb, as co clop pon a jocha pechcaip cachuip lmmach, " so that the sound of his voice was heard outside the city," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107; co clop a puaim po'n cip, " so that its noise was heard throughout the country," Book of Fer?noy, fol. 61 ; ip clop Dam is still used in the spoken language, in the sense of " I have been told," and cicm po clop, " it was heard of old," is a phrase of very common occurrence in old Irish poems, as in the following quatrain in O'Heerin's topographical poem : Qoibmn an cpioc, — cian po clop, — Uuac Céje na leapj polop ; O' Ceallaij 6éi je o'n cpaij roup, Céile an cláip eangaij, lubpaij. " Delightful the region, — of old it was heard, — The district of Lea, of bright plains ; O'Kelly-Lea, of the eastern strand, Is the spouse of the plain of dells and yews." V. — Oécmcnm, I do, or make. This verb borrows the past tense indicative from po and 5111m, and the consuetudinal past indicative from chap.V.] Irregular Verbs — Oécmcnm. 227 gnÍTn, both in the active and passive voices. In the sub- junctive mood of both voices, the same tenses are from fceapncnm ; and in the conditional mood active, one of the forms is regularly from Oeanaim, another from Deauncnm, and a third from oion^naim. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oéanaim. 1. oéanamaoio, or oéanam. 2. oéanaip. 2. oéancaoi. 3. ©éancnó pé. 3. oéanaio. O'Molloy sometimes writes the first person plural oéinmio, as ní óémmio oee óiob ; oip ni lcuppmio cpócaipe na spapa oppa, " we do not make Gods of them, for we do not ask mercy or grace of them," Lucerna Fidelium" p. 197. Consuetudinal Present. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oecmcmn mé. 1. oecmcmn pinn. 2. oeancmn cú. 2. oecmcmn pib. 3. oeanann pé, &c. 3. oeanann piao. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pijneap. 1. pijneamap. 2. pijnip. 2. pijneabap. 3. pi§ne pé. 3. pigneaoap. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. gníómn. 1. jníómíp. 2. jníóreá. 2. ^níóríó. 3. ^n'óeaó pé. 3. ^níóoíp. 228 Irregular Verbs — Oéomaim. [part ii. The past tense indicative of this verb is written in the best Irish manuscripts, pijne, or pi^ni (which are both considered the same form, as e and 1 short may be commuted ad libitum, particularly at the end of words), as Rumuno, mac Colmain, .1. mac 6ae- o"uipe, pij-pilió Gipenn íp e do pi^ne an ouan pa, " Rumunn, son of Colman, i. e. the son of the king of Loegria, was he that com- posed this poem." — MS. Bodleian Lib. Laud. 610, fol. 10, a, a. It is also found in the oldest monumental inscriptions in Ireland, as in the very curious one over the doorway of the church of Achadh-ur, or Freshford, in the county of Kilkenny : oreoiu t>o 51666 mocb06moc u cencucaiN t>o R15N1. 44 A Prayer forGilleMocholmocO'Cencucain,who made [it]." Also in the inscription on the cross of Cong, now, through the liberality of Professor Mac Cullagh, in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy : orcoic 00 mae6mu mac óreauDaNuechaN Do rei^Ni in srcessa. " A Prayer for Maelmu Mac Bratdanuechan, who made this Ornament." Also on the ancient crozier of the bishops of Lismore, now in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, of which the Rev. Dr. Todd has a beautiful drawing, by George Du Noyer, Esq., one of the Fellows of the College of St, Columba : orcoiu t>o wia6 mac meic aeDucaiN 6as a NeRMat) in ^rcesa. oRoiu Do NecuaN in ceuo X)o rci^Ne in ^rcesa. " A Prayer for Nial, Son of Mac Aeducan, by whom was made [nepnao for n-oeapnao] this Ornament." 44 A Prayer for Nectan the Artist, who made this Ornament." Also in the Battle of Magh Hath : ó'p mé pém 00 pijne inao oam, 44 because it was I myself that made the place for myself," p. 66; ip e in pij do pigne ap copp, 44 he is the king who made chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Oeancnm. 229 our body," St. Columbkille. But in later manuscripts and in- scriptions it is written pine, as in the inscription on the tomb of Melaghlin 0' Kelly and his wife Finola O'Conor, in the Abbey of Knockmoy : t)o muleachlaino O'Keallaio oo pi O TTIaini ocup o'lnbualaino injen 1 Chonchuip oo pine TTlara O'Qnli in leac- 00:15 pea, " for Muleachlainn O'Kelly, king of Omaini, and for Finola, the daughter of O'Conor, Mathew O'Anli made this monu- ment." This tense is sometimes inflected thus : pónap, I made ; pónaip, thou madest ; pón pé, he made ; pónp amap, we made ; ponpcxbaip, ye made ; pónpac, or pónparap, they made ; as in the following examples in the Battle of Magh Rath : cio ac mópa na h-uilc oo pónaip ppim, " although great are the injuries thou hast done me," p. 32 ; oo ponpum copu cmn pin, " we made a covenant then," p. 48 ; oo ponpabaip cooac, " ye made a treaty," p. 34. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oécmpao. 1. oécnpmaoio, or oécmpam. 2. oéanpaip. 2. oéanpaíó. 3. oéanpaió pé. 3. oéanpcno. The future tense is often written jeunpaió pé, even in printed books, as in O'Molloy's Lucerna Fidelium, and Mac Curtin's Eng- lish Irish Dictionary. In John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, it is also frequently written with a 5, as oo jén copac, " I shall begin, or make a beginning;" and in other manuscripts, as áp in uaip j^ebup cac ouine ceill pop oilguo ooneoc oo jena oe ulc ni bia comup pop pojluib, " for when each person is convinced of forgiveness in what he does of evil, there will be no power over plunderers," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18, p. 358. From these examples it may be gathered that this verb oéa- naim, which is often written oionjnaim, or omgnaim, is com- pounded of oo, a prepositive particle, and jnim, I do, or act. Its past tense, pijneap, I made, is evidently po ^níeap ; and its future, jeunpao, would appear to be a transposed form of jnipeao. 230 Irregular Verbs — Oéanaim. [part ii. Hence, it is obvious that the 5 should be always preserved in the past tense, as in the examples above adduced from the ancient inscriptions, and that the 5 in the future is not so incorrect as at first sight it might appear to be, and as it is generally supposed by modern Irish scholars. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. oécmam. oécmamaoip. oéanctmaoio. 2. oéan. 2. oécmcdó. 3. oécmaó pé. 3. oécmaioíp. The second person singular is sometimes oém and oena, as oein do óiccioU, " do thy utmost," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 300 ; net oém pemarhao púm, " do not mock me," Id., p. 182 ; oena-pa aip 00, " compose thou a satire for him," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 a, P^« The first person plural is generally made to terminate in am, or um, in ancient writers, as oénum in ouini po ímmccijin, ocup pop copmailep pooén, " let us make the man after our own image and likeness," Book of Bally mote, fol. 8, a, b. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-oéctnaim. 1. 30 n-oéaneamaoio. 2. 50 n-oéanaip. 2. 50 n-oéancaoi. 3. 50 n-oéanaió pé. 3. 50 n-oécmcno. Consuetudinal Present. 50 n-oéanann me, cú, pé, &c. Simple Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-oeápnap. 1. 50 n-oeápnamap. 2. 50 n-oeápncup. 2. 30 n-oeápnctbap. 3. 50 n-oeápna pé. 3. 50 n-oeápncioap. 50 n-oeápnpac. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Oécmaim. 231 Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-oeápncunn. 1. 50 n-oeápnamccoip. 2. 50 n-oeápncá. 2. 50 n-oeápncaoi. 3. 50 n-oeápnaó pé. 3. 30 n-oeápnaio'p. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-oéanpao. 1. 50 n-oéanpamaoio. 2. 50 n-oéanpaip. 2. 50 n-oéanpaíó. 3. 50 n-oéanpcuó pé. 3. 50 n-oéanpcno. That this and other irregular verbs have a subjunctive mood, is quite clear from the fact, that the indicative form could not be used after nac, co, 30, &c, as nac oepncup, "that thou didst not," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 202 ; co n-oeapnpac cpeaca mópa, " so that they committed great depredations," Ann. Four Mast, ad ann. 1233. The form co n-oepjene, that he made, is also to be met with.— See the MS. H. 2. 16, in Trin. Coll. Dubl., pp. 242, 243. CONDITIONAL MOOD. I SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oá n-oéanpainn. 1. oá n-oécmpamaoip. 2. oá n-oécmpá. 2. oá n-oécmpaíó. 3. oá n-oéanpaó pé. 3. oá n-oéanpaioíp. Or, 1. oá n-oeapnamn. 1. oá n-oeapnamaoip. 2. oá n-oeapncá. 2. oá n-oectpncaoi. 3. oá n-oeapnaó pé. 3. oá n-oeapnaioíp. Or, 1. oá n-oiongncunn. 1. oá n-oionjnamaoip. 2. oá n-oiongancá. 2. oá n-oionjancaoi. 3. oá n-oiongaó pé. 3. ou n-oiongnaioíp. O'Molloy writes the second person singular oá n-oeancá, as oa n-oeanta pin, "if thou wouldst do that." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 247. 232 Irregular Verbs — Oéancnm. [part ii. This mood is often written oinjneo, as well as oepnaó, in an- cient manuscripts. An example of both forms occurs in the follow- ing sentence, in the Battle of Magh Rath, p. 74: oia n-oepnncá pún popm-pa, a pijan, ol pé, po moépaino pcéla oo mic ouic. "Ro jell pi co n-a luja co n-oinjneao, " if thou wouldst keep my secret, O queen, I would tell thee news of thy son. She promised, on her oath, that she would [make] keep the secret." Keating also uses oá n-oeapnaó and oá n-oionjnaó, for the present oá n-oean- paó, as ajupoá n-oeápnaó, 50 D-ceiljpioó an meall ap a ceann lé gluapacc ppiorbuailce a mcinne péin, " and should he do so, that the ball would be driven from his head by the repercussive motion of his brain," Hist. Irel., p. 75 ; cia an cpioc ap a n-oiongnaioip bpar, " what country they would explore," Id., p. 50 ; mam oepncaip pcolóca mamipcpech lTlaupicip bpaplacc oampa, " if the farmers of the monastery of Mauriter had not caused an annoy- ance to me," Marianus Scotus, A. D. 1070. In this mood, also, this verb is found written with an initial 5, as apbepcaoap 00 jénoaíp amail a oubaipe pium, " they said that they would do as he desired." — Battle of Magh Rath, p. 50. INFINITIVE MOOD. t do óéanam. Passive Voice, indicative mood. Present Tense. oéancap mé, éú, é, Sec. Past Tense. pijneaó mé, éú, é, &c. Consuetudinal Past. jníéí mé, éú, é, &c. Future Tense. oéanpap mé, cú, é, &c. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Oécmcum. 233 The past tense of the indicative passive is written pijneó, pónaó, and ponccc, in the best Irish manuscripts, as in the following exam- ples : oia Ceoain do pijneo jpian ocup epcai, " on Wednesday the sun and moon were made," L. Breac ; oo pigneó miap cpanoa oo'n meip apjaio, " a wooden dish was made of the silver dish," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 28 ; do éocainm na pleói do ponca ano la t)orhnall, " to partake of the feast which was there pre- pared [made] by Domhnall," Id., p. 24 ; do ponca a n-ápupa ocup a píjoúince ann, a their habitations and royal forts were erected there," Cor. Gloss., voce mojGime; oo'n íonnapbaó do pónaó ap pliocc ^uoióil ap an Scicia, " from the expulsion which was made on the race of Gaodhal out of Scythia," Keat. Hist., p. 48; íp laip do ponaó opoiceacc na Peippe ajup opoiceac ÍTióna oairh, u by him was made the bridge of Feirse, and the bridge of Moin daimh," Duald Mac Firbis — Genealogies, p. 508. O'Molloy writes the future oeunpap, as oeunpap aoncpó caopac ajup aon aoóaipe, " there shall be made one fold and one shepherd." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 375. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Present Tense. 50 n-oéancap mé, cú, é, &c. Past Tense. 50 n-oéapnaó mé, cú, é, &c. Future Tense. 50 n-oéanpap mé, éú, é, &c. The subjunctive passive form of this verb is found written n-oepnao (for ea seldom occurs, and final o is seldom aspirated) in the oldest manuscripts and inscriptions, as in the very ancient inscription over the doorway of the church of Freshford, in the county of Kilkenny, already referred to : oRoiu Do weim 1N51N cuirec ocus t>o mach- SamaiH u chiarcmeic cas 1 NOeuNab in cempucsa. " A Prayer for Niam, Daughter of Corc, and for Mathga- MAIN U CHIARMEIC, BY WHOM THIS CHURCH WAS MADE." 2 H 234 Irregular Verbs- -J5ním. [part ii. And in the inscription on the cross of Cong, made about the year 1123: oreoiu fro uhercraDecóach u chowchoóuirc t>o R15 erceNO tecs a NOercrcNat) in srcessa. " A Prayer for Terrdelbach u Chonchobuir, King of Ire- land, BY WHOM THIS ORNAMENT WAS MADE." See also the inscription on the crozier of Lismore, already quoted, p. 228. O'Molloy writes 50 noeunrctoi. — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 359. CONDITIONAL MOOD. óéanpaióe mé, éú, é, &c. This mood is also written with an initial 5, as 00 jellpac na opuijéi oip cibé uaip 00 jéncaí cocmapc a h-injine, co puióeaó pi bap ann pin, " the Druids predicted to her that whenever her daughter should be wooed, she should then die." — Book of Fer- moy, fol. 92. INFINITIVE MOOD. do beir oéanca. Passive Participle. oéanca. vi. — 5™™» or ^™» 1 d°> or ma ^ e - INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. 1. gntm. 2. 5 nip. 3. jníó pé. SINGULAR. 1. ^ntóeap. 2. jníóip. 3. £níó pé. Past Tense. PLURAL. 1. gnímío. 2. gnícíó. 3. gnío, or ^níio. PLURAL. 1. ^níomap. 2. jníobap. 3. jníoóoap, or gnípec. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — ^ním. 235 Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jníómn. 1. jníómíp. 2. jníóceá. 2. jníóríó. 3. jníóeaó pé. 3. jníóoíp. O'Molloy writes nímío, &c, as can nímío íoóbaipc, "when we make an offering," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 205 ; mup oo níoíp na JJeincili anallóo, " as the Gentiles of old used to do," Id., p. 213. The verb occurs also without the 5, as uaip po picip in coimoiu cec ni pecmaic a lepp uaó ció piapiu 00 nemm a ecapjume, " for the Lord knows every thing we require from him before we do implore him," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121, b. But the 5 is found in the best authorities, and should be con- sidered as essentially belonging to this verb, as neac po jni 501, " one who makes (i. e. invents or tells) a lie," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 82; po jnipium comaipli ppi h-achaio m-bic ann, "we made [held] a consultation for a short time there," Id., p. 35; íp inano ocm po gniic, " the poem they make [compose] is alike," Cor. Gloss. , voce Ccnnce; ip poppa na 5-ceaépap po jnipeao pip Gpeno pio in 61105a, " it is over the four of them the men of Ire- land erected the mound of Brugh," Book of Lecan, fol. 279, 6, b ; po bui oin t)eceo 05 cum^io ouiljine in jpepa po 5m, "then Deced was demanding the reward of the work which he had exe- cuted," Id., fol. 207, b; ap ip a pio nemeóaib pojnidp pileoa a njpeppa, "for it was in sacred groves poets used to compose their works," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16, p. 120. The future tense does not occur, except as formed from oécmcnm. Passive Voice, indicative mood. Present Tense. jnicheap, or nicheap me, ru, é, kc. 236 Irregular Verbs — Oeipim. [part ii. Consuetudinal Past. jnírí, anciently gnichea, or níchea mé, éti, é, &c. In the passive voice this verb is written sometimes with, and sometimes without, the 5, as gníchep pavhlaió, "it is so done," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 82 ; 00 níéep a puoxh 00 pmoaó in jac oino 1 piji na Uaprpaijeach, "his effigy is engraven in every fort in the kingdom of Tartary," Book of Lismore, p. Ill; ap po jníéea la Caejuipe péil a gene 00 jpép gaca bliaóuin, "for Laeghaire was used always to celebrate the festival of his birth every year," Id., p. 5, col. 2 ; po ceachainceG imoppa 001b map 00 nichea 1 Uearhaip a ceoil ocup a cuiplenna, cop ba coipchi ciúil uile in cech ó'n chúil co poile, " their pipes and other in- struments of music were wont to be played by them, as was accus- tomed to be done at Tara, until the whole house, from one angle to another, became one stream of music," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18, p. 266, a, a, line 32. All the other moods and tenses of this verb are borrowed from Oeancnm, or rather it wants them alto- gether ; but there can be no doubt that this is the root of Oecmaim, and the verb from which the noun ^níorh, an act, is derived. It is still in use in the spoken Irish in most parts of Ireland, but pronounced as if written nióim. VII. — Oeijiim, I say. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oeipim. 1. oeipimio. 2. oeipip. 2. oeipcíó. 3. oeip pé. 3. oeipio. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Oeipim. 237 O'Molloy writes the first person plural of this oeipmio, and oeipimio, as jióeccó oeipmio-ne 50 n-oeaca an méio pin uile ap peacpan, " but we say that all these went astray," Lucerna Fide- limn, p. 192 ; and the second person plural, oeipci, without the final d, as oeipci mac X)e beic a 5-compubpoainc leip an acaip, " ye say that the Son of God is consubstantial with the Father," Id., p. 310. Consuetudinal Present. oeipeann mé, cú, pé, &c. Relative Form. a oeip, who says. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oubpap. 1. oubpamap. 2. oubpaip. 2. oubpabap. 3. oubaipr pé. 3. oubpaoap. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oeipmn. 1. oeipimip. 2. oeipreá. 2. oeipcíó. 3. oeipeaó pé. 3. oeipioíp. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oéappao. 1. oéappamaoio. 2. oéappaip. 2. oéappaíó. 3. oéappaió pé. 3. oéappaio. This verb is not aspirated in the past tense, except after ni, not [active], and does not take the particles oo or po before it ; we may fairly conjecture that it is compounded of the particle ao, and the old verb beipim, I say. The past tense is variously written in ancient manuscripts, ay bepc, ac bepc, ac pubaipc, he said. — Example : ay bepc pacpaic na biaó pi ná eppcop o Conán, 238 Irregular Verbs — Oeijiim. [part ii. " Patrick said that neither king nor bishop should descend from Lonan," Vit. Patricii, in the Book of Lismore ; etc puppaoap, and ap bepcaoap, they said, forms obviously derived from the old verb beipim, I say, not oeipim. The past tense is also sometimes formed from the verb pónóim, I say, which is still in use, as ap e po paió, u it is what he said;" po páiópec, they said ;" paiopio- map, " we said," Keat. Hist. y p. 46. The following passage in the Battle of Magh Bath, p. 50, affords an example of three different forms of the past tense of beipim, or oeipim : oo linó Conjal gup in maijm í m-báoap clann in pi j, ocup no can piu peb ac pub- aipc TDuboiaó ppip. 6a maié leopum pin, ocup ap bepcaoap oo jénoaíp arhail a oubaipe pum, " Congal went to where the sons of the king were, and told them what Dubhdiadh had said. They liked this, and said that they would do as he said" [desired]. It should be here remarked, that a very strange peculiarity, in forming the first and third persons singular of the past tense of this verb, occurs in ancient writers ; thus, if from oubaipe the i be rejected, the first person singular is implied, as an Peapjup po a oubapc, " this Fergus I mentioned," Keat. Hist., p. 3 ; an Peapjup po a oubaipe would mean, this Fergus he mentioned. — See observations on canag and cainij. The future indicative active of this verb is very frequently written oépam, oeupam, or oeapamaoio, without the p, the first syllable being very long, as arhail a oeupam o'a éip po, " as we shall say hereafter," Keat., p. 34 ; mup oeupamaoio na óiaó-pi, " as we shall say hereafter," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 245. But this form, though it is sufficiently distinct from the present and past tenses, is not to be recommended. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULA*. PLURAL. 1 « 1. abpamaoio. abpamaoip. abpam. 2. abaip. 2. abbpaíó. 3. abpaó pé. 3. abpaioíp chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Dei pi in. 239 The second person singular is often written apaip in old manu- scripts, as apaip, a popa 6aij, in pecap-pu ca cpich 1 puilem ? 1 say, O my charioteer Laigh, dost thou know in what country we are?" — Booh of Leinster, fol. 105, a, b. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-abpaim. 1. 50 n-abpamaoio. 50 n-abpam. 2. 30 n-abpaip. 2. 50 n-abpaíó. 3. 50 n-abaió pé. 3. 30 n-abpaio. All the other tenses of this mood are like those of the indica- tive, except the future, which is sometimes 30 n-eibép, or epép, as apaip, ol lTlainchin ; ni epép, ap TOac Conjlmoi, " say it, said Mainchin; I will not say it, said Mac Conglinni." — Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. oéappainn. 1. oéappamaoip. 2. oéappá. 2. oéappaíó. 3. oéappaó pé. 3. oéappaioíp. Or, oépainn, &c, without the p. O'Molloy writes the second person singular oeuppca, as, Cpeuo pop a oeuppca oa 5-claoiómn ru 10 páiócib pein ? " Moreover, what wouldst thou say, if I should defeat thee with thine own words." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 297. INFINITIVE MOOD. OO pctD. Passive Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense. oeipceap mé, cú, é, &cc. Perfect Past. oubpaó mé, rú, é, &c. 240 Irregular Verbs — Oeinim. [pakt ii. Consuetudinal Past. oeiprí mé, nú, é, &c. ; or beipcí mé, cú, é, &c. Future Tense. oéappap mé, rú, é, &c. The present tense is sometimes written oeporp (see Keat. Hist., p. 47), and sometimes bepap (see Ann. Four Mast., A. M. 3501) ; and the past, etc pubpccó, ctp pubpaó, epbpaó, and ebpaó (see Cor. Gloss., voce Copmac et 5 ai ^ en 5» and Annals of the Four Masters, at the year 465. The consuetudinal past is often beipci, Id., A. M. 4388. The future is sometimes oépap, without the p, but this is not to be recommended. IMPERATIVE MOOD. abapcap mé, cú, é, &c. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. 50 n-abapéap mé, cú, é, &c. This mood is very often written apap in ancient manuscripts, as Qpo na pijpaioi ppip a n-apap Cnoc Sarhna iniu, " Ard na righraidhi, which is at this day called Cnoc Samhna," Book of Lismore, fol. 70, b ; po jabpac oap Pmoppuch pip a n-apap abano h-Ua Cacbar immacaipe mop na ffluman, " they pro- ceeded across Finnsruth, which is called theAbhann O'g-Cathbhath, in the great plain of Munster," Id., fol. 105. CONDITIONAL MOOD, oéappaióe mé, éú, é, &c. Keating uses oú n-aibeopraoi, and 50 n-aibeopéaoi, for this mood, borrowing it from abpaim, not from oeipim. — See History of Ireland, O'Mulconry's copy, p. 42. INFINITIVE MOOD. 00 beir pence, or páióce. Passive Participle. pence, or páióce. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — pagctim. 241 VIII. — pa^aim, or ^eibim, I find. Active Voice. indicative mood. Present Tense, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pajaim. 1. pajmaoio. 2. pajaip. 2. pajéaíó. 3. pajaió pé. 3. pajam. Or, 1. jeiBim. 1. geibimio. 2. jeibip. 2. ^eibríó. 3. jeib pé. 3. jeibió. O'Molloy writes jeibmio for "we find," and ^eibéí for "ye find," as oo £eibmio 'p an m-biobla, "we find in the Bible," Lucerna Fide Hum, p. 371 ; nacap eioip leam-po an ní céaona do páó lib-pi, a oeip gup ab on eajluip oo jeibúí piop cpeuo ap pgpiopcup ann ; ctgup 'na óiaió pin gup ab on pgpiopcup do jeibéí piop cpeuo ap eajluip ann, " can I not say the same thing to you, who say that it is from the Church ye find a know- ledge of what the Scripture is, and afterwards that it is from the Scripture ye find a knowledge of what the Church is ?" Id., pp. 294, 295. In ancient manuscripts, a b is often introduced after the 5 in pajaim, as ni con pajbac cupaij cia aipm i n-ooici, "and the boatmen do not find where she hatches," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16. p. 242 ; in epeap ínao íp moo i pajbaic pilio achuinjio, "the third place where poets obtain the greatest re- quest," Battle of Magli Rath, p. 68. Perfect Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. puapap. 1. puapamap. 2. puapaip. 2. puapabap. 3. puaip pé. 3. puapaoap. 2 i 242 Irregular Verbs — pa^cnim. [part ii. The third person singular has always ^ before the final p, though in the synthetic forms of the other persons this 1 is rejected. Example, — puaip-pium ccipeccal oeippic o'Cfoo 0't)omnaill, " he got a private apartment for Hugh O'Donnell," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1592 ; amctil puapacap các, " as all have got," Battle ofMagh Bath, p. 32. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. jeibinn. I. jeibimip, or jeibectmaoip. 2. jeibceá. 2. geibcíó. 3. jeibeaó pé. 3. jeibioíp. This tense is still in constant use, and is of very frequent occur- rence in the poems of the bards of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Example, — oá méio oo geibinn o'á jpáó, " though much of his affection I used to get." — O'Daly Cairbreach. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. £éabao, or jeobcco. 1. ^éabamccoio. 2. jéabaip. 2. jéctbcaíó. 3. jéabaió pé. 3. géabcuo. O'Molloy writes the first syllable of this tense jeub, which shews that he pronounced it long, as oo jeubcup ^up ab í po lorn na pipinne, " thou wilt find that this is the naked truth," Lucerna Fidelium> p. 204. But in ancient manuscripts it is written jéb, as po jébct coin h-icc oo rhicm oo cac biuo, " thou wilt get there the satisfaction of thy desire of every food," Mac Conglinns Dream, in the Leabhar Breac. In the spoken language, however, it is jeobao, in most parts of Ireland. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. pajmaoip, or pajmaoio. 2. pa£. 2. pagaio. 3. pa^aó pé. 3. pagaioíp. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — pa^aim. 243 Haliday has pcnj, " find thou," Gcelic Grammar, p. 98 ; but no authority has been found for the 1 before 5. O 1 Molloy writes paj, as pccj oam an c-aipceajul, '-' find for me the article." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 301. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. This mood is like the indicative in all its tenses, except the future, in which it is 50 b-puijeao, &c. ; and some writers make it 30 b-puijim, in the present tense. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLUEAL. 1. jéabcnnn, or 1. jéabamaoip. geobcnnn. 2. £éabécr. 2. jéabraíó. 3. jéabaó pé. 3. jéabaioíp. Also, 1. oá b-pajcnnn, or 1. oá b-pajamaoip. oá b-puijinn. 2. oá b-pajéá. 2. oá b-pajraíó. 3. t>á b-pajaó pé. 3. oá b-pajaioíp. Ch is used in the second person singular, not p, as oo jeabca, " thou wouldst get."— MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 1. 14. fol. 116. O'Molloy writes the first person plural with the termination mip in one place, and with maoip in another, as ó b-puijmíp áp pair do corhpáiócib pnapoa, " from whom we would get enough of trite expressions," Lucerna Fidelium — Preface; 50 b-puijeamaoip 5papa, "that we might get grace," Id., p. 206. He writes the third person plural 50 b-puigeoip, as 50 b-puijeoíp onóip, "that they might get honour," Id., p. 212. Here it is to be particularly noted by the student, that the form b-puijinn, or b-pajamn, is used after oá, if and muna, unless, ni, not, nac, that not, 50, that ; and that the form jeabctinn, or jeobainn, is to be used when we would express I would find, and that it may take the particle 00 before it. 244 Irregular Verbs — papain). [part it INFINITIVE MOOD. o' pájail, or o' pajbcnl. Passive Voice, indicative mood. Present Tense. pajrap mé, rú, é, &c. Consuetudinal Past. jeibrí mé, rú, é, &c. Perfect Past. puapaó, or pp'c mé, cú, é, &c. The latter form of this tense, ppir, though now forgotten in the spoken language, is of very frequent occurrence in the ancient language, as jaoé móp ip in pojmup oo net ppic peo na pamail ip in aimpip pi, "a great wind storm happened in the autumn, of which no likeness or similitude was found in this time." — Chroni- con Scotorufn, ad ann. 1015. imperative mood. pajéap mé, éú, é, &c. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. Present Tense. 50 b-puigceap. Perfect Past. Like the Indicative. Future Tense. 50 B-puijpeap. CONDITIONAL MOOD. jeabraióe mé, rú, é, &c. ou b-pui^rióe mé, rú, é, &c. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Ri£ityi. 245 In old manuscripts the second form is sometimes written do puijbiéea, and in the spoken language, in the south of Ireland, it is pronounced on b-pajcaióe. Passive Participle wanting, but ap pájcnl and le pá jail are used in its place. — See Idiomatic use of Prepositions , Chap. VII. Sect. 3. IX. — Ri^un, I reach. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pijim. 1. piJTTlio. 2. 3. TOP- pij pé. Perfect 2. 3. Past. pijlD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 2. panjap. pcmjcup. 1. 2. pánjjjanriap. pánjabap. Or, 3. pánaij, oi " púimg p é. 3. pángaoap. 1. 2. piaccap. piacccup. 1. 2. piaceamap. piuccabap 3. piacc ré. 3. piaceaoap, or puaceaoap. Consuetude nal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pi jinn. 1. pijmip, or pijmaoip. 2. 3. pijceá. pijeaó pé. 2. 3. pijcíó. pijoíp. Example. — laconic pábaó ajup peirhpiop na corhaiple pin 50 h-Ua Weill, a a notice and forewarning of this resolution reached O'Neill," Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 1522 ; céic a Cearh- pai j gac n-oipiuc co panne 6inn Goaip, " he went directly from 246 Irregular Verbs — i?i£ityi. [part ii. Tara till he reached Binn Edair," Book of Fermoy, fol. 189 ; 50 pcmcacup in epeap cnoc, "till they reached the third hill," Book of Lismore, fol. 155 ; o 00 puaccacap na pluaij, "as the hosts arrived," Book of Bally mote, fol. 240, a, b. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pijpeao. 1. pijpimio. 2. pijpip. 2. pigpíó. 3. pijpió pé. 3. pijpio. Or, 1. piaccpao. 2. piaccpaip, 3. piaccpcnó pé. 1. piaccpamaoio. 2. piaccpaíó. 3. piaccpaio. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. 1. 2. pig. 3. pijeaó pé. PLURAL. 1. pijmip. pijmaoip. 2. pijíó. 3. pijioíp. Or, CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pijpinn. 1. pijpimip, or pijpeamaoip. 2. pijpeá. 2. pijpíó. 3. pijpeaó pé. 3. pi jpioíp. 1. piaccpainn. 2. piaccpá. 3. piaccpaó pé. 1. piaccpamaoip. 2. piaccpaíó. 3. piaccpaioíp. INFINITIVE MOOD. 00 piaccain, or 00 poccatn. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Uéióim. 247 X. — Uéióini, I go. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. céióim. 1. céiómío, or céimío. 2. eéióip. 2. réióéíó, or céiéíó. 3. céio pé. 3. céióio, or céio. Past Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cuaóar. 1. cuaomap. 2. cuaóaip. 2. cuaóbap. 3. cuaió pé. 3. cuaóoap. Consuetudinal Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. réióinn. 1. réiómíp. 2. ééióéeá. 2. réiórí. 3. ééióeaó pé. 3. réióoíp. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pacpao. 1. pacpamaoio. 2. pacpaip. 2. pacpaíó. 3. pacpaió pé. 3. pacpaio. Or, pacao, pacaip, &c, omitting p. The third person singular of the present tense of this mood is often written céic, and caeo, in ancient manuscripts, as in the fol- lowing examples : — ceic in bcm-copp ip in paippji piap do ouchnó, " the she-crane goes westward on the sea to hatch," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16. p. 242 ; céic Copmac oo'n bpoicencuj, 11 Cormac goes to the badger warren," Cor. Gloss., voce ^colenj; oo chaeo ap a beolu, "which goes out of his mouth," Id., voce óeilchi; oo chaeo do bioj ap in ímoai^, "he went in a fright from his bed," Battle of Mag h Bath, p. 8. The form oo óeacap 248 Irregular Verbs — Uéióim. [part ii. is also often used in the past tense of this mood. The third person singular of the past tense is often written coió, and the third person plural coocrn, or cócap, as cocap ap n-apai a b-pual, " our shoes went into the water," Cor. Gloss., voce pual. In old Irish manuscripts the future indicative of this verb is most generally, if not always, written with a j, and without the p, which, when aspirated according to the modern orthography, would agree with the present pronunciation of this tense throughout the south of Ireland, as pa£ao, I will go ; pajaip, thou wilt go ; pa^aió pé, he will go; pagmaoio, we will go ; pajraió, ye will go; pajaio, they will go. The conditional mood of this verb is also found written with a j in the best manuscripts, and formed from the future indicative in the usual manner. The following exam- ples of these forms occur in the Battle of Magh Rath : ocup acác pecc macu maici ocum-pa, ocup pajaic lac íp in car, ocup oia caempcuno-pi péin oula ann, no pajaino, ocup ni ihoiópeó pop Ullcaib cén no beino-pi ím beoxaió, " I have seven good sons, and they shall go with thee into the battle, and if I were able myself, / would go also, and the Ultonians should not be defeated while I had life," p. 43 ; pajocnc lac-pu oo cum n-6peno oo cabcupc caéa oo 'Oomnall, " they shall go with thee to Erin to give battle to Domnall," p. 48. Also in Cormac's Glossary : ní pa^aió oo cop a m-bual, " thy foot shall not enter the water." IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. céiomíp, or réímíp. 2. céió. 2. eéióío. 3. céióeaó pé. 3. céióoíp. Haliday, the Rev. Paul O'Brien, and others, make imri£ a form of the imperative mood of this verb ; but this cannot be considered correct, as ímúijim, which is a regular verb, signifies / depart, not I go. In some parts of Munster, the imperative of céióim, I go, is frequently made eipi^ (and sometimes, corruptly, ceipij) ; but this must also be deemed an anomaly, as it is properly the imperative of eipijim, I arise. This form is used by Keating, as chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — Uéióim. 249 do beupom loinjiop phapoa ap do cumup, ajup eipij lonnca ap muip, "we will give Pharoah's ships in thy power, and go to sea in them," History of Ireland, p. 46 ; eipjíó a n-Uleaib, " go ye into Ulster/' Id., p. 100. It is also used in a very ancient life of St. Moling, as eipig, op &penuinn, ocup baipe ino noióen, ocup cabaip ainm ipopaicc paip, " g°> sa ^ Brendan, and baptize the infant, and give him a distinguished name;" eipj oo'n cippaic o'innmuD do lam, " go to the well to wash thy hands," Mac Con- glinris Dream, in the Leabhar Breac. It is also used in the Battle of Mag h Bath, p. 24. — (See list of obsolete verbs, voce Décpain). €pi£, ol pe, cumm in oipepca, " go, said he, to the hermitage," Leabhar Breac, fol. 100, b, a; eipo"íó DO 6echil luoa, "go to Bethlem of Juda," Book of Fermoy, fol. 65 ; epj, ol in cimcipij, ocup comil do ppoino, "go, said the servant, and take thy dinner," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107 ; epig a n-ajaio Rumuino, "go against Rumunn," MS. Bodl. Lib. Laud. 610, fol. 10, a, a. SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD. All the tenses of this mood are like those of the indicative, except the simple past, which runs thus : SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. 50 n-oeacccp. 1. 50 n-oeacamap. 2. 50 n-oeccaip. 2. 50 n-oeacabap. 3. 50 n-oeacaio pe. 3. 50 n-oeacaoap. This form is, however, used as the past indicative in ancient writings, as in the following example : do oeacupa oin ann, a pij, ap mo óucaig do cabaipc oam 50 h-implán, for do cuaoap-pa Din ann, a pij, ap pon mo óúraió do cubaipc oam 50 h-iomlán, *' I went thither, O king, for a promise that my inheritance should be wholly restored to me," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 36. CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. pacpnmn. 1. pacpamaoip. 2. pacpá. 2. pacpaíó. 3. p: cpaó pé. 3. pacpaioíp. 2 K 250 Irregular Verbs — Ui^im. [part ii. O'Molloy writes nac pacpac, "that it would not go," in Lucerna Fidelium, p. 357 ; but this termination etc, though pronounced in Munster and parts of South Connaught, is not found in correct manuscripts. The form pajcunn, or pajaino, is more frequently found in ancient writings than paepcunn, or pacainn, of which the learner will find an example already quoted from the Battle of Magh Rath, Under the future indicative ; and several others will be found in the same work, at pages 36, 42, 44, 48, 50, 58, 68. INFINITIVE MOOD. DO Dul. XL — U151TÍI, I come. INDICATIVE MOOD. Present Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. cijim. 1. cijmio, or cijeam. 2. cijip. 2. cijcíó. 3. C15 pé. 3. C1510. The present indicative of this verb is often written ciagcum, and ceaccum, as occ cuctlaccap clann TTluipcheapcaij Ui Choncabaip pm, ciagoio poiplíon poirhe ap óhealac an epionenj, " when the Clann Muircheartaigh O'Conor heard this, they came in full num- bers before him on [the pass of] Bealach an chrionaigh," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1391 ; cecac uli, cup in copri, M they all came to the rock," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107 ; ceaccuc ap pin a riianaic ocup a oeipciubail, a ceallaib t)eapmúitian, 00 coppuime ocup o' onóip cuipp a maijipcpech, "Then his monks and disciples came, from the churches of Desmond, to wake and honour the body of their master," Book of Fermoy, fol. 60; 00 reagac íapum co h-aipm a poibe 6Ú50HÓ, " he afterwards came to the place where Lughaidh was," Id,, fol. 29. chap, v.] . Irregular Verbs — Uigim. 251 Simple Past. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. rcm^ctp. 1. ccmjamap. 2. éánjaip. 2. cánjaBap. 3. cánaic pé, or 3. úángaoap. ráinij pé. Consuetudinal Past, SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ciginn. 1. rijimíp. 2. cijceá. 2. rijcíó. 3. cigeaó pé. 3. cijioíp. Some write the past tense of this verb without aspirating the initial; but it is regularly aspirated in the modern language, and by O'Molloy, as ní ap aon coip cáinij pacpuic 50 h-Gipinn, "it was not on one leg St. Patrick came to Ireland," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 330. It should be here remarked, that the first person of the simple past tense of the indicative mood of this verb has a peculiarity of form, whicii has not been noticed by any of the Irish grammarians, though of very frequent occurrence in the best manuscripts. Thus, if the 1 be rejected from ccmaic, or ccmcnj, the first person singular is implied, as cccnaj pop a amup, " I came to him," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 80 ; eanac-pa, " I have reached, or come to," Id., p. 190; íppin bliaoain íppomapbac tDiapmaic pi Cajen, ocup íp jpioe cécna bliaoain cánac-pa a Qlbam, " in the year in which Diarmait, king of Leinster, was killed, and this is the first year in which I came from Alba," Marianus Scotus. But when the final 5 is made slender, the third person singular is implied ; but no trace of this peculiarity is observable in the modern language. The third person singular is often written panaic, as O po jaec cpa heccoip oop pánaic a bpur ocup a Bpi j, " when Hector was wounded his fury and vigour came to him," Book of Bally mote, fol. 240, b, b. The first person plural of this tense is variously written in old manu- scripts, cánjamap, cccncamap, cánaQ-pam, cánacpum; the second person, cángabap, cangabaip ; and the third, ccmjaoap, ccmcacap, 2o2 Irregular Verbs — Ui^im. [part ii. ccmcucup, cána^pao, ccmacpac. Examples of these forms are of frequent occurrence in the most ancient manuscripts, but it is needless to multiply examples here. The following from the Battle ofMagh Rath will be sufficient : cá dp ap a cáncabaip ? " what country have ye come from ?" ccmcamap a h-Gpmn am, " we have come from noble Erin," p. 46; cpec pa cancacap ó cij? " why have they come from their house?" Id., p. 128; ap a aoi ni can- jaoappoih inealrha po a co^aipm," " however, they did not come entire at his summons," Ann. Four Mast. 1567. Future Tense. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ciocpao. 1. nocpamaoio, or ciocpam. 2. nocpaip. 2. ciocpaíá. 3. ciocpaió pé. 3. ciocpaio. The third person singular often terminates in pa, as cicpa Qiripne ocup muippio in mac," Aithirne will come and kill the boy," Cor. Gloss., voce JJp 1 ^- The second person plural of this tense is sometimes written cicpaici, as oia n-oecap laip cicpaici-pi a cpiup lim-pa, " If I go with him ye three shall come with me," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 50; an rhaic íp pepp cá nic ocup ciuc- pap, " the best good that came or will come," Book of Fermoy, fol. 65 ; cicpaio cailjmn cap muip meipjmn, "tonsured people shall come across the stormy sea," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 17. p. 1 ; ni cicpa énpep a pamla, ocup ni cainic, " no man like him will come, nor has come," Book of Fermoy, fol. 53. IMPERATIVE MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1 1. cijeamaoip, or cijeam. 2. cap, or 2. cijíó, or c 5 . cicíó. 3. cijeaó pé. 3. cijioip. chap, v.] Irregular Verbs — U1511T1. 253 Keating uses caip for the second person singular of this mood, as caip cujam-po, ajrup rabaip lám um lenm, " come to me, and place thy hand in my hand," History of Ireland, p. 125. In most parts of Munster this mood is inflected ca;r, or cap, come thou ; cajaó pé, let him come ; cagamaoip, or cajamaoio, let us come ; cajaijíó, come ye ; ca^aioip, let them come. But in the oldest and best manuscripts in the language we find cicíó, or cijíó, as in the following quatrain from Leabhar na h-Uidhri, relating to the eruption of Lough Neagh : Uicíó, cicíó, jrebíó paebpa, Snaioíó earpa ; , Uicpa Cinomuin oap Ciarmuin Coller lia. — Fol. 36, a, a. " Come ye, come ye, take ye weapons, Cut [build] ye vessells : Linnmuin will come over Liathmuin With a grey flood." A quatrain similar to this is still repeated in the south of the county of Derry, by those who speak the Irish language, and who have preserved the traditional account of the eruption of Lough Neagh. It runs thus : C15ÍÓ cum na coille, CIp bainijíó cuppach ; Oip cicpaió an conn puao Cap baile pi j n-Garach. " Come ye to the wood, And cut ye a currach ; For the red flood will come over King Eochaidh's town." CONDITIONAL MOOD. SINGULAR. PLURAL. 1. ciocpamn. 1. ciocpamaoip. 2. ciocpá. 2. ciocpaíó. 3. ciocfaópé. 3. ciocpaioíp. 254 Of impersonal, defective, [paht ii. Uipeaó is frequently found in old manuscripts for the third person singular form of this mood, as ceic cecca uaici-pe co Coipppi, co cipeaó oo mapbaó in opuaó, " a messenger went from her to Coirppe that he might come to kill the Druid," Cor. Gloss., voce Ope ; po popconjenp poppa co o-cíopcaíp l n-a óocum n-ionao epóalca, " he ordered that they should come to meet him at an appointed place," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1595; nop jab lap pm epic-jalap popéijnec h-e ó h-mo a mullai^co ino a meop, amail ceinió jealám no cípaó epic, " then was he seized with a violent trembling disease from the top of his head to the tops of his fingers, as if lightning had passed through him } " Book of Fermoy, fol. 68. INFINITIVE MOOD, oo ceacc. Various forms of the infinitive mood of this verb are found in the Irish annals and ancient manuscripts, as cocc, coijeacc, cij- eacc, ciaccain. Example. — Uaip po cipcanpacap a opaióe oo 6oejuipe cioechc phacpaic oo cum n-Gpeno, " for his Druids had predicted to Loeguire the coming of Patrick to Ireland," Leabhar JSreac, fol. 13, b. But in modern manuscripts and printed books ceacc is the most usual form, and is also that used in the spoken language in every part of Ireland. Section 8 Of impersonal, defective, and obsolete Verbs. The verb ccum, I am, and several intransitive verbs, though they have no regular passive voice, are some- times used impersonally, like the Latin verbs itur, con- curritur, &c. Examples. — Cinoup pilcep lac moiu ? " how is it with thee to-day?" Leabhar Breac, fol. 107; tacap 50 maic leip, " he is treated well ;" oca cácap o'iappaió pecnón Gpeno ocup Qlpan, " whom they are seeking throughout Ireland and Scotland," Cor. chap, v.] and obsolete Verbs. 255 Gloss., voce Ppull; maich, ap TDac Conglinoi, cinoup acachap annpin ínoiu, M well, said Mac Conglinne, how is it with thee there to-day," Leabhar Breac, fol. 108; bichep oc a paipe, " people watch him," Id., voce, lmbap pop Opnae ; po bap ono ic embeipc eigne pop luce na epice, " oppression was exercised against the people of the country," Vit. Moling ; lmcijceap leo, " itur ab illis ; n cóp o £,aignib, "there went [messengers] from the Lagenians," Ann. Four Masters, ad ann. 954 ; ciajaip ap a ceann uainoe, " let us go for them." Many verbs which admit of the passive voice are also often used impersonally, as po clop, or ip clop, it was heard ; ciceap, it appears ; ac concap cam, or ac cep cam, it appeared to me. — See Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 553. The following defective and obsolete verbs, being of frequent occurrence, and not always correctly ex- plained in the printed Irish dictionaries, are here in- serted, to assist the learner in reading Irish : do peo, he relates. — Keat., passim. Gc cooa, he has : ac cooa mian mná ceacpach, " he has the desire of the female raven." — Ode to O'Brian na Murtha O'Rourke. The ao and ac in these verbs are mere prefixes, like a in accnm, I am. dp pé, ol ye, or op pé, quoth he, said he : maic a mic, op in pacapc, "well, my son, said the priest." — Vit. Moling. See the example quoted under Cumcaim. Gc bail, or ac bác, he died. — Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 365, et passim. Gicpiogaim, I dethrone, depose : Copmac, mac Uomalcai^ oo aicpíojaó, " Cormac, son of Tomaltach, was deposed." — Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1240. óeabaip, he died: a n-6ipmn bic beabaip, " in Parva H'tbernia obiit" — Feilire Aenguis, 23rd April. Chaip, or cep, he fell. Chepo, he put : po ceipo áp mop poppa, "he brought [put] great 256 Of impersonal, defective, [part ii. slaughter upon them," Book of Bally mote, fol. 240, b,b ; po cepo a eaclaipc oap penipap na h-eclaipi íp in coileac, " he put his wand through the window of the church into the cha- lice," Book of Lismore, fol. 5, 2 ; po cepo a luinj lap pin pech Gpmo poip co h-lnip pácpaic, "he then put [steered] his ship by Ireland eastwards, to Inis Patrick," Book of Lis- more, fol. 6, col. 2, line 4. Caorhcum, I can, or I am able : «gup oia j-caompac an can pin amup longpuipc oo cabaipc paip, " and if they were then able, to make an attack upon his camp," Ann. Four Mast., ad ann. 1587; caorhnacacap, they were able : ajup ni caorh- nacacap ceacc cáippe, " and they were not able to cross it (the river)," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1244. Clannpao, they thrust : clannpao cleacha 005-pa epic, c< they thrust horrid spears through him." — Book of Lecan. Clocha, was heard : aca pceoil po clocha, " news were heard." — Feilire Aenguis, 24th August. Coinopeajaio, they meet : íp amlaió po umoppa comopeagaio a n-aen bunaoap, "sic autem conveniunt in uno stirpe" — Book of Bally mote, fol. 23, b, a, line 29. See also Book of Lecan, fol. 75, b, a, and Duald Mac Firbis's Book of Pedigrees, p. 575, line 11. Concuaipec, they listen, or hearken ; Tegusc Biogh, passim : concuaipec ppi ppocepc bpécpi t)é, " they listen to the preach- ing of the Word of God." — Visio Adamnani. Cumcaim, I can, or I am able; possum : oixic pacpiciup ppip ; oichuip pooechca pi pocep; oixic ÍTIajup ni cumcaim, cup in cpach céona í m-bápach. t)ap mo oebpoch, ol pacpaic, íp l n-ulec acca oo cumachcu ocup ní pil ícip a maich, " Patrick said, 'banish now [the snow] if thou canst:' the Magus said, 'I cannot till the same hour to-morrow.' ' By my Good Judge,' said Patrick, * it is in evil thy power lies, and not at all in good.' " — Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a. t)ap liom, methinks: oap leip pém, "as he thinks himself," Keat. Hist., p. 52; oap leo, "they think;" ocup naca cainic pop calmam pin po B'pepp blap na bpij oap leo, map, " and chap, v.] and obsolete Verbs. 257 there came not on earth wine of better flavour and strength, they thought, than it." — Oighidh Muirchertaigh, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16. p. 316. t)eapa : po oeapa, that induced. t)écpain, to see, to view. — Ann. Four Mast. A. D. 739 : eipj, ol pé, do óécpam net pleói moipe pil íp in oún, " go, said he, to view the great feast which is in the palace. — Battle of Mag h Ragh, p. 24. t)eipio, it was settled, agreed, or resolved : oeipió acct, or oeipió leo, " it was resolved by them." — Ann. Four Mast, ad ann. 327, 1557, 1587. Olea^ap, it is lawful, is very frequently used in old manuscripts for the modern olijceap ; and it is even adopted by Keating, as ni meapaim 50 n-oleajap jabcnl 00 éabaipc ap eaccpa an pip pe, " I do not think that the expedition of this man should be called an invasion," History of Ireland, p. 30 ; oleajap cunopaó 00 comall, " a covenant should be kept," Book of Fermoy, fol. 48. t)up, to know. — Ann. Four Mast., 1556. This is a contraction of o'piop. Oucpacaip, he wished : oucpacap-pa compr'p oipje mo péca, "utinam adirigantur [sic] vice mece" L. Breac, fol. 18, b, a; in joech nop eic oapp in cip pin oucpacup co náb' peocham no ceippeo ace comao am beolu, u the wind which blows across that country, would that it should not pass by me, but enter my mouth, " Mac Conglinn's Dream ; cun oucpaic oul cap copuinn piap cup in pac ppip puinenn gpian, " so that it desires to go beyond the boundary westwards, as far as the limit where sets the sun," Rumann, MS. Bodleian Laud. 610, fol. 10, a, a. Gobaip, he offered, granted, or gave. — Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 572, 585. Bpbail'c, he died : co n-epbailc, " so that he died." — Ann. Four Mast., 365. puíó, or paoió, he sent, put, gave up : Sean phácpaicc 00 paoió- eaó a ppipaioe, " Sanctus Patricius senior reddidit sph 'Hum '," 2 L 258 Of impersonal, defective, [part ii. Ami. Four Mast, A. D. 457, and translated in Trias Thaum., p. 293 ; puióiup pacpuic cechca uaó co Conan, " Patrick sends messengers from him to Lonan," Book of Lismore, fol. 47, b, b ; po paoió ceacca, " he sent messengers," Ann. Four Mast, passim ; paióip Cublai a t)paióe uaioe oia pip in poinriie no ooinriie no biac oo'n car, " Cublai sends off his Druids to know whether success or misfortune would result from the battle," Book of Lismore, fol. 113. peacccr, was fought : in can peacca car TTiuije Cuipeaó, "when the battle of Magh Tuireadh was fought," Cor. Gloss., voce Nepcóic. Papcaib, leave ; now pag. — See Annals of Ulster, ad ann. 995. Peappac, they gave; they poured out, Ann. Four Mast., A.M. 3500, et passim. Pia ; poc pia, mayest thou get : poc pia buaó ocup bennacc, " mayest thou get victory and a blessing," Book of Lismore, passim. pioip, he knows : uaip po pioip in coimoiu cec ni pecmaic a lep, " for the Lord knows every thing we stand in need of," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121, b. "Ro pioip, he knew, Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 1522, et passim. Pobaippioc, they attacked : po pobaippioc an baile íaparii, "they afterwards attacked the castle," Ann. Four Masters, A. D. 1544. pinnaim, I perceive ; pincc, he perceived, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1512. pinca, perceived, Cor. Gloss., voce Ope. popbaó, was finished : popbaó cloiccije Cluana mic noip, " the finishing of the steeple of Clonmacnoise," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1124; iap b-popbaó a aoipe, " after finished his life," Id., passim. popconjaip, he ordered: po popcongaip Peiólimió pop a plo^aib ran a n-oiubpacao ace cocc oia n-ionbualao gan puipeac, " Felim ordered his troops not to shoot at them, but to come to the charge without delay," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1237. Pocuijim, I found: dpomacha o'pocujaó la naom pacpaicc, " Ecclesia Ardmachana fundata est per S. Patricium," Ann. chap, v.] and obsolete Verbs. 259 Four Masters, A. D. 457, translated by Colgan Trias Thaum., p. 293. pupcnl: ní pupcnl, it is necessary: aj pupail uilcc, "exerting evil," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 17, p. 123, a. ^apap, is called, Ann. Four Mast., A. M. 3502. JJenaip, is born: jenaip pacpic i n-Bmcuip, Patrick was born at Emtur," FiacTC s Hymn ; ap ba íp m canbac po jenaip pioen, " for he was born in the chariot," Cor. Gloss., voce Copbmac. In these examples the present tense is put for the past. Ca, he sent: 50 pa la popaipeaóa ppi poipcoiméo jach conaipe, " so that he sent sentinels to guard each pass," Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 1522. £aepac, they threw, or cast off: po laepac na cupaió uili a m-beanna co n-a caébappaib oia cennaib íp in ar, " all the heroes cast off their crests with their helmets into the ford," Book of Lecan, fol. 182, a, a. 6ooap, or locap, they went : oullooap cuo 1 puioiu pecc maicc Cacboc : ppiocip ouaib ec cpeoioepunc, " the seven sons of Cathboth went to him thither : he preached to them and they believed," Book of Armagh, fol. 17. Cuid, 00 luio, or oulluio, he went: oulluió pacpicc ó Uemuip hi epic Caijen, " Patrick went from Tara in Leinster," Id., ibid. ; peace ann 00 6uio pacpaic immaille ppia aioe 1 n-oail na m-ópeacan, " one time that Patrick went together with his tutor to visit the Britons," Vit. Patric, in Book of Lis more ; if \ conaip 00 luió epia Chenel n-Gojain 50 piacc 50 Ueap- mann tDabeoj, " the road which he went was through Cenel Eoghain till he arrived at Tearmonn Dabheog," Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 1522. TTIúpaim, I demolish, raze : po rhúppac an baile, " they destroyed the walls of the town," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1572 ; 00 co- naipe Hiall an cacaip ap na múpaó, " Niall saw the fort after being demolished," Caithreim Cong ail. "Rao, or par, he gave : pacpom, "he gave," Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a; pacpac, " they gave," Ann. Four Mast., A. M. 3304. "Riacrarap, they reached : rancacup Uluió cu piaccaoap ttlaip- 260 Of irregular Verbs. [part ii. cine mop nflurhcm, " the Momonians advanced till they reached Mairtine in the great [province of] Munster," Vit. Finnchu, in Book of Lismore, fol. 70, b. "Rijitti a lep, I stand in need of: po pioip in Coimoiu cec ni pec- maic a lep, " the Lord knows every thing we stand in need of," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121, b; an can picio a leap na h-ae an leijiup oplaiceac jlancac, " when the liver requires ape- rient, purifying medicine," Old Medical MS S., translated by John O'Callannan in 1414. teooacc, was raised. — Ann. Four Mast.-, A. M. 3991. Siacc, he came, or arrived : po piacc lap pin jup an abainn n-oi£- peca, " he afterwards arrived at the frozen river," Booh of Fermoy, fol. 92. Siaccaoap, they came, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 766. Sleacc, he cut down, or felled. — Id., A. M. 3549. Soaó, to return, to turn, to metamorphose : poac ma b-ppicinj, " they return back," Id. Soaicc, they returned : poaicc ap an cip jan jiall, jan eioipeaóa, u they return from the country with hostages or pledges," Id., A. D. 1223 ; mapaic pop na paipcpe lap n-a poó 1 clocaib, " the cheeses still remain being metamorphosed into stones," Book of Lismore, fol. 47, b, b. Spaoineó, was defeated — Ann. Four Mast., A. M. 3500, et passim. Cacmaic, it surrounded : as cacmaic pnecca pépna pep, " the snow surrounded the girdles of men," Cor. Glos., voce pepeno. Uappap, was shewn, was revealed : cona o-cuil Uaoj cpom-coo- laó con cappap bpmna ocup caipcecal neic buó cinn 00, " and Tadhg fell into a deep sleep, so that he saw a dream and a vi- sion of the things which were predestined for him," Book of Lismore, fol. 163. Uacaim, he died. — Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 708. Ueapna, he escaped : agup 310 epioe ní ceapna uaó jan cpeacc- nujaó 50 móp an ci lap po mapoao, " and though he fell, the person by whom he was slain did not escape without being severely wounded," Id., A. D. 1544. Cepca, he departed, he died: decessit. — Id., A. D. 512. This verb is of very frequent occurrence in all the Irish Annals. chap, vi.] Adverbs. 261 Uopcuip, he fell : bai cpa Nuaoa pici bliaóain 1 piji n-Gpenn co copcaip i each oeiomach ITIuiji Uuipeaó do láirh 6alaip, Nuada was twenty years in the government of Ireland, until he fell in the last battle of Moyturey by the hand of Balar." — Book of Lecan, fol. 280, a. Cu, I am : ocup acú ceo blictouin ap in uipci, " I am an hun- dred years upon the water." — Book of Lismore, fol. 224. CHAPTER VI. ADVERBS. Adverbs are of different kinds, and have been inge- niously classed by some Latin and English grammarians; but as there are very few simple adverbs in the Irish language, it is needless to attempt a classification of them. Euddiman says that " adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express compendiously in one word, what must other- wise have required two or more ; as, sapienter, wisely, for cum sapientia ; hie, for in hoc loco ; semper, for in omni tempore ; semel, for una vice ; bis, for duabus vicibus ; Hercule, for Her- cules me juvet, &c. Therefore many of them are nothing else but Adjective Nouns or Pronouns, having the Preposition and substantive understood ; as, quo, eó, eódem, for ad quae, ea, eadem [loca], or cui, ei, eidem (loco) ; for of old these Datives ended in o. Thus, qua, hac, iliac, &c, are plain Adjectives, in the Abl. Sing. Fern., the word via, a way, and in, being understood. Many of them are compounds, as quomodo, i. e. quo modo ; quemadmo- dum, i. e. ad quern modum ; quamobrem, i. e. ob quam rem ; quare, i. e. (pro) qua re ; quorsum, i. e. versus quern (locum) ; scilicet, i. e. scire licet ; videlicet, i. e. videre licet \ ilicet, i. e. ire licet; 262 Formation of Adverbs. [part ii. illico, i. e. in loco ; magnopere, i. e. magno opere ; nimirum, i. e. ni (est) mirum." — Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, Ch. v. note 1. The following definition of an adverb, given by Dr. Priestly, is well borne out by the Irish language: " Adverbs are contractions of sentences, or clauses of sentences, generally serving to denote the manner and other circumstances of an action, as wisely, that is, in a wise manner ; now, that is, at this time." Sect. 1. — Formation of Adverbs. Adverbial phrases made up of two or more parts of speech are very numerous, and adverbs may be formed from adjectives ad libitum, by prefixing 50, as cpoóa, brave, 50 cjioóa, bravely ; piop, true, 50 piop, truly. This 50 prefixed to the adjective in Irish has exactly the same force as the English termination ly, in adverbs formed from adjectives, but the 50 never coalesces with the adjective so as to form one word, and is in reality the preposition 50, or co, with, so that 50 piop is literally with truth, Kara to aXrjOes (according to what is true). It is altogether unnecessary to give any list of this class of adverbs in a grammar, or even dic- tionary ; but there is another class of adverbs and ad- verbial phrases, many of which are still in common use, and others to be met with in ancient manuscripts, which the student should commit to memory, as by so doing he will save himself much time, which would otherwise be lost in consulting Irish dictionaries, in which he may not be able to find them. Of this class of adverbs a list is here subjoined : chap, vi.] Formation of Adverbs. 263 CI b-pcto ap po, far hence. Q b-pao poime, long before. Ctbup, at this side ; at this side of the grave ; in this world. It is the opposite of call, q. v. Q 5-céin, afar, far off. Ct 5-corhnuioe, always, continually. Q5 pin, there. CC5 po, here. Q5 púo, yonder. Qipe pin, therefore. Qippióe, is of frequent occurrence in old writings, in the sense of thence, and is equivalent to the modern ap pin, as cpialluio aippme 50 h-Uipneach, " they proceed from thence to Uis- neach, Keat. Hist., p. 56. Cilia muij, on the outside. Qlla naip, on the east side. Qllapci j, on the inside. Qlla ciap, on the west side. Qlla coip, on the east side. Qlle, or ale, or o poin ale, from that time forward. Qmac, out of. This is always used in connexion with a verb of motion, as cuaió pé amac, he went out, or forth. — SeeGmuij. Q'rhail, as, how. Qmám, alone, only, tantum. This is generally written namá in ancient manuscripts. Qmápac, to-morrow. This is very frequently written abapac in old manuscripts. Q m-bliaóna, this year. Qmlaió, so : íp amlaió, it is so ; ní h-amlaió, it is not so. Q moo, or ap moó, in order, to the end that. Qmuij, without, outside. The difference between this and amac is, that the latter is always used in connexion with a verb of motion, and the former generally with some verb of rest, as bí pé amui 5, he was outside ; cuaió pé amac, he went out. Qnaice, near. Anciently often written pop aice. — See Cor. Gloss., voce Goel. 264 Formation of Adverbs. [part il Qncnpoe, on high, upward : oeipij pé ancnpoe, he rose up. Onall, over to this side, to this time. This is always connected with a verb of motion, generally cijim, as éctiru^ pé email rap muip, "he came over across the sea;"" aca an Nap jan pij anall, o'n lo po copcuip Ceapball, "Naas is without a king ever since Cearbhall was slain," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 1. 17, fol. 97 ,b. Qnallóo, formerly, of yore : antiquitús. Q n-oeap, southwards, and sometimes from the south. On céin, while, whilst. Qné, or anoé, yesterday. Qneaccaip, externally, on the outside. Qnéinpeacc, together, simul. Qn pao, or an peao, while, whilst. — See Qn céin. Q njap, or a b-pogup, near, close to, hard by. Q map, from the west. Its opposite is p'ap, westwards, or to the west. Q niop, from below. This is always used in connexion with a verb of motion, and the opposite of piop, down, as ccnnij- pé aníop, he came up ; cuic pé piop, he fell down. CCmu, or anoiu, to-day ; hodie. Cfnnam, or joh-anarh, seldom. Qnn pin, then, there. Often written ípuioe and hipuioiu, in old manuscripts. Qnn po, here. Qnnpuióe, in old manuscripts. Qnn púo, in yonder place. Qnocc, to-night ; hac node. Qnoip, from the east. Its opposite is poip, eastwards, or to the east ; and both are generally connected with a verb of motion. Qnoipreap, after to-morrow. Qnoip, now; anoip a^up apip, now and again, sometimes. Qnonn, over to the other side. Its opposite is anall ; and both are generally, if not always, connected with a verb of motion. Qnonn ajup anall, over and hither. This adverbial expression is generally written aoiu ocup anall in old manuscripts. CLn can, or an uaip, when. chap, vl] Formation of Adverbs. 265 Gnuap, from above, downwards. This is always used with a verb of motion, and is the opposite of puap, upwards, as cucnó pé puap ap an 5-cnoc, he went up on the hill ; cainij anuap 6 neavh, he came down from heaven. Gnuppaió, last year. This term, which is still used in the living language, is explained in blictóain eaippic, i. e. the year last past, in Cornicle's Glossary. CIp a aoi pin cpa, notwithstanding this however. Gp aba, because, on account of. CCp aip, back. Gp ball, on the spot ; very soon ; immediately. Gp bic, at all ; in existence. Gp ceana, or ol ceana, in like manner ; similiter. Gp éijen, with difficulty; oul ap éijen, running away. Gpéip, last night. Gp peaó, throughout. dp pao, in length ; altogether. Gp 5-cúl, back ; cuip ap 5-cúl, abolish. This is generally writ- ten pop culu in old manuscripts. Gpip (or apíóip), again. Anciently oopioipi. Gp leic, separately. Gp na rhápac, on the morrow. Often written ap na bupac in old writings. Op pon, on account of; for the sake of; in lieu of. — See Preposi- tions. Gp ciip, or a o-copac, in the beginning. G o-cpaioe, quickly, instanter. — Cor. Gloss., voce Cpoio. Gp uaipib, at times. Gpceac, into. This is always used with a verb of motion, as cuaió pé apceac, he went in. Gpcij, within : generally used with the verb substantive, or some verb denoting rest, as cct pé apejj, he is within. Gcuaió, or a o-cuaió, from the north; northwards. 6eaj nac, almost, all but. óheop, yet ; the ancient form of pop. 60 oeap, southwards. — Lib. Lecan, fol. 208. 2 M 266 Formation of Adverbs. [part ii. óuoepca, the ancient form of peapca, for the future. 6un op cionn, topsy turvy, upside down. Ccr, where, ubi. Ca h-ap, or ca n-ap, whence? from what ? unde f Ccc licccc, how many ! Ca riiéio, how many ? how much ? Céaoamup, in the first place ; imprimis. Often written cécamup in old manuscripts. Cheana, already: amuil óeapbap ceana, " as I have proved al- ready." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 358. This is pronounced hectna in the south of Ireland. Cém, or an céin, while, whilst. Cenmorá, besides, except. Cenmocác, besides them; except them. Cibionnup, howbeit, however. Ciopinnup, whatever way or manner — Vit. Moling. Ció, indeed ; auterri '; ÍíáXx, dl. Cid pá, why, wherefore. Cionnup, how ; anciently written cmoup. Choióce, ever. Choip, near, along. Conaó, or Conió, so that. Co nuije pin, or 50 nuije pin, thus far. Chuige po, to this end ; for this purpose. t)an, an expletive, then, indeed. tDsipeal, to the righfa; dextrorsum ; sunwise. t)iblinib, both : qncu oiblinib, through both. This is translated invicem in the Annals of Ulster. It is the ablative plural of oiblén, a couple. Din, oon, oona, or ooni, then, indeed, autem, vero ; «aa#, H. t)o jnáé, always. t)o 5peap, always, continually. X)o lácaip, presently. tVoioce, by night; noctu. Do lo, by day. t)o ponnpaó, exactly, precisely. Sometimes written m cpampeo, in old manuscripts. chap, vi.] Formation of Adverbs. 267 Gctóon, íoóon, croon, that is, namely, to wit; videlicet. Pá cecroóip, or po cécóip, immediately; at once; statim. Pá óeoió, at length. Pá óó, twice : anciently po óí. Paoó, or pao ó, long since ; long ago. Pao ó poin, long since. Pá 5-cuaipc, or má 5-cuaipc, round about. Sometimes written Bet cuaipe and ima cuaipe in ancient manuscripts. pá peac, or po peac, respectively, separately : pa peac ceana, ajup ni a n-aoineace, 00 nicheap coippeagao an cuipp ajup coippeajaó na pola, "separately, and not at the same time, the consecration of the body and the consecration of the blood are made." — Lucerna Fidelium, p. 250. Peapca, for the future. Anciently written buoepea and pooepca. peb, as. Piaplaoio, throughout. Po biéin, because. Po cleié, privily. pop, yet; ace pop, but yet. ^enmocá, besides, except. JJo, until. 550 bpáé, for ever. JJo oeirhin, indeed. JJo o-ci, until. Jjo o-cpapca, lately. ^o poll, yet, as yet. J)0 h-uilioe, entirely. JJo léij, presently, soon. JJo léip, entirely, wholly. J}o leop, or 50 lóp, enough. J)0 maie, well. ^o mime, often. JJo moc, early. JJo nice, or 50 nuige, until. looon, to wit, namely. laparh, afterwards. This is sometimes expletive. 268 Formation of Adverb*. [part ii. lap b-piop, truly, in reality; kutu uX^6tg. lapp in ni, ex eo quod ; because. lappooain, after that; posted. Now written lap pin. loip, or ícip, at all. llle, or ale, thenceforward, hue usque. lomoppa, indeed; vero, autem. lap, indeed, at all. Cairn le, near to, hard by. 6eip po, with this. 6eaé pop leir, or leaé ap leir, on either side. Ceaé apcij, inside, within. Ceac íp c-puap, above, de-super. map, as. — See Prepositions, Sect. 1. ÍTIap an 5-céaona, in like manner, likewise, similiter. map aon, together. map pin, so, in that manner. map po, thus, in this manner. TTIoc, early ; 50 moc, diluculo. móprrnp; 30 móprhóp, especially. Nctmct, only. Now always written amain, q. v. Noco, not. No 50, until: no 30 o-cáinij papéalón, "until Parthalan ar- rived." — Keat. Hist., p. 30. O, since ; seeing that. Obéla, wide open. Obéla opluicúe. — Ann. Four Mast., 1600. O céile, asunder ; cpé n-a céile, to and fro. O céin rháip, from time remote. O cianaib, a little while ago : jap becc pia n-eppapcain ó cianaib, " a little before vesper- time, just now." — Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. Olceana, or apceana, in like manner ; similiter. On, indeed; expletive. — Ann. Four Mast., 1137, 1601 ; ba pip on, "it was true indeed." — L. na h-Uidhri. Op ápo, aloud ; publicly. Op córhaip, opposite ; e regione. Op ipeal, privately. char vi.] Formation of Adverbs. 269 O pm ille, thenceforward. O pom ale, or ó pom amac, ever since; thenceforward. Oc, since, as, seeing that. — Keat. Hist., p. 127. Riarh, ever. Also written a pictm. Riarii, before: piam ocup íapam, antea, et postea, Cor. Gloss., voce 6oc. Piapiu, or pepiu, before; antequam. — See Conjunctions. Sarhlaio, so. Sán can, to and fro. — Ann. Four Mast., 1595 ; and Mac Con- glinns Dream, in Leabhar Breac. Seaca, by, past ; secus. Seacnóin, or pecnón, through. Seaccaip, by, past. Siop, down : na cláip piop co Sionomn, "the plains down to the Shannon." — O'Heerin. Generally used with a verb of motion. Siopannn, down here. Suap, up, upwards. Used with a verb of motion. Sul, before. Sunn, or punna, here. Chall, on the other side; in the other world. This is always used in connexion with a verb of rest. Camall, or le camall, awhile. TZan, or an can, when. Uaob amuij, or allamuij, on the outside. Caob apci j, or allapcij, on the inside. Chíop, below. Generally used with a verb of rest. — See Stop. Upct, indeed ; an expletive ; vero, autem. Upapca : 50 cpapca, lately, just now. Cpia bicin, or cpé bíém, for ever. Uuaipim : pa cuaipim, about, circiter. Cuap, above. Generally used in connexion with a verb of rest See Suap. Uuap ocup cip, " above and below." — Cor. Gloss., voce Comla. Uuille eile, moreover. Uió ap n-uio, gradually. — See Battle of Mag h Math, p. 166. Stewart sets down this adverbial phrase as a living one, in the 270 Of prepositive and inseparable, [part ii. Highlands of Scotland. It is obsolete in Ireland, though some- times found in old manuscripts. Uime pin, therefore. TJmoppa, or íomoppa, indeed, but; vero, autem. Many other phrases of an adverbial character will be met with, but the foregoing are the principal. In parsing such phrases the learner should construe each word according to its etymological class, noting, how- ever, the adverbial character of the whole phrase. Section 2. — Of prepositive and inseparable, or consignificant Adverbs, It is a curious fact that in this language prepositions are rarely compounded with verbs or adjectives, as in Greek and Latin, and the languages derived from them, as in abstineo, adhereo, contradico, dejicio, dis~ traho, egredior, intervenio, prcetereo 9 &c. To express such ideas in Irish, prepositions or adverbs are placed after the verbs, and never amalgamated with them, as beip ay 9 get away, escape, Lat. evade ; cucnó pé puap, ascendit ; cuaió pé píop, descendit ; cuaió \é> cmonn, transiit, &c. The following fifteen prepositive, consignificant, or inseparable particles, are undoubtedly adverbs, not pre- positions. They are capable of being compounded with nouns substantives, nouns adjectives, and verbs, to modify or alter their significations. Go, or cut>, an intensitive particle, as aiómilleaó, destruction ; as in Leabhar Breac, fol. 107, a 9 a : oo aiómilleó pep murhan, " to destroy the men of Munster." chap, vl] or consignijicant Adverbs. 271 Qirii, or am, a negative particle, of the same force with the English in, or un, as leap, welfare, aimleap, misfortune ; 5I1C, wise, aimjlic, unwise ; oeoin, will, airhóeom, unwillingness ; ulcac, bearded, amulcac, beardless ; jap, convenience, amjap, afflic- tion, distress. Gin, or an, a privative, or negative, as pioóc, shape, or plight, ampiocc, evil plight; mian, desire, ainmian, an evil or inordi- nate desire; beapc, a deed, ainbeapc, an evil deed; eolac, skillful, ameolac, ignorant ; oli jreac, lawful, ainolijceac, un- lawful ; cpdc, time, ancpác, unseasonable time ; coil, will, ancoil, ill will ; p<5, prosperity, anpó, adversity ; plaié, a prince, anplaic, a tyrant ; cpoióe, a heart, ancpoioe, a bad heart ; oaoine, people, anoaoine, evil, or wicked people; uapal, noble, anuapal, ignoble. Qin, or an, has also an intensitive power in a few compounds, as ainceap, excessive heat ; an-peap, a great man; an-rhóp, very great; an-cpaop, or an-paop, very cheap. This particle, however, seldom occurs in this sense in correct Irish works, in which it is generally used as a negative. The particles an and am are called negatives in Cormac's Glossary, and there can be little doubt that they were always so used in the ancient Irish language, though an is now often used as an intensitive particle in the spoken language, as ed an la an-puap, the day is very cold ; cd an oióce an-óopca, the night is very dark (pronounced in some parts of Ireland as if written anna). But in Cormac's Glossary, an is distictly called a Gaelic negative, thus: CXn, no am, .1. oiuluao J) aeoe l5 e > amail pon jab nan ocup annaé ; eim ocup ameim, nepc ocup aimnepc, " An, or amh, a Gaelic negative, as nath and annath ; eimh and aineimh ; nert and amhnert." — See also the same Glossary, voce Qnioan, where an is called a negative : " an po oiulcaó." It should be here remarked, that these and all the other prepositive particles are made broad or slender, accordingly as the first vowel of the words with which they are compounded are broad or slender. In the Erse, or Scotch Gaelic, as we learn from Stewart's Gaelic Grammar (second edition, p. 142, note u), the "syllable an assumes three forms. Before a broad vowel or consonant it is an, as ' anshocair ;' before 272 Of prepositive and inseparable, [paut~ii. a small vowel, ain, as * aineolach,' ignorant ; « aindeoin,' unwil- lingness ; before a labial, am, or aim, as < aimbeartach,' poor; sometimes with the m aspirated, as ' aimhleas,' detriment, ruin ; 1 aimh-leathan,' narrow." This change from an to am, before a labial, never takes place in the Irish, as beapc, a deed, ambeapc, an evil deed. Cfir, or ar, has a negative power in a few words, as aicpiojaó, to dethrone ; accaoipeac, a deposed chieftain ; cuccléipeccc, a su- perannuated or denounced clergyman; aclctoc, a superannuated warrior, a veteran soldier past his labour. But it has usually a reiterative meaning, as aicbeoóaim, I revive ; aiccéióce, re- heated ; acoóióce, re-burnt ; cncóeanarh, re-making, or re- building, Ann. Four Mast., A. T). 1572; aicjeince, regenerated ; aic^in, such another, quasi regeneratus. Clip, or eip, a reiterative particle, as aipioc, restitution ; eipeipje, resurrection. But it enters into the composition of very few words. X>\, or oio, a simple negative, like the Latin di, dis, as oicecmnmm, I behead ; oiombuióeac, ungrateful, unthankful ; oiombuan, perishable ; oiomolcum, I dispraise ; oiocoipjce, incorrigible, Keat. Hist., p. 13; oí-aipnéice, innarrabilis, Leabhar Breac , fol. 121, b; oíoéojluióe, impregnable, Ann. Four Masters, passim ; Book of Lismore, fol. 114. This particle is also called a negative in Cormacs Glossary, vocibus Oubac et Deinmne : t)i po oiulcaó, " di for denying." In some few words it has an intensitive power, as oíoriióp, very great : do mac cpi papa oia n-Diubpaicpiói aili oiriiópa, " they constructed three ma- chines, by which very large stones might be cast," Id., fol. 122 ; oibpeipj, revenge. t)o, when prefixed to adjectives, denotes ill, as oo-béapac, ill-bred, unmannerly ; but when prefixed to passive participles, or the genitive case of progressive active nouns, it denotes difficult, or impossible, as oo-óéanca, hard, or impossible to be done ; oó-rhúince, indocile, or difficult to be taught; oó-jabála, im- passable, or difficult to be passed : t)ol cpiap na oóippib oo-gabala, " to go through the impassable doors, or openings," chap, vi.] or consignificant Adverbs. 273 Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1602; píónerheó oo-imceacca, "an impassable, sacred wood," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 17. p. 123, col. a. In Cormac's Glossary, voce t)ubac, this is also called a nega- tive : t)u, do, oe po oiulraó, (i du, do, de, for denying." 6i, or éct, a negative particle, which generally eclipses the initial consonant of the word with which it is compounded, if it ad- mits of eclipsis, as cpócaipeac, merciful, éaorpócaipeac, un- merciful; cialloa, rational, éijcialloa, irrational; cóip, justice, éajcóip, injustice; cpdibreac, pious, éajcpáibreac, impious; ceannpa, meek, éajceannpa, immitis, Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, a ; cpom, heavy, éaocpom, light; ooirhin, deep, euooirhin, shallow ; eopocca, brightness. This negative is written e in Cormacs Glossary, voce Grham : e fo oiulcuó ; "G for denying." In the modern language it is written ea before a broad vowel, and ei before a slender one. Bap, a negative, which is to be distinguished from the foregoing, inasmuch as it is always short, while the other is invariably long, and never has the p, except by accident. Example, — Capcuo, a friend, eapcapaio, an enemy ; plan, whole, well, sound, eapplán, sick, unhealthy: eapaipm, unarmed. — Book of Fermoy , fol. 29. It does not often occur. It is written ep in Cormacs Glossary, voce Gpipc et Gpén, and called a negative: Gp po oiulcaó, " Es for denying." poip, or pop, an intensitive particle, as poipimeallac, exterior, ex- ternal ; poiplearan, extensive; popaipe, a watch, or guard ; poipcoirhéao, a watch, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1522 ; poip- neapc, violence; poppaipe, guard, watch; poipéigean, oppres- sion; a£ ímipc poipneipc ajup poipeijin ap Gipinn, " exercis- ing violence and oppression on Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 138. lm, or iom, an enhancing, or intensitive particle, as íomugallarh, dialogue; lompuilinjim, I bear, or support; imeajla, fear; íomlán, whole, complete; íomplcm, sound, whole; ímóíoen, shelter, defence; íomcoirhéao, keeping; íomcurhoac, a cover, or case; ímupo, high; ímcurhanj, narrow. It sometimes, 2 N 274 Of prepositive and inseparable, [part il though rarely, means about, as imbar, " a surrounding sea," Cor. Gloss, voce Imbar. This particle is very frequently found in old manuscripts pre- fixed to words which make good sense without it, as ímeajla, fear r for the modern eajla ; imoioen, protection, for the modern oioean. Example.— Cabaip oam oo noem ppipaic oom imoeajail, ocup oom imoioen, «* give me thy holy spirit to guard and protect me," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121, b. mi, a negative, as micpeioeam, unbelief; mí-náoúpra, unnatural ; mi-cealmaine, an ominous presage; mi-aj, misfortune; mi-par, ill success. This particle is very much in use in the modern language, and when compounded with a word of which the first vowel is broad, it has been the custom with modern writers to introduce an o, to fulfil the modern rule of " broad with a broad," &c, as miopar, ill success; but the ancients always wrote it mi. Nearii, or neirh, a negative prefixed to nouns substantive and ad- jective, as neam-puim, neglect; neirhníó, nothing; neam-claon, impartial, unbiassed ; neamcumpcuióre, immoveable. It is also sometimes prefixed to verbs, as nearh-cuillim, I deserve not, as peapga na naerh oo neam-cuill, " who deserved not the anger of the saints." — Giolla-Iosa Mor Mac Firbis, 1417. In the Scotch Gaelic this is written neo, and it is pronounced in some parts of the south of Ireland as if written nea, as nearh- puim, neglect ; pronounced nea-puim. In, or ion, when prefixed to passive participles, denotes fitness, or aptness, as lnleijip, curable ; a oubpacap a lea^a ppip nap bó jalap mleijipbai paip, "his physicians told him that it was not a curable disease he had,'' Book of Fermoy, fol. 68 ; moéanca, fit to be done ; íoncuijre, intelligible, to be understood ; inpij- re, "fit to be elected king," Vit. Cellachi; inlaei£, in-calf; inrheapca, to be thought, or deemed; incpeioee, credible. This prefix has nearly the same signification as the termination bilis in Latin, or ble in English. The same idea is often expressed in old manuscripts by placing chap, vi.] or consigniftcant Adverbs. 275 the assertive verb íp, or some particle which carries its force, before the passive participle, as ip cuirhnigce oia bup 5-cupaóaib, " it is to be remembered by your champions," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 124; nac cuipce a 5-concabaipc, " that it is not dubitable," Keat. Hist., p. 45. O'Molloy says that this prefix in has the force of the Latin par- ticiple of the future in dus : " Particula autem in addita voculse facit .voculam importare participium Aniens in dus, apud Latinos, vt faciendus, vt hoc non est faciendum, hibernice, m bh-puil po moeunca." Grammatica Latino Hibernica, pp. 99, 100. So, or poi, when prefixed to passive participles, denotes apt, or easy, as po-ajallriia, affable, easy of address ; poióéanca, feasible. When prefixed to adjectives it denotes good, as po-cpoióeuc, good-hearted ; poicinécdccc, of good family. It is the opposite of do, and hence we have so many words beginning with pand o forming opposites, as pubailce, virtue, oubailce, or 00 ailce, vice; ponap, happiness, oonap, misery; poláp, happiness, ooláp, grief; pcnóbip, rich, ocnóbip, poor; pomecmn, favourable or good weather, ooinectnn, bad, or unfavourable weather. To the foregoing may be added the following mo- nosyllables, which are seldom, if ever, used except as consignificant particles set before nouns, and sometimes before verbs, with which they generally amalgamate in composition. h\i, or bioc, constant, as bich-cncpeb, constant habitation, V^isio Adamnani ; bior-buan, ever-during; bir-óíleap, ever loyal ; bicoilpe, constant inheritance, fee simple. Com, coirh, con, coin. The monosyllable com, or, as it is written before a slender vowel, coim, sometimes signifies equal, as ccno piao com ápo, they are equally high ; and at other times so, as cá pé com h-olc pin, it is so bad. — See Conjunctions. But it is also used in the same sense as the Latin particle con, as in coimceanjal, connexion; compocal, a compound word; com- cpumn, round, globular ; coinopeajaó, a union, or meeting ; 276 Of prepositive and inseparable, [pakt ii. coijcpioc, a confine, a boundary. It is sometimes a mere in- tensitive particle, as coirheajap, a series; comalqiom, foster- age ; compcnnic oóib, " they came together," Book ofFermoy, fol. 23; corhcuige, a covering; coimpoillpiu^ao, to illuminate. — See Battle of Magli Rath, p. 112; corhpogup, near, compar. coirhneapcc, as ip in c-pleib ba coirhneara oóib, "in the moun- tain next to them," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 17. p. 123, a. t)a£, oea^, or oei j. This word is decidedly an adjective, and the same as the Welsh dha, good ; but it is never used except be- fore its substantive. It is pronounced oectj (the a long) in Connaught, and oéccj (the é long) in Munster, as oeaj-óaone, good people ; oéij-pectp, a good man. In ancient manuscripts it is most generally written oaj, or oaj (without any mark of aspiration on the 5), as in Cormac's Glossary, voce Ginjel, octjcechcaipe, "bonus nuntius ;" oajrháéaip, "a good mo- ther, Id., voce óuancino. It is explained as follows in the same work: oaj, .1. maic, opoc, .1. olc, uc opoc 00 opocaib, oaj 00 oajaib, " Dagh, i. e. good ; droch, i. e. evil, as droch DO DROCHAIBH, DAGH DO DAGHAIBH, i. e. evil to the evil, good to the good. tDpoc, or opoic, the opposite of oaj, bad, evil, as opoc-cuap, an evil omen ; opoc-púil, an evil eye ; opoic-gniorh, an evil deed ; opoic-piol, bad seed ; cup pil 1 n-opoch-ichip, " sowing seed in bad soil," Mac Conylinris Dream in Leabhar Breac. It is explained in Cormac's Glossary thus : opoc, .1. cac n-olc, uc epc, opochbean, no opochpeap, " droch, i. e. every thing bad, ut est drochbhean, a bad woman ; drochfhear, a bad man. Gn, or éin, one, as éinníó, one, or any thing ; énén, one or any bird. This is in reality the word aon, or aen, one, or any ; but some of the best Irish writers spell it én, or em, when it amalgamates with the substantive. eap is sometimes intensitive, as in eapjábcul, capturing; eap- larhaó, arraying; eapoplucao, opening. — See Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, a. po, or f 01 > under, as pooaoine, underlings, the lower classes of chap, vi.] or consignificant Adverbs. 277 men; poijéaja, under branches; pobápo, an inferior bard, or poet ; pocalam, lower land, Cor. Gloss., voce Bcapcé ; pocap, slightly curling, as pole pocap popopóa, " slightly curling golden hair," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 116; peap po-cana po épéij a pmiop, " a man worse than meagre [under-meagre] whom his marrow had forsaken," Teige Ball O'Higgin in his Satire on the } Haras ; poriiám, subject; pom am more, sub- jects, ppir, or ppior, against, as, ppioébualctó, repercussion; ppiúbeapc, opposition ; ppioéopjain, a seeking, or regaining of plunder, or a counter plunder. — See Ann. Four Mast., 1595, et passim. 11, or iol, many, of the same power with the Latin multi, and the Greek ttoAv, in compounds, as llpicmcum, " I torture in various ways," Lib. Lecan, fol. 246, b ; ílcleapaó, of various feats ; íoloánac, or llceapoac, polytechnic, or skilled in various trades or arts ; net h-ilbéaplaóa, the various languages ; íolcúingeuc, polygonal ; lliomao, very many ; llanmcmna, "various names," Cor. Gloss, voce T2óc ; íllúma, various hands, or branches. This is sometimes, though rarely, used as a separate word, and placed after the noun substantive to which it belongs. Oil, great, as olljur, a loud voice ; olljoéac, loud voiced ; oll-jniorha, daring deeds. Sir, or pioé, an intensitive particle, as piorpulcmj, good temper, as of a sword or battle-axe ; picpulcmj a pámchac, the temper of their battle-axes ; baile pt^óa pomop cu ponnacaib picapoa, " a regal, very large residence, with high enclosures," — Book of Lismore, fol. 190, b. Ciuó, or oeoó, last, final ; as ciujlcure, last days ; ciu^plcur, or oeoo-plair, the last prince, as Sapoancxpálup oeoó-plaié CTpapóa, " Sardanapalus, the last sovereign of the Assyrians," Book of Ballymote, fol. 6 ; nujplaic Ulaó i n-Gaiiiain, " the last prince of Ulster who dwelt at Emania," Ann. Tigh- ernach, A. D. 332. Oeojlcu, the evening, as cic pino oo'n puap-boié oeoólaió co paipnic an colano cen ceno, " Finn came to the tent in the evening, so that he found the body 278 Of prepositive and inseparable, [part ii. without a head," Cor. Gloss., voce Ope ; oeoónaioce, " the latter end of the night," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. This prefix is never found in modern books or manuscripts. Co is frequently prefixed to verbs and verbal nouns as an intensi- tive particle, as cojlu apace, moving, or motion ; coóúpcaó, resuscitation; cojaipm, summons. Llip, up, eap, or aup, noble, and sometimes merely intensitive, as úpcpoíóeac, noble-hearted; úippjéal, a famous story; úpro- pac, the van, front, or very beginning ; upóaipc, eapóaipc, or aupóaipc, illustrious, renowned ; úp-ápo, lofty, very high. To this list of prefixes might also be added several monosyllabic adjectives which are often placed before their nouns so as to form with them one compound word, as ceapc, just, or right ; ceapcláp, the centre, or very middle ; ceipcrheaóon, the centre ; 05, entire, as oi^peip, entire submission; o^Oilgenn, amnesty; 015- Dipe, full fine a ; apo, high, as aipt>-pi£, a monarch; ppirh, chief, as ppirh-eaglaip, a chief church. Also the adverbs an, very ; po, too; mop, somewhat; pan, exceedingly, as an bea£, very little ; po mop, too great ; móp móp, somewhat [too] large, or rather large ; páp-rhaiú, ex- ceedingly good. The substantive pi 5, a king, is also often prefixed, in the modern language, both to sub- stantives and adjectives, as pi£-pean, a very good, or great man; pi£-rnair, very good. The prepositions lDip, eiDip, or eatjap, peirh, before, and cim, about, are sometimes found in composition in a few words, as eaOap-polap, twilight; íOip-óealbaó, distinction; ecap-aipnéip, a digression; 5 íDip-rhíniujaó, interpreta- a MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. b Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. 18. col. a. chap, vi.] or consignificant Adverbs. 279 tion, i. e. an interlined gloss, or explanation ; eit)ip£leoó, distinction ; eaoap-pcapaó, separation ; perhpcuóue, aforesaid ; cim-^luaipim, I move round ; eaoap-bao- £al, jeopardy ; eaoapnaióe, ambuscade ; eaoap-rpar, dinner-time. I cannot close these remarks on the prefixes, or consignificant particles, without laying before the reader the whole of what O'Molloy writes on the subject : " Huiusmodi complexorum, et semisimplicium alia construun- tur ex duabus voculis quarum quaelibet seorsim ab altera aliquid importat, vt geallamh de qua iam dixi, jeal enim importat can- dorem, lamh veró manual, quae sunt res diuersae, adeoque tale complexum vocatur ab Hibernis proprié comhphocail. Alia veró non sic, sed construitur ex vna significatiua seorsim, et alia voce non significatiua seorsim vt poijheal. Construitur enim ex non significatiua no Hibernis gpeim phocail, latiné pars vocis com- positce ; huiusmodi autem iure dici possunt quasi seu semicom- plexa, ijsque frequentissimé vtuntur Hiberni, vt oaohuine, latiné bonus homo, oeijhbean, bona foemina. Prima pars huiusmodi semicomplexorum, particula est nihil significans seorsim, iuncta autem substantiuo, aliquod importat peculiare. Et huiusmodi par- ticulis inueni viginti nouem, nempé an, ain, ach, comh, oagh, oeajh, opoc, oo, 01, eap, eo, ecc, pel, po, in, ím, mi, nemh, op, ppimh, pemh, pa, po, po, pich, cim, rap, cuach, up, vt in sequenti- bus ancpach, ambhpeapach, acjubail, item aimhoheoin, aich- eicheaó, comhchpom, item comhpocal, oajhmhuineip, oeijh- bean, opocupchap, ooicheajapj, oomhuincip. Item oomhuince, oiochoipj, oibhpeipjeach, eapccaipoeap, eaplaince, eaoainjean, euccpuaioh, peljhniomh, pealouine, poijhlep, 'poighliocap, in- oheunca, corhjhpaohuighche, íoinbhualaoh, mioheunamh, mi- chiuU, miochaipoeap,neamhdipocaipeach, neimhjhlic, oprhaille, oipbheannach, ppimhchiall, ppiomhaohbhap, peamhpaiohce, pemhpheachuin, pachaipoeap, pachlipoe, poijhniomha, pojpaoh- ach, pichchealjach, piochpann, cpomchuaipr, capcaipniujhaoh, cuaichchleap, uipipeal, &c. Quarum particularum non quaeuis, 280 Of simple Prepositions. [part ii. sed quibusdam praefigi solent dictionibus, rariores autem sunt ep, eD > e 5» P cn > c,m , cct P, cuach, et up, vt upjhpanna, latiné valde deforme : particula autem in addita voculaefacit voculam importare participium Aniens in dus, apud latinos, vtfaciendus, vt hoc est faciendum, hibernicé n\ bhpuil po moeunca." — Grammatica Latino- Hihernica, pp. 96-100. CHAPTER VII. OF PREPOSITIONS. The number of simple prepositions, or short words unsusceptible of inflection, and used to express relations, does not exceed twenty-two ; but there are many com- pound terms made up of these and nouns, which are used in a prepositional sense. A list of both shall be here given. Section 1. — Of simple Prepositions, their simple Meanings, and ancient and modern Forms, CI, from. This frequently occurs in old manuscripts, exactly in the same sense as the Latin a, as a jlanpuiénib na jpéine, "from the bright beams of the sun," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 112; and is used even by Keating, as a h-Gipmn, " out of Ireland:" a Raram, "from Rahen," Hist. Irel., p. 129. In very old manuscripts, when preceding a word beginning with I, it be- comes al, and unites with the noun, as allebpaib lTlainipcpecri, " from the books of the Monastery," Leabhar na h-Uidhri. Q, or i, in. This is generally written i, or hi, in old manuscripts, in which, when it precedes a word beginning with I, m, or p, it is written ii, im, ip, or hil, him, hip, and amalgamates with the chap, vii.] Of simple Prepositions. 281 noun following, as na cáinei no mapbaic pop comaipce h-Ui Suanaij hippop cupp, "the satirists who were slain in violation of the protection of Ua Suanaigh at Roscorr," Leabhar Breac, fol. 35, b ; ílláirii, in hand ; lllaijnib, in Leinster ; immeoon, «72 medio; ammuij, outside (see p. 33); poéaijip Colam Cille 6claip íppachpaino oipchip ópe^, " Columbkille erects a church at Rachrainn [Lambay] in the east of Bregia," Id., fol. 16, b, a ; ojum lllia, lia op lece, " an ogum in the stone, the stone over the monument," Book of Leinster, p. 25, b; ap in libap jipp boi immanipcip, " from the Short Book which was at the monastery," Leabhar na h-Uidhri ; ip in bliaóain ippo- mapbac t)iapmaic pi Ca^en, " in the year in which Diarmait, king of Leinster, was slain," Marianus Scotus, 1070. Q5, at, with. This is written ic, 13, oc, and occ, in ancient manu- scripts, as oc popceoul jaipció oo na pianaib, " teaching feats of arms to the heroes," Cor. Gloss., voce óucmano ; cao 00 beip luce in capca 15 panncu jaó an pina ip na piabpupaib jeappa, "what causes thirsty people to long for wine in the short fevers," Medical MSS.hy John OPCalannan, 1414; ic glan-foillpiu- jaó, " brightly shining," Battle ofMagh Rath, p. 112 ; cuile pliab pil ic 6elacli Conglaip 1 Caijnib, " Cuilenn, a mountain which is at Belach Conglais in Leinster," Feilire Aenguis, 2ith Novem. ; po bai epi bliaóna oéc ic alei^iup, ocup a incinn ac pileaó, " he was thirteen years under cure, and his brain flow- ing out," Book of Lismore, fol. 209. In combination with the article it often becomes icon, as icon cenio, " at the fire," Cor. Gloss., voce Ope. (Inn, or annp, in. The form annp is always used before the article, and some writers are in the habit of separating the p from the preposition and prefixing it to the article, thus : ann pan cue, in the place, for annp an aic ; but the p belongs to the prepo- sition, not to the article, and should be connected with it in this as well as in ip, leip, or pip, cpép, and iapp. — See Syntax, rule 48. Qnnp is sometimes also used before the indefinite pronoun jac, as annp jac áic, in every place; but Keating, and the best writers of the seventeenth century, use the form ann before this 2 o 282 Of simple Prepositions. [part ii. pronoun, as cmn jac luing oiob, " in each ship of them," History of Ireland, p. 48. dp, on, upon, over, anciently pop, which before the article be- comes popp : as TTloelbpepail, mac plaino Cena boi pop pojail, " Maelbresail, son of Flann Lena, who was on plunder," [i.e. a plundering], Leabhar Breac, fol. 35, b. But the form ctp also occurs in manuscripts of considerable antiquity, as ap Ulcaib, "on the Ultonians," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 216. It also appears frequently in the Book of Lecan, as in the fol- lowing quatrain : TTIapccm oiaoa i t)ia po chap, pa cheano ap cléipcib TTIuman, Qp popbao oaimliaj co li, Gobach íap m-buaio n-aichpiji. " Marcan, the divine, who loved God, Was head of the clergy of Munster, On having finished churches with splendour, He died after the victory of repentance." —Fol. 220, b, a, line 29. In modern Irish and all Erse books, this preposition is written aip, air, and it is pronounced in most parts of Ireland as if written eip ; but aip is not to be found in correct manuscripts, excepting as the combination of this preposition with é, him, which is aip, or paip, in the best manuscripts. Qp, out of, Lat. ex. This is used generally before the article, as ap na jaipb-pléibcib, "out of the rugged mountains," Book of Fenagh, fol. 47, b, a. But it is often used without the article, as ap jac aic, out of every place ; ap a ceann péin, out of his own head; ay mullac an cije, from the top of the house. It is always used in connexion with verbs of motion or taking away. X)a]), by. This is used for swearing, in the modern language, as oap mo lenm, by my hand ; and is to be distinguished from oap, or cap, beyond, — which see. De, off, from, of. The prepositions oe and oo have long been chap, vii.] Of simple Prepositions. 283 confounded together, both being often written oo. — See Stewart's Gcelic Grammar, second edition, p. 129, and Holiday's, p. 105. Throughout the county of Kilkenny, however, they are used as distinct words, having opposite meanings ; the form oe, mean- ing °f from, or from off; and oo, to, or for, as bain géaj oe cpann, take a branch from, or off, a tree; cuic úball oe bápp na jéije, an apple fell off the top of the branch: cog puap oe'n calccrh é, lift it up off the earth ; cabaip oo t)hom- nallé, give it to Daniel; coiméao oot)hiapmaio é, keep it for Dermot, or Jeremy. But in West Munster, Connaught, and Ulster, the form oe is totally unknown, and oo is employed to express both the relations oifrom and to, except in its amalga- mation with the pronoun é, when it becomes oe, i. e. off, or from him, as bain oe é, take it from him ; and the above sen- tences are written, by the Irish scholars of those regions, bain jéaj oo cpann ; ruic uball oo bápp na géige; eój puap oo'n calarii é, &c. The form oe, however, is frequently found in the oldest manuscripts, as ip pi po in chaillech aupoeipc oe ^aijnib, "this is the celebrated nun of the Lagenians," Feilire Aenguis, in Leabhar Breac ; oe oepj op, " of red gold," Battle of ' Magh Rath, p. 70 ; ocup po jab each oe pepuib 6peno a n-opecc oe'n bpechemnap, " and each of the men of Ireland took his own share of the judicature," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358. It is sometimes written even oi, as clap oi lice lojmaip, "aboard of precious stones," Tochmarc Etainé ; piacc pmo oi Caijnib, " Fiacc the fair, one of the Lagenians," Book of Armagh, fol. 18, a, 2. t)o, to, and sometimes from, off, of — See t)e. It is used in ma- nuscripts of considerable antiquity for oe, of, off, or from, as mill oo milib na n-ainjeal aj cimcipeacc oo'n choirhoe, " millia millium angelorum ministrabant ei" MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 15. It is sometimes written ou in very old manu- scripts, as ou pacpicc, "to Patrick," Book of Armagh, fol. 18. Piaó, before. This is altogether obsolete in the modern language, and the compound prepositional terms, a b-piaonaipe, or op coihaip, used in its stead — See Sect. 3, piaó. 284 Of simple Prepositions. [part ii. pa, po, or paoi, under. Generally written pa, or po, in old ma- nuscripts. Example, — po múpaib úipe ímápoa, " under high mounds of earth," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 a, P e '•> F a a cpaijcib, " under his feet," Battle ofMagh Rath, p. 294 ; po poclaóaib caiman, " under subterranean vaults," Booh of Lismore, fol. 209. This is pronounced pé in the south of Ireland, but Faoi, or paíó, in the north and west. Stewart thinks that fa is a different preposition from fo, or fuidh, the former signifying upon, the latter under. — Gcelic Gram- mar, 2nd edit. p. 128. But there can be no doubt of their being the same preposition, though sometimes having very different idio- matic meanings. We might as well conclude that le and pe were different words, for we sometimes find le to mean with, and some- times from. <5 an > without. This is generally written cen in old manuscripts, as cpano jae cen íapn paip, " the shaft of a spear without any iron upon it," Cor. Gloss., voce J) a, P e « It is also written can, cin, and jen, and is sometimes used as a negative, as cen a blaóaó, not to break it; gan a beic, not to be. — See jan in Section 3. J)0, to, till, together with; Lat. cum. This is written jup before the article, and in ancient manuscripts co, cu, cup, as co n-ec- pocca gpéine, with the brightness of the sun. — See 50 in Sec- tion 3. 1. — See a. Before the article it becomes ip, as leaga cpiopcail ap n-a n-eacap ip in ppaijió, "stones of crystal being set in order in the ceiling," Booh of Lismore, fol. 156. lap, after. Before the article it becomes iapp. It is generally used before verbal nouns, as lap n-oéanam, after doing, or making. But it is sometimes used before common substantives, as iap n-oilinn, after the deluge ; iapp na jniomaib pi, " after those deeds," Keat. Hist., p. 69. loip, or eaoap, between, Lat. inter. Is generally written ícip, or ecip, in old manuscripts, as icip pipu ocup mná, between men and women ; icip plairib, among princes. — See Battle ofMagh Rath, pp. 66, 168, 246. chap, vii.] Of simple Prepositions. 285 lm, about. In old writings it unites with the article, and both be- come ímmon, or imon, as pncuchi immon men ap nepam oo'n luoain, " a thread about the finger next to the little finger," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18, p. 376, 6.— See um. 6e, or pe, with. This becomes leip, or pip, before the article. In ancient manuscripts it is written generally ppi, and before the article Fpip, as ocup apbepc ppi Conjal Claen ppi a óalca pépin, " and he said to Congal Claen, to his own foster-son," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 24; po epij in pij oo peprain páilci ppip na piju, " the king arose to give welcome to the kings," Id., ibid. It is also sometimes written pa, as ic bepc pi pa J)obcm, " she said to Goban," Vit. Moling. Ce is the only form of this preposition now used in Ireland in the spoken lan- guage, though pe is found in most modern books and manu- scripts. It is pronounced lé (short) in the south of Ireland, and lé (long) in Connaught, and is marked as long throughout the copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, made by John Mac Torna O'Mulconry, who was a native of the county of Clare. TTlap, like to, as. This is sometimes placed before verbs, as map a oéappá, as thou wouldst say ; ouppann map caoi a Ohún na Sciach, "alas for thy state O'Dun na Sciath," M i Cosey. In this situation it must be regarded as an adverb. But that the an- cients considered it a preposition appears obvious from their placing the nouns influenced by it in the dative or ablative, as map cpén-peapaib, " like unto mighty men," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 152. This preposition is written mup by O'Molloy in his Lucerna Fidelium throughout, and is so pronounced in Meath and Ulster, but this form is not found in the more cor- rect manuscripts. O,from. This is constantly used in the ancient and modern lan- guage ; but a is sometimes substituted for it in ancient writings, as a h-Bipinn, out of Ireland. — See a and 6, Sect. 3. It is sometimes made óp before the plural article, in some parts of the south of Ireland, as óp na peapaib, from the men ; but this is corrupt. Op, or uap. over. This is never used as a simple preposition in • 286 Of simple Prepositions. [paet ii. the modern language, the compound op cionn being always used in its place ; but it is of constant occurrence in ancient manu- scripts as a simple preposition, governing the dative or ablative, as op ecmncub a n-apm, " over the points of their weapons," Battle of Magh JRagh, p. 198 ; jpip eaicnerii na gpéne ic jlan-poillpiujaó óp bópo-imlib in beaéa, "the delightful disc of the sun brightly shining over the borders of the earth," Id., p. 112; baóuj lTluipcbepcaij, mic Gapca, a celcuma pina, aióce Sarhna a mullach Clecij, uap 6oino, " the drowning of Muirchertach, son ofEarca, in a puncheon of wine, on the night of All-hallows, en the top of Cletty, near the Boyne," jinn. Tighernach, A. D. 534. This entry is given in the Annals of Ulster ■, in Latin, by the original compiler, thus: " Dimersio Muirchertaig , jilii Erce, in dolio pleno vino, in aree Cleteg supra Boin." "Re. — See Ce. "Re, or pice, before the article, becomes pictp, or pép. Now obso- lete, though used by Keating and others, in the middle of the seventeenth century. — See Sect. 3. Seac, past, by, besides. This, which is usually written pec in ancient manuscripts, is obviously cognate with the Latin secus. It is still in common use, and has two meanings, viz. besides, beyond. In parts of the county of Kilkenny, it is pronounced peacup, which is very like the Latin secus, as ip ole an peap é peacup mipe, he is a bad man compared to me ; but it is peac in most other counties. — See Sect. 3. Uap, over, across, over, above. This is written capp before the article ; and in ancient manuscripts oap, oapp. — See Sect. 3. Cpé, or epia, through ; written cpép, or cpiap, before the article. This is still in common use, but pronounced in the south of Ireland as if written z\\\ ; and in Connaught, and parts of Thomond, qiio ; but in Connaught more generally ppfo. But it is never found written ppio in any correct manuscript ; nor cpío, except when it amalgamates with the pronoun é, him, when it becomes cpio, i. e. through him. Urn, or im, about. This is evidently cognate with the old Latin chap, vii.] Of compound Prepositions. 287 preposition am, and the Greek xfci, off, from. This preposition, as already observed, has long been confounded with do, but it would add much to the perspicuity of the language, if they were kept separate. The following examples of oe, of, off, as a different preposition from oo, which is almost unknown, ex- cept in the diocese of Ossory, and East Munster, are added from ancient manuscripts, and from the living language, as spoken in East Munster : po picep rpcc Pino an peel, ocup ba oojnappach oe'n mnai, " Finn then knew the story, and he was disgusted with [of] the woman," Cor. Gloss., voce Ope ; po lil ainm oe, " the name clung unto it," Id., voce VOofi Q\me ; po cuic Qlapan oi eoch, " Alasan fell from his horse," Vit. Moling. It is sometimes rendered into English by to, as lean oe, stick to it, or persevere in it. And sometimes off, as bpip jeaj oe cpann, break a branch off a tree; bain oe é, take it from him ; léijim oíom 5an leanriiam oppa ni ap poioe, " I leave off treating of them any longer," Keat. Hist., p. 12 ; leijip an pijhe oe, " he resigns the kingdom," Id., p. 108 ; pep-bolj oi piji póno cpeou- mae, " a chess man- bag of brass wire," Tochmarc Etaine. It is sometimes set before the substantive of which any thing is made or filled, and then it is properly translated by the English of, as oéanca oe óp, made of gold ; lionca oe aipjeao, filled with [of] silver. It must sometimes be Englished for, as imbip, ol TTlioip, ni immep ace oi jiull ol Gochaió, " play, said Midir, I will not but for a wager, said Eochaidh," Tochmarc Etaine. Do, to. This preposition literally denotes to, and is used, like the dative case in Latin, after all verbs put acquisitively, as cuj a piúle oo óallaib, a luc oo bacacaib, a o-eeanjea oo jooaib, a 5-cluapa chap, vii.] Meanings of the Prepositions. 301 do Boopcnb, " he gave their sight to the blind, their agility to the lame, their speech to the dumb, their hearing to the deaf," Book of Fermoy, fol. 41 ; ip oebenn oun moiu, a TTIaelbpijoe, clupe- naip íp in Dapooen pia peil pecaip, " happy for us [i. e. happy are we] this day, O'Maelbrigde, Recluse ! on the Thursday before the festival of Peter,'' Marianus Scotus, 1072 ; téij oo, let him be, let him alone. It were well if the form oo had been always used in this dative or acquisitive sense ; but, unfortunately, it is very generally put for De > °f ff,f rom "> °r ot/ f even in the best manuscripts, which tends to much obscurity, as will appear from the following examples : Of or from, as oo pac TTIolaipi pimuó a óaipraije oo'n cpunn oo, " Moling gave him the roofing of his oratory of the tree [the Eo Rossa]," Vit. Moling ; ap ip oo cpoicnib en pino ocup lloa- éac oo jnichep in cuijen pileó, "for it is of the skins of white and particoloured birds that the poet's toga is made," Cor. Gloss., WtftfCuigen ; papcha ceincióe oo mm pop mapb [an pij ^ujaió] iap n-oiulcao in Cailjino, " a flash of lightning from heaven killed him [king LughaidhJ after having protested against the Tailginn" [St. Patrick] ; oo'n caob éiap oo'n pjeilj a n 5^ eanr > oa loch, " at the west side of the Skellig [rock] at Glendalough," Vita Coemgeni ; lán an oaipciji oo jpán pecail, " the full of the ora- tory of rye grain," Vit. Moling ; luairicep peij oo aill, "more swift than the hawk from the cliff," Cor. Gloss., voce Ppull. For, or as, for map : baoi ouine naoméa oo bpácaip aj Juaipe, " Guaire had for [or as] a kinsman a holy man," Keat. Hist., p. 119; beupaio na h-015 biap ap 00 cionn tDiapmuio pua- naij o'aiéip ope, " the youths who shall meet thee shall call thee Diarmuid Ruanaigh for [as] an insult," Id., p. 130; oá plabpaó óéj íapnuije 00 cuibpioc aip, «he had twelve chains of iron upon him as fetters," Id., p. 125 ; pul cainij 00 [.1. oe] lén cujam eippion o'iappuió jiall opm, "before it occurred as a misfortune to me that he should demand hostages of me," Id., p. 157. By a place, as ccmcaoap pompa oo 6uimneac, ocup 00 Chuaille Chepain a n-Gchcje, ocup 00 60c na bo jippe, pip a n-abaprap 60c JJpéme, " they came on by Limerick, by Cuaille 302 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. Chepain in Echtge, and by Loch na bo girre, which is called Loch Greine," Book of Lismore, fol. 199. In this sentence the do would be made oe at present throughout the diocese of Ossory. It is set after a verb of motion to a place for the modern 50, or cum, as 6uio Cornwall óenochaip 00 chij achap Colmain t)uib- cuilmo, " St. Comgall of Bennchor went to the house of the father of Colman of Dubhcuilinn," Feilire Aenguis, 24t7t Nov. ; o toe do loc, " a loco ad locum" Cor. Gloss., voce CCmpop; pecheup luio do C15 ctpoile écip, " one time that he went to the house of another poet," Id., voce £ecec ; pul laibeópam ap épiall Hiuil o'n Scicia oo'n Gijipr, " before we shall treat of Niul's departure from Scythia to Egypt," Keat. Hist., p. 44. By, denoting the instrument, means, &c, as lap n-a 5-cup do JJhpém gpuaó-potuip a pacoaib bpoc, " after their having been transformed intothe shapes of badgers by Grian of the bright cheek," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 42; lap n-a juin o' pianaib Hlic Con, " after having been mortally wounded by the soldiers of Mac Con," Cor. Gloss., voce ITI05 Gime ; o'éc do bíoój 1 n-a ímóaió, " he died of a sudden in his bed," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1400 ; do rhapbaó o'eapjap, "was killed by a fall," Id., A. D. 1360; TTIupbup Seacm mac TTlachjamna Ui Choncobaip o'á láim buóéin, *' he slays John, son of Mahon O'Conor, with his own hand,"./d., A.D. 1391. In, on, at, as do ló ajup o'oíóce, by day and night; lá o'á pabap-pa, on a day as I was ; la éijin o'áp' éipij O'tDonna- bám puap, " a certain day on which O'Donovan rose up," Poem repeated before the Duke of Ormond, in 1 648 ; oo'n caob eile, on the other side. Towards, at, when set after a verb of motion, as lapooam oolleci Dia pepaib piocilli oo'n eechcaipe, " with that he flings one of his chessmen at the messenger," Tain bo Cuailgne. Over, above : Car íonap bpipoó do t)horiinall 00 oeappjnaij a n-eineac ; a n-oéipc, ajup a n-oaonnacc o'paapaib 6ipionn, " a battle in which Domhnall was defeated, who in hospitality, charity, and humanity, excelled [alt] the men of Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 118. chap, vii.] Meanings of the Prepositions. 303 By, in the sense of the ablative absolute in Latin : as TTlap pin DÓib 50 maiom, thus they fared till morning, i. e. thus by them [the time was spent] till morning ; lap n-oul 00 ib, after their hav- ing gone, i. e. after going by them ; ctp m-beic óarh, I being, i. e. on being by me ; cao ap do, where is he from ? Of, or concerning : 0:5 po in ceaéparhaó caibioil oéc noc labpup oo'n leijmp cncriceac, "this is the fourteenth chapter, which speaks of corrosive medicine," Old Med. MS. 1414. Da. t)á is sometimes a union of oe or 00 with the possessive pro- noun a, his, her's, or their' s ; or with the relative a, who, which. In either case it has been already explained ; but it is sometimes not so compounded, as in the following examples, where it seems to be used as a simple word, signifying though: NÍ puil peoo oá áilne, there is not a jewel, though fine; ni puil paióbpectp oá méio, there is no wealth, though great. Stewart, in his Gaelic Grammar, 2nd edit. p. 138, writes it d'a in this sense, by which he gives us to understand that he regarded it as compounded of the preposition de, or do, and the possessive pronoun a ; but this is not self-evident. The phrases, oá culne, oá rhéio, in such sentences as above ad- duced, unquestionably mean, " be it ever so fine," " be it ever so great." But it has not been yet clearly shewn what part of speech oá is ; culne and méio are undoubtedly abstract nouns, denoting fineness, greatness ; and therefore, if the o in oa be, as Stewart assumes, an abbreviation of oe, of, then the literal meaning of the phrases would be, "of its fineness," "of its greatness ;" but this would not express the intended idea by any stretch of lan- guage. It may, therefore, be conjectured that oa is a conjunction equivalent to, and cognate with, the English though, as in the phrase " though great!' But an abstract noun following oá in Irish presents an objection to this supposition, which could not be removed by any arguments derived from the strict principles of grammar. We must, therefore, conclude that such phrases as oá Tíiéio, oá culne, oá líonmaipeacc, and such like, are solecisms, which cannot be accounted for on the strict principles of grammar, 304 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. but must be classed with such phrases as " methinks," " me- thought," &c, in English. It might be resolved into correct grammatical language by substituting the conjunction jíó, or géó, although, for oa, and changing the abstract noun into the adjec- tive from which it is formed, as 510 móp, 510 áluinn, 5Í0 lionrhap. But still this latter mode of expression, though more grammatical, would not be deemed so forcible or elegant as the former, which is thus used by Keating : gibe ni a oeupaó a n-uaceapán, oá óoi- cpeicce ó, 50 meapaio a beié 'nu pipinne, " that whatever their superior should say, be it ever so incredible, they believe to be true," Hist. Irel., p. 14 ; 5cm corhpaj éinpip oá cpeipe 00 óiul- raó, " not to refuse the single combat of any man, be he ever so puissant," Id., p. 78. In Irish, as in most languages, several expressions scarcely war- rantable in strict grammar, become part and parcel of the language, and it would be rash in any grammarian to condemn and attempt to reject such expressions, because there may be some grammatical reason existing for them, although this may not be easily explained. pá, po, or paoi, under. This preposition expresses the relation of inferior position, and is the opposite of óp, or ap, as pcVn m-bópo, under the table ; po ctóncucpioo beo po ralriiain é, " they buried him alive under the earth," Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 310; pá bpón, under sorrow ; pá blác, under blossom, i. e. bearing blossom ; ni puil cineccó po'n njpéin le n-ab annpa ceapc íonáio Gipionnaig, " there is not a people under the sun that love justice more than the Irish," Keat. Hist., p. 174 ; ct^up pop ollam íp jac qiiocaio ceo a n-Gipinn paoi na h-ápo-oUamncub pe, " and there was moreover an ollamh [chief poet] in every cantred in Ireland, under these arch ollamhs," Id., p. 125 ; aicioeóa apain ajup piona paoi a 5-puil 50 pipinneacb copp agup puil ap o-Cijeapna, "the acci- dents of bread and wine, under which are truly the body and blood of our Lord," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 249. It is also translated upon, about, or along, when coming after chap, vii.] Meanings of the Prepositions. 305 verbs of motion, as ciomain na ba amac pa'n m-bóéap, drive the cows out upon the road ; ceilj po'n calrhain iao, cast them upon the earth, óhucnl a ceann pa cappaig cloice, "she struck her head against a rock," Keat. Hist., p. 74 ; Im^ir* péin ajup a pluaj po cloinn Uipnioc, "he himself and his host rush upon the sons of Uisnioch," Id., ibid. ; oo cuaió lapum Cuanna po'n 5-coill, " Cuanna afterwards went to the wood," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 276; cuipip pcén pa buaib 6aijen, "he put affright upon the cows of Leinster," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 18. fol. 216, b; pa éíp uaine Ctmaljaió, "along the green Tirawley," Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbis ; po'n ITIáij moill, " along the sluggish Maigue," CPHeerin ; pa'n am poin, " at that time," Keat. Hist., pp. 45, 92, 106; oaoine piala píp-eini^ pa biaó iao, "they are a generous, truly hospitable people under (of) food," Id., p. 5; pa, orbá cop- mailiup, "in the likeness of," Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópecam. It is also often translated for, at, or on account of, as an oapa h-áóbap páp' commópaó mópóáil TDpoma Ceac, " the second reason/br which the meeting of Druim Ceat was convened," Keat. Hist., p. 122; ap rhéo na cpuaige oo jab mé pá'n eugcoip pol- lupai^ oo niciop oppa, " in consequence of the great pity I took for the obvious injustice which is done to them," Id., p. 16; gup Lionriiaipe Gipe pa naomaib íoná ém-cpíoc ip in 6opaip, " that Ireland was more prolific in saints than any other country in Eu- rope," Id. ibid. ; eipjio bápoa un baile po na h-éijmib, "the warders of the town rose up at the shouts," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1583; po maipnpec opong oo Chenel Conaill o' Ua Weill an Calbac oo beir po'n íonnup pin, "some of the Cinel Conaill informed O'Neill that Calbhach was in that condition," Id., A. D. 1559. When placed before a numeral adjective, it forms an adverb, as pá óó, or po óí, twice ; pa cpi, twice. It sometimes denotes intention, or purpose, &c, as ip olc an puaoap a cá púca, they have an evil inclination, or intention ; literally, an evil inclination is under them ; ea pé ag cup pum, he is inciting me; literally, he is putting under me; eá pé ag magaó pom, he is mocking me. 2 R 306 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. Throughout: as o'opouijioo peace a$up cíop pháopuij po Gipmn, " the law and tribute of St. Patrick were established throughout Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 135 ; boi cpa m cepo mac Ui Oulpaine a bpáchaip oca h-iappaió po Gipino, "her brother Mac Ui Dulsaine, the artifex, was in search of her throughout Ireland," Cor. Gloss., voce Ppull ; po learnaij in peel pin pó Bipinn, " that news was spread throughout Ireland," Book of Fer- moy, fol. 52; ap n-ool com cuapapjbáil-pi po íapcap Domain, "my celebrity having spread throughout the west of the world," Toruidheacht Gruaidhe Grian-sholuis. Of, orlinj as 6ionmaipe na h-mnpe pá meap, palace, pá íapj, pá ioc ajup pa apbap, ajup meapapóacc a h-aieoip ap reap ajup puacc, " the fertility of the island in honey and in fruit, iwjmilk, in fish, in grain and corn, and the temperature of its air in cold and heat," Keat. Hist., p. 51 ; bacap po'n cumacca pin co cian lap cíóecc oo phácpaic, " they were in that power long after the arrival of St. Patrick." pia, piaó, before. This preposition is unknown in the modern language; but it is of frequent occurrence in ancient writings in the sense of before, coram, apud, or ante, as in the following examples : ac béppa anopa pia các na h-ulcu oo ponaip ppim, " I will now tell before all the evils which thou hast done to me," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 32 ; piaó piju ocup cuacha, " before kings and the people," Cor. Gloss., voce Cana ; ac bepc in c-écep piaó mécpine, " the poet said before the student," Id., voce 6ecec ; íp uaiple a h-aipil- leó pia Oia oloac oaini, "for her reward is nobler before God than men," Leabhar Breac, fol. 32, a, b ; ocup cio móp a anóip co leicc pia ooinib, bio mou a anoip í n-oail bpáca, "for though great is his honour before men, his honour shall be greater at the meeting of [the day of] judgment," Id., fol. 15, a, b. We also meet such expressions as pia Dia, before God ; piao n-t)uilemain ocup óappi, "before God and St. Barry," Id., fol. 107, b, a. In the modern language the compound prepositional phrase, a b-piaó- naipe, is used in place of this simple preposition. — See also óp. chap, vil] Meanings of the Prepositions. 307 <5 an > without. This is the same as the Latin sine, and the French sans, with which it is probably cognate. Example, — 5cm biaó 5cm oeoc, without food, without drink ; 30m óp, 50m aip^eao, without gold, without silver ; Qpomacha 00 lopcaó gup an pair uile, gan ceap- apccain aoin cije mnce cenmoca an reach pcpeapcpa náma, " Armagh was burned, with the whole Rath, without the saving of any house within it (the rath), except the library alone," Ann. Four Mast. , A. D. 1020. This preposition has often the force of a simple negative adverb, as ní h-ionjnaó jan piop an neice pi do beir aj Scanihuppr, " it is no wonder that Stanihurst should not know this fact," Keat. Hist., p. 7; o'ópouij pé óóib gan an obaip pin 00 óéanam, he ordered them not to do that work ; 00 oáoap luce na Scicia gan curhacc coijcpioch 00 buain piu, the people of Scythia were without the power of foreign countries touching [annoying] them. J5<>, 511 p , without. This is obviously cognate with the Latin cum, and means with, as peap 30 3-cpoióe njlom, a man with a pure heart ; qioi j 50 leir, a foot and a half; literally, a foot with a half. Co n-onóip ajup co n-aipmioin, " with honour and veneration," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1004, et passim ; pcian arhpa la Coipppi TTlupc co n-imoénum apjaic ocup óip 1 n-a h-eim, " Coirpri Muse had a splendid knife, with an ornament of silver and of gold on its haft," Cor. Gloss, voce TTIoj Gime ; epicha uaichne pulamj pat, cu pame jacha jpeapa poppo, " thirty supporting pillars under it, with varieties of ornamental work upon them," Booh of Lismore, fol. 107 ; oa ploj caicnemac co n-eepocca ^péine, co poillpe puirni^, co m-bmoe ceoil, " two beautiful hosts with the bright- ness of the sun, with dazzling lustre, with the sweetness of music," Leabhar Breac, fol. 126, a, b. But it most generally signifies to, usque ad, in the modern lan- guage, and is generally set after verbs of motion to a place, in 308 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. which sense it is the opposite of 6, from, as 6 cnr 50 h-áic, from place to place; o mullach Cláipi co óeapna cpi capbao, "from the summit of Clairi to Bearna tri carbad," Book of Lecan, fol. 204. It is also used to mark the relation of time, as ó am 50 h-am, from time to time ; 50 oeipeaó an oorham, to the end of the world; jup an aimpip tjo, " to that time," Keat. Hist., p. 110, This preposition was anciently written co, cu, cup. lap, after. After : lap n-oilmn, after the deluge ; lap n-oul, after going. This preposition is chiefly used, in connexion with verbal nouns, to form expressions equivalent to the ablative absolute in Latin, as iap n-apjuin popaoipe an eoin, "after the plundering of the fastness of the bird," (/Daly Cairbreach. But it is sometimes used in the sense of according to, kutoc, as iap B-piop, in truth ; iap m-bunaoup, " as to their origin," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 al ^ en 5 » iap n-epnailib écparhla, " after various kinds," Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, a; iap n-a miaóariilacc, "according to their dignity," MS. Trim Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358. Ioip, eaoap, between. Between, among : an pópaó 00 nireap iap m-baipoeaó íoip piop ajup mnaoi, " the marriage which is made after baptism be- tween man and woman," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 242 ; ioip polup ajup oopcaoap, between light and darkness ; ioip aep ajup uipce, between sky and water ; ic mepa ícip olcaib, " they are the worst among evils," Teagusc Biogh ; Cpeao o'eipij eacoppa, what arose between them ? Both : ioip olc a'p riiair, both evil and good ; ioip peapaiti ajup mnáib, both men and women. 5° P° nulleao laip gac conaip cpép a o-cuócaió ecip cill ajup cuair, " so that he spoiled every place through which he passed, both ecclesiastical and lay," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1219. This preposition was anciently icip, and ecip. chap, vii.] Meanings of the Prepositions. 309 1m, mm, um, about. About, around : cuip c'pallainj íomac, put thy cloak about thee; pepeno óip ím choipp pi£, " a golden chain around the leg of a king," Cor. Gloss., voce pepeno; pcabal óip-ciúmpac uim a muinél, " a gold-bordered scapular about his deck," Toruidhecht Saidhbhe ; ní beipioó íTlopann lTlac TTIaoin bpeaé coíóce jan an lo TDopainn um a bpajaio, " Morann Mac Main never passed a sentence without having the Idh Morainn [a collar] about his neck," Keat. Hist., p. 114 ; cucpac a láma 'mon cloic, "they brought their hands around the stone," Booh of Ballymote, fol. 219,«/ po eipij peó pia umainn co náp léip pm, "a mist rose about us, so that we were not visible," Booh of Lismore, fol. 246, b; imma copcpacap móp, "around which many were slain," Book of Leinster, p. 25, b. Concerning : co puijillpic ollamna ópeicemna Gpeno imma comalcpom ocup ima n-oilpi, " so that the chief Brehons of Ire- land decided respecting their fosterage and legitimacy," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 17. p. 849 ; baoi impiopan eacoppa um piojacc Gipionn, "there was a contention between them concerning the sovereignty of Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 72; báoap a n-impeapain pe poile um peuoaib a pean, " they were in contention with each other about the jewels of their ancestors," Id., p. 51. For : nacap eici j nee um ni, " who never refused one for aught," Erard Mac Coisi ; $up jab airpeacap é um an njniom do poijne, " so that it repented him of the deed which he had done," Keat. Hist., p. 120 ; óp gé oo báoap aobal-cúipi eli ic Congal 'man comepgi ym, " for although Congal had other great causes for that rebellion," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 110. In, at, about : um Shamain, at Allhallowtide ; map nac leij- rep nee um neom, "where no person is admitted in the evening," Erard Mac Coisi; 'man am pm, "at that time," Duald Mac Firbis, Tribes, Sfc, of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 298. •Along with : cmnij Coipóealbach ann ím laocaib na Tílióe, " Turlough came thither with the heroes of Meath," Ann. Four Mast. 310 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. Le, leip, pe, pip, with. With, among, in, denoting the relation of concomitancy, as cuaió pé le t)orhnall 50 Copcaij, he went with Daniel to Cork ; o'imcijeaoap le n-a ceile, they went off together; la ópecna, " with the Britons," Cor. Gloss., voce 6pocóic ; la TTIumain, in Munster; la ^aijnib, with the Lagenians, or in Leinster, la TTlíóe, inMeath, Ann. Four Mast., passim ; jab pé léice, he took with her; map a n^abcaoi piu, "where they were received " Keat. Hist.,V). 54. With, denoting the secondary cause, or means, as mapb pé TDomnall le cloióeam, he slew Daniel with a sword ; map uma o'á pjpiop le pjin, like brass in being rubbed with a knife. With, denoting the primary agent, or sole cause, as 00 map- baó Oomnall le ópian, Daniel was slain by Brian ; 6eipciop uara an copp lé ppué na óóinne, " the body was carried away from them by the stream of the Boyne," Keat. Hist., p. 98; TTIaióm pia n-Ujaipe, mac TDunlainj le pij 6aijen, pop Sicpiuc, mac Qmlaim, " a victory was gained by Ugaire, son of Dunlang, king of Leinster, over Sitric, son of Amlaff," Ann. Tigher., A. D. 1021. For the purpose of: as pe copnarh cópa, ajup pe copj eug- cópa, u for defending justice and checking injustice," Keat. Hist., p. 94 ; an c-pleaj do bi ag an í-új 5-ceuona le h-ajaió comloinn, " the spear which the same Lugh had for battle," Id., p. 38; pe copnam ajup pe caomna na cpice, for defending and for protect- ing the country," Id., p. 94 ; pe paó oipppinn agup pe guióe t)é, " for saying mass and imploring God," Id., p. 113 ; ppi pojlaimm n-Gabpa, " for the purpose of learning Hebrew," Cor. Gloss., voce óparcaei ; ppi f oipjeall pipmne, " for passing a sentence of truth," Id., voce Sin. After, as in such phrases as " longing after ;" cá pínl ajam leip, I have an expectation of it ; acá a púil leip anoip, " they ex- pect it now," Duald Mac Firbis, Tribes, Sfc. of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 320. At, on : as t)ia lim ppi paip, D»a lim ppi paip, " God be with me at sun-set, God be with me at sun-rise," Cor. Gloss., voce F a, P 5 chap, vil] Meanings of the Prepositiotis. 311 le páinne an lae, at the break of day ; le h-eipje jpéine, at the rising of the sun ; báp ppi h-aóapc, " death on the bed," Liber Hymnorum, fol. 11, a; le n-a raob, at his side; le n-a coip, at his foot, i. e. following alongside him ; pan liom, wait for me ; po jpáinij cpíóe Uhaiój ppiu, the heart of Teige loathed at [the sight of] them. To: as bmoeacup le t)ia, thanks be to God; abaip ppip, "say to him," Cor. Gloss., voce 6ecec; pepaó páilce ppip, " he was bade welcome," Id., ibid. ; cpeao pá n-abapcap ópicanma pe ópeacam, " why is Britain called Britannia," Keat. Hist., p. 9; ccnnic co Cnoc na cupaó ppip a paicep Cnoc ^péine, "he came to Cnoc na curadh, which is called Cnoc Greine," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl., H. 3. 18. p. 42; oubaipc pé liom, he said to me. Before, or opposite: pip an n^pém, "before the sun," Keat. Hist., p. 150 ; a njnúipi ppi lap, " their countenances prostrate to the earth," p. 125 ; po puióij a longpopc eineac a n-ioncaib ppiu, " he pitched his camp face to face opposite thenV^ww. Four Mast.,A.D. 1601. For, or of: íp cupa ip cionncac leip, thou art in fault for it ; pa cionncac pe n-a 5-cpuinniojaó, M who was guilty of collecting them together," Keat. Hist., p. 144. Belonging to : liom-pa an leabap, the book is mine ; le jac boin a boinin ajup le gad leabap a leabpán, " its calf belongs to every cow, and the copy to every original book," Vit. Columbce, apud Colgan, and Keat. Hist., p. 124; po po leac ocup pec pil plaiciup cpe biciu, " thou and thy seed shall possess the sove- reignty for ever," Vit. Moling ; a ca, ol Gochaió, ino pijan ma cocluo ; ip lé in cech acá in piccell, " the queen, said Eochaidh, is asleep, and the house in which the chess board is, is her's," Tochmarc Etaine ; poc bia lim-pa, " I shall have," Id. ; pcian arhpa la Coipppi TTIupc, " Coirpri Muse had a splendid knife," Cor. Gloss., voce ÍTI05 Gime ; cecpe pi£na laip, "he has four queens," Book of Lis more, fol. 113; pa leip jan ciop po'n Tllaij moill, " he possessed without tribute [the country] along the sluggish Maigue,'' OHeerin; cá aipjeao 05am íacc ni liom péin é, I have money, but it is not my own. 312 Of the simple and idiomatic [paut ii. With, denoting affection of the mind, as if paoa liom an lá, I deem the day long, literally, long is the day with me; ip olc liom do cop, I deem thy state evil, i. e. I am sorry for thy state ; ip oóic leip, he thinks, or supposes; ba puach la các a jabáil 1 n-a láirii, " it was hateful to every one to take it in his hand," Cor. Gloss., voce pe ; ni ba cam leó a ecopc, na a léco leó, u they liked not his countenance, nor to let him [yo] with them," Id., voce Ppull. The meaning of le, when thus applied, will appear more distinctly by substituting oo for it, as ip olc oarh do cop, i. e. thy case or state is evil to me. The difference is that le expresses affec- tion of the mind, or opinion, while oo simply denotes the dative relation, exactly like the English to. This difference between le and oo, though rather difficult to a learner, is at once recognized by the native speakers of Irish, be they ever so illiterate ; ip olc oarh oo cop, means, thy state is really evil to me; but ip olc liom 00 cop, means, I pity thy case ; ip cuma lium, I do not care. This common expression is thus explained in Cormacs Glossary, in voce Cuma; ip cuma lium, .1. ip coimoepp lium cíbé oíb, it is equal to me which of them. It is often set before names of trades, arts, and professions, thus : in oponj 00 bíoó le jaibneacc, le ceapoace, le paoippeacc, no le n-a parhoil oile 00 óaoipceapoaib, " such as were at smith- work, brass-work, or carpentry, or such other ignoble trades," Keat. Hist., p. 116; báoop po'n am pom beaj nac cpian b-peap n-8ipionn pe pilióiocc, " at that time nearly the one-third part of the men of Ireland were at the poetical profession," Id., p. 122; 001 pa pilioecc ocup a lejeno 00 acbail, " to follow the poetical profession, and give up his teaching," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. With, along with : léij pé an cláp leip an ppuc, he let the board \_float] along the stream ; léig pé an cleice leip an njaoir, he let the feather with the wind; le pánaó, down the steep; oubaipc pi 50 n-ooipepioo oabac learhnacca leip an ppué, "she said that she would spill a tub of new milk with the stream," Keat. Hist., p. 79; pip an aill, " down the cliff," Id., ibid. To, with : $cm pún 00 léijean le a rhnaoi, " not to communi- cate a secret to his wife," Keat. Hist., p. 96 ; nf léijpió mé leip é, chap, vii.] Meanings of the Prepositions. 313 I will not let it go with him (i. e. unpunished) ; nú bac leip, do not mind [hinder] him ; net bac leo, do not mind them ; péac leip é, try him with [at~\ it; ni puil peapam leip, there is no standing with him, i. e. there is no enduring him ; opuio liom, approach me, or come close to me. These phrases could with difficulty be understood, if the Irish once became a dead language ; and there- fore all these phrases ought to be fully explained in a dictionary, before the language is forgotten. Against, in the sense of leaning against, as a ópuim pe cctpéa cloice, "his backing against a pillar stone." When placed before a progressive active noun, it gives it the force of the latter supine in Latin, or of the gerundive, as lonjan- cac \e páó, mirábile dictu ; áluinn le péacain, pulcher visu ; cá pé le pájail pop, it remains to be found yet; ní puil pé le pájail, non est inveniendus. — See dp pajáil. <5 e & m °P P e a maoióeam a b-pao, ceipe maicne TTIhoja Nuaóao, " though great to be boasted of from time remote is the character of the race of Mogh Nuadhad," Muldowny 'Morrison, 1639 ; cá mópán le ceacc pop, much is to come yet; cá pé le oéanarii pop, it remains to be done yet ; an aimpip a cá le reacc, the time that is to come, i. e. futurity. When placed after adjectives, it expresses comparison of equa- lity, and is translated as. Example, — com milip le mil, as sweet as honey ; literally, equally sweet with honey; com oub ppi h-éc a ópec, "black as death his countenance," Cor. Gloss., voce Ppull; gop caipealbao ooib oealb buó com glan pip an n^péin, ajup buó bmne ioná jac ceol oa 5-cualabap, " there appeared to them a figure as bright as [lit. equally bright with'] the sun, and whose voice was sweeter than any music they had ever heard," Keat. Hist.,?. 117. Near to, by, when subjoined to leurh, the oblique form of lám, a hand, as láim, le h-abainn, near a river. But its meaning is very much modified, according to the noun before which it is placed, as will appear from the following examples : pern aip, by my side; gabup pern aip, "I have taken upon me," Keat. Hist., p. 1 ; Cnoc r\a pijpaioi piu a n-oeap, " Cnoc na righraidi to the * 2 s 314 Of the simple and idiomatic [part ii. south of them," Book of Lismore, fol. 70, b; ppi muip anaip, " on the east side of the sea," Cor. Gloss., voce ITI05 Gime ; la caíb ÍTlaiji, "by the side of the [river] Maigue," Book of Lecan, fol. 204. During : pe linn pheap m-óol^, " during the time of the Firbolgs," Keat. Hist., p. 21 ; pe n-a beo, " during his life," Id., p. 117; pe pé cian, for a long time ; pe linn oo paojail, during the term of thy life ; le paoa, for a long time; la loinjeap mac ITlileaó, " at the time of the expulsion of the sons of Milesius," Cor. Gloss., voce ópaécaei; la bpapuó púla, "in the twinkling of an eye," Visio Jldamnani. Addition to, joining with: as cuip leo, add to them, or assist them. Opposition to : as ppi piónerh po pepaó cpep, "with the lofty wood it (the wind) wages war," Bumann's Poem on the Wind, Bodl. Lib. Laud. 610, fol. 10, a, a; gan cup pe a cloinn, "not to oppose his race," Hugh CPDonnell ; ip ní cicpaó Conjal cam, ppim-pa ap beapj-op an Domain, " and the fair Congal would not come against me for the world's red gold," Battle of Magh Bath, p. 14 ; na h-ulcu bo ponaip ppim, " the evils thou hast done against me," Id., p. 32 ; in conplichc po lapac na JJence cm*> ppi púcpaic, ''the contest which the Gentiles had there with Patrick," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358. From : as pjapabap le n-a céile, they parted with each other; pjapuip anam pip po ceoóip, " his soul departed from him at once," Keat. Hist., p. 145; piojacc Bipionn t>o pgapéain piu, " the sovereignty of Ireland was separated from them," Id., p. 100 ; oeiliujaó in paeoa ppia a poile, " to separate one thing from another," Cor. Gloss., voce Deiliujaó. It has this meaning only when coming after verbs of parting or separating, in which it per- fectly agrees with the English preposition with, when placed after the verb to part. Stewart, in his Gcelic Grammar, 2nd edit., p. 141, says that re, ris, signifies exposed, bare, or manifest. But though leip, pip, and ppip, are used in Irish in this sense, they must be regarded as adjectives, because they never vary with the gender or number chap, vil] Meanings of the Prepositions. 315 of the noun. Thus, in léijéeap an úip cipm leip (Gen. i. 9), if leip were a compound of the preposition le, with, and the pronoun pé, or pi, it would be written léijceap an inp cipm lé, or léiée. Neither does the word vary as an adjective, for it is never found, except in connexion with the verb substantive, or some such, and more to qualify the verb than the substantive, as cá cloca na cpáige leip, the stones of the strand are exposed ; cá oo cpoiceann leip, thy skin is exposed. This preposition was anciently written la, leip, and fP 1 » FPT» P ia > P ia r> Vaip, ocup opoichec oo mapmaip caipip, " they met a great stream on the way, with a bridge of marble across it," Book of Lis m ore, fol. 107 ; a cup púlae cap a ppicjnam, " keeping an eye over his diligence," Cor. Gloss., voce 6ecec ; an óheallcaine cuaió rape, " the May last past." Beyond : as cuaió pé rap m'eolup, it went beyond my know- ledge ; cap jac níó, beyond every thing ; cap mo o'ccioll-pa, "beyond my endeavour," Keat. Hist., p. 19. Upé, through. Anciently epia, cpi. Through : as cpé n-a cpoióe, through his heart ; oo bép-pa in 501 pea epic cpaíói, " I will run this spear through thy heart," Vit. Moling ; lepcap bíp oc oáil uipci, ocup a coip cpé n-a meóón, " a vessel which is for distributing water, with a handle through its middle," Cor. Gloss., voce Bpcano. Through, denoting the means, or cause : ap cpé a'ne, ocup upnaigre oo paepaó tDaniel páió, " it is through fasting and prayer Daniel the prophet was redeemed," Book of Fermoy, fol. 125 ; áp in Spipac Haerh po labpapcaip, ocup oo aipceacain epia jmu na pep fipeon, " for it was the Holy Ghost that spoke and predicted through the mouths of righteous men," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358; po gabpacc oan main h-i cpi ímap- cpaió puacca, ocup cpe méo in c-pnecccai, ocup cpep in imeagla oo cuaió impi, ** pangs then seized her through the intensity of the cold, and the quantity of the snow, and through the terror which came over her," Vit. Moling ; cia fip nac cpeom-pa acá pin, " who knows but it is through me this is," Id. ; cpé opaoióeacc, through, or by magic; cpé canjnucc, "by trea- chery," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1257, et passim. On : as cpé ceine, on fire ; cpé lapaó, on flame; Nepo oo cuip cpé lupaó puap an "Roim, " Nero who set Rome in a conflagra- tion," Keating, in Poem, beginning " pcnó bpéagcic an paojal po." Urn. — See lm. 320 Of the simple Conjunctions. [part ii. CHAPTER VIII. OF CONJUNCTIONS Section 1. — Of the simple Conjunctions. The simple conjunctions are remarkably few ; but there are several conjunctional phrases, which help to make up the deficiency. The following is a list of the simple conjunctions, with their ancient and modern forms. Qcu, but, except. This is often corrupted to etc, in common conversation. — See the Syntax. G^up, and, as. This is generally written acup, or ocup, in old manuscripts, and sometimes pceo is found as a form of it, as 1 o-piaonaipe pep n-Gpeno pceo macu pceo m^ena, " in the presence of the men of Ireland both sons and daughters," Book of Bali y mote, fol. 188; pipu, macu, mná pceo injena, " men, youths, women, and daugh- ters," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 24. Cfjup is often contracted to ip, a'p> and sometimes 'p> when preceding a word beginning with a vowel, as 'p ip pfop a n-oeipim, iw and what I say is true." When it follows com, as, or equally, it must be translated into English by as; com oeappgnoijre agup pin, " so remarkable as that," Keat. Hist., p. 39. The Latin ac, or atque, which is clearly cognate with the Irish acup, is sometimes used in this sense, as " Scythae aurum et argentum perinde aspernantur ac reliqui mortales appe- tunt," Justin ; " Simul ac se ipse commovit, atque ad se revo- cavit," Cicero ; " Simul atque hostis superatus esset," Id. chap, viii.] Of the simple Conjunctions. 321 Qn, whether. This, which is cognate with the Latin an, and by some regarded as an adverb, is often written in, and even ino, in ancient manu- scripts. Cíó, although, even. This is more frequently written 5ÍÓ. Both forms are used in the spoken dialect of the south of Ireland, but generally pro- nounced, and often written, cé and gé, forms which are found in the works of the best Irish scholars, as in the Genealogies of the Hy-Fiachrach, by Duald Mac Firbis : jé po pioóai£, "although he appeased him," p. 140. The particle ció is often found in an- cient manuscripts in the sense of even, as uaip po picip in Coimoiu cec ni pecmaic a lepp uaó ció piapiu némm a eeapjaipe, "for the Lord knows every thing we require from him, even before we implore him," Ledbhar Breac, fol. 121, b. Corn, as. Synonymous with the Latin tarn. This is often written as if it formed a part of the adjective to which it is prefixed, as coriimóp le pliab, as large as a mountain. It is sometimes responded to by 0:511 p, and then it should be kept separate from the adjective, and regarded as a conjunction, or an adverb. See example under 0:511 p. Dá, if. This is generally written 01a in old manuscripts. It is nearly synonymous with má; but there is this difference, that oá is always used in connexion with the conditional mood, and má with the indicative, as do 5-ceilpinn, if I would, or should conceal; má ceilim, if I conceal. pop, moreover. This is sometimes an adverb, and signifies yet. It is often written beop in old manuscripts, and even by Duald Mac Firbis in the middle of the seventeenth century. ^íó, though, although. — See Cíó. 2 T 322 Of the simple Conjunctions. [part ii. J5o> that. Synonymous with the Latin ut, utinam. When before a verb in the simple past tense (not consuetudinal past), it becomes gup, or jop, which is a union of the simple 30 and po, sign of the past tense. In ancient manuscripts it is written co, and before the past tense of verbs cop, cup, gup, gupa. When coming before the assertive verb ip, ab, it amalgamates with the verb, and they become copub, cupob, jupab, even in the present tense. — See the Syntax. lonct, than. This is often written ina in old manuscripts, but is generally pronounced ná in the spoken language. In ancient and some modern writings, when it precedes pé, he, and iao, they, they amalgamate and become map, mono, i. e. than he, than they, as in the following ex- amples : — noca cáinic pop calrhain pin po b'pepp blap na bpij, oap leo,ináp, "there came not upon earth wine of better flavour or strength, they thought, than it." Oighidh Muirchertaigh Moir Mic Erca. These amalgamations are also used by Keating and the Four Masters, as ní paibe 'n-a com-aunpip peap boja 00 bpeápp íonáp, " there was not in his time a better bowman than he" Keat. Hist., p. 117; oeapbpácaip 00b óije íonáp péin, " a brother younger than him- self," Id., ibid. ; ní puil cineaó po'n njpeéin le n-ab annpa ceapc íonáio Gipionnaij, " there is not a people under the sun who love justice more than the Irish," Keat. Hist., p. 174; gup ob ceo é ínáio na blapa eile, " that it is hotter than the other tastes," Old Med. SM. 1414 — See also Annals of the Four Masters, at the year 1540. It should be also noted, that oloap, oloac, is very frequently used for íoná, in ancient writings, as ip aipejóa m c-05 como oagpupc oloap in pean co n-oibell a puipc, " for the youth with his bright eye is more splendid than the old man with his dim eye," Cor. Gloss., voce 5^- u lT; a P P° ba D1 ^ e ^ ai F clann Neac- cain oloac clann Neill, " for the sons of Nechtan were dearer to him than the children of Niall," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1460. In a copy of Cormac's Glossary, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16. voce Qóapc, it is translated by the Latin quam. chap, vm.] Of the simple Conjunctions. 323 má, if. When coming before the affirmative verb ip, they amalgamate, and become map, now generally printed má'f ; but written mápa in very ancient and correct manuscripts, as in the Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, a: mápa epóálca imao na pochpaice, " if the amount of reward be certain ;" mápa corhaipli leib, " if it seem advisable to you," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358. When coming before ail leac, pleasing to thee, it often com- bines with them, and they are written maóailc, as maóailc a óepbaó, " if thou wish to prove it." Old Med. MS. TTlaji, as. This is sometimes a preposition, and sometimes a conjunction or adverb. It is pronounced mup in Meath, and parts of Ulster, and so written by O'Molloy and others. In ancient manuscripts, peb is often used in its place ; and this word is still preserved in the spoken language in the south of Ireland, but pronounced péó. TYluna, unless. This is often written mine and mam in old manuscripts, and when preceding the assertive verb íp, ba, they combine minab, minbao, manbao, i. e. nisi esset, as ni oip do pechc minab mair, " law is not right, unless it be good," Cor. Gloss., voce 5 no » Nd, nor. This is now used in the same sense as the English nor, and the Latin nee ; but in old writings it is often put for the modern nac, not, which not, as co ná cepna oepcibal app, " so that not one escaped," Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópeccnn ; íapp in ni na pil ale ano, ocup ná poinncep, "because it contains no joint, and is not divided," Id., voce t)each. Nac is often used in old writings, and even by the Four Masters, for the modern nd, nor, nee, as co na baoi aon mainipcip o Qpainn na naorii co muip n-lochc 5an bpipeaó, jan buan-péabaó, ace maó beaccán nama l n-Gpmn ná cucpac JJoill oia n-uió nác oia n-aipe, " so that there was not 324 Of the simple Conjunctions. [part ii. any monastery from Aran of the Saints to the Iccian sea without being broken and pulled down, excepting a few in Ireland only, of which the English took no heed or notice," Ann. Four Mast., A.D. 1537. Ni, not. This is used in the south and west of Ireland for the simple negative not, non ; but seldom, if ever, in Ulster, ca being sub- stituted for it throughout that province, except in the south-west of Donegal, where they use ni. There are no words in the modern Irish corresponding with the English yes or no ; but in the an- cient language, noxhó is used without a verb, in giving a negative answer, as noxhó, a TTIhaelpuam, " No, Maelruain," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 18. fol. 205, b. No, or. This is the simple disjunctive conjunction, corresponding with the English or y and the Latin vel, or ant. Noca, not. This, though found in manuscripts of no great antiquity, is now obsolete in the south and west of Ireland ; but it is supposed that the ca of the Ultonian and the Erse dialects, is an abbreviation of it. O, seeing that, since. O is frequently a preposition ; but when placed before a verb, it must be regarded as an adverb or a conjunction, for it then means since, or because, Oip, because. This is often written áp, on, and uctip, in old manuscripts, as ápp nic piu pnn pém ap n-épcechc, "for we ourselves are not worthy of being heard," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121 ; ap íp ceno cono pil pop in ccnnce, " for the cynic has the head of a dog," Cor. Gloss., voce Caince ; ap ip peo pil íppin poipcel 05-01I5UO cac uilc, " for the Gospel has full forgiveness for every evil," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358, and H. 3. 17. p. 5. chap, viii.] Of compound Conjunctions. 325 The word 0615, now obsolete, is often found for oip, in old manuscripts, and even in the Annals of the Four Masters. Sul, before. This is written piapiu and pépiu in old manuscripts. It may be regarded as an adverb or a conjunction. — See Prefixes of Verbs, pp. 157, 158. O'Molloy writes it roil, and Donlevy puil, through- out their catechisms ; and it is also written puil in a MS. in the possession of the Author, transcribed in Ulster, in 1679 ; but no ancient authority for these forms has been found. Section 2. — Of compound Conjunctions, or conjunctional Phrases. These are in reality made up of different parts of speech ; but, as many of them express ideas which in the classical, and some of the modern, languages, are expressed by simple conjunctions, it will be useful for the learner to have a list of the most usual of them. Ctcc máó, except only; aeá ni cecma, but however ; ace ceana, however. Gcc náma, except only. Gcúip, because. Now obsolete. Gipe pin, therefore : ip cope pin, ideo. — Cor. Gloss., voce ópijir. Gp an aóbup pin, therefore ; literally, for that cause, or reason. Gp cop 50, so that, in order that. Gp ocuj, because. Gp pon 50, because that. Gp a pon pm, notwithstanding. — Lucerna Fidelium. Preface. Gp eagal 50, lest that. óíoD, although ; literally, esto, let it be, i. e. granting.- Ceana, however : ace aen ni cenai, "but one thing, however," Mac Conglinris Drea??i, in Leabhar Breac, fol. 108. 326 Of compound Conjunctions. [part ii. Cibionnup, howbeit, albeit, Tribes, Sfc, of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 320. Now obsolete. Conió, so that. — See po bíé. Chum 50, in order to, to the end that. t)ala, with respect to : oálá pluaij na h-Bijipce, " with respect to the forces of Egypt," Keat. Hist., p. 46. t)o bpij, because. po bir, because : conió é a ainim ó pin llle Qch m-6eannchaip, .1. po bir na m-beann po laepac na cupaió 01b ann, " so that its name from that forward is Ath Beanchair [i. e. the ford of the crests], because of the bens [crests] which the heroes cast into it," Book of Lecan, fol. 182, a, a. Jyo 50, although that. Jyo cpa ace, howbeit, albeit, however. J^en 50, gion 50, or cen co, although that. JJen 30, jion 50, or cen co, although not, as jion 30 b-puilio, " although they are not," Keat. Hist., p. 15 ; jion 50 pabaoop pém 'p an "-Sp^S"» " although they themselves were not in Greece," Id., p. 42. When jen 50 is negative, it is made up of je, although, no, not, and 50, that; when affirmative it is put simply for jeó 50, or, 510 50. lomchúpa, with respect to; íoméúpa phapao, " with respect to Pharoah," Keat. Hist., p. 46. lonnup 50, so that. TTlap 50, inasmuch as, since, because that. — Id., p. 7. máipeaó, if so, i. e. má íp eaó, if it is so, if so it be. No 50, until that. Súd ajup 50, supposing that. Cap ceann ceana, although. — Id., p. 23. Uuille eile, moreover. Uime pin, therefore. It would, perhaps, be better generally to analyze these expres- sions by resolving them into their ultimate elements, noting, how- ever, the conjunctional force of the phrase. chap, ix.] Of Interjections. 327 CHAPTER IX. OF INTERJECTIONS. The words employed as expressions of various emo- tions are numerous enough in the spoken Irish, but they vary throughout the provinces. The following is a list of such as occur in correct books and manuscripts. Gbú, or abo I an exclamation of terror and defiance. Gcc ícip, not at all ! G, or O ! Oh ! as Qmu Coimóiu, my Lord ! — JRumann. t)uppann, woe is me! alas ! Bipe, hush ! list ! whist ! Pctpaep, or papaoip, alas ! péac, behold ! loc, ioc, cold! cold ! TTlaipj, woe ! mo ncnpe, shame ! fie ! for shame ! ÍTlongenaip, thrice happy ! ITIonuap, woe is me ! mo rpuaj, my pity ! Sometimes used to express contempt. Oc, alas ! Olajón, alack a day ! Uccm uc, alas ! woe is me ! Uc ón, alas ! Various other exclamations may be formed, ad libi- tum, as paipe, gardez-vous, paipe 50 t>eoi£, &c. The war cries of the ancient Irish, and Anglo-Irish, were made of abó, or abu, and the name, or crest, of the family, or place of residence, as ^jiápac abó ! pion- nc>5 abu ! Seabac abu ! Cjiomaó abu, Seanam abu ! 328 Of Derivation and Composition, [part ii. CHAPTER X. OF DERIVATION AND COMPOSITION. Having treated of the different sorts of words, and their various modifications, it will be now proper to point out the manner in which one word is grammati- cally derived from another. Irish, and its cognate dia- lects, particularly the Welch, have afforded more material to support the conjectures of etymologists than any other language in the world ; but these etymological visions, after having served for more than half a century to uphold absurd systems, have lately fallen into merited contempt amongst the learned. The passion for analyzing has induced some to assert, that all true primitives in the Celtic dialects consist of but one syllable; that all dissyllables and polysyllables are either derived or com- pounded, and are therefore all resolvable into ultimate monosylla- bic elements. But that there can be no certainty in speculations of this kind will be sufficiently obvious from the true grammatical analysis ; and indeed the absurdity of them is proved by their re- sults. With the refutation of such theories grammatical etymology has nothing to do, and the writer Will therefore content himself with laying down the general principles of grammatical derivation, which are demonstrable and unquestioned. Monsieur Pictet of Geneva, is one of the few philologers of this age who makes the legitimate use of the Irish and its cognate dia- lects in comparative etymology, though in his youth, being misled by the extravagant speculations of Vallancey, he published a work on the mythology of the ancient Irish, which is visionary enough, and which he intends to correct. On this subject he writes as fol- chap, x.] Of Derivation and Composition. 329 lows, in a letter dated Geneva, June 24, 1835, which was addressed to the late Edward O'Reilly, author of the Irish dictionary, who died in 1830, but which was handed to the author of this grammar by the bearer, when he learned that O'Reilly was dead : " II y a fort long temps que je m'occupe de l'histoire et de la litterature de toute la famille des nations Celtiques et en particulier de celle de l'lrlande. Un essai public par moi il-y a 10 ans, sur l'ancienne mythologie Irlandaise, a éte le premier résultat, et je dois le dire, le résultat un peu premature de mes etudes á ce sujet j'ai reconnu depuis que j'avois lieu de craindre de m'etre trop fié á Vallancey pour les premieres données du probléme á resoudre. Je ne considére plus maintenant cet essai que comme un travail de jeune homme qui exigeroit une refonte complete. A dire le vrai, je crois actuellement que les travaux preparatives sur la langue et l'ancienne litterature de l'lrlande ne sont pas encore assez avancés pour permettre d'aborder cette question avec espoir de l'elucider completement." Again, in his work on the affinity of the Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit, he thus alludes to the injudicious use made of the Celtic dialects, by Vallancey and others, in the elucidation of com- parative etymology. " Le groupe des langues Celtiques, aprés avoir servi pendant quelque^ temps á etayer d'absurdes systemes, est tombé, par un efFet de reaction, dans un oubli trés peu merité." — Avant^ropos, p. vi. Dr. Prichard, of Bristol, has also pursued a very legitimate course of etymological inquiry in his Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, in imitation of the system of the learned James Bopp. And Professor Latham, in his English Language, has laid down rules of investigation by comparative etymology, which should be carefully studied by all lovers of this difficult and lately discovered science. 2 u 330 Of Derivation. [part n. Section 1 . — Of Derivation* The parts of speech which are formed' by derivation from other words are substantives, adjectives, and verbs. They are chiefly derived from substantives and adjec- tives ; a few only from verbs. Subsection 1. — Of derivative Substantives, Derivative substantives^ may be classed as follows, according to their terminations : 1. Abstract substantives in ap, ectp, up a . These are formed from adjectives, or other substantives, by adding the above terminations, as tnorhccoin, idle, t>io- rhaoineap, idleness. So also aoiBmn, delightful, aoiBneap, delight (Lat. amoenus, amcenitas) ; nárhaio, an enemy, ncnrhoeap, enmity ; eapaio, a friend, ccnpoectp, friendship ; ójlác, a youth, ójlóxup, adoles- cence ; ceann, a head, ceannap, headship, or leadership. 2. Abstract substantives in ace, or eacc. These are formed from adjectives and substantives, and some- times, though rarely, from verbs, as from oíhlióe, decrepid, comes oíblíóeacc, decrepitude ; from pcto- £ctlca, worldly, comes paogalcacu, worldliness ; from mópóa, majestic, comes mónóacc, majesty; from Iciioin, strong, Icuoipeacc, strength; from pi j, a king, piogacu, a kingdom ; from caoipeac, a chieftain, raoipijeacc, chieftainship. a This termination is very pro- -itas ; the t being aspirated, bably cognate with the Latin chap, x.] Of derivative Substantives. 331 Abstract substantive nouns of this termination are formed from personal nouns in óip, ipe, aipe (See No. 4), as from F'5 ea " ooip, a weaver, pijeaoóipectcc, the trade, or occupation of a wea- ver ; from cpuiope, a harper, cpuicipeacc, harping; from pecclj- aipe, a huntsman, pealjcupectcc, hunting. They are also formed from the genitive of names of tradesmen, as from jaba, a smith, comes, by attenuation, jaibneacc, smithwork, or the trade or occu- pation of a smith. 3. Abstract substantives in e, or l. These are formed from adjectives, and are the same in form as the genitive singular feminine of the adjective. Thus from jlcm, pure, comes glome, cleanliness, purity ; jeal, bright, jile, brightness ; lorn, bare, toime, or luime, bareness; uapal, noble, ucuple, nobility. Some writers terminate these nouns, with ace, and write jlomeacc, gileacCjluimeacc, uaipleacc. Adjec- tives in ariiail form abstract nouns of this kind from their genitives singular, not from their nominatives, as peapccmail, manly, gen. sing, peapamla, abstract substantive peapamlace, manliness ; plaiceamail, princely, plaiceamla, plcucecrmlace, princeliness. 4. Substantives in aipe, ipe. These are derived from other substantives, as from y ealg, a chase, comes peal^aijie, a huntsman; from cnuir, a harp, cnuicipe, a harper ; from ceal^, a sting, ceal^aipe, a knave. 5. Nouns in óip. These are derived from passive participles ; as from meallca, deceived, comes meall- cóip, a deceiver ; from millce, spoiled, millceóip, a destroyer. From every substantive noun of this class an abstract substantive noun in cccr, or eacc, may be formed. — (See No. 2). There may also be formed from every passive par- ticiple a personal noun in óip, and an adjective in ccc, of an active signification, from which again an abstract 332 Of derivative Substantives. [part ii. substantive noun in cc may be formed, as from millce, spoiled, comes millreoiji, a spoiler, or destroyer ; mill- ceac, destructive, and millceacc, destructiveness. It should be here remarked, that personal nouns substantive in <5ip are not always derived from passive participles, and that they sometimes come from other nouns, as from oopap, a door, comes, by attenuation, oóippeóip, a doorkeeper ;. from olijeaó, a law, olijceoip, a lawyer ; from ccunneal, a candle, ccnnnleoip, a candlestick, or chandelier, &c. 6. Nouns substantive in etc, which are mostly per- sonals, are variously derived, as from mapc, a horse, is derived mapcac, a horseman ; but the substantives of this termination are principally patronymics, and are formed from names of persons and countries, by adding ac : Examples. — &pianac, an O'Brien, or one of the family of O'Brien; "Ruapcac, one of the family of O'Rourke ; tDonnabctnac, one of the family of O'Donovan ; Gipecmnac, an Irishman, or Irish ; Qlbanac, a Scotchman, or Scottish ; ópeacnaó, a Welchman, or Welch, Britannicus ; Spáineac, a Spaniard, or Spanish ; Ppcmj- cac, a Frenchman, or French. Sometimes they are not personals, as from F ,a ^j a deer, comes piaóac, a hunt, a stag-hunt ; from cpion, withered, comes cpionctc, or cpionlac, dried sticks or bram- bles. 7. Personal substantive nouns in íóe, cnóe, or uióe. These are derived from other substantives : Examples. — From rs^ ^ a story, comes pjéalaióe, or P5 eu ^- uube, a story-teller; from cpécro, a flock, cpéaoaióe, a herdsman, or shepherd; from pnetrh, swimming, pnctmaíóe, a swimmer; from ceápo, a trade, ceápocnóe, a tradesman ; from fcaip, history, r-eapuioe, a historian; from muc, a hog, muccnóe, a swineherd ; from ceannach, buying, ceannaije, a merchant. And from all chap, x.] Of derivative Substantives. 333 these abstract nouns substantives may be formed, as fjéaluióeacc, story-telling ; cpéaoaióeacc, herding, &c. &c. 8. Diminutives in cm, in, 05. These are formed from other substantives, and sometimes from adjectives, as from cnoc, a hill, comes cnocán, a hillock, and cnoicin, or cnuicin, a very small hill. So also from clog, a bell, comes ctuijin, a small bell ; from tujille, a leaf, ouilleoj, a small leaf; from ciap, black, or dark, Ciapcm, a man's name, denoting swarthy, or black complexioned ; from bocc, poor, bocccm, a pauper. Several ancient Irish names were diminutives formed in this manner, as Colmcm, from Colum ; TTIochaomoj, formed from Caorii, handsome, — hence this name is Latinized Pulcherius ; 8coicín, formed from pcor, a flower; &c. Most of these names are now known chiefly as names of the ancient Irish saints. It should be here noted, that some nouns terminating in an and 05, do not always express diminutive ideas, as copóg, a dock, or any large leaf growing on the earth ; lubcm, a bow ; mopcm, a great quantity ; oilecm, an island. In Cormac's Glossary, at the word uibne, it is stated that all the diminutives end in cm, or ene : up core oeióbli pil a m-bélpa íp án no éne oo puapupcuib, " every diminutive which is in lan- guage is expressed by cm, or ene." And yet we find the termination 05, or óc, in the most ancient manuscripts, to denote diminution. Stewart is justly of opinion, that the termination pcnó, or pió, added to nouns, has a collective (not a plural) import, like the termination rie in the French words cavalerie, infanterie, and ry in the English words cavalry, infantry, yeomanry, as laochruidh, a band of heroes. — Gcelic Grammar, 2nd edit. pp. 180, 181. That such words as laocpaió, macpaió, eacpaió, are collective nouns, and not plurals of laoc, mac, eac, will appear from the fol- lowing examples, in which the singular form of the article is used in connexion with them: tap n-a clop pin oo'n laocpaió, "the heroes having heard this," Keat. Hist., p. 73 ; 50 lion a laocpaióe, " with the entire number of his heroes," Id., p. 75 ; copa na h-eacpaióe, 334 Of Derivative Adjectives. [part ii. "the feet of the horses," Id., p. 120 ; map ceann peaóna ap a laocpaióe, " as captain of his heroes," Id., p. 67 ; ap loijioo a laocpaióe, "from the fewness of his heroes," Id., p. 144.; oá ppíom-lonjpopc do bí a £,aijnib 'na j-cleacraoaoip a pío^paió beic 'na j-comnuióe, " two chief seats there were in Leinster, in which their kings used to dwell," Id., p. 25 ; cearpap ap picio oo laocpuio a lion, "twenty-four heroes was their number," Id. f p. 57. So in Cormac's Glossary, voce pemen, we find oampaij, oxen, as oa pi-oam oampaije 6penn, " the two royal oxen of the kine of Ireland." And in the Dinnsenchus : capn macpaióe £aij- en, " the earn of the youth of Leinster." 9. Nouns substantive in bap. These are very few in number, and are formed from other substantives, as from Duille a leaf, is derived Duilleabap, foliage. Subsection 2. — Of derivative Adjectives. 1. Adjectives in ac, aió, 16, uióe, are generally de- rived from substantives ; as from peap^, anger, comes peap^ac, angry; from ect^na, wisdom, ea^naió, or ea^nuioe, wise; from ciall, sense, ceillíó, sensible, or prudent. 2. Adjectives in map are derived from substantives, as from ciall, sense, comes ciallmap, sensible ; from 5páó, love, spáórhap, lovely. So also from aj, prosperity, ajmap, prosperous, lucky; from lion, a number, lionmap, numerous ; from ceol, music, ceolmap, musical ; from bpij, virtue, force, bpiojriiap, vigorous, efficacious. Some think that this termination is the preposition or adverb map, as, or like to. 3. Adjectives in arhail are also derived from sub- stantives, as from peap a man, comes peaparhail, manly ; from ^ean, love, ^eanarhail, amiable, comely ; from pláince, health, flámcearhail, healthy. chap, x.] Of derivative Verbs. 335 This termination is written amuil, by some, and generally pro- nounced as if written úil, and in the Erse, ail, eil. It is analogous to the Latin alis; and it is unquestionably a corruption of the word arhail, or arhuil, like, suffixed to nouns, like the English war-like, soldier- like, business-like. 4. Adjectives in ua, oa, or 6a, are also derived from substantives, as from peap, a man, comes peapba, masculine ; bean, a woman, bantja, feminine ; op, gold, ópóa, golden ; mop, great, mópóa, majestic ; píjiéan, a just man, pípéanua, righteous ; spian, the sun, gpianoa, sunny; gall, a foreigner, ^alloa, exotic. Subsection 3. — Of derivative Verbs. 1. Verbs in 151m, or ui^im, making the future in eocao. These are derived sometimes from substantives and sometimes from adjectives. Examples. — From cuirhne, or cuinini, memory, comes cuitti- nijim, I remember ; from poiUpi, lisjht, comes poillpijim, I shine; from milip, sweet, comes milpijim, 1 sweeten; from ban, white, comes bánuijim, I whiten. 2. Some verbs in aim, making the future in pat>, are derived from adjectives. Examples. — TTIóp, great, mópaim, I magnify; oeapj, red, oeapgaim, I redden. It should be here noted, that verbs derived from adjectives denoting colour, cold, heat, &c, are either active or passive, as oectpjaim, which may signify either I redden, i. e. make red, or I become red, i.e. blush ; bcmuijim, I whiten, i.e. make another thing white, or I become white, i. e. grow pale myself; puapuijim, I cool, or become cold. 336 Of Composition, or the [part ii. Section 2. — Of Composition, or the Formation of compound Terms. In all compound words the second part is qualified, or defined by the first, and not the first by the second : hence it follows, that whatever part of speech the first, or prepositive part may be in itself, it becomes an ad- jective to the second, or subjunctive part. Examples. — In op-lapca, gold-burnished ; bláé-cúrhpa, blos- som-sweet; bél-binn, mouth-sweet, fluent; the nouns óp, blár, and bél, become definitives to the adjectives lapea, cúrhpa, and binn. This is a general principle in Irish compounds, and also in those of all the Teutonic dialects. When the compound consists of more than two parts, this principle is also observed throughout, viz. the first term defines or particularizes all the parts following it, as píop-ápo-cnjeancac, truly -high-minded. An adjective, when placed before a substantive, en- ters into composition with it, as apo-pij, a monarch; rpén-peap, a mighty man ; t>ea£-laoc, a goodly hero ; áóbal-cúip, a great cause ; ban-pile, a poetess; %vÁt- béapla, a common dialect. It is also a general rule in forming compound words in this language, that the preceding part of the compound aspirates the initial consonant of the part which follows, if it admit of aspira- tion, not excepting even p, as fcéi j-becm, a good woman ; uapal- cheam>, a noble head (Cor. Gloss., voce Gipcim>ech) ; beaj-óume, a good man ; móp-peap, a great man ; bpoic-jniom, an evil deed ; móp-maop, a high steward ; apo-popc, a chief port, or fort ; cam- púileac, wry-eyed ; opoic-ceine, a bad fire. From this rule, how- ever, are excepted : 1. Words beginning with p, followed by a mute, which, as already observed, never suffers aspiration. chap, x.] Formation of compound Terms. 337 2. Words beginning with o or c, when the preceding part of the compound ends in b, n, e, as cecmn-cpéan, head-strong ; ceann-ocma, obstinate ; cém-ceaj, the first house, Keat. Hist., p. 75 ; lcm-bípeach, full - straight, straightforward, Id., p. 79 ; Cpuirecm-cuar, Pict-land, Id., p. 80 ; ápo-caoipioch, an arch- chieftain, Id., p. 95; cecmn-caoipj, head-chieftains, Id., p. 141 ; jlún-oub, black-kneed, as "Hiall jlún-Dub, Id., p. 95. 3. A few instances occur in which there is a euphonic agree- ment between the consonants thus brought together, which agree- ment would be violated if the latter were aspirated ; but it must be acknowledged that in the spoken language this agreement is not observed in every part of Ireland. The following are the most usual modes of com- pounding words in this language. I. — Words compounded with a Substantive prefixed. 1. — Substantives compounded with Substantives. óó-áp, the murrain ; literally, cow-destruction. Caiú-eaoapncuóe, an ambuscade, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 954. Ccnr-milió, a soldier; literally, battle-soldier. Caé-bápp, a helmet; literally, battle-top (i. e. battle-hat). Cecmn-beapc, or ceinn-beapc, a head-dress. t)all-ciac, a blinding fog; confusion, or bewildering, Vit. Moling, and Lucerna Fidelium, p. 253. t)obctp-cú, an otter, i. e. water-dog, Cor. Gloss, voce Coin Poó- cupne. tDobap-poillpe, twilight, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1557. t)ume-báó, the plague among men, Cor. Gloss., voce Sabalcaip. Píoó-áp, destruction of trees by a storm ; lit. wood-destruction. JJion-cpccop, a wide, or voracious mouth. Cáim-óicc, a household god, literally, a hand-god. t-ctrh-ópt), a hand-sledge. Ceabap-coirhécmaíóe, a librarian ; literally, a book-keeper, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1136. 2x 338 Of Composition, or the [rART II. £ear-cluap, one ear b . £eaé-óop, one foot. 6ear-lárii, one hand. Ceac-púil, one eye. O-napc, or au-napc, an ear-ring. TCioj-caoipeac, a royal chieftain. Sbuaj-óopup, an arched doorway, Book of Lismore, fol. 156. Suain-bpeacr, a charm which causes sleep, Id., fol. 175. 2. — Adjectives with a Substantive prefixed. óél-Binn, sweet-mouthed, fluent. Ceann-jopm, blue-headed. Ceann-cpom, heavy-headed. Cneip-jeal, white-skinned ; lit. shin-white. Coip-éabcpom, light-footed; lit. foot-light. Cop-lomnocc, bare-footed; lit. foot-bare. TTIonj-puaó, red-haired; lit. hair-xeá, i. e. crine ruber. 3. — Verbs or Participles with a Substantive prefixed. ócnll-cpié, trembling all over, Vita Coemgeni. óápp-bpipce, broken at the top; lit. top-broken. óéal-opluicée, or beal-opjailce, mouth-open, wide-open. Cpeac-loipjim, I devastate with fire, as po cpeac-loipjeao lap an pocpaioe pin i m-baoi po pmacc J5 a ^j " by that army was burned all that was under the jurisdiction of the English,'' Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1594. Cáp-éollca, pierced in the middle. Uaob-leaoapra, side-hacked, wounded in the sides. Ueap-molaim, I praise with warmth, or enthusiasm : ceap-rholca, enthusiastic praises, Book of Fermoy, fol. 52. Conn-luaipjre, wave-rocked. b When lear, which literally cheek. It is never applied, ex- means half, is thus prefixed, it cept where nature or art has signifies " one of two," such as placed two together ; but in this one ear, one eye, one leg, one case it is considered more elegant hand, one foot, one shoe, one than aon r one. chap, x.] Formation of compound Terms. 339 II. — Words compounded with an Adjective prefixed. 1 Substantives with an Adjective prefixed. Gipo-pij, a monarch, i. e. arch-king. Gireac-ponc, a plebeian town, or village. óopp-onn, a great rock, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 15. p. 180, col. a, line 23. Ceapc-TTieaóon, or ceipc-meaóon, the very middle, or centre, TTars of Turlough, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 1. p. 1. Ceciéaip-leabap, the book of the Four Gospels ; literally, the quatriple book. Clcten-bpear, a false sentence, MS. Trin. Col. Dubl. H. 2. 15. p. 26. t)aop5ap-pluaj, the mob, or rabble, Ann. Four Mast., passim. t)ub-abcnnn, a black river. t)ub-jlaipe, a black stream. tDuib-écm, a cormorant; literally, black-bird. Pmn-ceolcm, a beautiful little bell, Book of Lismore, fol. 189. pionn-bpuj, a fair habitation, Leabhar Branach, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. ELL 14. fol. 112. Pionn-jlaipe, a bright, or clear stream. Piop-mullach, the very summit, the vertex, apex, or cacumen. JJapb-óoipe, a rough oak wood, or grove ; roboretum asperum. Jjlccp-rhuip, a green sea, Bumann, Laud. 610, fol. 10. Haom-oioe, a holy tutor, Vit. Cellachi. Ppíom-callaoóip, chief keeper of the calendar, Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1136. Ppim-cealla, principal churches. "Ríj-ceach, a royal house. Cpéin-peióm, a mighty effort. Cpom-coola, heavy sleep : cona o-cuil Caóg cpom-coola, " so thatTeige slept a heavy sleep," Book of Lismore, fol. 163. Cpom-jul, heavy or deep lamentation, or weeping. 2 Adjectives compounded with Adjectives. Gipo-becmnac, lofty-peaked, high-pinnacled. 340 Of Composition, or the [part ii. Ctpo-copcmnacj loud-sounding, altisonant : pronounced in some parts of Ireland apo-roppcmnctch, which violates the euphonic rule above alluded to. t)ub-óonn, dark-brown ; oub-jopim, dark-blue. Píop-ctluinn, truly fine, or splendid. J^lcm-paóapcac, clear-sighted. Caom-ouapac, very bountiful, ^aompjcnp-jlic, very wise, or prudent. Ciac-bcm, pale-grey. Com-lcm, and in old writings lomncm, very full, full to the brink, or brim : as lommnán oo biuó, "very full of food," Leabhar Breac, fol. 108. 3. — Verbs, or Participles, with an Adjective prefixed. Gipo-eiciollcnm, I fly on high. Deapj-lapaó, red-flaming. Oicm-pjaoileao, rapid dissolution, or relaxing. — Book o/Fermoy, fol. 72. ÍDlúir-ceanglaim, I bind fast, ^éip-lecmcnm, I persecute. Upéan-paobcum, or cpéin-pécibaim, I disrupture, I tear violently, or mightily. Upom-jonaim, I wound deeply, or severely : as cue ap rpom- jonccó CCoó Ollán, " where Aodh Ollan was severely wounded/' Keat. Hist., p. 135 ; epom-goinceap Gojan ann, M Eoghan was deeply wounded there," Vita S. Cellachi. Upom-juilim, I weep loudly, deeply, or heavily, Keat. Hist., p. 119. III. — Words compounded with a Verb prefixed. The genius of the Irish language does not seem to favour the prefixing of verbs in compound terms, but modern translators have coined a few words in which verbs are prefixed, as cappainj-apc, a load-stone; bpip-^éimneuc, broken noise. chap, x.] Formation of compound Terms. 341 IV. — Words compounded with a Preposition prefixed. The Irish language does not admit of compounding words in this manner, excepting in very few instances. The following is a list of the principal words so compounded : tMectjaim, I dissolve : as oile^pcno a maich a n-olc, " their good shall dissolve their evil," Visio Adamnani. Oipjaoilim, I dissolve : do oip^ailpioíp pupcainc ocup polaió meter na n-ae, "the substance and soft consistency of the liver would dissolve," Old Med. MS. eaoap-guióe, intercession : oo eipe Diet pa n-a ecip-juioiB, " God listened to his intercessions," Ann. Tigliernach, p. 583. eaoap-polup, twilight. Gioip-minijiiT», I interpret, eaoap-pjapaó, anciently written ecappectpuo, separation, Cor. Gloss., vocibus t)eiliugctó, et lanomain. Po-ralam, lower land, low land, Cor. Gloss., voce 6capcé. )ap-mbéapla, an adverb, or any indeclinable part of speech. Im-cimcecdlap, it surrounds, Cor. Gloss., voce Imbách. Rerii-páióce, aforesaid. Cimcell-jeappaó, or cimcill-jeappctó, circumcision. Cim-jluaipim, I move round. Cpío-poillpeac, transparent, pellucid. Cpío-épeájca, transpierced, pierced through . The foregoing are all the modes after which compound terms are formed in all chaste compositions ; but in some romantic tales the bards, passing the ordinary bounds of language and of common sense, introduced very strange compounds. Still, however, the examples of this extravagant class of compounds given by O'Brien, in his Irish Grammar, pp. 70, 71, 72, are such as occur in no ancient or modern Irish poems, nor in the early specimens of prose composition found in the Book of Armagh, in Leabhar na h-Uidhri, the Book of Leinster, or the Leabhar Breac ; and as they consist of a string of adjectives huddled together, without skill or taste, c See Chap. VI. Sect. 2. 342 Of Composition, fyc. [part ii. it is needless to give any further account of them here, except that the principle above laid down must be observed, whatever number of words may be combined in the composition, namely, that the foregoing word qualifies or defines the succeeding ones. From what has been said of the nature of compound substantives, it is obvious that they retain the gender of the latter part of the compound, that being the staple original element, the former being the superadded, in- fluencing, or defining element. Thus, in the compound term lám-ópo, a hand-sledge, there are two nouns, of different genders, lam, a hand, being feminine, and ópo, a sledge, being masculine ; but as lám, by being placed first in the compound, becomes an adjective, and loses its gender altogether, the gender of ópo only is to be taken into consideration. But if we reverse the position of the words in the compound, and write ópo-lám, a sledge-hand (say a hand fit for wielding a sledge), then the term will be of the feminine gender, as ópo, the former part, becomes an adjective to lám. In writing compound words, the component parts are generally separated, in correctly printed Irish books, by a hyphen, but not always. The use of the hyphen does not, in fact, appear to have been regulated by any fixed rule ; but the hyphen should be em- ployed in this, in the same manner as it is in most other languages, and therefore the rules for regulating the use of it belong to general grammar. The general rule is as follows : When the first part of the compound is accented, no hyphen is to be used ; but if the accent be on the second part of the com- pound, the hyphen is to be inserted between the component parts. On the subject of compound words, the learner is referred to the English Language, by Professor Latham, Chapter XXV. pp. 328-341. PART III. OF SYNTAX. -♦ Syntax treats of the concord, collocation, and govern- ment of words in sentences. It may be conveniently- divided into Concord and Government ; under which heads the subordinate rules of Irish Syntax will be arranged, according to the part of speech affected. CHAPTER I. OF CONCORD. In this part of Syntax is to be considered the agree- ment of certain parts of speech with each other. The first concord or agreement is between the article and the substantive to which it is prefixed ; the second between the adjective and its substantive ; the third, between the pronoun and the substantive for which it stands ; the fourth, between the verb and its nominative case. To which may be added a fifth, namely, the concord, or apposition, of one substantive to another. Under the head of Concord may also be conve- niently considered the rules for the relative collocation 344 Of the Agreement of the Article with [part hi. of the several parts of speech, when in agreement with each other. Section 1. — Of the Agreement of the Article with its Sub- stantive, and of its Collocation. Rule I. The article is always placed before its substantive, and agrees with it in gender, number, and case, as an peap, the man ; an pip, of the man ; na pip, the men ; an bean, the woman ; na mná, of the woman ; na m-ban, of the women. The form of the article has been already pointed out in the Etymology, Chap. I. pp. 66-68. In the modern colloquial Irish, and in the Scotch Gaelic, the n of the article is usually cut off before consonants, particularly aspi- rated palatals and labials ; but it is almost always retained in the best Irish manuscripts. For the influences of the article on the initials of nouns, see the Etymology, Chap. I. pp. 69-72, rules 1-6, where a portion of Syntax has been unavoidably anticipated. Rule II. a. When the adjective precedes the substantive they are regarded in Irish Syntax as one compound word ; and therefore, when the article is prefixed, the initial of the adjective so placed suffers the same change as if it were but a syllable of the substantive, as an c-015- peap, the young man ; an 015-bean, the young woman ; an pean-Oume, the old man ; an c-pean-bean, the old woman; an c-pean-D\nne, of the old man; na pean-rhná, of the old woman. chap, i.] its Substantive, and of its Collocation. 345 Here it will be observed, that the initials of the adjectives undergo the same changes as if they were merely the first syllables of simple nouns, and there can be no doubt that they are so regarded in Irish Syntax. From this must be excepted the ordinals cécro, first ; oapa, second ; cpeap, third, &c. ; for we say an ceao peap, the first man ; an céao bean, the first woman ; the c in céao being always aspirated, whether the noun be masculine or feminine. The other ordinals suffer no change, except occrhaó, eighth, which takes c after the article, whether the noun following be masculine or femi- nine, as an e-occmao peap, the eighth man; an c-occrhaó bean, the eighth woman. b. When two substantives come together, one go- verning the other in the genitive case, the article is never used before the former in the modern language, although both be limited in signification, and would require the article the when made English, as mac an pip, the son of the man, not an mac an pip ; pi£ r,a Ppain^ce, the king of France, not an pi£ na Ppain^ce. This is the case in the modern language, but in ancient writings the article is found prefixed both to the governing and the governed substantive, as cup in ale na gualano, " to the joint of the shoul- der," Cor. Gloss., voce t)eac. c. When the possessive pronoun is joined to the noun governed, it excludes the article, as obaip a laime, the work of his hand, not an obaip a láirhe. Rule III. Besides the common use of the article as a defini- tive (like the English the), to limit the signification of 2 Y 346 Of the Agreement of the Article, fyc. [pabt hi. substantives, it is applied in Irish in the following in- stances, which may be regarded as idiomatic : 1 . Before a substantive followed by the demonstra- tive pronouns po, pin, ÚO ; as an peap po, this man ; literally, the man this ; an bean uo, yon woman ; an rip pm, that country. Also very often before uile, all, every > as an uile óuine, every man. 2. Before a substantive preceded by its adjective and the assertive verb íp ; as íp maiú an peap é, he is a good man. 3. Before the names of some countries and places, as an Spam, Spain ; an phnain^c, France ; an ^heap- mcun, Germany. But Bipe, Ireland, and Glbct, Scotland, never have the article prefixed to the nominative or dative, though they often have to the genitive, as pij net h-Sipecmn, the king of Ireland ; pij net h-Glbcm, the king of Scotland. The same may be observed of Uectrhcup, Tara ; Garhcnn, Emania ; Cpuaca, Rathcroghan ; and a few other proper names of places in Ireland. It is also generally placed before names of rivers, as an c-Sionainn, the Shannon ; an c-Siúip, the Suire ; an pheoip, the Nore ; an c-Sláine, the Slaney ; an óhanna, the Bann ; an óhucup, the Bush ; an TTIhuaió, the Moy; an phop^up, the Fergus ; an TTIhaij, the Maigue; an Birne, the Inny ; an c-Sabaipn, the Severn, also an old name of the River Lee in Munster. It is also placed before several proper names of places in Ireland, in the nominative form : an Map, Naas ; an e-lobap, Newry [lit. the yew tree*~\ ; an Chopann, Corran. a So called from an ancient burned in the year 1162, accord- yew tree, said to have been plant- ing to the Annals of the Four ed by St. Patrick, which was Masters. chap, i.] Of the Collocation of the Adjective, fyc 347 Section 2. — Of the Collocation of the Adjective, and of its Agreement with its Substantive, Rule IV. The natural position of the adjective is immediately after its substantive, as peap mop, a great man ; Daome Donna, wretched people. The exceptions to this rule are the following : 1. When the adjective is specially emphatic, and ascribed to the substantive by the assertive verb íp, or by the negative ni, it is placed before the substantive ; as ip puap an lá é, it is a cold day; íp bpea£ an bean i, she is a fine woman ; Do b' aoibinn an oíóce í, it was a delightful night; ni upua£ liom Do cop, not pitiful to me is thy condition, i. e. I pity not thy condi- tion. This collocation, however, cannot be adopted when the sub- stantive verb cá is used, for then the adjective takes its natural position after its substantive. 2. Numeral adjectives, both cardinal and ordinal, are always placed before their substantives ; as cpi bliaóna, three years; an cpeap bliaóain, the third year. But when the number is expressed in two words, the noun is placed between the unit and the decimal decade, as cpi pip oéaj, thirteen men ; an cpeap peap oéaj, the thirteenth man. — See page 124. 3. Some adjectives of one syllable are very gene- rally placed before their substantives ; as Dea£, good ; Dpoc, or paob, evil, bad ; pean, old. These combine with their nouns, so as to form one word \ and 348 Of the Collocation of the Adjective, and [part hi. from the manner in which they are influenced in Syntax, they must be each considered rather as a complex term, than as two distinct words in Syntactical concord, as oeaijóume, a good man ; opocpún, evil design ; paobnóp, an evil custom ; paebpeacc, an evil law; peanouine, an old man ; peancaraoip, an old chair, as a cpencaraoip ppocepca, "the old chair of preaching (or pulpit)," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1020. Rule V. The concord of the adjective and substantive is re- gulated by its position in the sentence, and by its logical signification : 1. When the adjective immediately follows its sub- stantive it agrees with the substantive in gender, num- ber, and case. Examples. — F ect P móp, a great man ; bean rhop, a great woman; an pip rnóip, of the great man; na mná móipe, of the great woman ; na peine pucaine, "sempiterni supplicii," Leabhar Breac, fol. 127, b, a; cue lán a £,laici oeipi oo lopaib píóe painemla leip, " he brought the full of his right hand of sanative fairy herbs with him," Book of Lismore, fol. 199 ; ó cup pogmaip na bliaóna peacmaca 50 mi meaóom Po jrhaip na bliaona ppeac- naipce, " from the commencement of the Autumn of the last year to mid- Autumn month of the present year," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1582. Caióe liop na njiall 5-copcpa, Na liopblcuc in bancpocca, Na bpuj jeal na 5-caol-pleaj 5-cop — Ueaj na n-aoióeaó 'p na n-anpoó ? " Where is the fort of the ruddy hostages, Or the beautiful fort of the ladies, Or the white mansion of the bright slender spears- House of the strangers and the destitute?" —VCoffey, in Leabhar Branach, MS. Trim Coll. Dubl. H. 1. 14. chap, l] of its Agreement with its Substantive. 349 Cuapaprol pig ópoja pi j, O pij Gpeno cen impnirh, Oeic n-ionaip oonna, oeapja, Ip oeic ngoill can JJ aeoe ^5 a « " The stipend of the king of Bruree, From the king of Ireland without sorrow, Ten tunics, brown, red, And ten foreigners [slaves] without Gaelic." — Leabhar na g-Ceart^ as in the Book of Lecan. Secc múip jloinmi co n-oachaib epcamlaib 1 n-a cimchell, "seven walls of glass, with various colours around it," Visio Adamriani ; i nglenncnb oubaib oopchatb, ooimnib, oepmaipib oeepuoachaib, " in black, dark, deep, terrific, smoky vales," Ibid. ; co ppaiglib oepjaib cencibi billamaib leo, " with red, fiery scourges in their hands," Ibid. 2. When the adjective precedes the substantive, as in Rule IV., the form of the adjective does not in any respect depend on its substantive ; but it is influenced by prefixed participles, as if it were itself a substan- tive ; and it aspirates the initial of its substantive, as if both formed one compound term, as aóbal cúipe, great causes ; cpéan cupaó, a mighty champion ; le h-at>bal cuipib, with great causes; na o-upéan cupab, of the mighty champions. 3. When the adjective is in the predicate of a pro- position, and the substantive in the subject, the form of the adjective is not modified by its substantive ; as ra an ^aoú puan, the wind is cold, not cá an £aot; puap ; cá an calarh copcarhail, the earth is fruitful, not cá an calarh copúarhail. 350 Of the Collocation of the Adjective, and [part hi. This is unquestionably the case in the modern colloquial Irish, and in all printed books and most manuscripts of the last three centuries ; but in ancient manuscripts the adjective is varied so as to agree, at least in number, with its substantive, whether placed before or after it, or in the predicate or subject of a proposition, as in the following examples in the Leabhar Breac, and other manu- scripts : ac buioe do lárha, ac bpecca do Beoil, ac liaca do puile, " yellow are thy hands, speckled are thy lips, grey are thy eyes," Leabhar Br eac, fol. Ill, b, b; ic popbailci£ pium, "and joyous are they," Visio Adamnani ; ípac lána penoa nime, ocup peolanoa, ocup pipmammc, ocup ino uli búl Do'n ullalljuba oep- nvnp do jniac anmanna na pecDach po lamaib ocup glacaib inna namuc nerh-mapboapin, " the planets of heaven, the stars, and the firmament, and every element is full of the great waitings, which the souls of the sinners make under the hands and lashes of these immortal enemies," Id. ; báo piapcnj do TTIuirhnij ocup 6aijne, forba piapac oomuimnijajup^aijnij, "theMomoniansandLage- nians were obedient to him," Vit. S. Cellachi ; and in the Battle of Magh Bath, po Dculeó ictpum biao ocup Deoc popaib, comoap mepca, meóap-caoine, " meat and drink were afterwards distri- buted amongst them, until they were inebriated and cheerful," p. 28 ; áp ció ac mópa na h-uilc do ponaip ppim, " for though great are the evils thou hast done to me," Id., p. 32 ; ac mópa na h-aicipe bo paoac pope a cij in pi j anocc, " great are the insults that have been offered to thee in the king's house this night," Id., p. 30. Even Duald Mac Firbis, who wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century, makes the adjective agree with its substantive, even when placed before it, as baó mópa paca a pio j, " great was the prosperity of their kings," Tribes and Customs of the Ii y- Fiachrach, p. 316. 4. When the adjective qualifies the verb its form is not modified by the substantive, as Dean an pcian $éap, make the knife sharp ; not t>éan an pcian £éaji, for that would signify, *' make the sharp knife." chap, i.] of its Agreement with its Substantive. 351 This distinction, though agreeable to the strictest philosophical propriety, does not appear to have been observed in other lan- guages of Europe. 5. When an adjective beginning with a lingual, is preceded by a noun terminating with a lingual, the initial of the adjective retains its primary sound in all the cases of the singular, as aji mo £ualainn Deip, "on my right shoulder 5 ;" an a coir» tjeip, on his right foot, not ap a coip óeip ; colann Oaonna, a human body, not colann 6aonna c . This exception is made to preserve the agreeable sound arising from the coalescence of the lingual consonants. In the spoken language, however, this euphonic principle is not observed, but the adjective is aspirated regularly according to the gender of the substantive, as set down in the Etymology, Chap. III. But in colann oaonna, and a few other phrases, the o is never aspirated in any part of Ireland, except by children. 6. When an adjective is used to describe the quality of two nouns, it agrees with the one next to it, as pectn a^up bean mair, a good man and woman ; bean a^up pean maic. 7. When the numerals Da, two ; pice, twenty ; céatj, a hundred ; mile, a thousand, or any multiple of ten, are prefixed to the substantive, then the substan- tive and its article are put, not in the plural, but in the singular form. Some have supposed that the substantive in these instances is really in the genitive case plural ; but that this is not the fact is sufficiently obvious from this, that when the noun has a decided b O'Molloy, Lvcerna Fidel, p. 18. c Id., p. 19. 352 Of the Collocation of the Adjective, and [part hi. form for the genitive plural, it cannot be placed after these nume- rals, as pice bean, twenty women ; céao oume, a hundred per- sons ; céao cccopct, a hundred sheep ; not pice ban, céao oaoineaó, céao caopac, the genitives plural of these nouns being (as already seen, pp. 103, 109), ban, oaoineaó, caopac. The terminational form of the feminine substantive, when pre- ceded by bá, two, is the same as the dative singular, except when the substantive is governed in the genitive case, and then it is put in the genitive plural, as bá coip, two feet ; bá láim, two hands ; ba cluaip, two ears ; not bá cop, ba lám, bá cluap ; méio a óá lárh, the size of his two hands ; not mém a óá láirh : in bá chuipp l n-]nnip Cáchaij noca léjac coppa aili leo i n-a n-mnpi, M the two cranes of Inis Cathaigh do not suffer other cranes to remain with them on their island," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 16. p. 242. But though the substantive has thus decidedly the singular form as much as six foot, twelve inch, twenty mile, in English, still the adjective belonging to and following such a noun is put in the plural, as bá lcnm rhópa, two great hands ; bá locpcm, rhópa, "two great luminaries," Genesis, i. 16 ; ba léppaipe mópa, "two great lights," Book of Ballymote^ fol. 8 ; ba comapca caioi coic- cenoa, " two beautiful general signs," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 114 ; an bá íapc beaj, of the two small fishes ; bi caeb plemna, pnechcaibe, " two smooth, snowy sides," Mac Conglinrí s Drea?n, in Leabhar Breac ; ba bpa boile, bubjopma op na popca pin, "two chaferlike, dark-blue brows over those eyes," Id. This remarkable exception to the general use of the singular and plural numbers induced O'Molloy and others to be of opinion, that there were three numbers in this language. O'Molloy writes : " Verum ex ijs, quae obseruaui, ausim dicere, tres numerari posse numeros apud Hibernos ; singularem nempé, qui unum im- portat, pluralem qui duo, et plusquam pluralem id est, qui plus- quam duo : dicunt enim in singulari capoll, cop, ceann, latiné caballus, pes, caput. In plurali veró bha chapoll, ba choip, ba cheunn, latiné duo caballi, duo pedes, duo capita; tametsi nomina siut in singulari numero praeter numeralia, quae sunt pluralis nu- chap, i] of its Agreement with its Substantive. 353 meri : plusquám pluralis, cpi capuil, cpi copa, cpi cinn, in quibus turn numeralia, turn substantiva important plusquam duo," Gram- matica Latino -Hibemica, p. 122. The Rev. Paul O'Brien, in his Irish Grammar, p. 21, says that " oá coip, ought to be óá cop, i. e. a foot twice ; for óa is expres- sive of second, twice, or pair; as oo, not bet, in numbers, is two." But the very reverse is the fact, for oó is the number two in the abstract, while bá, or óá, is the form of the numeral adjective which coalesces with nouns, like ceicpe, four (the form cectccup denoting four in the abstract), so that O'Brien's observations are wholly erroneous. We cannot, however, admit a dual number, because all nouns of the masculine gender terminate like the nomi- native singular when placed after the numeral Oct, two, and the third form occurs in feminine nouns only, thus : cpann (masc), a tree ; óá cpann, two trees ; cpi cpoinn, three trees ; lárh (fern.), a hand; bá Icnrh, two hands; cpi lárha, three hands. In the He- brew, and many of the Eastern languages, a noun in the singular form is sometimes found connected with plural numerals, twenty , thirty ; and instances of it are also found in the French language, as vignt et un ecu, twenty and one crown ; and more frequently in old English, as twenty dozen ; six foot high ; twelve inch thick; sixty mile in breadth, &c, as in the following examples in Shakspeare : " That's fifty year ago."— 2nd Ft. Hen. IV. Act 3, sc. 2. " I must a dozen mile to-night." — lb. " Three pound of sugar : five pound of currants," &c. — Winter's Tale, Act i. sc. 3. " Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth T , —2?id Part Hen. IV. Act i. sc. 2. Some German authors also write zwanzig mann, twenty men. 2 z 354 Of the Collocation and Agreement of [part hi. Section 3. — Of the Collocation and Agreement of Pronouns with their Antecedents. Rule VI. a. The possessive adjective pronouns mo, my, do, thy, a, his, hers, or their' s, are placed before their nouns, and agree with their antecedents in gender, number, and case. But the other pronouns have no distinction of number or case. Examples. — TTIo pull, my eye; oo cor, thy foot; a 5-cmn, their heads : D'ppea^cnr, lopa ajnp a oubaipc pé leo, leajaíó pop an ceampull po, agup eóigeubaió mipe é a o-cpt laecaib, "Jesus answered, and said to them, destroy this temple, and I will build it up in three days," John, ii. 19 ; péioió an gaor map >p ail léi, ajup cluinip a copann, ace m peap oinc ca n-ap a 0-C15 pi no c' ctic a o-céio pi, " the wind bloweth where it listeth, but thou knowest not whence it proceedeth, or whither it goeth," John, in. 19. b, The emphatic postfixes of these pronouns are placed after the substantive to which they belong, as mo lam- pa, my hand, áp 5-cmn-ne, our hands ; and if the sub- stantive be immediately followed by an adjective, the emphatic particle is placed after such adjective, as mo cop cli-pi, my left foot ; a lám beap-pan, his right hand. Rule VII. If the pronoun has a sentence, or member of a sen- tence, for its antecedent, it must be put in the third person singular, masculine gender, as íp mipe rug plan iao, ace níop at)mai£eaoap é, it is I that brought them safe, but they did not acknowledge it; íp mime chap, i.] Pronouns with their Antecedents. 355 Do puapamap ^ac maireap ó n-a láirh, ace níop ru£- amap buióeacap Do aip, it is often we received every goodness from his hand, but we have not thanked him for it. Rule VIII. If the antecedent be a noun of multitude, such as muincip, luce, Dponjj, or Dpeam, plua£, &c, the pro- noun is very generally of the third person plural, as íp ole an tjpeam luce na ripe pin, a$up íp puaú le ^ac neac iaD, the people of that country are a bad people, and they are hateful to every one. Rule IX. An interrogative pronoun combined with a personal pronoun asks a question without the intervention of the assertive verb íp, as cia h-e Oorhnall? who is Daniel ? But the substantive verb cá bí can never be left under- stood, as cá b-puil Oorhnall, where is Daniel? — See Part II. Sect. 4, p. 134. Rule X. The relative pronouns a, who, which, and noc, who, or which, have no variations of gender or number, in reference to their antecedents ; they always follow im- mediately after their antecedents, and aspirate the aspi- rable initials of the verbs to which they are the nomina- tives, as an peap a buaileap, the man who strikes. — See pp. 131, 132, 133, 359. 356 Of the Agreement of a Verb [part hi. Section 4. — Of the Agreement of a Verb ivith its Nominative Case, Rule XI. When the nominative case is expressed, the verb has the same form in all the persons except the relative and the third person plural, as uá mé, I am, not cciim mé; cd uu, thou art, not ccnp cú; uá pé, he is; cá pinn, we are not, camaoio pinn ; ca pib, ye are ; ccno piat>, they are. When the synthetic form of the verb is used, the nominative cannot be expressed except in the third per- son plural, and even then, in the past tense, the pronoun and the termination which expresses it cannot be used at the same time, as t>o cuip picto, they put, not t)o cuipeaoaji piatj; but if the plural nominative be a noun, then the form of the verb, which expresses the person in its termination, may be retained, as óiji niop cpeioeaoap a bpcnúpeaca péin cmn pop, "for his own brethren did not as yet believe in him d ;" t)cc rene Do gnicíp t>pcríóe, " two fires which the Druids used to make e ." Haliday writes, that "a verb agrees with its nominative case in number and person," and then in a note observes, that " in the Scotch dialect, 'as the verb has no variation of form corresponding to the Person, or Number of its Nominative, the connexion between the Verb and its Nominative can be marked only by its colloca- tion. Little variety, therefore, is allowed in this respect' — Stew- art. From this, then, we may conclude, that the Scotch dialect possesses but little of the perspicuity of the mother tongue." — Gallic Grammar, p. 113. d John, vii. 5. e Cor. Gloss., voce óellcaine. chap, i.] with its Nominative Case. 357 It must be confessed, however, that in the Irish language, ancient or modern, no agreement is observed between the nominative case and the verb, except in the relative and the third person plural, and that even this agreement would appear to have been originally adopted in imitation of the Latin language. But it is true that the Irish verb has several terminations to express the persons, which the Scotch Gaelic has not, though these cannot be used when the nominatives are expressed, with the single exception of the third person plural. Rule XII. a. The nominative case, whether noun or pronoun, is ordinarily placed after the verb, as zá pé, he is ; bpip pé, he broke ; mapbaó bpicm, Brian was killed. In the natural order of an Irish sentence the verb comes first, the nominative, with its dependents, next after it, and next the object of the verb, or accusative case, as po ruippim Oia in Duim po ímái^in pooen, " God made man in his own image" f . It is a general principle in this language, that the object of the verb should never be placed between the verb and its nominative ; but we often find this natural order of an Irish sentence violated, even in the best Irish manuscripts, and the verb placed, without any apparent connexion, with its nominative, as t)achi, íomoppo, cerpe mec piceao [baoi] aije, "Dathi, indeed, twenty-four sons were with him, i. e. Dathi had twenty-four sons," Tribes, $•£., of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 32. But, according to the genius of the lan- guage, when the noun is placed before the verb, it does not imme- diately connect with the verb, but rather stands in an absolute state ; and such construction, though unquestionably faulty, is often adopted by the best Irish writers for the sake of emphasis, as in the English phrases, " the Queen, she reigns," " the Queen, God bless her." Sentences so constructed cannot be considered gram- f Book of Ballymote, fol. 8, a, b. 358 Of the Agreement of a Verb [part hi. matically correct, unless we suppose a sudden interruption of the sentence, and, after that, an abrupt renewal of it ; or unless we suppose some word equivalent to the English as to, or the Latin quoad, or secundum, to be understood. b. When the assertive verb lp, or the particles an, or nac, which always carry the force of íp, and never suffer it to be expressed, are used, the collocation is as follows : the verb comes first, next the attribute, or predicate, and then the subject; as íp pecqi mé, I am a man ; íp menu iat>, they are good. But if the article be expressed before the predicate, then the attribute comes next after the verb ; as íp mé an pean, I am the man. The forms e, i, iat>, as already remarked in the Etymology, are always used in the modern language in connexion with this verb íp, and not pé, pi, pi ao. The reader will observe a striking analogy between this collo- cation and the Scotch English, " 'tis a fine day this," " 'twas a cold night that," " 'tis a high hill that." From whatever source this mode of construction has been derived, it is nearly the same as the Irish and Erse, if bpeáj an lá po ; ba puap an oíóce pin; íp ápb an cnoc pin ; the only difference being, that the definite article is used in the Irish, and sometimes the personal pronoun set before the demonstrative, as ip puap an oióce f peo, this is a cold night. c. If the nominative be a collective or plural noun substantive, the verb has often the synthetic form of the third person plural. Examples. — 6eanabap a rhumcip é, his people followed him; cujpac a rhumcip a copp leo a n-6ipmn, " his people carried [asportaverunf\ his body with them to Ireland," Keat. Hist., p. 110; copepabap mopán oiob ann, " many of them fell there," Id., p. 121 ; ap n-a clop bo cinioo Scuic ajup bo na piccib jup chap, i.] with its Nominative Case. 359 rpéijiobap féómánai^ na ópearnai^, linjib péin oppa, bpipib an cioióe, ajupaipjib a b-cip, " the nation of the Scots and the Picts having heard that the Romans had forsaken the Britons, they rush upon them, break the wall, and plunder their country," Id., p. 106; bume po-po^lomra ag a pababop íomab leabop, "a very learned man, who had a number of books ;" literally, " a very learned man, with whom there were a number of books," Id., p. 127. The most genuine agreement between the nominative case and the verb in this language, is when the relative pronoun a, or any modification of it, or substitute for it g , is the nominative. This always precedes the verb, aspirates its initial, if aspirable, and causes it to terminate in eap, or ap, in the present and future indi- cative active, as an peap a buailéap, the man who strikes ; an peap a jlanap, the man who cleanses ; aj po in oajia capibil noc labpup bo'n leigiup ppicbuailci, noc ip concpápóa jnírii bo'n leiipup caippmjrec, " this is the second chapter which treats of repercussive medicine, which has a different action from the attrac- tive medicine," Old Medical MS. A. D. 1414. This is the termination of the verb to agree with the relative in the present and future indicative, in the modern Irish language ; but in the past tense, the relative form is the same as that of the third person singular. In ancient manuscripts, however, the verb is made to agree with the relative, after the Latin manner, as na buine bo ponpac in echc, for na baoine bo pine an gniorh, 44 homines qui efficerunt f acinus" Leabhar Breac, fol. 35, b ; ip iab pin po gabpuc eic, ocup múil, ocup apam in Chapbinail, cáinic ó Róim co cip n-Gpeno, " these were they who stole the horses, the asses, and the mules of the Cardinal, who came from. Rome to the land of Erin," Id., fol. 4, b. And even Duald Mac Firbis, who wrote in 1650, frequently gives the verb the third person plural termination to agree with the relative, as bail bli^ceac t)e óingiop piop ap a puibe p!o£ na 8 The English peasantry often from whatever source derived, use as and what for the relative, are not unlike the Irish a, uc, and^very often omit the relative who, which, altogether. Their as and what, 360 Of the Agreement of a Verb [part hi. h-ápb-plaire uaibpi£e impib a n-ancurhacca. This sentence would stand as follows in the modern language : bail bli^reac Oe [a] binjeap píop ap a puióe pi£ na h-ápb-plaiée uaibpeaca [a] impeap a n-ancúrhacca, " the righteous decrees of God, who hurls down from their kingly thrones the monarch s who exercise their tyranni- cal power," Tribes, &;c, of Hy-Fiachrach, p. 316. In John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland we also find a similar construction, as in the following sentence : benaim-pi par ajup pije óíoc ajup bo'n rhéio boc bpaiépib pilib ac pocaip, '• I deprive thee of prosperity and king- dom, as well as the number of thy brothers who are along with thee," p. 113; b'á n-bíon ap íompuajaó na n-^aoibiol bábop aj cópuióiocc oppa, " to defend themselves against the attacks of the Gaels, who were in pursuit of them," Id., p. 140; Qna, .1. pbaba beca bibip popp na cippabaib, " Ana, i. e. small vessels which were usually at the wells," Cor. Gloss., in voce Qna; na ópec- naij cpa bctcap h-i coimicecc pacpaic iconppocepc, h-ice po cmncaipec, "the Britons, who were preaching along with St. Pa- trick, were they who made this change" [of the word], Id., voce Cpuimchep ; lobap íap paoipe na Capj 50 h-Gccliac o'p iu b u 6 ao ajup b'onópujab na n-oipicceac nua pin canjabap 1 n-Bipinn, " after the solemnity of Easter they repaired to Dublin, to salute and honour the new functionaries who had come to Ireland," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1600. d. The relative is often understood, exactly as in English, in such phrases as "the subject I spoke upon," for "the subject upon which I spoke;" "the thing I wanted," for "the thing which I wanted." But the initial of the verb is aspirated, as if the relative were expressed. Examples. — Qn cé cpeibeap, he who believes ; puipionn uaib pém bo cop b'uiciugab na cpice jabap le neapc, " to place a colony of his own to inhabit the country \_which~\ he gains by force," Keat. Hist., p. 8 ; in riiuip cimcillep Gipiu, " the sea [which"] surrounds Ireland," Cor. Gloss., voce Coipe ópecáin. chap. I.] with its Nominative Case. 361 e. In the natural order of an Irish sentence, the interrogative pronouns precede the verb ; as cia buail cu ? who struck thee ? cpeao a bpip é ? what broke it? In poetry, or poetical prose, the natural order of sentences is sometimes inverted, and the nominative case placed before the verb, as in the poem on the regal cemetery of Rathcroghan, ascribed to Torna Eigeas : 6ipe, poóla, ocup 6anba, Upí h-05-mná áilne arhpa, Uáib 1 5-Cpuacam, &c. "Eire, Fodhla, and Banba, Three beauteous famous damsels, Are interred at Cruachan," &c. And in the following quatrain from the ode addressed to Donough, fourth Earl of Thomond, by Teige Mac Dary : Ueipce, oaoippe, oir ana, pict^a, cojca, con^ala, t)iombuaó cara, jaipb-jMon, 501D, Cpé ainbpíp plara púpoio. " Want, slavery, scarcity of provisions, Plagues, battles, conflicts, Defeat in battle, inclement weather, rapine, From the unworthiness of a prince do spring" In the ancient and modern Irish annals, and in old romantic tales, the nominative or accusative case is frequently placed before the infinitive mood, somewhat like the accusative before the infini- tive mood in the Latin language, as CTpomacha 00 lopcaó 00 rene paj^néin, " Armagh was burned by lightning," Ann. Four Mast.^ A. D. 778; cloijéec íTlainipcpec bo lopcaó, "the belfry of the Monastery [i. e. Monasterboice] was burned," Chronicon Scotorum, A. D. 1097. Haliday {Gcelic Grammar, p. 1 15), and the Rev. Paul O'Brien 3 A 362 Of the Agreement of a Verb [part hi. (Irish Grammar, p. 183), have thought that the form of the verb thus placed after the nominative was the past tense of the indica- tive passive ; but the forms of the various verbs which occur in the Irish Annals prove, beyond the possibility of doubt, that it is the infinitive mood of the verb, as fflae^amain, mac Cinbéibe, áipb-pí múrhan, bo epjabáil bo Oonoubán, mac Caéail, ci^eapna Ua Pió^ence, cpia ranjnacc, " Mahon, son of Kennedy, arch-king of Munster, was treacherously captured by Donovan, son of Cathal, lord of Hy-Fidhgente," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 974 ; mainipnp Chuinche oo écccbáil la Siooa Cam TTIac Conmapa, "the mo- nastery of Quin was erected by Sioda Cam Mac Namara, Id., A. D. 1402; Uuaémurham b'opjain ó'n j-callainn co a poile, " Thomond was plundered from one extremity to the other," Id., A. D. 1563; Cloijreach Cluana lopaipo oo ruicim, "the belfry of Clonard fell," Id., A. D. 1039 ; bíé móp oaoine oo rubaipc ap peapaib ópeipne, "a great destruction of people was brought on the men of Breifny," Id., A. D. 1429; Gpb m-ópecám oo lopcaó ajup b'op^am oo (^hallaib Gcha cliar, agup oá céo ouine oo lopcaó íp in oairhliag, agup oá céo ele oo Bpeié a m-bpoio, " Ardbraccan was burned by the Danes of Dublin; and two hun- dred persons were burned in the stone church, and two hundred more were carried off in captivity," Ann. Kilronan, A. D. 1030; Comáp O5 O TCaijillij agup Clann Cába 00 óol ap íonpoijib ip in mióe, " Thomas Oge O'Reilly and the Clann Caba [the Mac Cabes] went upon an excursion into Meath," Id., A. D. 1413 ; é pém 00 cappainj ó a paile, agup boill Beacca 00 óenom Oia copp, "he was dragged asunder, and small bits made of his body," Id., A. D. 1374 ; móp olc 00 checc oe íapeain, "great evils came of it afterwards," Battle of Mag h Rath, p. 28. From the forms 00 epjabcul, bo éóccbcul, o'opjain, oo cuicim, 00 éabaipc, 00 bpeicr, bo ool, bo cappamj, 00 benom, bo rece, used in the above examples, and from other decidedly infinitive forms found in the Irish Annals, such as bo rocc, 00 éiaccain, oo poccain, 00 repeciil, oo éaipcpin, &c, it is absolutely certain that it is the infinitive mood active is used, and not the past indicative passive, as Haliday, O'Brien, and others, have assumed. Whether chap, l] with its Nominative Case. 363 this construction be or be not the same as that of the Latin infini- tive, preceded by the nominative accusative of the agent, when quod or lit is understood, and when the infinitive is put for the imperfect tense, must be left to the decision of the learned ; as in Virgil : " At Danaum proceres Agamemnoniseque phalanges Ingenti trepidare metu ; pars vertere terga, Ceu quondam petiére rates; pars tollere vocem." ^Eneid. vi. 489. 14 Mene desistere victam Nee posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem." */Eneid. i. 37. And in Caesar De Bello Gallico : " Caesari renunciatur, Helvetiis esse in animo, per agrum Se- quanorum et iEduorum iter in Santonum fines facere, &.c." — Lib. i. 10. y. The infinitive mood of the verb-substantive, and of verbs of motion and gesture, &c. often takes before it the nominative or accusative of substantives, and the accusative of pronouns 11 , as íp ole an níó Deapbpáirpe t>o beiú a n-impeapan le n-a céile, it is an evil thing for brothers to be in contention with each other ; ap lóp 6am mé péin t>o ruicim, " it is enough for me that I myself fall ;" est satis mihi me ipsum cade re 1 ; a^ caip- n^ipe pácpaic t)o úeacc ann, " predicting that Patrick would come thither j ;" lap 5-clop t)i an cpanncup 00 cuicim ap a mac, 6< quando audivit sortem obtigisse unicojilio suo k J Jc v h Haliday, in his Gaelic Gram- Scotch Gaelic very well, gives the mar, p. 115, gives this rule from rule, and the examples, perfectly Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, first correct, in both editions of his edition, p. 154, line 18 ; and not Grammar, understanding its exact meaning, J Keat. Hist., p. 145. he gives examples which have J Id., p. 25. no reference to it whatsoever. k Id., p. 70. But Stewart, who understood the 364 Of the Agreement of a Verb [part hi. This mode of construction is exactly like the accusative coming before the infinitive mood in Latin, when quod or ut is understood, or rather when the sentence could be resolved by those conjunctions. g. The nominative or accusative (in the modern language the accusative) of personal pronouns also often appears before verbal nouns governed by prepositions. Examples. — Ctp po picep pium in céona po coimélaó ní oo'n pleió, ocup pí ap na h-epcame,cumaó t>e éicpaóGpino bo milleó, "for he knew that the first person who should partake of the ban- quet, and it after being cursed, that of him would come to destroy Ireland," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 24; ocup pé oc ímbipc p íócille inp na ploju, "and he a' playing of chess amid the hosts," Id., p. 36 ; ajup í 0:5 mciújaó láirii pé lonjpopc an pij, »« and she dwelling near the king's palace," Id., p. 70. When the noun thus placed before the infinitive mood is pre- ceded by a preposition, some writers make the preposition govern it, as ní puióiugaó ap ^haoióilib do ceacc ó'n b-Ppainjc 50 m-biaó beaján b-pocol lonann earoppa, "it is no proof of the Gaels having come [lit. to come'] from France that there should be a few words common between them," Battle ofMagh Hath, p. 52. It would be, however, more grammatical not to let the force of the preposition light on the noun in this construction, but to consider it as governing the whole clause, as expressing an abstract sub- stantive idea, and to write ní pui&iujaó ap ^baoióil 00 ceacc ó'n b-Ppamjc, &c. It should be here noted by the learner, that in the modern Irish language, and in the Scotch Gaelic, the accusatives (or be they nominatives, if the Scotch will have them so) of the personal pro- nouns é, í, iat>, are always used before the infinitive mood in this construction, and not pé, pi, pia& ; but in ancient Irish manuscripts the latter occur very frequently. Rule XIII. When there are two or more nominatives joined together by a copulative conjunction, the third person chap, i.] with its Nominative Case. 365 plural of the verb is never used in the modern langu ge, as Do bí ann Oorhnall, Oonnchaó a^up Oiapmait), Daniel, Donough and Dermot were there. But in the ancient language the third person plural of the verb is used, as bctcop cmo t)omnall, TDonnchaó ocup Oiapmaio. But this may have been, perhaps, in imitation of the Latin. Rule XIV. The assertive verb ip, which has the force of the copula of logicians, is always omitted in the present tense after the interrogative particle an, whether ? also after the negatives ni and noca, not ; as an cú é, art thou he ? ni mé, I am not. This verb can also be elegantly omitted in other situations in which it might be expressed, as oip cú ap j-cpuéuijceoip, for thou art our Creator, for óip ip cú áp 5-cpucuijéeóip ; in cú jlanap in eclaip? mé imoppa [for ip me imoppa], "is it thou that cleanest the church ? it is I indeed," MS-. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 18. p. 205, b; mac pom Coipppi Chinochaic [for ba mac pom do Chaipbpi Chinncaic], he was the son of Cairbre Cinnchait ; coippech mo pope, cpin mo cpé, ó po coimpeó pé ppi piano, for ip coippeach mo popj, ip cpíon mo cpé, o Do coimpeao plann le pé, i. e. " wearied my eye, withered my clay [body], since Flann was measured by the Fe [a yard for measuring graves]," Cor. Gloss., voce pé. Rule XV. When two or more substantives come together, or succeed each other, denoting the same object, they should agree in case by apposition ; as Oorhnall, mac Goóa, mic Qinmipech, pi£ 6ipeann, Domnallus, filius Aidi, filii Ainmirei, rex Hiberniae. Here the word mac is in the nominative case, being in apposition to 366 Of the Agreement of a Verb, §c. [part hi. Oorhnall, i. e. being as it were laid alongside of it ; the word TTiic is in the genitive case to agree with Qoba, to which it is in apposition ; and pi 5, being in apposition to Oorhnall, is in the nominative case. Sometimes the assertive verb íp or ap, is placed between two nouns which might be put in apposition, as an r-ainm ap Colam Cille 1 . This rule is not always observed in the colloquial Irish, and some writers on Irish grammar have attempted to shew that it should not be observed, but that, according to the genius of the language, the word in apposition ought to be in the nominative case, though the word to which it refers be in the genitive, inasmuch as the relative and a verb are always understood. In this opinion the Author cannot acquiesce ; and the rule is observed by Keating, the Four Masters, and Duald Mac Firbis, who wrote in the latter end of the seventeenth century ; as óip ap ap pliocc Goóa Gélairh, meic piaiébiopcaij an Upopcain aca Tllac Suibne, " for Mac Sweeny is of the race of Aodh Athlamh, son of Flaithbheartach an Trostain," Keat. Hist., p. 7. Keating, however, does not always observe this apposition, particularly when the first noun is in the dative or ablative case, as is evident from this example : bia n-oeacuió cpa Cuchuloinn o 'po^luim cleap ngoile 50 Sjácaij, banjaip^eaóac baoi a n-Qlbain, 44 When Cuchullin went to learn feats of arms from Sgathach, a heroine who resided in Scotland," Id., p. 78. In this sentence, Sjaraij is in the dative or ablative case governed by the preposi- tion 30 ; but banjaipjeaóac is in the nominative case, though it ought to be the dative, as being in apposition to Sjáéai 5. This apposition is, however, found observed in Cormac's Glossary, as Qine, a nomine Ctine, interne Gojabail, " Aine [a hill] is called from Alne, the daughter of Eogabhal." 1 Keat. Hist., p. 126. chap, ii.] Of the Government of Substantives. 367 CHAPTER II. OF GOVERNMENT. In this chapter is to be explained the government of substantives, of adjectives, of verbs, of prepositions, and of conjunctions. Section 1. — Of the Government of Substantives. Rule XVI. a. When two substantives come together signifying different things, that is, when not in apposition, the latter is put in the genitive case. Examples. — Copaó na caiman, the fruit of the earth; eipc na mapa, the fishes of the sea ; pún FÓjlct, a desire of plunder; potctp na gpéine, the light of the sun; Dia na h-ice, " Deus salutis" Cor. Gloss., voce (Diancechc ; tXnlerh na n-oúl, " Creator of the elements," Leabhar Breac, fol. 121, b ; Cijepna in Domain, "the Lord of the world," Id. When the governing substantive is preceded by a preposition, some writers eclipse the initial of the governed substantive, as le h-anpaó njaoire, " by a storm of wind," Keat. Hist., p. 28. But this is not necessary, nor is it at all observed in the spoken lan- guage. b. Verbal nouns substantive coming from transitive verbs, govern the genitive case of those nouns which the verbs from which they are derived would govern in the accusative or objective case. 368 Of the Government of Substantives, [part hi. Examples. — Q5 cup pil, sowing seed, i. e. a sowing of seed ; 05 oopcaó Fola, shedding blood, i. e. a shedding of blood ; do pojluim céipoe, to learn a trade, i. e. to or for the learning of a trade. Also verbal nouns, which may be properly styled progressive active nouns, when preceded by certain prepositions have the force of active participles in other languages ; and, when preceded by do, have the force of the infinitive mood active. Also adjectives taken substantively, as co n-immao eolaip, " with much knowledge," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107, a, a. Rule XVII. When, in the absence of the article, the latter of two substantives in the genitive case is the proper name of a man, woman, or place, its initial is aspirated ; as ó onmpip phctbpui^, " from the time of St. Patrick 3 ;" in£ean Shaióbe, the daughter of Sabia ; Qipoeapbo^ Chen pi I, the Archbishop of Cashel. This holds good as a general rule in the modern Irish language, but it is much to be doubted whether it was adhered to in the ancient language ; and in modern Irish an exception to it is gene- rally made in family names, which are made up of the proper names of the progenitors of the families, and the word O (or Ua), nepos, or grandson, or mac, a son, prefixed, as O Neill, O'Neill; O Oomnaill, O'Donnell ; O Concabaip, O'Conor ; O Ceallai 5, O'Kelly; O ÍDonnabáin, O'Donovan ; ÍTIac Oomnaill, Mac Don- nell; ITIac Capraij, Mac Carthy; not O t)homnaill, lTlac Ohom- naill, &c. But should the prefixed O be itself governed in the genitive case by another noun, then the initial of the noun which it governs will be aspirated, as TTIac Néill Ui t)horhnaill, the son of Niall O'Donnell; ITIac Chachail Ui Chonchobaip, the son of Cathal O'Conor ; achaip Uhaióg Ui Cheallai£, the father of Teige O'Kelly. Some writers aspirate the initial of the latter substantive, a Keat. Hist., p. 110. chap.il] Of the Government of Adjectives. 369 even when it is not a proper name, as jop jab oapacc peipje é, " so that he was seized with a paroxysm of anger," Kent. Hist., p. 76; 0:5 geccppao coille, "cutting down the wood," Id., ibid. ; oilioriiain riieic pij, "the fosterage of a king's son," Id., p. 97; ail chacha, " a rock of battle," Cor. Gloss., voce Cachal ; ail cipa, " rock of tribute," Id., voce Caipel. But this is not to be imitated, as it weakens the sound of the word too much. It is very strange that O'Molloy calls the O prefixed to Irish surnames an article, whereas it is really a substantive, and has been translated nepos by Adamnan, in his life of Columba. O'Molloy writes : " Articulus o appositus proprijs nominibus virorum Prin- cipum Hibernensium facit nomina enunciari in genitiuo casu, vt o t)omhnaill, o Weill, o ópiam ; sub casuatione autem, flexione, vel declinatione, variari solet in 1, ua, vt nominatiuo o ópiain, genitiuo 1 óhpiain, datiuo Dim óhpiain, accusatiuo ap o TTIbpiain, vocatiuo a 1 6hpiain, ablatiuo le o ópiain, cum tamen ópiain, de se feratur in nominatiuo, et accusatiuo, et ablatiuo, et datiuo : ópiun veró non nisi in genitiuo et vocatiuo singularis numeri." — Gram- matica Latino- Hibernica, 102. The fact, however, is, that ópian, the name of the progenitor of the family, is put in the genitive case throughout, and governed by the substantive O, which means nepos, grandson, or descendant, and that the changes of the initial 6 are merely euphonic. Section 2. — Of the Government of Adjectives. Rule XVIII. The adjective Ian, full, often requires a genitive case after it, as lán pola, full of blood ; Ian pein^e, full of anger ; but it more frequently requires the pre- position Do, or more correctly oe, after it, as lán o'puil, full of blood ; lán o'peip^, full of anger. 3 B 370 Of the Government of Adjectives, [part in. Examples. — tDubrac mac U Cugaip, lepcap lán do pach in Spipara Naimh, " Dubhthach Mac U Lugair, a vessel full of the grace of the Holy Spirit," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 358 ; ^upubo Ian an cnocc bib, "so that the hill was full of them," Vit. Moling ; bo bábap na moije bá gac leié bo'n póo lán bo pjopaib £.oclonn, " the fields on each side of the road were full of the tents of the Danes," Keat. Hist., Callaghan Cashel ; ip Ian b'á poillpi nem ocup calam, "heaven and earth are full of his light," Visio Adamnani, in Leabhar Breac. Some grammarians have attempted to give rules of Syntax for pointing out what prepositions should follow certain adjectives, according to their signification ; but to determine this is a matter of idiom, rather than of Syntax, and must be learned by use. The learner, however, will find much information on this subject in Chap. VII. Sect. 3, where the idiomatic application of prepositions is treated of. Rule XIX. The comparative degree, in the modern Irish, takes the conjunction ina, than, quam, after it, as ba gile a cneip ina an pneacca, her skin was whiter than the snow. The ancient comparative in icep will have the noun following it in the dative or ablative form, if it be of the feminine gender, as jiliéep 5péin, whiter than the sun ; a construction exactly similar to the Latin lucidior sole ; but no trace of this form of the com- parative is found in the modern language. In some tracts in the Leabhar Breac the comparative is con- strued exactly as in the Latin, that is, with an ablative case after it, without the conjunction má, than, as in the following passage : popcap lipe pennaib nime agup gainem mapa ajjjup ouille peoa, buinb ppi mebi, ajup mebi ppi bunnu bo peppu, ajup puilc bia cennaib oc a eamnao, " more numerous than the stars of heaven, the sands of the sea, and the leaves of trees, were the feet of per- sons to necks, and necks to feet, and the hair in being cut off their heads," fol. 103, b, a; ip lipiu peoip no pole piobuioe lllpacba in chap.il] Of the Government of Adjectives. 371 mapbnuoa noib-pea, " more numerous than the blades of grass, or the leaves of trees, are the blessings flowing from this holy elegy," fol. 121, a, a ; cippa o' pin 'n-a pip íaprap, uibne beoipi íp bpo- coci blapca cech lint), " a spring of wine at the very west end, and rivers of beer and brocoid, sweeter than every liquor," fol. 108, a, b. Sometimes it has the preposition ppi (i. e. le), and the conjunc- tion ajup or ocup after it, in which construction it expresses com- parison of equality, as ba lipioip ppia jcunerh mapa, no ppia opiepenna ceneo, no ppi opuchc immacain ceeamam no ppia penna nime oepjnacca ic juilbniujao a chopp, " numerous as the sands of the sea, or as the sparks of fire, or as the dew drops of a May morning, or as the stars of heaven, were the fleas that were biting his legs," Mac Cong linn's Satire, in Leabhar Breac, fol. 107; cum ba mécichep ocup 03 pep-cipc h-i, " so that it was as large as a hen-egg," Id., ibid.; méoidiep ppi h-05 pep-cipc cac mip, " each bit large as a hen-egg," Id. ; meoichep ppi h-03 cuppi, " large as the egg of a crane," Id. Rule XX. When the preposition t>e is postfixed to the compa- rative, it is applied in the same way as the comparative degree in English, when preceded by the article the, as T F e N lC)e ^ u F in > tnou ar t ^e better of that ; m cpui- miDe an colann ciall, the body is not the weightier for the sense. The conjunction ma, than, is never used after the comparative in this construction. Rule XXI. The superlative degree does not require a genitive case plural after it, as in Latin, for the genitive case in Irish, as in English, always denotes possession and nothing more, and therefore could not be applied, like 372 Of the Government of Adjectives, [part hi. the genitive case plural in Latin, after nouns partitive, or the superlative degree ; but it generally takes after it the preposition t>o, or more correctly oe, as an bean íp áilne Oe rhnaib, the fairest woman of women ; an peap ip mo oe na laocaib, the largest man of the heroes. Rule XXII. a. The numerals aon, one, t)á, two, are placed be- fore their nouns, and aspirate their initials, if of the aspirable class, as aon cluap, one ear, 6a cluaip, two ears. As f follows the rule of aspiration, not eclipsis, it will be ex- pected that it should have c prefixed after these words, and so it has after aon, but not after Dá, as aon c-pli je, one way ; aon c-puil, one eye. But it must be acknowledged that the best Irish writers sometimes aspirate r after aon, as pe h-aompeacemain, " for one week," Keat. Hist., p. 31. And it is a remarkable fact, that act, which aspirates every other aspirable initial consonant coming after it, causes eclipsis in one solitary instance, namely, the word cpian, a third, as t>á o-quan, " two-thirds," Id., p. 157. b. The numerals cpí, ceifpe, cúi^, pe, pice, rpioca, and all multiples of ten, as well as all ordinals, will have the initials of their nouns in their primary form, as epi cluapa, three ears ; ceicpe pip, four men. The ordinals céao and cpeap are exceptions to this rule, and cause aspiration. c. The numerals peace, occ, noi, oeic, eclipse the initials of their nouns, if they be of the class that admits of eclipsis, as peace 5-cluapa, seven ears ; ocu 5-copa, eight feet; noi b-pip, nine men ; Deic nri-bliaóna, ten years. chap, il] Of the Government, fyc, of Pronouns. 373 If the initial be p , it retains its primary sound after peace, occ noi, oeic, as peace placa, seven yards ; occ pnaómanna, eight knots ; noí pléibce, nine mountains ; oeic pagaipe, ten priests. Rule XXIII. When the numeral is expressed by more than one word, the noun is placed immediately after the first, that is, between the unit and the decimal, as upi pip t)éa£, thirteen men ; peace 5-céo 065, seventeen hun- dred 5 . Section 3. — Of the Government and Collocation of Pronouns. Rule XXIV. a. The pronouns mo, my, 00, thy, a, his, are always placed before their nouns, and aspirate their initials, if of the aspirable class, as mo cluap, my ear ; t)o cop, thy foot ; a ceann, his head. b. When mo, my, t)o, thy, are followed by a word beginning with a vowel or p, the o is omitted ; as mo araip, my father, which is generally written m'oxcnp ; mo puil, my blood, written m'puil ; mo peapemn, my land, written m'peapemn. These words are obscurely written maraip, mpuil, mpeapann, in old manuscripts, but an apostrophe should always be used in modern books when the o is omitted. In 00, thy, the o is sometimes changed into c, and often dwin- dles into a mere breathing (h), as c'anam, thy soul, for 00 anam ; h'ucuip, thy father, for 00 acaip. Cia c'amm peo, ol 6ocha»ó, b Annals of the Four Masters, A. D. 1 174. 374 Of the Government and Collocation [part in. " what is thy name, said Eochaidh ?" Tochmare Elaine. 1 c' ajaió, against thee, for ao ajaió, Battle of Magh Rath, p. 12 : cec cac mop cue h' accup, piam, "every great battle which tf% father ever fought," Id., p. 44 ; ctp méo oo naomcacca ctgup h'onópa 0:5 tDia, " for the greatness of thy sanctity and honour with [i. e. in the sight of] God," Keat. Hist., p. 130; ap upupa a airne ap maoice oo meanman, oeapoile h' incinne, ajup h' aijionca, "it is easy to know it by the imbecility of thy courage, and the littleness of thy spirit and mind," Id., p. 143. Rule XXV. CI, her, has no influence on the initial consonant of the noun before which it is placed, as a ceann, her head; but if the noun begins with a vowel it will require h prefixed, as a h-in^ean, her daughter ; a h-eat>an, her forehead. Rule XXVI. Qp, our, bap, your, a, their, eclipse the initials of the nouns which follow them, as áp m-bpiarpa, our words, ap n-t>orjcup, our hope; bap 5-copa, your feet; a 5-cinn, their heads. If the initial of the noun be a vowel (see p. 65), n will be prefixed (which should be always separated by a hyphen, for the sake of clearness) ; as áp n-apcm, our bread; bap n-auaip, your father; a n-aipm, their arms. The learner will observe, from Rules 24-26, that the meanings of a, as a possessive pronoun, are distinguished by the form of the initial letter of the nouns following it ; thus : 1. Q, his, aspirates the initial consonant of the following noun, as a copa, his feet. 2. Q, her, makes no change, as a copa, her feet. 3. Q, their, eclipses, as a 5-copa, their feet. chap.il] of Pronouns. 375 When the consonant is not of the class which admits aspiration, or eclipsis, there is no guide to the eye, and some have suggested that it would improve the language to write this vocable é, when it signifies his, 1, when hers, and á, when theirs. Rule XXVII. When the possessive pronouns a, his, Iter's, or their' s, are preceded by a preposition ending in a vowel, they require an n prefixed, which, for the sake of clearness, should be always separated by a hyphen, as co n-a, le ri-a, ó n-a, cpe n-a. This n, which is inserted between the vowels to prevent a hiatus, is not used in the Scotch dialect, in which they write, le a, o a, tre a, and sometimes omit the o altogether. — Vide supra, pp. 148, 149. This euphonic n is also frequently omitted in some old Irish manuscripts, as be pin cpa boi Coipppi TTIupc oc oxhide paip co a rhuincip, ocup co a caipbe, " hence Coirpri Muse was frequent- ing in the east with his family and with his friends," Cor. Gloss., voce ITI05 Gime. Rule XXVIII. a. The relative pronoun a expressed or understood, and all forms of, and substitutes for it, are placed before the verb, and aspirate the initials of all verbs, except when it is preceded by a preposition expressed or un- derstood ; as an peap a buaileap, the man who strikes ; an cé ceilpeap, he who will conceal ; an peap a rap- pain^eap, the man who draws. b. But when the relative is itself governed by a prefixed preposition, which is sometimes left understood, and is not the nominative case to the verb, it then eclipses the initial consonant of the verb. 376 Of the Government and Collocation [part hi. Examples. — Gn peap o'á o-cujap é, the man to whom I gave it ; Cipbe amm in baile i m-bmip a cojnarh a cipe, "Cirbeis the name of the place in which they used to chew the cud," — Cor, Gloss., voce pemen; cpi h-aimpepa 1 n-glancap, "three times at which they are cleaned," Id., voce "Roc; yen, .1. lin a ngabap eoin, " sen, i. e. a net in which birds are taken," Id., voce Sen. c. But if the particles Do, po, &c, signs of the past tense, should come between the relative and the verb, then the initial of the verb is under their influence, and suffers aspiration as usual ; as an peap óp [i. e. a po] ceannaí£eap é, the man from whom I bought it. d. When the relative a signifies what, that which, or all that, it eclipses the initial of the verb without a preposition ; as a o-uu^ Cpiomuann 00 £iallaib leip, "all the hostages that Criomhthann brought with him c ." Rule XXIX. a. The relative pronoun is often loosely applied in the modern language, somewhat like the colloquial, but incorrect, English "who does he belong to?" This form, however, should not be introduced into correct writing ; but the relative should be always placed immediately after the preposition ; thus, instead of an é pin an peap a paib zd ag cainc leip ? is that the man who thou wert talking to ? we should say, an é pin an peap le a paib cu ag cainc ? is that the man to whom thou wert talking ? The relative (as has been already said, Rule 12, d), is often understood, as o bo concabap pein oncu 605am, ocup na meip- 5ÍÓ0: puc a cpeaca co mime uara oo mncoi^eabap t>o cum a céile, e Keat. Hist, p. 102. chap, il] of Pronouns. 377 " when they perceived the banner of Eoghan, and the other stan- dards which often carried away their spoils, they rushed upon each other," Vit. S. Cellachi. It is also often disguised in synthetic unions formed of certain prepositions, and prefixed signs of tenses, and particularly when the assertive verb ip is expressed or under- stood, as an peap lep mapbuó é, i. e. an peap le a po mapbaó é, the man by whom he was killed, lep being made up of le, by, a, whom, and po, sign of the past tense ; peap oápab (or oanab) amm Oorhnall, a man whose name is Daniel, i. e. vir cui est nomen Danielis. The verb íp, when connected with the relative thus, preceded by a preposition, becomes ab, even in the present tense, and may often be omitted altogether, as an cé lep mian, i. e. he who desires, literally, he to whom it is a desire. This might be also written, an cé le nab mian, or an ré lep ab rhian. The p in this instance is not an abbreviation of po, the sign of the past tense, but is inserted instead of n to stop the hiatus, which would otherwise be occasioned by the meeting of two vowels. The verb ip leaves the relative a understood, when no preposition precedes it, as meall pe an peap ip peapp clu, he deceived the man of better fame. The form a never accompanies the verb ip, but the form noc takes it constantly, as 05 po m oapa capmil oo'n Dapa cláp, noc labpup bo'n lei^iup ppirbuailci, noc ip conrpapóa jním bo'n leijiup caipinjrec, " this is the second chapter of the second table, which speaks of repercussive medicine, which is of contrary action to the attractive medicine," Old Med. MS., by John O Callannan of Roscarbery, A. D. 1414. As the relative always precedes the verb, and has no inflection, its case must be determined by the verb itself, or the noun follow- ing, as an peap a buaibm, the man whom I strike ; an peap a Buaileap mé, the man who strikes me. But there is one case in which it is impossible to determine, from the form of the words, whether the relative is the agent or the object, namely, when the simple past of the indicative active is used, as an peap a buail me, which may mean either the man w)io struck me, or the man whom 3 c 378 Of the Government and Collocation [part in. I struck ; an peap a buail TDomnall, the man who struck Daniel, or the man whom Daniel struck. This form of constructing the relative could be taken advantage of in equivocation, or false swearing; as if a man swore beapbaim gup ab é peo an peap a buail mé ; no one could possibly know whether he meant, " I swear that this is the man who struck me," or " 1 swear that this is the man whom I struck ." There are also other instances in which the want of the accusative form in the relative leads to ambiguity, as an peap a buaileap, which may mean either the man who strikes , or the man whom I struck ; for -eap is the relative termination for the present indicative, and also the termination to express the first person singular of the past indicative active. This ambiguity can only be avoided by varying the expression, as by changing the verb active into the passive, or constructing the sentence in a different manner. b. When a preposition precedes the relative, the initial of the verb following is eclipsed, as an peap o'a o-cu^aó é, the man to whom it was given. And the same will take place if the relative be understood, as íonmuin reach pe b-cugup cúl, for lonrhuin ceac pe a D-cujap cúl, " dear the house which I have left behind;" Leabhar Branach, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 1. 14, fol. L12. Rule XXX. The possessive pronouns, when compounded with prepositions, cause aspiration and eclipsis, as they do in their simple forms, and the prepositions with which they are compounded govern such cases as they govern in their simple states, as am cluaip, in my ear; óo béal, from thy mouth ; lep ^-caipOib, with our friends. Rule XXXI. The possessive pronouns, when compounded with, or preceded by the preposition i, a, or arm, in, are con- chap, ii.] of Pronouns. 379 nected with the substantive verb cdim, to denote exis- tence in a certain office, or state, as cá y é 'net pa^ainc, he is a priest, literally, he is in his priest ; uá mé am' óuwe oonna, I am a wretched man ; cá cú ab' eapbo^, thou art a bishop ; Do bi y é 'na leanb an uaip pn, he was a child at that time. The verb substantive cenm can never ascribe a predicate to its subject without the aid of the preposition a, 1, or ann, in, as zá pé 'n-a peap, he is a man. Of this there seems no parallel in any other European language. But the assertive verb ip always connects the predicate with its subject without the help of a prepo- sition, as ip peap mé, I am a man. This is enough for Syntax to determine, that is, how the predicate is to be connected with the subject when both these verbs are used. But still it will be natu- rally asked, whether sentences so constructed have actually the same meaning. It must then be remarked, that the two modes of construction represent the idea to the mind in a quite different manner. Thus, cá mé am' peap, and íp peap mé, though both mean I am a man, have a different signification; for cá mé am' peap, I am in my man, i. e. I am a man, as distinguished from some other stage, such as childhood, or boyhood ; while ip peap me indicates I am a man, as distinguished from a woman, or a coward. This example will give the learner a general idea of the difference of the meanings of sentences constructed by cá and ip. For more examples, see Prepositions a, i, ann, p. 291. Rule XXXII. The interrogative pronouns, whether they are no- minatives or objectives, always precede the verb, and seldom admit the assertive verb if in connexion with them, though its force is implied; and the personal pro- noun following is put in the accusative, as cia h-é, for cia \y h-e, who is he ? cia h-i, who is she ? cia h-iao, 380 Of the Government and Collocation [part hi. who are they? ca cpich 1 n-a b-puilem, " what country are we in d ?" po íanpaió cuich na caillecha, " he asked who were the nuns e ?" cpeao é, what is it ? But there is no agreement of gender or number between them and their objects, or respondents ; the most that can be admitted is, that the interrogative and the pronouns are often incorporated, as ciao, for cia h-iao ; ci, for cia h-í ; cé, for cia h-é. It should be also remarked, that cia is often written, and generally pro- nounced cé, particularly in the south of Ireland, as cé in pop é pin? ap pácpuic, "what wood is this? said Patrick." Book of Lismore, fol.205, a. When these interrogatives are governed by a preposition, they are always set before it, as cá n-ctp, whence ? Cpeao ó, what from, i. e. whence ; ace náp cuigecmap cpéo ó o-cáinij an pocal pém, " but that they did not understand what from [i. e. whence] the word itself was derived," Keat. Hist., p. 22. The verb ip may elegantly be used, when followed by an adjec- tive in the comparative or superlative degree, and sometimes in the positive, as cm ip meapa oo copp ouine? "what is worst for the human body?" Tegusc High; cm ip po óam, " what is good for me? Id. ; cm ip buaini pop bir, " what is the most durable in the world ?" Id. ; cpeuo ip bpeug ctnn, "what is a lie ?" Lucerna Fidelium, p. 111. Rule XXXIII. The demonstrative pronouns immediately follow the substantives, or the adjectives belonging to the substan- tives, to which they refer, as an peap po, this man ; an cip pin, that country; na Daoine uaiple ut), those gentlemen ; Ceno Qbpac Slebi Cain peo rep (i. e. an pliab po reap), Cenn Abrat Slebhi Cain, is this [mountain] to the south ? d Book of Leinster, fol. 105. e Feilire iEnguis, end of Feb. chap, ii.] of Pronouns. 381 The only exception to this collocation occurs when the asser- tive verb if is understood, as fin an uaip, that is the hour, or time; fo an la, this is the day. The indefinite pronoun jac, each, every (anciently written cac, cec), sometimes eclipses the initial of the noun which follows it, as £ac n-ouine, every man, or person. Sochpaice TDé oomm ann- cul ap cac n-ouine miDup cpapcup oam, " may the host of God protect me against every man who meditates injury to me," St. Pa- trick's Hymn, in Liber Hymnorum ; cac n-apo, "every height," Cor. Gloss.; cac n-uapul, everything noble; cac n-oepj, every thing red ; cac n-oih, every thing raw, or crude, Id. Keating and CTMolloy sometimes place the preposition pe be- tween gac and its substantive, as gac pe m-bliaoam, every second year ; jac pe b-peacc, turns about, Keat. Hist., p. 156, et passim; jac pe g-ceipo ajuf pe b-ppeagpa, " in successive question and answer," Lucerna Fidelium, p. 265. This position of the preposition le, pe, or pa, after jac, or cec, is also found in the older Irish compositions, as in the Visio Adam- nani, in the Leabhar Breac : cec pa n-uaip cpaijiD in pian oib, " each second hour the pain departs from them." This pronoun has frequently the noun connected with it in the genitive case, even when there is no word to govern it, as jaca nana, every evening; ib oeoc o'uipci píp-chibpaic ap céblonjaó jaca maibne, " drink a drink of pure spring water fasting every morning," Old Med. MS. 1352 ; do bpipeó cloice puail, ocuf o'a h-inapbaó iap n-a bpipeó ; noí pjenai^i cpuinni Do rhecon pájum Do cup a b-p'n, ocup a mepcaó epic a céile, ocup in pin pe'n d'oL jaca mamni ocup gaca nana, " to break the stone, and expel it after being broken ; put nine round sprigs of horse raddish into wine, and mix them together, and drink this wine every evening and morning," Id. When jaca is set before the adjective Dipeac, it gives it an adverbial force, as do connaipe cupach cuije gaca n-oipeach, he saw a boat directly sailing towards him." — Toruidheacht Gruaidhe Grian-Sholuis. This form of expression is also used throughout the Annals of the Four Masters. 382 Of the Government of Verbs. [part hi. But in the spoken language jac does not always cause eclipsis, and it has, therefore, been thought advisable not to give it a place in the text as a general rule. Section 4. — Of the Government of Verbs. Rule XXXIV. a. Verbs active transitive govern the accusative case of personal pronouns, as buail yé cu, he struck thee ; bpip yé é, he broke him, or it; óíbip yé íaD, he ex- pelled them ; a úi^eapna, ap iat)-pan, po rheipcnigip inne 5cm arhopup, " O lord, said they, thou hast doubt- lessly discouraged us f ." As nouns have no accusative form, it must be determined from their position in the sentence whether they are agents or objects ; when objects, they are usually placed after the verb, but never between the verb and its nominative, as buail t>iapmaio Domnall, Dermot struck Daniel ; percussit Diermitius Danielem. This is the natural order of an Irish sentence, and the less it is disturbed the better, as, in consequence of the want of the accusative form in nouns, any transposition must create more or less obscurity. Some writers have attempted to introduce an accusative form, different from the nominative singular, by making the object of the verb terminate like the dative or ablative, as will appear from the following examples : Caipngíó lib a cnnjliu nime in anmain n-ecpaiboij pea ocup aiciDníD íllaim Cucipip Dia báouD ocup 01a popmúchao 1 poGomain ípipn co pip, "hanc animam multo pec- cantem angelo Tartari tradite, et demergat earn in infernum" Visio jldamnani) in the Leabhar Breac ; do loipj jac luoc 010b a loinj [for a long], " each hero of them burned his ship, Id., p. 39 ; do éogbaoap gaoié ngcribcige njeinclióe do cuip cmpaó móp ap f Keat. Hist, p. 144. chap, il] Of the Government of Verbs. 383 an muip, " they raised a dangerous magical wind which raised a great storm on the sea," Id., p. 57 ; oo beip póig o'a jpuaó, " he gave a kiss to his cheek," Id., p. 124; cup ropaino in carpaij, " so that he drew out [the foundations] of the city," Vita Patric. in Ledbhar Breac, fol. 14, b, b; oop jm Coipppi iap n-a maipech ceirc móip be pin, " Coirpri on the next day made a great com- plaint of this," Cor. Gloss., voce ÍTIoj Gime. Various examples of it also occur in the old historical tale called the Battle ofMagh Bath, published by the Irish Archaeological Society ; but it should not be imitated in the modern language. Some have also attempted to introduce an accusative plural form for nouns, by making them terminate in a or u ; as, ace. olca, nom. uilc, ace. eolca, nom. eolai£. But the best writers termi- nate the nominative plural in a also. — See the Etymology. In the ancient Irish language, the pronoun, when it is in the accusative case, governed by the verb, is often amalgamated with the sign of the tense and set before it, as ip mipi poc pubca, " it is I who shall wound thee," Battle ofMagh Bath, p. 29, for ip mipi oo pubpaió cú, .1. 00 joinpeap cú ; ip maié pom cecaipcip, " it is well thou hast instructed me," Id., p. 10 ; ip buaibpeac pom búipcip, " disagreeably hast thou awakened me," Id., p. 170. The nominative case to the verb passive, when a pronoun, is also fre- quently placed before it in old writings, as nic aicillpe nech ele bo'n rhuincep pi, " none other of this people shall address thee," Cor. Gloss., voce Ppull; pom cnteaó lacpu iap pin, "I was fos- tered by thee after that," Id., p. 34 ; napoc uamnaijcep, " be not terrified," Id., p. 8 ; nom lecíó-pi lib, ol pe, *' will ye permit me to go with you, said he," Id., voce Ppull ; acr nom aicill pe, *' but address me," Id., ibid. In those instances the particle pre- fixed to the verb and the pronouns are always amalgamated. In the modern language the possessive pronouns, combined with the preposition ag, are frequently placed before a verbal noun, in which position the verbal noun has the force of the active participle, put passively in English, as rá an reac '3a rójbáil, the house is building, or a.' building ; cá an obaip 'ja oéanam, the work is doing, i. e. a' doing or being done ; cáio r* iao '5 a meallaó, they 384 Of the Government of Verbs. [part hi. are being deceived. For '5a in these instances, many writers put b'á, or óá, which cannot be considered as correct, as 50 o-réit> b'á unpuipc péin íonnccc, "until he goes to wallow in them," Keat. Hist., p. 1; b'a D-cojaipm, "to summon them," Id.; ag cpopjaó b'á peapjaó péin, "jejuniis se macerando" Id., p. 13. Sometimes in this construction the verbal noun is not passive, as cá pé '5 am bualaó, he is a' striking me ; literally, he is at my striking ; an e-eujcorpom acá ajá óeunarh ap a h-áicijéeoipib, "the injustice that is being exercised against its inhabitants," Keat. Hist. — Pre/. It is proper to notice in this place such constructions as the following : jop b'eijin a pajail, " that she had to be found," Keat. Hist., p. 96; ip cóip a óéanam, it is proper to do it. In these sentences the a is a mere possessive pronoun, and the literal mean- ing is, her finding was a compulsion ; its doing is proper. The possessive pronoun in such sentences may be changed into the accusative of the corresponding personal pronouns, and the verb into the infinitive mood, as 51m b'eijin í b'pctjail ; ip cóip é 00 óéanarh. b. Some verbs active require a preposition after them, as ian ap Ohia, ask of God ; labcup le Dorh- nall, speak with [to] Daniel. But these forms of ex- pression must be learned by experience in this as in all other languages. Rule XXXV. The infinitive mood of active verbs has a peculiarity of construction, which distinguishes this from most other languages, namely, it takes the accusative case when the noun is placed before it, and the genitive case when the noun comes after it. Examples of accusative : — Bipic t>o jabáil a mapbaó buine, " to receive eric [mulct] for the killing of a man," Keat. Hist., p. 14; cloióe bo óéunarii, to build a wall; ní lámaó nee cenio D'paróó 1 n-6ipmí> ip in lou pin, nó cu n-aóctnnca h-i Cempcnj ap chap, il] Of the Government of Verbs. 385 cup, ip in pollctmcun, " no one durst light a fire in Ireland on that day until it should be lighted first at Tara at the solemn festival," Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a. Examples of the Genitive: — t)o pac ímoppa TTlolinj <5°b" n Saep cuiji bo óénurh a baipccu^e, "St. Moling brought Goban Saer with him to build his oratory," Vit. Moling ; cib boc poacc, ol Gochaib. X)o imbipe pibchille ppic-pu, ol pe, " what has brought thee? said Eochaidh. To play chess with thee, said he," Tochmarc Elaine in Leabhar na h- Uidhri ; 00 copnarh an cloióe, " to defend the wall," Keat. Hist. — Preface ; bo óeunarii peille oppa, "to act treachery on them," Id., p. 74; bo léicc Iliac Ui óhpiam pccaoileaó b'á pccérhelcaib b'apccain na n-oipeap, " Mac I-Brien sent forth a body of his marauders to plunder the districts," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1559. From this it may be safely concluded, that in the first mode of construction, the forms 00 jabáil, 00 beunarh, &c, are truly infi- nitives, having exactly the same force as the English to receive, to do ; but that, in the second mode, they are not properly infini- tives, but verbal nouns, governed by the preposition 00. Sometimes, when the prefixed object of the infinitive mood is preceded by a preposition, some writers make it the dative or abla- tive, governed by the preposition, as gem peipj do óeunarh, "not to be angry," Keat. Hist., p. 75; pe pcnpnéip pípinij bo óéanarh, " to make a true narration," Id. ; 05 íappaió locca agup coibéime bo cabaipe bo pean-^halluib, " attempting to heap disgrace and dishonour upon the old English," Id. But this mode of government is not to be approved of, for it would be evidently better to leave the noun under the government of the infinitive mood, as it would be in the absence of the prepo- sition, and consider the preposition as governing the clause of the sentence which follows it ; thus, pe pcnpnéip pípmeac bo beunarh. Stewart agrees with this opinion, in his Gcelic Grammar, p. 175, where he writes : " Prepositions are often prefixed to a clause of a sentence ; and then they have no regimen, as ' gus am bord a ghiulan, to carry the table,'' Exod. xxv. 27 ; * luath chum fuil a dhortadh, swift to shed blood' Rom. iii. 15, edit. 1767; 3d 386 Of the Government of Verbs. [part hi. 1 an deigh an obair a chriochnachadh, after finishing the work, 1 " Gcelic Grammar, 1st edit. p. 165, and 2nd edit., p. 175. Both modes of construction, however, are allowable, like the gerunds and gerundives in Latin, as " terapus curandi rem," or"tempus curandae rei ;" in curando rem, or in curandA re. Sometimes the infinitive mood must be translated passively, like the latter supine in Latin, as cap éip Arfaxad oo bpeic óo, " after Arphaxad was born to him," Keat. Hist., p, 45; cap éip uairh t>o cocaile, " after a grave being dug;" literally, " after to dig a grave ;" ó oo conncnpc Niul phapao 50 n-a pluaj bo bácaó, anaip lp in b-peaponn g-ceona, " when Niul perceived Pharaoh with his host to have been drowned, he remained in the same land," Keat. Hist., p. 46. Progressive active nouns, and all verbal nouns, govern the genitive case after them, like the infinitive mood, when the sub- stantive follows it. Rule XXXVI. The nominative case absolute in English, or the ablative absolute in Latin, is, in Irish, put in the dative or ablative, with the preposition 00 prefixed. Examples. — Qp m-beic 'n a coolaó 00 Dhorhnall, Daniel being asleep ; iap poccain a o-ctp ooib, they having reached the land; literally, on reaching the land by them ; iap 5-cinnioo ap an 5-corhaiple pin 001b, " they having resolved on that counsel ;" literally, " after the determining on that counsel by them," Keat. Hist., p. 35. Rule XXXVII. 6a, or buo, the past tense indicative of the affirma- tive verb íp, aspirates the initial of the noun substantive, or adjective which follows, as ba menu an peap é, he was a good man ; ba bean maiú 1, she was a good woman ; ba móp na oaome íao, they were great people. chap, ii.] Of the Government of Verbs. 387 This rule will not, however, hold good throughout the pro- vinces, for in some parts they do not aspirate the initial of the word following ba ; and, indeed, the aspiration is not essential, and has been merely used for the sake of euphony, or, perhaps, ease of utterance. When the word following ba begins with a vowel, an h is sometimes prefixed, to prevent a hiatus, as ba h-05 an peap é an can pin, he was a young man at that time. But this rule is not general in the written language, nor at all observed in conversation, for in the south-east of Ireland they would say 00b' 05 an peap é, prefixing do, sign of the past tense, and rejecting the a in ba. Rule XXXVIII. a. One verb governs another which follows it, or depends upon it, in the infinitive mood ; as o'ópomj Dia óúmn a cureannca 00 coirheao, God ordered us to keep his commandments ; 00 pó^paó o'peapgup p^iar rap lops t)o rabaipc 00 LHlcaib, ie Fergus was ordered to cover the retreat for the Ultonians s ." b. When the governed verb is one expressing mo- tion or gesture, which does not govern an accusative, the sign 00 is never prefixed, as Oubctipc pé bom t>ul 50 Copcai£, he told me to go to Cork. This rule is general and important, but has not hitherto been given by any of the writers on Irish grammar. We cannot close these remarks on the government and colloca- tion of the verbs without noticing that Haliday and others give it as a rule of Irish syntax, that to know, in English, is expressed in Irish by the verb cairn and piop, knowledge, as acá piop aj-am, I know, i. e. there is knowledge to me ; and that the Irish language has not single verbs to denote possession, power, want, &c, such as the English verbs, to have, to know, &c. This, however, is a g Battle of Ros Leter. 388 Of the Government and Collocation [part hi. matter of idiom, rather than of syntax, and should be explained in giving the idiomatic meanings of the prepositions. It must be, indeed, acknowledged, that the modern Irish language, which is suffering decomposition more and more every day, from the want of literature, has not separate verbs to denote / have, I can ; but in the south of Ireland, peaopcnm, I know, is not yet out of use"; and in ancient, and some modern manuscripts, we meet such verbs as cumcnim, I can, or I am able ; pear-cnm, I know ; pioip, he knew, as in the following examples : Oipcic pacpiciup oichuip pooechca, pi pocep ; oi;cic magup, ni chumcam cup in epachy ceona 1 m-bapac, " Patrick said, remove now the snow, si potes ; dixit Magus, I cannot, until the same time to-morrow," Leabhar Breac, fol. 14, a, a ; o po pmip O'Neill TTlajnup do óol hi o-Uip Gaccham, " when O'Neill knew that Manus had gone into Tyrone," Ann. Four Mast., ad an. 1522. peapcum, I know, is used even by Keating, as 50 b-peapcup cionnup pjappuim-ne, " until thou knowest how we shall part," Keat. Hist. , p. 46 ; 50 b-peapap a bppeagpa opm, " until I know their answer to me," Id., p. 153 ; co peppeó pom, " that he might know," Cor. Gloss., voce 6eirec ; in peja po peg pecha TTlolinj, ni picip 1 nearh no 1 calum t>o coich in mac lei^mn, " Moling looked behind him, but did not know whether the student had passed into heaven, or into the earth," Vita Moling. Section 5. — Of the Government and Collocation of Adverbs. Rule XXXIX. The simple monosyllabic adverbs are placed before the words to which they belong, and aspirate their initials, if of the aspirable class of consonants, as jio- rhón, very or too great ; páp-rhaiú, exceedingly good. Do and no, the signs of the past tenses of verbs, aspi- rate the initials of the verbs in the active voice, but not chap, il] of Adverbs. 389 in the passive, as Do buail ré, he struck ; Do buaileaó é, he was struck. When po is immediately preceded by the relative a, who or which, they combine, and become op, as doom óp, pápamap, i. e. ó a po pápamap, Adam from whom we have sprung ; cue 1 n-ap cuic Oomnull, i. e. 1 n-a po cuic, the place in which Daniel fell. When bo precedes a verb whose initial is a vowel, or p, it drops • the o in the active voice, but not in the passive, as b' ól pé, he drank ; b' piappcu^ pé, he asked, or inquired ; oo h-ólaó, it was drank ; bo piappai^eaó é, it was asked. The particle a is very generally prefixed to the verbs cctim, I am, and beipim, I say, for the sake of euphony or emphasis. Rule XL. The adverbs am, erh, ció, lomopjia, Dan, Din, Dono, Dona, or Doni, íanarh, lDin or inn, ón, rná, are gene- rally mere expletives, and are generally placed imme- diately after the principal verb in the sentence. In the Leabhar Breac, imoppa is used to translate the Latin vero f autem, and quidein ; cpcc, autem. But bin is sometimes used as more than a mere expletive, for it is employed to translate the Latin ergo. — See Leabhar Breac, fol. 16, 6, a, fol. 17, «, a, and fol. 26, 6, a. Rule XLI. Compound adverbs, particularly those formed from adjectives, are placed after the nominatives to the verbs which they qualify, but never placed between the auxi- liary and the verb as in English; as D'eipi^ re 50 moc, he rose early ; cá re Déanua 50 ceapu, it is done pro- perly, not uá ré 50 ceane Déanca. 390 Of the Government of Prepositions, [part hi. The adverbs apeeac, in ; amac, out ; p iop, down ; puap, up ; anunn, over ; anall, hither ; piap, westwards ; poip, eastwards, are always used in connexion with verbs of motion : and apci£, within ; amuij, without, or outside; cuap, above; and ciop, below, are used in connexion with verbs of rest h . We have no words in the modern Irish language corresponding with the English yes, or no ; but in the ancient language, naéó, nichó and ace are frequently used, without a verb, to give a nega- tive answer, as Mi chOjapTDacConjlinoe, "No, said Mac Conglinne," Leabhar Breac, fol. 108 ; in ppuir oun? ol JTlaelpuain. Nachó, a mhaelpuain, pep epuaj acaconnaic, " a learned, art thou for us? said Maelruain. No, Maelruain, a poor man thou seest ;" Cia pat> na caipoe? op piao ; bliaoam, op pé ; Niró, op piao ; llleich, op pé; ace, ol piacc; cabpaíó páiri, op pé ; ace, ol piao; cenpt)! co 6uan, op pé ; oo bépup, op pinnachca, " What is the length of the respite ? said they ; a year, said he ; J\fo, said they ; half, said he ; JVo, said they ; grant a quarter, said he ; nay, said they ; grant a respite till Monday, said he ; it shall be granted, said Finnachta." Vit. Moling. In the modern language, in answering a question, the same verb used in the question must be repeated in the answer, as ap labaip pé, did he speak? answer, labaip, or niop labaip, he spoke, or he spoke not. But if the question be asked by an, whether, without any verb, the negative answer will be by ni, and the positive by íp, as an piop pin? ip piop ; ni piop ; Is that true ? It is true ; it is not true. Section 6. — Of the Government of Prepositions. Rule XLII. All the simple prepositions govern the dative or ablative case, except 5cm, without, and it)ip, between, which generally govern the accusative in the singular, h See Chapter VI. chap.il] Of the Government of Prepositions. 391 but not in the plural ; as 5cm an u-ancm, without the bread; it)ip an c-aep a^up an c-uir^e, between the sky and the water 1 . Some Irish grammarians write, that when 50X, each, or every, uile, all, or some such adjective, comes between the preposition and the substantive, the preposition loses its influence, as oo labaip pé le gac bean (not mnaoi) acu, he spoke to each woman of them. But this is colloquial, and should not be used in correct gramma- tical composition ; for we have the authority of the best Irish writers for making the preposition govern its object, even though jac intervenes, as cloióiom noccaigre in jac láirh leip (not in jac lám), " having a naked sword in each hand," Keat. Hist., p. 148; pip £ac cloinn, "with each tribe," Id., p. 159; ap jac bpuinj oáp jab cpemiom ó pháopuig, " of each tribe that received the faith from Patrick," Id., p. 115. Rule XLIII. The prepositions a, or i, in, lap, after, jna, before, and 50, or co, when it signifies with, eclipse the initials of the nouns which they govern, if of the class which admit of eclipsis. Examples : — Q o-Ueampaij, at Tara; 1 5-Copcaij, at Cork; pia n-bilinn, before the deluge ; pé n-oul jup an m-baile, " before going to the town," Keat. Hist., p. 147; lap j-Caipj, "after Easter," Id., p. 160: co b-pion ajup co 5-copmaim, "with wine and beer," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1587. When a or 1 is followed by a noun beginning with I, m, p, the preposition is amalgamated with the noun, and the consonants are doubled, as cidi peaprana lllaijnib co paibe n-a pporaib pe ceopa la 7 reopa amche ; " a shower of rain fell in Leinster, so that it was in streams for three days and three nights," Annals of • For examples of the other prepositions, see the Etymology, Chap. VII. Sect. 3. 392 Of the Government of Prepositions, [part hi. Tiyhernach, ad ann., p. 693 ; íllaiciu a écpecca, "on the day of his death," Book of Leinster, fol. 78, b, b ; ammuij, outside, lb. ; «pp'je n-Gpenn, in the kingdom of Ireland ; bo cuip íppec- ccub bpoc net cupaij pin, "she transformed those heroes into the shapes of badgers," MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 42 ; áp íp é gae Chaioj a acap baoi illáim Chopmaic, " for it was the spear of his father Tadhg that Cormac had in his hand;" lmmeccoon, " in the middle,'' Vit. Moling ; immoxain Cecamain, " on a May morning," Leabhar Breac, fol. 107; ip allaim in eppuic po pác- bat>, "it is in the bishop's hand it was left," Id., ibid. Rule XLIV. The preposition ap, on, oe, of, off, tjo, to, pá, pó, or paoi, under, íoip, between, map, like to, 6 or a, from, and npé, through, cause aspiration. Examples: — 0.\\ mullac an c-pléibe, on the summit of the mountain ; géaj- oe cpann, a branch of a tree ; t>o oaoinib, to men; po, or paoi péin, under pain ; it>ip peapaib ctjup mncub, between men and women, or both men and women ; map jpém, like unto the sun ; ó óopap 50 oopup, from door to door ; cpé reine ajup uipce, through fire and water. But ap, on, in some idiomatical phrases and adverbial expressions, and when set before verbal nouns, causes eclipsis, as ap b-cúp, at first; ap m-beir, on being ; ap n-oul, on going. Rule XLV. Q5, at, 50, or co, when it signifies to, and is set after verbs of motion, &c, le or pe, with, op, over ; will have the initial of the noun which they govern in the primary form. Examples. — CI5 oopap an cije, at the door of the house ; cuaió pé 50 mullac an cnuic, he went to the top of the hill ; le ceap na jpéme, by the heat of the sun ; op cionn, over head ; cpiar op rpiadhaib, chief over chieftains. chap, ii.] Of the Government of Prepositions. 393 Rule XL VI. J5 an, without, will have either the aspirated or the primary form of the initial of the noun which it go- verns, as ^an cluaip, or ^an cluaip, without an ear; 5cm cecmn, or £an cecmn, without a head. Some writers prefix ctof after this preposition, as 5cm c-pliocc, " without issue," Keat. Hist., p. 93 ; 5cm c-pulc, without cheer- fulness ; but 5cm plioce, 5cm pule, would be equally correct. Rule XLVII. When the article is expressed, all the simple prepo- sitions, except Do and oe, 5cm and it>ip, eclipse the initials of all nouns in the singular number, but have no influence over them in the plural, as ap an b-paip^e, on the sea ; ap an m-baile, out of the town. But bo and be cause aspiration when preceded by the article, except on words beginning with b or c, which retain their primary sounds; as tm'n cpann, off the tree; bo'n bcule, to the town ; bo'n ci^eapnct, to the lord ; bo'n biabal, to the devil ; and cause c to be prefixed to p, as bo'n c-púil, to the eye; bo'n c-pliab, to the mountain ; bo'n c-plaic, to the rod ; ap b-páp bo'n c-pliocc po óhpeojain, " this race of Breogan having increased," Keat. Hist. , p. 50 ; ma capla óam bol bo'n c-pli je, if I have happened to go out of the way. This rule is drawn from correct printed books and manuscripts, and holds good in north Munster ; but it must be confessed, that the present spoken language does not agree with it throughout the provinces. The author, observing this difference, has read over very carefully a copy of Keating's History of Ireland, the best he has ever met with, which was made in the seventeenth century, by John Mac Torna O'Mulconry, and is now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. From this manuscript he has extracted the following instances of the forms assumed by articulated sub- 3e 394 Of the Government of Prepositions, [part in. stantives coming after oo, which sufficiently establish the rule above given : — Do'n Bcnle, to the town, p. 130. Do'n Bap, to death, p. 98. Do'n biobla, of the Bible, p. 92. Do'n bocr, to the poor man, p. 119. t)o'n ceap, to the stock, p. 98. Do'n cmeaó, to the tribe, p. 92. Do'n cléipioc, to the cleric, p. 113. t)o'n coipp-cléipioó, to the crane-like cleric, p. 124. Do'n epic, to the country, p. 92. t)o'n comóáil, to thejneeting, p. 125. Do'n bail, to the meeting, ib. Do'n opaoi, to the Druid, p. 109. Do'n opumj, to the people, p. 145. Do'n ouine, to the person, p. 98. t)o'n peoil, of the flesh, pp. 5, 119. Do'n piaó, to the deer, p. 132. Do'n píp-óia, to the true God, p. 98. Do'n piop plan, to the hale man, p. 157. t)o'n phpainjc, to France, pp. 52, 108. t)on mucaió, to the swine-herd, p. 132. t)o'n mhuiham, to Munster, p. 120. t)o'n phápa, to the Pope, p. 111. t)o'n plái j, to, or by the plague, p. 133. t)o'n pobal, to the congregation, p. 120. Do'n c-paojal, to the world, p. 144. t)o'n c-peipiop mac, to the six sons, p. 129. t)o'n c-Sláine, of the River Slaney, p. 109. t)o'n c-plaic, to the rod, p. 1 55. Do'n c-8uibne pi, to this Suibhne, p. 129. Do'n cijeapna, to the lord, pp. 105, 110. Do'n coipj pin, on that expedition, p. 134. Do'n cobap, to the well, p. 135. The following examples, from the same manuscript, of articu- chap.il] Of the Government of Prepositions. 395 lated nouns after the prepositions ip, in ; gup, to ; po, under; cpep, through ; 6, from; ap, on; leip, with; and pep, before^ may be satisfactory to the learner. Gp an pluáijeaó pom, on that expedition, p. 144. fo'n cip, about the country, p. 140. 5>up an m-baile, to the town, p. 147. Ip in j-corhaiple, in the counsel, p. 150. gup an b-pápa, to the Pope, p. 170. Ip an j-corhúcul, in the assembly, p. 125. Ip in j-conaip, in the road, p. 147. Ip in bail, at the meeting, p. 130. Ip in oopap, in the door, p. 130. Ip in c-paojal, in the world, p. 150. 'San m-bior, in existence, p. 160. 'San peancup, in the history, p. 140. 6eip an b-pápa, with the Pope, p. 170. 6eip an 5-ceao, with the permission, p. 167. O'n b-pápa, from the Pope, p. 170. "Rep an 5-car, before the battle, p. 144. Cpép an 5-cúip, through the cause, p. 163. Cpép an muip puaió, through the Red Sea, p. 131. The following examples of articulated nouns coming after the prepositions 00, pop, ip, and lap, will illustrate this principle of aspiration after 00, and eclipsis after the rest of these prepositions : Do'n choimec pin, to that cover, Cor. Gloss., voce Cepchaill. t)o'n choin, to the hound, or by the hound, Id., voce TTI05 Gime. t)o'n choipp, to the leg, Id., voce lTlac. t)o'n cbuinj, to the yoke, Id., voce 6fpem. t)o'n oarii, to the ox, Ibid. t)o'n pip pin, to that man, Id., in voce CCjnllne, and Ceaprhac. Do'n mnai, to the woman, Id., voce Gmam, and lTluipent). Ip mnm báp oo'n c-puan, has is a name for sleep, Id., in voce Qbapc. t)o'n caob cuaió oo'n c-ppucb, on the north side of the stream, Wars of Turlough, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 2. 1. p. 1. 896 Of the Government of Prepositions, [part in. t)o'n recuse pi£ buoepca, of the royal precepts for the future, MS. Trin. Coll. Dubl. H. 3. 18. p. 539. popp an pligi, on the way, Vita Moling ; Fopp in cloic, Leabhar Breac, fol. 107. lp in c-penchup map, in the Senchus Mor, Cor. Gloss. , voce plaich, Pepb, and 5 no « Cap in n^aeioeilj, in the Gaelic, Id., voce pin. Op m-buam mullac po riiaeé a cinn po'n g-cloic g-cpuaió bo pinn claip a^up cabán íp in j-cloic, go péip poipme a^up cuma a cinn, "the very soft top of his head having struck against the hard stone, it formed a hollow and cavity in the stone, cor- responding with the form of the head," Life of St. Declan. In the counties of Kilkenny and Tipperary the articulated dative or ablative is always eclipsed after oe, oo, and all the simple pre- positions, when the noun begins with b, p, or 5, as oo'n m-baileJ, to the town ; ó'n b-puil, from the blood ; oo'n njopc, to the field ; and c is prefixed to p in this situation, as o'n c-púil, from the eye ; but aspiration is invariably used when the noun begins with the consonants c or p, as o'n choill, from the wood; ó'n coip, from the foot ; ap an poll, out of the hole ; not o'n 5-coill, ó'n 5-coip, ay an b-poll, as in Thomond. And it should be remarked, that aspiration, not eclipsis, of these consonants, in this situation, is also found in ancient manuscripts, as on chill, " from the church," Leabhar Breac, fol. 118, b, b; in c-ojum úc pil ip in cloic (not if 111 5-cloic), " that oghum which is in the stone," Book of Lein- ster, fol. 25, b ; pécuioeccoo'n caé, " before coming to the battle," Id., fol. 78, b, b. And when the noun begins with or c, it never suffers any change, in these counties, in the articulated dative, as o'n cijeapna (not ó'n o-cijeapna), from the Lord ; ó'n ooriian [not o'n n-oorhan], from the world. In manuscripts of considerable antiquity, p is eclipsed by c, J In a paper manuscript in the p^éala o'ionnpoi^e an pi, <( on possession of the Author, trans- his arrival in the town, he sends cribed in Ulster, in 1 679, b is a message to the king," Toruidh- eclipsed after 00, to, thus : Qip eachtGruaid/ieGrianskoluis,Y>.63. cdeacc oo'n m-baile óó, cuipeap chap.il] Of the Government of Prepositions. 397 after all the simple prepositions, when the article is expressed, as jac ball íp móp copmailiup pip in c-peilj íp ball puapé, "every part which has great resemblance to the spleen is a cold part," Old Med. MS. A.D. 1352. When the article is not expressed, the adjective following next after the substantive is eclipsed by some writers, as ap a muincip n-bilip Fein, " on his own loyal people, "Keat.Hist., p. 49 ; pillioó pop a Icnm n-oeip, " to turn on his right hand," Id., p. 70 ; 50 o-cuj Scoca 5cm pjéim njainn, " so that he married Scota of no small beauty," Id., p. 45; pe h-aimpip n-imcéin, "for a long time," Ann. Four Mast., A. D. 1330. This eclipsis is not, how- ever, observed in the modern language, but aspiration is always used in its place. Rule XLVIII. When the relative is governed by any of the simple prepositions, the initial of the following verb is eclipsed, and the subjunctive mood of all the irregular verbs must be used* as o a b-puiliD, from whom they are ; t>'á n-t)eacaió pé, to which he went. But when the following verb is regular, it is used in the in- dicative form, and the preposition only eclipses its initial in the present and future tenses, as le a m-buailim, with which I strike ; cpe a njoilpeab, through which I shall weep. The same result will take place, if the preposition be understood, as Cipbe ainm in baile a m-bioip a cojnctrh a cipe, " Cirbe, the name of the place in which they used to chew the cud," Cor. Gloss., voce pemen ; co h-ctipm a paibi Ppiam h-i pionemuo loib, "to the place where Priam was, in the sanctuary of Jupiter," Book of Bally mote, fol. 245, a, b. But when the particles 00, po, signs of the past tense, come between the relative and the verb, then the verb is under the influence of the particles, and will be aspirated; as cue ap ruic móp n-octoine pop jac leir, " where many persons fell on each side," Keat. Hist.,]). 116 ; Qóarh óp [0 a po] pápamap, "Adam from whom we have sprung." But the subjunctive of the irregular verbs must be used, and their past tenses eclipsed not aspirated, as 398 Of the Government of Prepositions, [partiii. teip a n-oeapnaó an ceampull po, u by whom this church was made." — See p. 233. This is a most important rule, of which our grammarians have taken no notice. Rule XLIX. Cinnp, ap, ^up, íapp, íp, leip, pip, and cpép, are used before the article, and often before the relative in- stead of arm, a, 50, lap, 1, le, pe, cpe k . In old writings, pop, on, becomes popp in the same situation, as in Leabhar na h-Uidhri : Co cualacup pojup na ngobanb oc cuapcain bpora popp in inneoin, " so that they heard the noise of the smiths striking the glowing mass upon the anvil." 1, in, gene- rally becomes in, before the relative, as in a b-puil, "in which there is." But the 1 is often omitted, and the euphonic n only retained, as 'n a paib, " in which there was." When a preposition ending in a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, an h is inserted, to prevent a hiatus, as le h-eajla, with fear; 50 h-Bijipc, "to Egypt," Keat. Hist., p. 45. In the county of Kilkenny they say, in the singular, oo'n Duine, to the person; but bop na baoine, adding an p to 00, in the plural. But this is local and corrupt. The simple prepositions are repeated in the ancient Irish before words put in apposition, as oo'n apo-plair, o'ua Ginmipech, " to the monarch, to the grandson of Ainmire," Battle of Magh Rath, p. 114; orcoiu Do checks o'cecKxens, Do rci o maiNi, " A Prayer for Tadhg O'Kelly, for the King op Hy-Many." — Inscription at Clonmacnoise. And the preposition is also repeated by modern writers before words which would be in the same case in Latin, as a^up paoippe coiccionn ó peapaib Gipionn uileaj peappom, aj peaponn, ajup aj maoin gac ollariian tnob, " and there was a general liberty ceded from the men of Ireland to the person, to the land, and to the property of each ollav [chief poet] of them." Keat. Hist., p. 125. * See Chapter VII. Sect. 3. chap.il] Of the Government of Conjunctions. 399 Rule L. The compound prepositions require a genitive case, which is really governed by the nouns with which they are compounded, as Do cum net coxjiac, to the city ; a n-a£aió mo rola, against my will; t>o péip pia£la, according to rule ; ctp pon na mná, for the sake of the woman. Section 7. — Of the Government of Conjunctions. Rule LI. a. The conjunctions a^up, and, no, or, couple the same cases of nouns, and, unless the sense requires otherwise, the same moods and tenses of verbs ; as pip agup mná, men and women; bucnl agup bpip, strike and break. b. When two or more adjectives belonging to the same noun succeed each other, the conjunction a^up is often omitted altogether, as ba h-05, áluinn, ^eana- mail an bean i, she was a young, beautiful, amiable woman. c. The conjunction a^up, and, is sometimes used in the sense of as in English, as map 50 b-puil com ambpiopac agup pin a n-Oalaib Gipionn, "as he is so ignorant as that in the affairs of Ireland 1 ." Sometimes, however, the a^up is omitted in this construction, as corn móp pin, so great as that ; but com móp ajup pin, would be equally correct. 1 Keat. Hist., p. 7. 400 Of the Oovernnment of Conjunctions, [part hi. The Latin ac, atque, is sometimes used in the same sense. — See p. 320. d. When ace, but, connects personal pronouns, the forms é, i, iat>, follow it in the modern language, as ni jiaibe ann ace iat) péin, "there were there but themselves." But ancient writers, and even Keating, use the nominatives ré, pi, piao, after this conjunction, as join 'n-a b-pocaip ace piao 'n a n-Dip, " none being with them but the two," Keat. Hist., p. 109. Rule LII. a. The conjunctions ni, not, nac or noca, not, muna, unless, an, whether, 50, that, man, as, always require the subjunctive mood of the verb substantive, and of the irregular verbs after them, as ni puil, there is not ; muna n-t>eacai6, unless he went. And they all cause eclipsis, except man and ni, which always aspirate. Noca has this peculiarity, that it requires n before p, instead of the regular eclipsing letter b, as noca n-puil, there is not. b. The regular verbs having no subjunctive form only suffer eclipsis, or aspiration, after those particles in their present and future tenses. c. But when the particles Do, no, or an abbreviation of them, come between these particles and the verb in the simple past tense, the initial of the verb suffers aspiration, and is under the influence of these particles, as nip óibpaic a lam uncap n-impoill piarh, u his hand never aimed an unerring shot m ." m Book of Lismore, fol. 188. chap, il] Of the Government of Conjunctions. 401 It should be here remarked, that an, whether, ni, not, noca, not, never admit of the present tense of the assertive verb íp, though they always carry its force, as an mé ? is it I ? ní mé, it is not I ; noca n-i in aimpp pojailcep, " it is not the time that is divided," Book of Bally mote, fol. 171. Rule LIII. TTla, if, and o, since, are joined to the indicative mood, and cause aspiration, as ma ceilim, if I conceal : but they never aspirate the present indicative of the verbs cairn, I am, or oeipim, I say. The particles ap, whether, t>o, or po, signs of the past tense, gup, that, má, if, map, as, riacap, that not, ni, not, niop, not, nocap, not, and pul, before, cause aspiration. — See pp. 156, 157. The conjunction ma, or iona, than, requires the forms é, í, iao, of the personal pronouns in the modern language, as ip peápp é íoná iao, he is better than they; if peapp é iona i, he is better than she. From this it may appear that the Erse grammarians have some grounds for supposing that é, i, and iao, as now used in their dialect, are the original nominative forms of these pronouns, as " ghabh iad sgeul de gach coisiche," for the Irish, jab piao (or jabaoap) pjeul oe gac coipióe, " they asked information of every pas- senger;" " thug i biadh dhoibh," for the Irish, " cuj pí biaó óóiB, u she gave them food." — See Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, 2nd edit, pp. 194, 195. The disjunctive conjunction, or negative adverb ni, not, is sometimes made to eclipse the initial of the verb puil, is, and pajaim, I find, as ni b-puil, there is not; ni b-pcijaim, I find not ; ni b-puapap, I did not find. But in John Mac Torna O'Mulconry's copy of Keating 's History of Ireland, these verbs are always aspirated, as gióeaó n\ puaip am ap a rhapbaó, " but he did not get an opportunity to kill him," p. 132. Mac, ut non, or qui non, is pronounced ná in the south of Ireland, and the 3f 402 Of the Government of Interjections, [part hi. initial of the word following it has always its radical sound, as an re nac b-puaip aipjeao na op, he who has not got silver or gold, pronounced in the south an cé ná puaip aipjeao ná op ; and it is sometimes written ná in ancient manuscripts, and even by the Four Masters. Rule LIV. The conjunction Oct, if, always requires the condi- tional mood, and causes eclipsis, as t)á m-beiómn, if I would be ; t)á 5-ceilpiDÍp, if they would conceal. This mood has also the conjunction 50 frequently prefixed, as 50 m-buailpinn, that I would strike ; but it can be used without it, or any other sign like the potential in Latin, as Buailpinn, I would strike. Rule LV. Ná, when it forbids, requires the imperative, as the Latin ne sometimes does, as ná buail, do not strike ; na bpip, do not break; na bi, be not. Qn, whether, 50, that, Da, if, lap, after, map a, where, muna, unless, nac, not, and noca, not, cause eclipsis. — See p. 158. Section 8. — Of the Government of Interjections. The interjection O, or Q, governs the vocative case, and always aspirates the initial of the noun, when of the aspirable class, as Q pip ! O man ! Q Ohe ! OGod! The interjection never appears in any ancient manuscript, but Ct is used in its place, as Q achaip pil \ nimib, " pater noster qui es in ccelis," Leabhar Breac, fol. 124. The interjection maip^, wo, which is in reality a noun, is always followed by the preposition t>o, to, as íp maips ouiu, wo to thee ! or, alas for thee ! PART IV. OF PROSODY. Prosody consists of two parts ; the one treats of the true pronunciation of words, and the other of the laws of versification. CHAPTER I. OF PRONUNCIATION. Under this head we have to consider the accent and quantity of Irish words. Emphasis, pause, and tone belong to rhetoric, or general grammar. Section 1. — Of Accent. Accent is either primary or secondary. The primary or principal accent is that which dis- tinguishes one syllable in a word from the rest. The secondary accent is that stress which we occasionally lay upon another syllable in the same word. Rule I. In all words derived from monosyllabic roots, the primary accent is placed on the root ; and hence it may 404 Of Accent. [part iv. be laid down as a general principle that the first long vowel, or diphthong, in a word determines the primary accent, as mop, great; mópóacu, majesty; peap, a man, peapamail, manly ; paogal, the world, pa ogalca, worldly, paojaluacc, worldliness. Rule II. Words of two or three syllables, having the vowels in two of the syllables long, are accented on the first syllable in the north of Ireland ; but in the south the accent is nearly equal on both syllables, as mópcm, much, a great quantity, — in which the preponderance of the acccent is usually towards the second syllable, when it is not at par. In the north the primary accent is on the first syllable, and in some counties, the second syllable, though long, is pronounced so rapidly, that it can scarcely be said to have a secondary accent. The correct general rule, however, is the following. In the north the primary accent is on the root of the word, and the secondary accent on the termination ; but in the south the primary accent is on the termination, and the secondary accent on the root, if short. It is now difficult to account for this difference of accent be- tween the dialects of the northern and southern Irish, and perhaps equally difficult to determine which is the more correct. The northern mode is to be preferred, as more likely to represent the ancient pronunciation, and especially as it so strongly marks the root of the word to the ear ; the southern mode, however, possesses more euphonic diversity of sounds, and is, therefore, more easily adapted to poetical numbers. In consequence of this radical dif- ference of the accent, the Irish songs and poems of the last two centuries cannot be generally appreciated throughout Ireland ; for a native of Ulster, reading a Munster poem, or song, according to his own mode of accentuation, imagines it to be barbarous, as every line of it grates on his ear ; and the Munsterman finds in the com- chap, i.] Of Accent. 405 positions of the later Ulster poets (that is, such poems as are set to a certain metre, not the oán oipeac), nothing but harsh and un- musical syllables. This is only the case with the poetry of the last two centuries ; for at the commencement of the seventeenth cen- tury, when the poems called " the Contention of the Bards" were produced, the poets of Ulster, Munster, and Connaught wrote ex- actly in the same style as to words and terminations, and found no difficulty in understanding each other, so that they must have had then a fixed general language. But since that period Irish scholars, with very few exceptions, have had only a knowledge of one pro- vincial dialect, as is evident from the several poems, sermons, and catechisms which have from time to time been written or pub- lished. Perhaps it may not be considered over visionary to conjecture that the southern Irish first adopted their present mode of throwing the accent on the long termination, from their connexion with the Spaniards and their knowledge of the classics, which they un- doubtedly studied more generally than the northerns, who were more closely connected with the Scotch and English. It is a very curious fact that, in English, the words derived from the Saxon have the accent generally on the root ; and words borrowed from the classical languages have it generally on the termination, or branches ; as love, loving, lovely, loveliness ; here in all the derivatives from love, which is of Saxon origin, the accent is on the root ; but in harmony, harmonious, the derivative shifts the accent. The following classes of words are accented as described in the Bule ; that is, with the accent on the first syllable in the north, and on the second in the south of Ireland. 1. Personal nouns in óip, or eoip, formed from verbs or nouns; as mealleoip, a deceiver ; pí^eaoóip, a weaver ; millceóip, a de- stroyer ; pecmóip, an old man. 2. Personal nouns in ctióe, uióe, íóe, and ije, derived from nouns; as pjéalaióe, a story-teller; cpéaouióe, a shepherd; ícióe, a physician ; ctrrpije, repentance. 3. Adjectives in cno, or ió; as eajna.ó, wise; pmplíó, simple. 406 Of Accent. [part iv. 4. Diminutives in cm, in, and 05 ; as cnocán, a hillock; cillin, a little church ; ouilleoj, a small leaf. 5. Nouns and adjectives in ac ; as cailleac, a hag; ceapac, a plot ; bpasac, thievish ; and abstract nouns in ace, as mallacc. 6. Adjectives in ariiail ; as peapamail, manly ; jeanariiail, lovely. Words of this termination are accented on the second sylla- ble in the south of Ireland, and pronounced as if written peapúil, jecmúil. 7. Nominatives plural of the first declension in enje ; as mut- laije, tops, from mullac ; bealaije, roads, from bealach ; oplcn je, inches, from óplac. 8. Genitives singular feminine in enje ; as net oeaccnje, of the smoke ; na gealaije, of the moon ; na caillije, of the hag. In many parts of the south of Ireland this class of genitives have the primary accent decidedly on the last syllable ; but throughout the north it is invariably on the first. 9. Nominatives plural of the second declension in íóe, or eaóa; as mpíóe, or inpeaóa, islands; and also the cases formed from it, as ínpióib, insulis. 10. Genitives singular, and nominatives and datives plural in amain, amnaib ; as bpeicearh, a judge; bpeireamam, bpeirearh- naib. These have decidedly the accent on the second syllable in the south of Ireland, and are pronounced as if written bpeiéiúin, bpeiciúnaib. 11. Nominatives plural of the fourth declension in aióe, or eaóa ; as eapbaóa, wants ; pealjaipeaóa, huntsmen. 12. Verbs in 151 m, or uijim, and their futures in eocao, have the primary accent on the syllables ui£, ij, as poillpijim, I shew; áp&uijim, I exalt; míníjim, I explain; and on e<5c in their futures, poillpeocat), aipoeocao, mineocab. But in the passive participles, the uij, or 15, is shortened in the south of Ireland, and the accent reverts to the root, as poillpijée, ápouijée, mínijce. 13. All terminations of the verb which have a long vowel, or diphthong, have the secondary accent ; as jjjlanamaoio, we cleanse; bpipib'p, they used to break; o'ópouíjrí ; it used to be ordered; buailíó, strike ye; cáúaoí, ye are. chap. I.] Of Quantity. 407 Rule III. In words derived from polysyllabic roots, the pri- mary accent is generally on the first syllable of the root ; and if the next syllable contain a long vowel, it will have the secondary accent. Section 2 Of Quantity. The quantity of a syllable is that time which is oc- cupied in pronouncing it. It is considered as long or short. General Rules. 1 . A vowel is short when it comes before the fol- lowing combined consonants, cc, lb, lc, I5, 11, nn, pb, r c > P5j P r > as rnctllacc, a curse ; pcolb, a splinter ; olc, evil ; bopb, fierce ; rape, thirst. 2. A vowel is generally long in monosyllables when final, or when closed by a single consonant ; as la, a day; mi, a month ; pal, a hedge ; áp, slaughter. As the diphthongal sounds of the single vowels prevail over the southern half of Ireland, it will be necessary in this place to point out in what situations they are generally used, although they cannot be considered strictly analogical. These diphthongal sounds of the simple vowels, which so strikingly distinguish the language of the southern from the northern Irish a , prevail when a monosyllabic a O'Molloy, in his Irish Gram- in fine voculse sit longa, vt in mar, pp. 160, 161, 162, takes ram, mam ; inió raró hoc ipso notice of this peculiar sound, effertur longé, quia consonae which he describes as " inter fortes maximé finales sunt mediae longam et brevem." His words quantitatis in pronunciation, on this subject are well worth mediae inquam, vt supra, inter the attention of the learner : — longam, et brevem. Keuoca in M Nota tamen, quód m raró nisi mentem, quod supra docuimus 408 Of Quantity. [part iv. word is closed by the following consonants, and combinations of consonants, viz. b, ó, 5, 11, m, nn, nj ; and in words of two or more syllables before nc, nj, nr; as lobap, a leper; paóapc, sight; ajam, the face ; ball, a member ; am, time ; ponn, desire ; peanj, slender. 3. The vowels have their short and obscure sounds after long or accented syllables, or when they are final in pollysyllables ; as cpóóa, brave ; cuibeacca, com- pany. 4. The diphthongs ae, ao, eo, eu, 1a, and all the triphthongs, are always long. 5. Derivatives and compounds follow the rules of their primitives ; as apt), high ; apOcm, a hillock ; apD-pvg, a monarch. The exceptions to this rule are very few, and must be considered provincial ; as íplíjim, I lower ; iplijre, lowered ; apt), high ; aoipoe, height. The latter should be íplíjce, cnpoe, which are the forms used in the north of Ireland. Special Rules for the Quantity of simple Vowels. 1. Q is always long in the diminutive cm ; as cnoccm, a hillock. 2. In the terminations ox and t>a, or 6a, ra, or úa, of adjectives, nouns, or participles, and at the end of all dissyllables and polysyllables, the a is always short ; as de quantitate syllabi, vulgó pine, veriim media quantitas denotata quam dixi triplicem, nempé Ion- per lineam non adeo longarn su- gam, breuem, et mediam, vulgó per impositam medio quodam paba, geapp, et mneaohonach ; tractu effertur, non sicut longa nine longa linea ponitur supra vel breuis, sed breuiús quám báp, pop, &c, sine qua forent longa, et longiús quam breuis, breues, vt bap, pop, supra quae vt ccunc, jéall, t>ónn, peanj, nulla apponitur linea designans de quibus adhuc redibit sermo." quantitatem longam, vel mediam ; chap, i.] Of Quantity. 409 pápac, a wilderness ; cpóóa, brave ; cuioeaccct, a company. 3. G and i final are short in all dissyllables and polysyllables not compounded of two or more words ; as Ouwe, a man ; plomui^re, saved ; cuilli, a flood. 4. 1 before £, followed by a vowel, is long ; as pli£e, a way ; oli£e, or olí^eaó, a law ; and particularly in verbs, as poillpi^im, I illume. But it is short in the south of Ireland, when the 5 is followed by a consonant ; as poillpi£re, illumined ; ójit>ui£re, ordered. 5. 1 is always long in the diminutive termination in ; as cnuicin, a little hill ; coillin, a little wood ; pipin, a manikin. 6. O is always long in the diminutive termination 05 ; as t>uilleÓ£, a leaf. It is also generally long in the northern half of Ireland, before 5 followed by a vowel or a liquid; as po^laim, learning; cogaim, I choose. But in the south of Ireland O has its diphthongal sound in this situation. 7. U is always long before 5 ; as u£oap, an author. Rules for the Quantity of Diphthongs. The diphthongs ai, ea, ei, 10, iu, 01, ui, are some- times long and sometimes short b . All the rest are inva- b O'Molloy says that no cer- reguntur vsu et authoritate." — tain rule can be laid down for Grammatka, <$*c, p. 229. the pronunciation of these diph- His remarks on the middle thongs : "lleliquse biuocales ali- quantity of the vowels, which is quando sunt breues, aliquando not now recognized in Connaught longae, interdum mediae ; adeóque or Ulster, are well worth atten- firmam non habent regulam, sed tion: " Syllaba quantitatis mediae 3 G 410 Of Quantity. [part iv. riably long. The following special rules will assist the learner : 1. Qi is always short in the terminations aip, aipe, of personal nouns, as bparaip, a brother; peal- gaipe, a huntsman. It is long in the terminations am, aióe, ai£e, as cpéaOaióe, a shepherd ; na ^ealai^e, of the moon. 2. In most modern Irish manuscripts and printed books, the diphthong ea, when long, is written eu, as $eup for ^éap, peup for péap. This is an improvement on the ancient orthography, as it ren- ders the quantity certain, for when this is adopted, eu is always long, and ea always short, as F eu r» grass, F ect P> a man ; whereas if both were written Feccp, or pfp, as in the ancient manuscripts, it would be difficult to know, except from the context, which word was intended. It is impossible to lay down any certain rule to de- termine when ea is long or short in ancient writings, except the general rule already given at p. 407. But céacca, and a few others, before cc, are to be excepted from that rule. When ea is followed by pp, the e is short and the a long, as geapp, short, F ea PP> better ; but the number of words in which this sound occurs is very few. 3. Gi, in genitives from la and eu, or éa long, is long, as pian, a track, gen. péin ; peup or péap, grass, gen. péip c . But ei in genitives coming from ea short, is always short, as ppeile, from ppeal, a scythe ; peille, from peall, treachery ; Oeilg, from Oeal^, a pin, a thorn. nullam prsecedit consonam sim- Grammatical fyc, p. 231. plicem, seú vnicam prrcter solam c From this is to be excepted m. Cseterúm lectio Authorum the genitive of p cic m, a knife, et vsus te docebit, quae Romanis which is short, both in Ireland procul positis non occurrunt." — and Scotland, as pceine or peine. chap, l] Of Quantity. 411 Before the consonants enumerated in Rule 1, p. 407, ei is short in the northern half of Ireland, but has a peculiar sound in the south, already explained in the orthography. 4. Go is always long, except in about six words, as already stated in the Orthography. — See p. 21. 5. lo is always short before the consonants enume- rated in Rule 1, p. 407, except cc. Before single con- sonants it is sometimes long and sometimes short, as piop, true (long), pmiop, marrow (short), ciop, rent (long), pi op, knowledge (short). 6. lu is long and short in similar situations, as Oiul- caó, to renounce, or deny; pliucaó, to wet; cpiup, three persons. It is always long when ending a syllable and before I and íp, and single consonants, and short before the combinations of consonants enumerated in Rule 1, p. 407. 7. Oi is always short before the consonants enume- rated in the rule just referred to, but always long in the terminations of personal nouns in óip, as mealluóip, a deceiver ; t)li£eaoóip, or oligceoip, a lawyer. It is long, but with the accent on i, in the terminations oióe, oi £e, as cpoióe, a heart. 8. Ui is short before the consonants enumerated in Rule 1, p. 407- It is always long in the terminations uióe, ui^e. 412 Of Versification. [part iv. CHAPTER II. OF VERSIFICATION. Versification is the arrangement of a certain number and variety of syllables according to given laws, which, in the Irish language, are very peculiar and mechanical. There are three kinds of verse in Irish, viz., Dan Direach, Oglachas, and Bruilingeacht. Section 1. — Of Dan Direach Verse. We are here to consider, first, the requisites of Dan Direach verse in general, and then, its several kinds or species. In Dan Direach, or direct metre, there are seven requisites*, viz., 1st, a certain number of syllables in each line ; 2nd, four lines in each quatrain ; 3rd, Con- cord ; 4th, Correspondence ; 5th, Termination ; 6th, Union ; 7th, Head\ a Of the difficulty of compos- nica, p. 144. At page 156 he ing Dan Direach, or Rami Di- gives seven rules, to assist the reach, O'Molloy, who calls it in poet in composing this mechani- Latin Metrum rectum, writes cal kind of verse, thus: " Maximé autem de Metro, b A writer in the Anthologia omnium quae unquam vidi, vel Hibernica, for May, 1793, vol. i. audiui, ausim dicere, quae sub p. 346, in noticing the works of sole reperiuntur, difhcillimo,' , Dr. O'Molloy, has the following &c. — Grammatica Latino- Hiber- remarks upon this subject : — chap.il] Of Dan Direarfi Verse. 413 To these may be added an eighth, not because it is always ne- cessary, but because it is often used, namely, Urlann, of which we shall speak in its proper place. Here it should be remarked, that of the seven requisites above enumerated, the first four, to wit, number of lines, number of syl- lables, concord, and correspondence, — are indispensable in every kind of Dan Direach ; but not so the three last mentioned, which are required only in particular kinds. Thus the major and the minor termination are indispensable only in the species commonly called Deibhidhe ; Union, vsxltannaigheacht mhor and Cash hair n ; and Head, in Rannaiglieaclit bheag and Seadna only. 1. The number of syllables in a line varies accord- ing to the kind of verse, as shall be presently shown. 2. A quatrain, called Rann iomlán by the Irish, consists of two couplets or four lines. The first couplet of a rann is called by the Irish Seoladh, or the leading ; the second is called Comhad, or the closing. Every rann or quatrain must make perfect sense by itself, without any dependence on the next; nay, the first couplet may produce a perfect sense without any depen- dence on the second. 3. Concord, or Alliteration, called by the Irish " The Irish poets seem to me presses, viz., that the Irish poets to have absurdly imitated the imitated the Greeks in the name Greeks in the name and variation and variation of their metrical of their metrical feet, &c. The feet, receives no support from northerns were equally addicted any thing to be found in O'Mol- with the Irish to this mechanical loy's Irish Prosody, — the work poetry. The Scalds transposed which he is reviewing in the the words of their songs so article referred to. Indeed the strangely and artfully, as to be very contrary appears from all quite unintelligible but by their the rules which O'Molloy gives own order, &c." The author of for the three principal kinds of this article, who subscribes him- verse which were in use among self D., is believed to be Dr. Led- the ancient Irish, wich : but the opinion he ex- 414 Of Dan Direach Verse, [part iv. Uaim, requires two words (of which neither can be a preposition or particle), in each line, to begin with a vowel, or with the same consonant. Example : Upiall cap 6eapBa no. ppeab pean, Cap éip laochpaióe £,aijean, Co cuan clappuinn mo cpoióe, Co pluaj áluinn Oppoióe. GHeerin. In the first line, ppeab and pean form a concord, both beginning with the same consonant, p ; in the second, laochpaióe and Caijean ; in the third, cuan, clap, and cpoióe ; and in the fourth, áluinn and Oppoióe, form a concord, as both begin with a vowel. Concord is of two kinds, proper and improper. The former, called Fior-uaim, is where the last two words of a line begin with a vowel or the same consonant, as in the first two lines of the quatrain just quoted. The improper concord is when the words so begin- ning are not the last two in the line. But here note, that what the ancient Irish called an larmbearla, i. e. the article, possessive pronoun, adverb, preposition, or conjunction, coming between any two words, neither forms nor hinders a concord. The proper concord can be used for the improper, and vice versa, in every line except the third and fourth, in which the proper concord is indispensably necessary. — See O'Molloy's Grammatica, fyc, p. 155. Aspiration, eclipsis, or the intervention of any adventitious letter, does not prevent a concord, except in the following instances : When p is aspirated, it makes a concord with p. as abmaim óuic mo peacaó péin ; where the p in peacaó, and the p in péin, chap.il] Of Dan Dir each Verse, 415 make a concord. But when the f is aspirated, it has no sound/and therefore is not taken into consideration, but the concord is observed with the succeeding letter, as eajaip leam, a pluir Gipne ; where the I in leam, and the I in plair, form an improper concord, the p being altogether disregarded. Likewise in the line, cajcnp leam, a plaic L\ pe ; the I in plaic, and the I in 61 pe, form a proper con- cord. Initial p, followed by a vowel or a consonant, does not concord with p, unless it be followed by a vowel or the same consonant ; thus pa will form a concord with po, pu, but not with pb, pc, p&, or P5 ; and pb will only concord with pb, pc with pc, and so of all the other combinations. In like manner, cp concords with cp only, as an rpúil, an cpolaip. 4. Correspondence, called in Irish Comharda. This has some resemblance to rhyme, but it does not require the corresponding syllables to have the same termina- tion as in English rhyme. To understand it perfectly, the following classification" made of the consonants, by the Irish poets, must be attended to : 1. S, called by the bards the queen of consonants, from the peculiarity of the laws by which it is aspirated and eclipsed . 2. Three soft consonants, p, c, c d . 3. Three hard, b, 5, o. 4. Three rough, p, c, r. 5. Five strong, 11, m, nn, nj, pp. 6. Seven light, b, ó, 5, rh, I, n, p. c See O'Molloy's Grammatka 160, 219- The consonant p, Latino- Hibernica, p. 36, where he however, is called the meretrix writes : " S consonarum penul- by others, because it so readily tima omnmmque facile Regina, unites with the other consonants ; accrescit, prsefigique potest cui- but properly speaking, it is a libet nedum vocali, verúm etiam mere sibilant, and not at all en- consonas in hoc idiomate ; ita titled to the high dignity given vt nulla earn recuset, adeóque it by the bards, omnium dicitur vniversalissirua d Nothing, however, is more cunctarum scilicet singularum- certain than that the Irish poets que ductrix, &c." — See also pp. are wrong in styling p, c, c, soft 416 Of Dan Direach Verse. [part iv. The Irish poets teach that the consonants exceed each other in power and strength, according to the above classification. They assert that p is the chief, or queen, of all consonants. Next after it they rank the three soft consonants, p, c, c, which exceed the succeeding classes in force or strength ; likewise that the hard consonants excel the rough consonants, and the strong the light ones, which are reckoned the meanest and feeblest of all the con- sonants. — See O^Molloy's Grammatical Sfc, p. 160. Correspondence is of two kinds, perfect and broken. Perfect correspondence, which is sometimes equal to perfect rhyme in English, consists in the agreement of two words, the last in two lines of poetry, in vowels and consonants of the same class. Example : O óheapbct co Slume poip, Cum cpice Clomne Ccpjpors;, SI05 óhecmnrpaige na 5-ciab 5-cam, Qn pian peabcuióe pulmall. O'Heerin. In this quatrain poip and Copgpoij form a correspondence, both agreeing in vowels, and ending with a consonant of the sixth class p and 5, which are light consonants. And the words 5-cam and mall also correspond in vowels and consonants, the one ending in m and the other in 11, which are of the fifth class. — See Table. Broken, or imperfect, correspondence is the agree- ment of two words, the last in two lines of poetry, in vowels only, without any regard to consonants. consonants, and b,^,t) 7 hard con- the second and third classes are sonants, for the latter class are misnamed, and that I, n,p, which undoubtedly the soft. — See the are liquids, should not, from the Orthography, pp. 2, 59, 60.- The nature of articulate sounds, be entire classification is pretty cor- classed with b, ó, £, m — See the rect, and founded on the nature Orthography, page 2, et seguen. of articulate sounds, except that chap, ii.] Of Dan Direach Verse. 417 This kind of correspondence allows that one word may end in a vowel and the other in a consonant, as ba and blap, cap and clacc , also aoi and ctoip, blaoipj and baoip. — See O^Molloy's Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, p. 165. 5. Termination* or Rinn, requires that the last word in the second and fourth lines of a quatrain should exceed that of the first and third by one syllable. Thus, if the first line end in a word of one syllable, the second must end in a word of two ; and if the third line should end in a word of two syllables, the fourth must be of three syllables. The first is called Rinn, or the minor termination ; the second, Airdrinn, or major termination. This additional syllable in the Airdrinn does not affect the correspondence. The following ex- amples from O'Dugaris Topographical Poem will illustrate the foregoing : Upiallom ó óhoipce becmoaij, If ó Chuailjne chpicleanoaij, O TTIU15 "Retch ppaoch na pala, 'S ó car laoch O' 6abpaóa. O Dun ba leach jlap na leano, Gp í pi^-peleaj 6ipeann, ^>an pa^ail ap m'aipe ann 6aile ap pulaó cpé Cholam. In the first of these quatrains it will be observed that beanoaij, the last word in the first line, is exceeded by one syllable by cpic- leanoaij in the second line, and pala, the last word of the third line, by Cabpaóa. Also, in the second quatrain, Gipeano, the last word of the second line, exceeds leano, the last word in the first line, by one syllable, as does Cholam, the last word of the fourth line, exceed ann, the last word of the preceding, by one syllable. Here note that a compound word may be admitted to form an %/Lirdrinn, as cpic-leanoai j, in the second line above quoted ; also all enclitics, as pa, pe, po, pin, pom, pan, pi, peo, ne, pap, an, jlé, po, up, and all adjectives that can be placed before their nouns, are allowed by the poets to form this termination. 3 H 418 Of Dan Direach Verse. [part iv. 6. Union, or Uaithne, is nearly the same with Correspondence, except that the same vowels are not required in each place ; and, in polysyllables, it is only necessary that they agree in class, as aóba, bioóba ; inrhe, Ooirhne ; oprhaille, peanpoi^e ; but the nearer they agree the better. A syllable, however, with a broad vowel cannot form a union with one having a small vowel, as la£ and I15. This agreement generally takes place between the last word in the first and third lines, and some word in the middle of the second and fourth, as in the following example : Gen bean oob' áille gné Do conaipc mé, — mip&e óúinn, — Gp bpuac inbip na n-éijne m-bán, CI5 nije a lám 'p a 5 copnaó cúil. pole oualac, coinnleac, cam, ^ac lub ann ap li an <5ip, JJpuaió li-jeal ó n-beallpuijeann jpian, t)o claoi mo ciall, par mo bpóm. Owen O Donnelly. In these lines the reader will observe a kind of chime, or vowel rhyme between the words underlined, ;jjné and mé ; ban and lám ; cam and ann ; jpian and ciall. 7. Head, or ceann, is the monosyllabic word which concludes the second and fourth lines of a quatrain in that kind of verse called Seadna. As the words ionn and b-pionn, in the following quatrain : — Oijpe Chacaoip, cionn a cmió, lonmum linne 51Ó é ionn, ópacac aije na 5-CU15 j-coijeaó Cachac oijpeap uip na b-pionn. chap.il] Of Deibhidhe. 419 8. Another requisite in Dan Direach is that called Amus. It is nearly the same as an imperfect corres- pondence, except that it requires an equal number of syllables in the words which correspond. Example : TTIá'p oaonnacc oealbéap 'pan ocm, TTIa'p oealb, no laocpacc, no lúc, X)o nop jac mic poiriiip pij, TCeic a jníorii ní 001I15 oún. Some make an amus between a and e ; but seldom. O'Molloy considers it incorrect. In a short syllable 01 will make an amus with ai, or ui short, because they have nearly the same sound, as cpoij and ptcné. The principal species of Dan Direach verse chiefly in use among the Irish poets are the five following, namely, Deibhidhe, Seadna, Rannaigheacht mhor, Rannaigheacht bheag, and Casbhairn. 1 . — Of Deibhidhe. The principal requisites which distinguish this kind of verse from others is, that the first and third line of each quatrain end with a minor termination, and the second and fourth with a major termination. It re- quires also seven syllables in each line, with correspon- dence, concord, and union, which must all be perfect in the last couplet. Example : Ojlctc do bi aj VTluipe riióip Hac o-cuj eiceac 'na h-onóip, Ceip náp b'ail oo'n uile ban Grimm ace TTIuipe marap. 420 Of Seadna. [part iv. In this quatrain will be observed the following requisites : 1. Every line consists of seven syllables, for in the first line the a in aj is elided, as coming immediately after bi. 2. The last word of the second line exceeds the last word of the first line by one syllable, which is the Airdrinn, or major termination. 3. In the first line the words ffluipe and moip form a concord, or allitera- tion ; and in the second line the words eieeccc and h-onoip, form a concord, both beginning with a vowel, the h not being taken into account, as it is adventitious, not radical in the word. 4. The words riióip and onóip form a correspondence, or agreement of vowels and consonants. In the first line of the second couplet there is a concord formed by the words b'ail and uile, as both begin with vowels, for b is not taken into account, it being an ab- breviation of the verb ba, or buó, was. Again, in the last couplet the word maéap exceeds ban by a syllable, and these words agree in vowels and class of consonants, n and p being of the sixth class, or light consonants. Also the words b'ail and ban form a union, or vowel rhyme, and the same is formed by ÍTluipe and uile. 2. — Of Seadna, Seadna requires eight syllables in the first and third lines of each quatrain, and seven syllables in the third and fourth ; also that the first and third lines should end in a word of two syllables, and the third and fourth in a word of one syllable, which is called by the Irish Braighe. It is therefore nearly the reverse of Deibhidhe in the termina- tion, or rinn. Every second and fourth line form a perfect corres- pondence, which sometimes amounts to perfect rhyme, and every first and third may either make a perfect or imperfect one, as Óuime na b-pileao puil TCuapcac, Cap ppeivh Chuinn oo connairii piao, 6a lTleinic piarh ancpom oppa, tVGlqiom cliap íp uppa íao. chap, ii.] Of Seadna. 421 pine "Ruapcac, pío^paió Chonnacc, Ct 5-clu uaca ap peaó jac puinn, Ní h-ionjnaó jeall aca uaióe, Slaca íp peapp oo cuaine Chuinn. Ciothruaidhe O'Hussey. In these quatrains the monosyllables piao and iao, pumn and Chuinn, form perfect correspondences, which happen, in these in- stances, to amount to perfect rhyme, although perfect correspon- dence is not always necessarily perfect rhyme, for the consonants need agree in class only, as we have already seen. Also the dissyl- lables Ruapcac and oppa, Chonnacc and uaioe, form an imperfect correspondence. It will be seen also, that concord, or alliteration, is observed throughout, as byb-pileao and puil, in the first line; by Chuinn and connairh, in the second ; by ancpom and oppa, in the third, both beginning with a vowel, as prescribed by the rule for Concord; by alcpom, uppa, and iao, in the fourth. Also, in the second quatrain, by Ruapcac and piojpaió, in the first line ; by peaó and puinn, in the second ; by h-ionjnao, aca, and uaióe, in the third ; and by cuaine and Chuinn, in the fourth. O'Molloy mentions but one kind of Seadna, but other writers notice three kinds ; first, the common Seadna, which is that already described ; second, the Seadna mlior ; and third, the Seadna mheadhonach. The Seadna mhor differs from the com- mon in this only, that every couplet ends in a word of three sylla- bles, as in this example : tD'piop cojaió corhailceap píoccáin, Seon-pocal nac pápuigceap ; Ní pajann píó ace peap po^la, Peaó óanba na m-bán-poiépeaó. T. D. OHiggin. In the Seadna mheadhonach , the first and third lines end with words of three syllables ; and the second and fourth with words of two, as in this example : 422 Of Rannaigheacht. [part i v. peápp pilleaó na palm neariióaióe, Oo nici ap leapcaib linne, TTIaipj do $eib an jlóip n-eaocapbaió, Oióe ap bpéaj-palmaib bmne. Anon. 3. — Of the Verse called Rannaigheacht, Of this there are two kinds, Rannaigheacht mhor and Rannaigheacht bheag. Rannaigheacht mhor requires seven syllables in each line, and every line to end with a word of one syllable. It is also necessary that there should be a perfect correspondence between the last words of the second and fourth lines of each quatrain, but not be- tween the last word of the first and third ; but it re- quires a union, or vowel rhyme, between some word in the first line and another in the second. Example : tDealg acaloió ocpap Caiój TDap n-ancpacoib cocca an cuiljr, Cpéacc oile ap peolpojail n-oeilj Coije an oeipg beojonaió buipb. Anon. It will be observed that all the requisites laid down in the above rule, are preserved in this quatrain. Every line consists of seven syllables ; a concord, or alliteration, is formed in the first line by the words acaloió and ocpap. Likewise acaloió makes a perfect union with anqiacoib ; and ocpap and cocca form an imperfect union. Uocca and cuilj, in the second line, form a concord, or alliteration, where, to prevent a superfluous syllable, the a in cocca is elided, as coming before an. Also cuil^ and buipb form a perfect correspondence, — though not rhyme, — as they agree in vowels, syllables, sound, and quantity ; moreover, chap, il] Of Casbhairn. 423 oile and peolpojcnl form a concord, both being considered as beginning with vowels, as the p is totally sunk in the pronuncia- tion; also oile and loije form a union, uaithne, or vowel rhyme; as do the words oeilj and oeip^. Likewise the words peolpojail and Beojonaió form a union. Rannaigheacht bheag differs from the preceding in one particular only, viz., that every line must end with a word of two syllables. Example : T?o£a na cloinne Conall, Uoja na opoinje a oeapam, U0I5 oap peolaó puj pomam, Conall cuj o'Bojan peapann. Anon. In this quatrain are presented all the requisites above enume- rated, as belonging to Rannaigheacht mhor ; and it will be seen that there is no difference between them, except that the final words of each line of the latter species are dissyllables ; those of the for- mer are all monosyllables. 4. — Of Casbhairn. Casbhairn requires seven syllables in each line, and is particularly distinguished from all the species of verse already described by this characteristic, namely, that every line must terminate with a word of three syllables. It requires also concord, correspondence, and union. Example : puipc pioj acaió pionnloja, Síoó Chacail a 5-comlaoa, O'a join o'apm 1 Ujaine, XDo rhapb poin an pioóuije. There are several other kinds of Dan Direach, as Casbhairn- Ceanntrom (or heavy-headed Casbhairn), Rionnard y &c, but the 424 Of Oglachas. [part iv. limits intended for this work would not permit us to go into a de- scription of them ; and we must therefore content ourselves with noticing one other species, namely, the Rionnard of six syllables, in which ^Engus the Culdee wrote his Feilire, or Festilogium. This has the general requisites of the Dan Direach, and every line ends with a word of two syllables, like the Hannaigheacht bheag, as : £apcnp jpéine aine, Gppcol Gipenn oije, Pacpaic coimec mile, "Rop oiciu 01 ap cpoije. See O'Molloy's Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, pp.210, 211, where he thus describes this kind of verse : " Aliud vulgó pion- napt) constat quatuor quartis, et omne quartum sex syllabis, cujus- que finalis dictio est bissyllaba, ultimse Metrorum correspondent, ultimum cuj usque quarti concordat cum aliquo vocabulo mox an- tecedenti ; in ultimo praeterea semimetro debet intervenire corres- pondentia, vt in sequenti : Rom net péile pánao Páipce Pileaó Gipecmn, <5pian na maj an mionponn Qnnam jialt gan jeibeann." Section 2. — Of Oglachas. Oglachas, or the servile metre, is made in imitation of all kinds of Dan Direach already described. Every line of it requires seven syllables and no more, unless when it is made in imitation of Seadna, when the first and third lines of each quatrain will have eight syl- lables. This kind of verse is merely imitative : " Simia enim est," O'Molloy's Grammatica Latino- Hibcrnica^ p. 200 ; and there- chap, il] of Oglachas. 425 fore it will be more ornamental if Concord, or alliteration, be pre- served in each line ; but, in reality, it is neither confined to cor- respondence, concord, or union ; nor to true termination, for the major may exceed the minor by two syllables : as óopb a épeachan an jac cpctij Niall mac Gacac TTluijrheaóain. Here it will be observed that, contrary to the law and rules of that species of Dan Direach called Deibhidhe, the word cpái£, which is a monosyllable, and the minor termination is exceeded by the major termination ÍTluijmeaóain, by more than one syllable. The following is an example of Oglachas, in imitation of Seadna : ^ab, a Sbile, a n-ajaió h'aijmó, lonap, pallomj, pilét> ppóill, Cean oo'n céipo, ap ap cpom Ctine, Uuill bonn caille map nac cóip. When Oglachas is made in imitation of Rannaighcacht mhor, nothing is required but that the last word of each line must be a monosyllable ; nor does it matter whether the union be perfect or imperfect, and it will be sufficient if an amus be used in place of correspondence ; but it is indispensable that every line of the qua- train should end in a word of one syllable, and that there should be an amus, or vowel rhyme, between the last word of the first line, and some word in the middle, or towards the middle of the second line, and also between the last word of the third line and some word in the middle, or towards the middle of the fourth line, as in the following example : Cpiúp acá a;jj bpac ap mo báp, Jyó acam t>o jnár am Bun, Upuaj gan a g-cpocaó pe cpann, CCn oiabal, an clann 'p a cnurh. Bonaventura O'Hussey. When Oglachas is made in imitation of Rannaigheacht bheag, it is in every particular like the above, except that the last word of each line must be a dissyllable, as in the example : 3 I 426 Of Droighneach. [part iv. Gp bo claippij 50 n-mnne, Mi bi mo puile ace opuice, lonann leam íp a claipom, Do lama t>'p a,c P n u, PP e * There is another species of Oglachas which has the first line of each quatrain like Casbhairn, and the second like Rannaigheacht bheag. Section 3. — Of Droighneach. This species of poetry, called Droighneach, i. e. Spi- nosum, or the Thorny, from the difficulty of its compo- sition, may admit of from nine to thirteen syllables in every line. It requires that every line should end with a word of three syllables ; and every final word must make a union with another word in the beginning or middle of the next line of the same couplet ; there must also be a correspondence between the final words. Example : TDá poipiom oo'n bpu£ pionnpuap oipeaóa, Óaó oiombuan ap n-ooimeanma ap n-oul 'pan oeajaóba, t)o jeabpum pope jaoil jeineamna, Ip Qoó pern 6amna 50 n-a luce leanamna. G. Brighde OHussey. Section 4. — Of Bruiting eacht. This is composed much after the same manner as the Oglachas, but requires correspondence (at least the improper correspondence), and also a kind of concord, chap.il] Of Bruilingeacht 427 union, and head. Each line must consist of seven syllables ; and it is generally composed in imitation of Casbhairn, and Seadna rneadhonach. Example : TTluc caoluij aj clapuijeacb pa Bun aol-cuip c'eapcanao. O'Molloy mentions among the vulgar poetry the following, viz., */Lbhran, song, Burdun, and Caoine, or Tuireadh, a funeral dirge, or elegy, some of which consist of poetic lines of eight, ten, and eleven syllables. But poems of this description are of rare occurrence. As specimens may be mentioned Feircheirtne's Tuireadh, an Elegy on Curai Mac Daire, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (H. 3. 18). MacLiag and Giolla Caoimh also composed elegies of this description on Brian Borumha, which are still extant. See also the Occ-Poclac mop h-Gimin in the Book of Leacan. For more on this subject, the reader is referred to O'Molloy's Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, pp. 236- 244 ; and there is a curious Tract on Irish versification in the Book of Ballymote, which deserves to be studied. APPENDIX. I. OF CONTRACTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS. The contractions used in Irish manuscripts, and in some printed books, are in principle, and often in form, the same as those which occur in Latin manuscripts of the middle ages. They are in fact a species of short- hand, introduced for the purpose of saving time and parchment, which, before the invention of the art of printing, was an object of considerable moment. The most common and important contractions may be classified as follows: 1. Those which are in fact Latin words, although used to represent the corresponding Irish words. These are fc, et, for ajup a ; 7 (another Latin abbreviation for et), ctjup; u, wro, for ímoppo; f, sed> for ace; h, autem (or hautem, as the word was often written), for ona, or bona, indeed; the same contraction also stands for hcec, particularly in medical manuscripts; t, vel> for the Irish no, or; 2 est, for the Irish cct, is, and -9 ejus. These contractions are often used for the syllables which the Latin words they represent stand for, and often for syllables similar to the Latin words in sound. Thus : 7 stands for eo or ec, as cy for céo or céao, a hundred, er ceao, a The same contraction, in the forms & and 6", is still used for and in English. 430 Of Contractions and Abbreviations. [app. i. leave or permission ; and if 7 be dotted it denotes eó, or ec, as 07a for beca, or beaca, life. So also t for the syllable no ; and f very commonly, even in printed books, for ace, or cc; as cf for ceacc, to come; curhafac, for curiiaccac, powerful. In like manner we find h, hcec, used for the syllable ec and ej : as chmaio for cecmaió, it happens : hm for eigin, some. 9 ejus, is also used to denote eijir, as \J for leijip, particularly in medical manuscripts. 2. A vowel set over any consonant, generally sup- poses an p understood before that vowel : as 5 for spa. 5 for spo. 5 for spe. 5 for &pu. 5 for ST 1 - This contraction is also, but not so frequently, used to denote p following the vowel ; in which case the foregoing abbreviations may be read jap, jep, gip, &c. This, however, rarely happens, except in the word jup, that, which is often contracted 5. In other cases u over a letter is read pu, as cajem for rpuajem, a meagre man : unless it be written v, in which case it is often, in modern manuscripts, put for up, as c for cu\\, putting ; cc, forcupéap, or cuipreap, is put. In more correct Irish manuscripts, however, the u placed over the consonant is formed thus ~ when the p is un- derstood after it, and u or v when before it; thus c is to be read cup, but c, or c, cpu. The a written over a consonant in this contraction, is often formed by a sort of running-hand like n or », as jo, for jpaó ; but it is in reality nothing more than a, although O'Molloy absurdly supposed it to be the consonant n. See his Grammatica Latino- Hibernica, p. 130. 3. A syllable terminating in p is usually denoted by the contraction s placed over the consonant: and this mark doubled is used to denote a syllable terminating in double p. app. i.] Of Contractions and Abbreviations. 431 Thus f is read pep, or Feap, « m ^ n > F F ea PP> better; ao, is aoeip, ^é? sa?/s. This mark is absurdly supposed by some to be the cou sonant s ; but it is in reality an abbreviated form of p. In the case of the letters 5 and c, it is formed by a semicircular turn from the right hand ex- tremity of the horizontal stroke, thus, ;§, which stands for jep, jeap, but generally 51m: c 3 for cap, cep; but more frequently for cup. 4. A consonant placed over another consonant im- plies the omission of a vowel, which must be determined by the sense. Thus F, 5, c, denote pao, jac, cao. Or other vowels may be supplied according to the sense, as c may stand for ceit> ; c for cucc; é for cuic, as cim for cuicim, I fall, &c. 5. A line drawn across the letters fr, l~ h" ? or n-; or over c, 5, ó, p, m, fi, ji, f, 6, denotes that a syllable is contracted, which must be determined by the grammar, or by the sense. The letters m, n, n, or o, usually enter into the syllables so contracted, or, when there is a point over the horizontal line, 6 or £. Thus b is bap, beip, ben, or bail; bis baó, or buó ; t stands for lao, and sometimes even for a longer termination, as bit for oileajaó; 7pt for ajup apoile, et ccetera : and so of the other contractions of this class, which must in every case be determined by the sense, and therefore an accurate knowledge of the language is absolutely necessary in order to read them : as if for ip eaó ; jtp for jluapacc; oibp for oibpiujaó. When the line is doubled it denotes that the final letter of the contracted word is doubled ; as t for lann. 6. A short curved line ~ denotes m ; and when placed over a vowel denotes that m is to follow that vowel : n, in a similar position, is marked by a short straight line : and two such lines stand for nn. 432 Of Contractions mid Abbreviations. [app. i. Thus a, a, 0, denote am, an, ann ; a line over n also doubles it, as pan for pann. The circumflex ^ is also sometimes used by itself for m, in which case it may be regarded as a sort of running-hand form of the letter; as jen-ai for jenearhain : sometimes the circumflex is dotted to denote m. At the end of a word this form of m is oc- casionally written vertically and with a greater number of in- flexions, as 3 or 1 ; and in a very few cases this is used at the beginning of a word. 7. There are a few peculiar characters in use for particular contractions ; as <$ for ao ; § for ea ; 4 for ap; '1 for aip ; 4 for app ; pi for pp ; for con ; p for pep ; tf for ppo ; 3 for up or ap ; y for pep or pip ; r, for ui ; y\ for pi. 8. Arbitrary contractions are very numerous, and are used chiefly in modern manuscripts. They depend chiefly on the caprice of the scribe, and can be learned only by practice. Thus the numerals 2,3, &c, are used to denote the syllables oct, cpi, &c, as 101Í12 for íomoa ; 2m for t>am ; and so 6 stands for pe ; 8 for occ and even ace ; 9 for naoi, as mo for mnaoi, dative of bean, a woman. in like manner the letter q stands for the syllable cu or ca : as qci for cuci; qq for cuca ; qt> for cum ; aq for aca ; aoq for an oióci (the figure 9 being used to express the sound of the letters noio, and orthography being entirely disregarded). So ppp (i. e. cpi p, three r's) stands for the word rpiap ; nc. for inn ; bh" (the letter h representing the syllable uar, which is the Irish name of the letter) for buaó ; m (i.e. a ap m, a upon m) for apm ; m (m ap m, m upon m) for impim ; ui (cuic m, mfell, or m in- verted) íor cuieirn ; pp (oap, double p, or b, which has nearly the same sound as p) for t>oib ; 1 (e ap i, e upon 1) for eipje ; 5 (he ap 5, he upong)iox h-eipje; in all which cases the sound of the Irish words by app. i.] Of Contractions and Abbreviations. 433 which the symbol would be described, is made to stand for the word intended by the abbreviation. But the contractions of this class are rather riddles than legitimate abbreviations, and are not found in any manuscripts of authority. The foregoing rules are intended merely to indi- dicate the principles upon which the most important contractions found in Irish manuscripts have been formed ; to write a complete treatise on the subject would be inconsistent with the limits of the present publication; it must suffice, therefore, to give the fol- lowing examples of the combined use of some of the foregoing contractions, for the exercise of the learner : a 5 h . . . a^aiD. c 35 • . . cumupj. aób . . . aóbap. c 3 m 3 • . . coparhlup. ab . . . . aoeipep. 00m . . . oorhain. utp . ; . anocc a . i>ubc . . . oubaipc. e, . . . béapup. Dpi . . . . ouicpi. b fc . . . Beic. s _ oepm . oepipmn. b 7 . . . . beir. bit . . . . oileajaó. C . . car. oinge . . . opoinje. caoip , . . cacaoip. IP • - . . eioip. a . . . . concpa. IP • ■ . . íoip, eioip. o.p . . . concpapóacc. IP*. . &c. (a5upapoile b ). of . . . Conacc. F a 5 b . . . pajbail. c 7 . , . . céo or céao. c F • . . pec. 05b . . . conjbail. pp . . . . péioip. cfac , . . cumaccac. P • ' . . pém. C3] . , . . cúipi. e a F a 5 • • • FPea5P a - a In this example it will be or no, and f for sed, or acr. observed, that t is used for vel, b Or et reliqua. 3k 434 Of Contractions and Abbreviations. [app. i. h ■ ■ • . FPT- tc . . . . noc. c 5 • • • 5 aó - p . . . . pann. 5 1Ó 7 ■ • . jióeaó. pe . . . poime. 57 • • . jióeaó. s p . . . . péip. if . , • . ípeaó. r b 5 • • . . peapbup. . injean. peKe . . peime. .1. , wixmtidestfOrviz. fP • • . . ppiopao. b in . , ínaó. caih . . . canaipce. iricmab • . mapanabap. cainj . . . cappainj. fhci. • • . map ceipin. cailt . . . cpuailleaó myf • . meéacc. a _ . . cpacc. mocb . • . moehujaó. a uap . uaccap. w . t 9 . neirh. There is another symbol used in all ancient and some modern manuscripts, which although not, properly- speaking, a contraction, may conveniently be explained here. When a line ended short, leaving a blank space, the next line was continued in that space, the words so inserted being separated from the concluding words of the preceding paragraph by the mark CO called ceann pa eiue (i. e. head tender the wing), or cop pa copan (i. e. turn under the path). This is of various forms : -JOr* (£) Q QO 000 /p. In the Book of Armagh the ceann pa eice is made simply thus, ff. Thus, 000 oon ct .c.na tc labp3 Don b) loip^c - doupeiua meoicina Ctft SO IN UCCS CCCIb. Med. MS. on Vellum, 1414. Ip pom^c íoaippí anopT. peib pocoailleo t)aip mop c popaba . c . c . cfin boi ípl maijmipi". Leabhar Breac, fol. 16, b. b. Where the line above, following the mark 000 or /p, is to be read after the line below. app. l] Of Contractions and Abbreviations. 435 In the Book of Kells the ceann pa eice is represented under grotesque figures of men and animals, highly ornamented, and curiously coloured. Its form, however, is very various and arbi- trary in different manuscripts : from its name it seems probable, that it was originally made in some form that suggested the idea of a bird with its head under its wing. In some manuscripts, a part of the line is sometimes, though rarely, carried to the line below, particularly when at the bottom of the page, in which case the character has a different form from that used when the matter is carried up. A full dot under a letter cancels it, and the caret ( A ) of modern manuscripts is generally represented by .. or -v ~ or // Sometimes when a word is intended to be erased, dots are placed under all the letters of it : and we also sometimes find the dots both over and under the letters to be erased. II. SPECIMENS OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. The object of the following extracts is to furnish the reader with some specimens of the Irish language, as it was written at different periods, from the seventh to the seventeenth centuries. The extracts are selected chiefly from such manuscripts as are accessible to the Author in Dublin. I. The following specimen of the Irish language is taken from Tirechan's Annotations on the Life of St. Patrick, written in the seventh century, and pre- served in the Book of Armagh, fol. 18. tDulluiD pcccpicc o Chfmuip Patrick went from Tara into hi cpich Caijfn, conpancacap 7 the territory of Leinster, so that tkibchach mace LI ^ujip ucc he and Dubthach Mac U Lugir t)omnuch map Cpiachap, la met at Domnuch Mor Criathar, Ctuu Cfnpelich. Qlipp paqnee in Hy-Kinsellagh. Patrick re- t)ubchach ím t>amnae .n.fpp- quested Dubthach about a mate- cuip oa oepciplib t>i Caignib, ries of a bishop of his disciples mon, pfp pofp, pochfniuil, cfn on, for the Lagenians, to wit, a man cfn amim, nabippu bfee, naoip- free, of good family, without po map bet>a, pommae coip- stain, without blemish, who climm, pfp oenpecche, du na would not speak little or much pucchae ace ofncuipciu. pPT" of flattery ; learned, hospitable ; 5apct)ubchach,nipfcoppaoim- a man of one wife, for whom app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 437 muintip ace piacc Pino 01 ^aijnib, ouchooio huaimpe hi eipe Connachc. Gmail lm- minbpaipec conacacap Place Pino cucu. Qpbepc t)ubchach ppi parpicc, caip oum bfppao- pa aip pumpepe in pfp oum- mim oibnaao ouabfppao cap mu chfnnaip íp map ajoipe. Ip oipin bin puppairh Piacc Pino tDubchach, 7 bfppiup pacpicc 7 baicpiup. Oubbepc 5"pab .n.fppcoip poip, comb e fppcop ni pin cieapuoipcneb la £015- niu, 7 bubbepe paepicc cum- each bu Piacc, abon clocc, 7 menpcip 7 óachall, 7 poolipe Cc pácab moppfpfp laip bia muincip, .1. TTIuchacocc Inpe there was born but one child. Dubthach answered, I know not of my people but Fiacc Finn of the Lagenians, who went from me into the country of Con- naught. As they were speaking, they saw Fiacc Finn coming towards them a . Dubthach said to Patrick, come to tonsure me, for I have found the man who will save me and take the ton- sure in my place, for he is very near. Then Fiacc Finn relieved Dubthach, and Patrick tonsures and baptizes him. He conferred the degree of bishop upon him, so that he was the first bi- shop consecrated in Leinster. And Patrick gave Fiacc a case b a This passage is translated from the original Irish closely enough, by Colgan, in his Tri- partite Life of St. Patrick, Pt. iii. c. 21. It runs thus: "Cúm S. Patricius Temoriá in regio- nem Lageniaa australis Hy-Kenn selach dictam esset profectus ; convenit in campo, Mag criethar vulgo appellato, vbi postea aadi- ficata est Ecclesia de Domnach- mor, regium ilium poetam Dub- thachum Lugarij filium, &c. &c. Cum eo tunc familiariter agens vir beatus, petiit ab ipso vbi reperiret iuxta Apostoli pra> scriptum vnias vxoris viriim, so- brium, prudentem, ornatum, hos- pitalem, Doctorem ; queni ordi- natum Episcopum illi prouinciae praeficeret. Respondit Dubtha- chus, omnes illas qualitates repe- riri in quodam suo discipulo Fieco Erici filio, cuius vxor nuper relicto vnico filio, Fiachrio nomine, decesserat, quemque ipse istis diebus misit in Connaciam, &c, &c. Dum autem in his versarentur sermonibus, conspi- ciunt redeuntem Fiecum."- Trias Thaum. p. 152, col. 2. b A case, cumcac This word is used in ancient manuscripts to denote a case, box, or shrine, for preserving relics. It is derived from the verb corhao, or coim- eao, to keep, or preserve. The word cumcac, or cumbac, is also used to denote a building, cedifir cinm, in which sense it is derived from curhoai^, to build ; Lat. condo See Book of Bally mote. 438 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. ii. pail, Qugupnn Inpfo bicae, Cfcan, Oiapmuic, Mainoic, Pool, Peoelmeo. Conjab ictp- puioiu l nOomnuch pficc, fc bai ano concopchapeap cpi picfnc pfp bia muincip laip ano. Oippin oulluio in caingel cuci containing a bell, a menstir c , a crozier, and a Poolire d ; and he left seven of his people with him, i. e. Muchatocc of Inis Fail, Augustin of Inisbec, Tecan, Diarmuit, Naindith, Pool, Fedel- med. He after this e set up at fol. 3, p. b, col. a, and Cor mac's Glossary, voce Gicoe. c Menstir — In a manuscript preserved in the Library of Tri- nity College, Dublin, H. 1. 15. p. 975, this word is written minipcip, and explained mion- ncnpcip, i. e. a travelling relic ; and is defined by Duald Mac Firbis, in his Glossary of the Brehon Laws, as a relic carried about to be sworn upon. d Pooluire. — This word, which is also written polaipe and pol- len pe, is explained in a manu- script in Trinity College, Dublin, H. 3. 18. p. 523, ctinm oo ceij liubcnp, "a name for a book satchel ;" and this is unquestion- ably its true meaning, though Colgan, in translating the Tri- partite Life of St. Patrick, un- derstands it to mean writing tablets, as in the following pas- sage : " Ibi tresfundavit Ecclesias. Prima fuit Kellfine, ubi libros reliquit una cum scrinio in quo SS. Petri et Pauli reliquia? asser- vabantur, et tabulis in quibus scribere solebat vulo;o Pallaire appellatis." — Trias T/iaum, page 123. e Colgan, who understood the ancient Irish language well, and was assisted by some of the best expounders of it living in the middle of the seventeenth cen- tury, translates the original Irish of this passage in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, as follows, which gives us a clearer idea of what is briefly and imperfectly told in the Book of Armagh : " Dúm autem in his versarentur sermonibus, conspiciunt redeun- tem Fiecum ; quern cum in eum videret ferri animum Patricij sta- tuit Dubthachus pertrahere, ad consentiendum votis sancti viri, licet ipse alias non nisi aegré eius careret presentiá. Et in hunc finem S.Patricius et Dubthachus pium talem concipiunt artum. Simulant enim Dubthachum esse mox manu Patricij tondendum in clericum. Quod eum superue- niens intelligeret Fiecus, ad sanctum Pontificem ait ; Pater sancte, nunquid praestaret me potius in clericum tondere," &c. e Colgan translates this whole passage, nearly word for word, in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, as follows. Some of the Irish phrases in the Book of Armagh are inserted in brackets after Colgan's translation : " Mansit autem sanctissimus Episcopus et Abbas Fiecus in ilia Ecclesia de Domnach Fiec, donee ante se ad coelum sexaginta sanctos ex discipulis praemiserit. Postea autem venit ad eum an- gelus Domini dicens quod non app. il] Specimens of the Irish Language. 439 7apbepc ppip, ip F pi abmn aniap aca cfpfpje hi Cuil maije; aipm l puippcip m copcc, apim- bao anb puppuimcip a ppain- cfch, pope hi puippicip inn elic ap imbab anb puppuimcip a nfclip. Qpbepc Place ppip in ainjel nanopigab concipeb Pacpicc bo choopuno a luic laip, 7 bia choipecpab, 7 com- beb huab nujjabab a locc. t)ulluib íappuibiu Pacpicc cu Place, 7 bupinb a locc lep, 7 cucpecap 7 poppuim a poppij nanb, 7 a bopapc Cpimchann in pope pin bu pacpicc, ap ba pacpic bubepc baichip bu Chpimchunn ; 7 1 Slebci abpa- nacc Cpimchann. Domhnuch Feicc, and was there until sixty men of his people pe- rished there about him. Where- fore the angel came to him, and said to him, " It is to the west of the river thy resurrection is to be, in Cuil Maighe ; where they should find a hog, there they should build their refec- tory; and where they would find a doe, that there they should build their church." Fiacc said to the angel that he would not go, until Patrick should come to measure the place with him, and to consecrate it, and in order that it might be from him he should receive the place. After this, Patrick went to Fiacc, and measured the place along with him, and consecrated and built his establishment ; and Crim- thann granted that place to Pa- trick, for it was Patrick that had administered baptism to Crim- thann ; and in Slebti Crimthann was interred. ibi esset locus resurrectionis eius, sed trans flumen ad occidentem" [ppi abmn amap]: "mandatque quod ibi in loco Cuil muige dicto, monasterium erigat, singulis offi- cinis locum proprium et con- gruum assignans. Monuit enim vt refectorium extruat" [anb puppuimcip a ppaincfch], "vbi aprum ; et Ecclesiam vbi ceruam repererit" [pope hi puippirip in elic]. "Eespondit Angelo vir sanctus, et obediential specimen, se non audere Ecclesiam extru- endam inchoare, nisi prius eius pater et Magister Patricius eius locum, et mensuram metaretur et consecraret" [bo choopuno a luic laip 7 bia choipecpabj. " Patricius ergo monitus, et ro- 440 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. ii. II. The following extract is from the Vision of Adamnan, preserved in the Leabhar Breac of the Mac Egans, fol. 127, now in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. Adamnan was born A. D. 624, and lived seventy- seven years. There appears no reason to ques- tion the antiquity of the Vision, which it is hoped will shortly be published by the Irish Archaeological Society. O po paillpij epa ainjel na coemcechca bo anmain Goam- nain na p ipi-pea plaéa nime 7 céo immcup cecha h-anma lap cecc a cupp, puc laip lap pin do achapcnam ípipn mich- capaij co n-immub a pian ocup a éobepnam. Ip é cpa cecna cip ppip a compancacap, .1. cip noub n-bopca, ip e polomm poloipcri cen pein ícip anb. Jjlenb Ian 00 cenib pip anall; lappap anb co ceic bapa h-opa pop cech lech ; bub a h-ichcap ; bepj a mebon 7 a uachcap. Ochc m-biapca anb ; a púili amail bpucca cencibi. t)poicec bom bapp in n jlenb ; gabaib onb up co apoile ; apb a mebon, iple umoppa a chinb; cpi ploij ic a When the guardian angel had shewn to the soul of Adamnan these visions of the Lord of hea- ven, and the first adventures of every soul after departing from the body, he afterwards brought it to revisit the lower regions of many pains and punishments. The first region they met is a black dark region, which is bare, burned, without any punishment at all. On the hither side of it is a valley full of fire, in which the flame rises over its borders on every side ; its lowest part is black, its middle and upper part is red. There are eight monsters here, their eyes like glowing masses of iron. There is a bridge over the valley; it extends from gatus venit ad ilium locum, qui Slepte, vulgo, .i. montes, appella- tur, et iúxta Angeli prsescriptum ibi basilicas et monastery jécit et consecravit fundamenta. "Locus autem ille in quo Slep- tensis Ecclesia et monasterium extructum est non Fieco sed Patricio donatus est á Crim- thanno Kinselachi filio, Rege Lageniae : qui paulo ante á Sancto Patricio salutari intinctus est lauacro, et postea in eodem se- pultus est loco." — Trias Tkaum., p. 155, col. 1. app. il] Specimens of the Irish Language. Ail aipmipcoia inoccucc, 7 ni h-uili po peguc caipip. SI05 Oib ip lechan 001b in opoichec o cup co oepiuo, co poichec ojplan cen uamun oapp in ngleno cen- cioi. SI05 ele cpa ic a moc- cacc; coel 001b ap cúp h-é, lecan pa oeoio, co poicec amail pin oapp in ngleno cecnai. In ploj oeoenach umoppa, lechan 001b ap cúp b-e ; coel cpa ocup cumanj pa oeoio, cu coicec 01a meoon ip in ngleno njaibcech cecnai, 1 m-bpaijab na n-occ m-biapc m-bpucach ucuc, pe- pac a n-aiccpeb ip in glmo. Ip é cpa lin Oiap bo poipb in pec pin, .1. oep 0151 ocup oep aic- pijri lepi, ocup oep oepg-map- cpa ouchpaccaiji 00 T)ia. Ip 1 cpa popeno oiap bo cumunj ap cúp ocup oiap bo lecan lapam in pec, .1. opeamm cimaipccep ap ecin 00 oenum coli C)e, ocup poaic a n-ecin 1 colcnaigi pog- numa oon coimoib. Ip 001b umoppa ba lecan ap zuy in opoicec, ocup cumanj ba oeoio, .1. 00 na pecoacbaib concuaipec ppi ppocepc bpécpi t)e, ocup nac ap comallac lapam. one brink to the other ; its mid- dle part is high, its extremities low. Three hosts occupy it at- tempting to cross, but they do not all get across it. For one host this bridge is broad from beginning to end, so that they pass safely without fear over the fiery valley. Another host oc- cupy it, for whom it is first narrow but finally wide, so that thus they pass across the same valley. But for the last host it is wide at first but narrow and strait finally, so that they fall from the middle of it into the same dan- gerous valley, into the mouths of those eight fiery monsters which have their abode in the valley. The host for whom this passage is easy are the people of chastity and devout penitence, and the people who have devotedly suf- fered red martyrdom for the sake of God. The crowd for whom the passage is narrow at first, and wide afterwards, are those who are at first brought with difficulty to do the will of God, but who af- terwards turn with ardent will to the service of the Lord. Those for whom the bridge is broad at first and narrow finally, are the sinners who listen to the preach- ing of the Word of God, and who do not afterwards fulfil it. 3 L 442 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. it Gcac bom ploij bímópa 1 n- bichumanj na péne ppip in cip n-ecap-puapca anall, ocupcech pa n-uaip cpaijib in pian bib, in uaip ele coec caippib. lp íac rpa pilec íp in pern pin, .1. in luce bianib comepom a maich ocup a n-olc ; ocup 1II0 bpach 1 mibpichep ecuppu, ocup bile^- penb a maich a n-olc íp in lo pin, ocup bepchap lapum do pupec becab, 1 ppecnapcup jnupi t)é epi bicpip. There are also great hosts in. the power of the pain at the hither side of the temperate region, and in alternate hours the pain de- parts from them, and again comes over them. Those who are in this pain are they whose good and evil are equal ; and in the day of judgment an estimation shall be made between them, and the good shall dissolve the evil, and they shall be afterwards brought to the harbour of life, before the countenance of God for ever. III. The Pater Noster, as in the Leabhar Breac, fol. 124, b, a. The English is a translation of the Irish, not of the Latin. Sic epjo opctbicip. óuo am- Sic ergo orabitis. Thus then lam po bin 00 gnfchi fpnaijche. ye shall make prayer. Pater pacep nopcep qui eip incoelip, noster qui esin coelis,sanctifi- cetur nomen tuum. O Father who art in the heavens, sanctified be thy name. Adueniat regnum tuum. May thy kingdom come. Fiat uoluntas tua sicut in coelo panccipicecup nomen cuum. Q achaip pil hi nimib, noem- chap chainm. Gbufniac pej- num cuum. Uofc bo plaichiup. Piac uoluncap cua picuc in coelo ec in ceppa. 61b bo coil et in terra. May thy will be in 1 calmain amail aca in mm. earth as it is in heaven. Panem Panfm nopepam cocibianam nostram cotidianam da nobis ba nobip hobie. Uabaip bun hodie. Give us this day our inbiu ap papablachi. Gc bimice day's sufficiency. Et dimite no- nobip bebica nopepa, picuc ec bis debita nostra^ sicut et nos nop bimicimupbebicopibupnop- dimitimus debitoribus nostris. epip. Ocup I05 bun ap piachu And forgive to us our debts, as amail lojmaicne biap pechem- we forgive to our debtors. Et ne naib. Gc ne nop inbucap in nos inducas in temptationem. app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 443 cfmpcacionem. Ocupruplfcea And let us not [fall] into in- pmo l n-amup n-oopulaccai. tolerable temptation. Sed libera Seo libepa nop a malo. Qchc nos a malo. But free us from pon pofp o cech ulc. CCmen : every evil. Amen: may it be popF'P- true. The language of the foregoing is of great antiquity, probably of the ninth century. IV. Extract from the Annals of Tighernach (Bod- leian Library, Cod. Rawl. No. 488), who died in the year 1088. A. D. 1064. t)onnchao, mac Ópiain óopoma, pi muriiun, t>o aehpigao, 7 a mil 00 "Roim 01a ailicpi, co n-epbuilc ano lap m-buaio cnchpije a mainipnp Soepain. A. D. 1066. — "Recla monjac, A. D. 1064. Donnchadh, son of Brian Boromha, king of Munster, was deposed and went to Rome on a pilgrimage, and died there, after the victory of penance, in the Monastery of St. Stephen. A. D. 1066. — A bristly star, injnao aobal, 00 paicpm íp in a great wonder, was seen in aep, 01a maipc, iap mion-cáipc hie pope Kal. lTlai co 111 -pcpc. puippe. T?o b'é a met) ocup a poillpe, co n-epbapcacap oaine cop bo epca,ocupco cenb cerpe la bai ano. Jylla bpuioi, mac tDomnaill, mic Uijepnain, mic Uuljaipj, micNeillUi Rucupc, pij ópeipne, bo mupBao oo mac ^5 ilia Cutpji h-Ui Cinain 00 corp maipc, 1 n-oilen t)uine Gchaip, ap 6och mac nen. Qibino, ingen Ui Concobaip, ben h-Ui TTluipecen quieuic. the firmament on the Tuesday after little Easter, after the ca- lends of May, with the 23rd of the moon upon it. Such was its size and light, that people said it was a moon, and it re- mained for four days. Gilla Bruidi, son of Domhnall, son of Tighernan, son of Ualgarg, son of Niall O'Rourke, king of Breifne, was killed by the son of Gilla Corr O'Cinaith, with the leg of a cow, on the island of Dun Achair, in Lough Mac Nen. ÍTIac Conam^ h-Ui ffluipicen, Aibinn, daughter of O'Conor, pijoamna Uepca, oo mapbuo the wife of O'Muiricen, died. 444 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. II. la h-CIet> h-Ua Concobaip, ocup laUaog h-Ua nfimpicen. £,uach £££. uinga o'óp do eabaipc o Uaipoelbach h-Ua ópiam, ocup o tTlac ÍTlail na m-bo o' Geo h-UaConchobaip, ap conjnom leo, ocup a oon^nom leip. The son of Conaing O'Muiricen, heir apparent of Teffia, was killed by Aedh 0' Conor and Tadhg O'Muiricen. The value of thirty ounces of gold was given by Toirdhelbhach O'Brien, and the son of Maelnambo, to Aedh O'Conor, for his assistance to them, they assisting him. V. Extract from the Annals of Boyle, a compila- tion of the thirteenth century. The original MS. of these Annals is preserved in the Library of the British Museum. MSS. Cot. Titus, A xxv f . OLn. m.^iu. Sluajeolaópian, Anno 1014. An army was led mac Cennécij, mic Copcain, la by Brian, son of Kennedy, son apopij Gpeno, ju mop mile- of Lorcan, monarch of Ireland, baib 0II-CÚ510 ceno-álaino TTIuman, 7 la fflaelpecnaill, mac t)omnaill, pij Uempac, 511 marib pep n-Gpeno ma- paen piu co CCrcliaé, 1 n-a^'o JJull jlap 7 [Djaniuapjac, 7 1 n-ajio mailmopoa, mic iTlup- caoa, pij tajen ; uaip íp e pa cmoel, 7 pa cpeopij, 7 pa cimpaic leip iac a h-inpib 7 a eileanaib com 6oclamo a n-iapcuair, 7 a Dumb, 7 a oeg- baleoib Sacpan 7 ópecan, cu lac n-Gpeno. t)eic cec lu- with the great heroes of the mighty fair-headed province of Munster ; and by Maelsechnaill, son of Domhnall, King of Tara, with the chiefs of the men of Erin along with them, to Dub- lin, against the green foreigners and Danes, and against Mael- mordha, son of Murchadh, king of Leinster, for it was he that gathered, guided, and mustered them to him from the isles, islets of the north-east of Lochlainn, and from the forts and goodly f These Annals have been very translation, without examining incorrectly edited by Dr.O'Conor, the original MS. or understand- froin whose work Mr. D'A4ton ing the original Irish, has lately published an English Apr. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 445 pec do lupecaib leo. Uanca- eap malle cu Qé cliaé, do cup in cara cpooa, ínjancaió, nemjnaraic, pepoa, popca- mail, ná pachap pomin, ana 015010 a mac leehéic in caéa pem. lap m[b]eié paoa Doib l cup in cara pem, pa mebaiD pop JJalLaib, 7 Fop Caijnaib, pia nepc caraijre, 7 íombual- ea, 7 cpooacra, co copcaip ano pem TTlaelmopDa, mac ÍTlupcaoa, mic pino, pí^ Ca- jtjen, 7 mac ópo^apbain, mic Concubaip, pij Ua Pailgi, 7 mulci alii nobile] ; 7 áp oiap- miri 00 Caignib impu ; co copcaip ano ono 00 ^aillaib, "Oubjall, mac Gmlaib, 7 Jyl-la Chiapain, mac ^ uln - ia P a,nC) 5 7 Sipppair, mac £ooaip, íapla Inpi Ope, 7 ópóoop, coipec na n-[t)]anmapcac, 7 luce na oeic céc lupec uli, 7 cpica céc 00 5 a ^ a,D a na i^ u o" u D0 cocim ano. T?a coic ano pein imoppu niupcao, mac ópiain, upopijoamna Gpeno, 7 Cop- oelbac a mac, aobup apopij Bpeno, co cpicaic píj^ impu 00 Conaccib 7 00 TTIumnecaib, .1. filorla, mac Domnaill, mic Paelain, pig na n[t)]épi, 7 Gocu, mac Dunaoaij, 7 Niull Ua Cumo, 7 Cúoulic, mac Chennécij, epi comeci 6piain, towns of Saxonland and Britain, to the land of Erin. Of coats of mail they had ten hundred. They came together to Dublin, to fight a brave, wonderful, un- usual, manly, heroic battle, the like of which had not been seen before, and will not occur again. After they had been for a long time engaged in the battle, the foreigners and Lagenians were defeated by dint of battling, striking, and bravery ; and there were slain therein Maelmordha, son of Murchadh, son of Finn, king of Leinster, and Mac Bro- garbhan, son of Conchubhar, king of Ui Failghi, and many other noblemen, and an innu- merable slaughter of the Lage- nians around them : and there fell therein of the foreigners Dubhgall, son of AmlafF; Gilla Ciarain, son of Gluiniarainn ; Siffraith, son of Loder, earl of the Orkneys ; and Broder, chief of the Danes ; and the party of the ten hundred coats of mail, and thirty hundred of the fo- reigners of the army fell therein. There fell therein, moreover, Murchadh, son of Brian, heir apparent to the monarchy of Ireland, and Tordelbhach, his son, mat erics of a monarch of Ireland, with thirty kings around 446 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. ii. 7 Uabj, mac TTlupcaba, pi Ua TTlaini, 7 lTlaelpuanaib Ua 6bin, pig Ctbni, 7 Cumupcben- nac mac t)ubcon, pi pepmaiji, 7 Tllac 6ecab, mac TTIupebaij, Cloín, pi Chiappaiji ^uacpa, 7 T)cmnall, mac t)iapmaca, pi Copcu óaipcinb ; 7 Scanlan, mac Caéail, pig Gojanacca Coca Cein, 7 Domnall, mac 6mm, mic Camnaich moip, .1. móp-maep in Qlbain, 7 alii mulei nobilep. Gp anb pem pa bi in eapbpí ópian, mac Cennecich, ap cúl in caca 7 Conuinj, mac Duinbcuan, mac a bpaéap, ac jabail a palm, cu banic enpep bu na Oanmapcaib po láim jan [p]'P ba muincip 511 nugi in n-mac íppabi 6pian 7 Conamj, 7 ób connaic in m[b]aej5;al, íp cocbaip in laim 7 abaig beim clobeim bon apb- pij, 7 ip cocbaip apipi in laim aip 7 abaic beim bo Conaing, mac Ouinbcuan, 7 mapbaip an[b] ip íac. 7 in eobem loco occipup epc ippe. ópian, mac Chennecijjj, mic Copcam, apb- pij h-6penb 7 ^>all, bo cucim 1 car Cluana ba capb ma Con- ainj, mic (Duinbcuan, 7 ma niupcbab, mic ópiam, 7 ma Copbelbac, mac fTlupcaba, mic ópiain ; 7 pugacap maip na óaclalpu po cecoip acuipp them of the Connacians and Momonians, viz. Mothlo, son of Domhnall, son of Faelan, King of the Desies ; Eochu, son of Dunadhach ; Niall O'Quin, and Cudulich, son of Kennedy, the three life guards of Brian ; and Tadhg, son of Murchadh, King of Hy-Many ; and Maelruanaidh O'Heyne, King of Aidhni ; and Cumuscbennach, son of Dubh- chu, King of Feara Muighi ; and Mac Beathadh, son of Muiredh- ach Cloen, King of Ciarraighi Luachra ; and Domhnall, son of Diarmaid, King of Corca Bas- cinn ; and Scanlan, son of Ca- thal, King of Eoghanacht Locha Lein ; and Domhnall, son of Emin, son of Cannach Mor, i. e. Great Steward in Scotland ; and many other nobles. Where the monarch Brian, son of Ke- nedy, was at this time, was be- hind the battle with Conaing, son of Donnchuan, his nephew, singing their psalms, so that one man of the Danes underhand, unknown to his people, to the place where Brian and Conaing were, and when he observed them in jeopardy (i. e. unpro- tected), he raised the hand, and gave a blow of his sword to the monarch ; and he raised again the hand, and gave a blow to app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 447 leó ju Cipo TTIaca, 7 pa hat>- Conaing, son of Donnchuan, and laicic $u honopac íac, 7 cu slew them both ; et in eodem uapal opmicnec ano. loco occisus est ipse. There fell, moreover, in the battle of Clon- tarf, Brian, son of Kennedy, son of Lorcan, monarch of Ireland, and of the Danes, with Conaing, son of Donnchuan Murchadh, son of Brian, and Tordelbhach, son of Murchadh, son of Brian; and the keepers of the Staff of Jesus brought their bodies with them without delay to Armagh, and interred them there honour- ably, nobly, and respectfully. VI. From the old Annals of Innisfallen, in the Bod- leian Library, Rawlinson, No. 503, a compilation of the fourteenth century , A. D. 709. Gceppcel, mac A. D. 709. Eterscel, son of lTlaelouin, pi Cappil, mopicup. Maolduin, King of Cashel, mori- Inopeo 6pe£ la Cachal mac tur. The plundering of Bregia Pinjuine, piTOuman,ocupipiap by Cathal, son of Finguine, King pein do ponpac pm ocup pep- of Munster, and after this he and gal mac TTIaelouin, pi Cem- Fergal, son of Maelduin, King pach, ocup giallaip Pepjal of Tara, made a peace, and Fer- bo Cachal. Qp ice .u. pi£ do gal gave hostages to Cathal. jabpac h-Gpino lap cpeam, Do The following were the five TTiuimnechaib, .1. Oenjup mac kings of the Momonians who Naoppaich, ocup a mac, .1. obtained the sovereignty of Ire- GochaiD, qui hibepniam pepcic land after the reception of the .pcun. annip, ocup Cachal mac Faith, i. e. Oengus, son of Nad- Pinjume, ocup PeiDlimiD mac fraech, and hissonEochaidh,<7&é Cpimchainn, ocup ópian, mac Hiberniam remit xuii. annis ; Cennecich. Cathal, son of Finguine, and Fe- lim, son of Crimhthann, and Brian, son of Kennedy. 448 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. it. A. D. 824. ITIópbal pep n- ©periD l Cluain pepca ópen- amb, ocup Niall, mac Geoa, pi Uempach, bo piapab Peblim- mib, mic Cpimchainn, cop bo Ian pi h-Gpeno Peblimmib in la pein, ocup co n-beppib h-i pume abbao Cluana pepca. A. D. 826. PemlimmiD do m- bpub Ceche Cuino o cha 6ippa coUempaich, ocup a chopcub i Cempaich, ocup^opmlaich, m- jen PTIupchaba, pij Caijen, bo jabail co n-a banchupe, ocup lnbpechcach, mac lYIaelouin, oo mapbab laip i Uempaich. A. P. 824. A meeting of the men of Ireland at Clonfert- Bren- dan, and Niall, son of Aedh, King of Tara, submitted to Fedh- limidh, son of Crimhthann ; so that Fedlimidh was full King of Ireland on that day, and he sat in the seat of the abbots of Clonfert. A. D. 826. Feidhlimidh plun- dered Leath Chuinn from Birr to Tara, and stopped at Tara and captured Gormlaith, the daugh- ter of Murchadh, King of Lein- ster, with her band of female attendants ; and Indrechtach, son of Maelduin, was slain by him at Tara. VII. Extract from a tract of the Brehon Laws, pre- served in a manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin, E. 3. 5. p. 432, col. a. Bark for tanning [a pair of~\ shoes, or a bridle, as told in the books : there is an inherent right to strip it from a neighbouring tree, so as it is not exceeded. If it is exceeded, however, if it be bark Coipceaj bpo£, no Coipcea£ aóapcaip, amail inbipep íp na lebpuib : puiblep pin oo buain a pio comaichcepa, ace na 013 éaipip. nia bo cuaib caipip imoppa, mapacopceóbopeicheb bo ben, ba banappa inb íp piu for tanning a cow hide that is lecpcpepall. TTIapacopceb bam stripped, the penalty is two wo- peicheb po ben be, ba pep appa m-a bipe íp piu pcpepall; ocup ní páinij cpa epian caipbib ; ocup bia poipeb íp a pia-jail pe lan-cimchell a mipaib mapb- bacaij no pe leccimchell, a men's shoes worth half ascrepall. If it be bark for an ox hide that is stripped, two men's shoes worth a screpall is the penalty. And this is when not one-third of the round of the tree has been stripped ; and mipaib beobacai£. Ocup mapa should a third be stripped it is app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 449 luja inú lán-cimchell po benaó equal to the full circumference in oe, inc-ainmpainoe ooncimcell the killing months, or to half do benaó De jup ab é ni c-ainm- the circumference in the months painoe pin Do'n Ian oipe icup which do not kill the tree. And if a mipaib mapboacaij, no oo'n less than the full circumference lee oipe a mipaib beooacaij. has been stripped, the proportion No íp do net cpcinoctib ílapóa of the circumference which has po benaó in can aca in pepep- been stripped is the proportion of all, no in lecpcpepall mo, 510 the full penalty which shall be pe oecbepup, 510 pe h-moebe- paid in the killing months, and pup po benaó Dib pin. No Don of half penalty in the months íp ano aca pm in can íp pe Dec- which do not kill the tree. Or, bepup po benaó; ocup oamaó where the fine is a screpall, or pe h-inoecbepup imoppa gomaó half a screpall, the bark was a piajail pe caippobe a mi stripped off many trees, whether mapboacaij no beooacaij po they were stripped with necessity céoóip. Q5 po a corhaichchep or without necessity, or, this is po uile: mapa eaja do pijne íp when they were stripped from in cpano, in c-ainmpainDe Do'n necessity. And if it be without cimcell in cpainn po leoaip necessity, then the rule is that gup ab é in c-ainmpainoe pin the case be referred to the "kill- Dia lán Dipe a mi mapboacaij, ing or unkilling months." The no Dia lecDipe a mi beooacuij following is the summary of all icap. this. If it be a notch that is made in the tree, the proportion of the tree that is stripped is to re- gulate the amount of full penalty in a killing month, or half penalty in a month which does not kill. VIII. Extract from a medical manuscript, on vel- lum, dated 1352, now in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. This extract treats of the cure of Scabies, or dry Scurvy. tabpum anoip do leijep r\a Let us now speak of the cure h-eplainci po, oip íp éijjjin neci of this disease, for many things 3 M 450 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. il ímoao'paábcul D'álei^ep; ocup if é céo leijep íp pepp oo óé- narh ói, .1. na lenna cpuaillijci óo jlanao maille caceppupia; óip a oeip Quicenna 'p an 4 Can. co n-oéin in polmujaó naleanna loipji o'inapbao. Gn 2. ní, oilerhain bió ocup oi£i b'opoujaó bóib ; an cpep n<, an e-aóbap 00 óileajaó ; an 4. ní, a n-innapbaó 50 h-imlán ; an 5. ní, pocpaicci bo óénum bóib ; an 6. ní, íp eijin liccubepi corii- pupcacca 00 cobaipc bóib. Qn 7. ní, íp éijin neici noc aen- cuijiup piu bo cobaipc bóib, muna poib an copp línca oo bpoc-leannaib. lp éi^in uinniminbci 00 coi- milc ap cúp t>e, oip íp móp in popcacc íp in epluinci po, map 00 cíópem cap ap n-éip. lcem, bepbcap pumireppa a meój jlan, 7 cuip 3, no cpí3 oo pene aip, oip poipió pe pecti- ^ao na leannann, oa ngnáéuij- rep, 7 jlanaib íao o na ímap- cpaij ; 7 muna pa^cap meój bainne gabaip cuiji po, gab puj pumieeppa 7 cime, 7 pca- biopa, 7 bubcopaij, 7 ae aba; 7 maó aimpjp pampa, bepbcap, 7 jlaneap, 7 cabaip maille must be got for its cure ; the first cure which is best to be made is to clean the corrupted humours with caterfusia ; for Avicenna says, in the fourth Cann., that evacuation causes an expulsion of the burned hu- mours. The second thing, to order the patients a proper regi- men of meat and drink ; the third thing, to digest the mat- ter ; the fourth thing, to expel them completely ; the fifth thing, to prepare a bath for them ; the sixth, it is necessary to give them strengthening lictub. The seventh, it is necessary to give them such things as agree with them, unless the body be full of bad humours. It is necessary to rub the part affected with ointments at first, for they afford great relief in this disease, as we shall see hereafter. Item, let fumitory be boiled on pure whey, and put a drachm j or three drachms, of senna upon it, for this relieves the corrup- tion of the humours, if habitu- ally taken, and it purges them of superfluities ; and if the whey of goat's milk be not at hand for this purpose, take the juice of fu- mitory and thyme, and scabiosa, and polytricum, and hepatica ; app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 451 rneoj no le h-epicime, 7 if po maic. and, if in summer time, let them be boiled and cleansed, and given with whey or epitime ; and it is very good. Secondly, understand that one afflicted with this disease should dn .2. ni 0I1510 00 robaipe 00, cuig nac oliginn pen na h-eplain- ci po biaoa paillce na géapa 00 not eat salt or bitter meats, and concern, 7 recnao gac uile biao let him avoid every kind of diet bo ni lop 50:0 polu oeip^i, map which causes a burning of red acalup, 7 uineamain^jaipleog, blood, such as leeks, onions, 7pibup, 7mil,7a5-comparriaile; garlic, pepper, honey, and the jioeaó péoaió mil bo bepbuó like ; but he may take honey ina paerpai jib, 7 jan a cairem boiled in the combs, but not to map cuio. 7 0I151Ó pé neici use it at supper. And he should jéapa 00 pecnaó, map acci gpe- avoid bitter things, such as unca poma, 7 clobup, 7 neiri pomegranates and cloves, and oiupeiciceca ofip a cooac ; 7 diuretic things, after his supper, pfcnaó na biaóa jeniup puil And let him avoid such meats bep£ maille h-imougaó leanna as generate red blood, together Duibe, map acá peoil maipe, 7 with an accumulation of the mil maije, 7 piaóa, 7 jannoail 7 melancholic hum or, such as lacan, 7peoil cpaillei 7I01P5C1, beef, the flesh of a hare, of a 7 pencaipi, paill, 7 a cupamaili. gander, and of a duck, and salt burned meat, old cheese, bacon, and the like. IX. Extract from O'Hickey's medical manuscript, dated 1420 ; now in the possession of Mr. Robert Mac Adam, of Belfast, merchant. TDap benup ceapcujaó aciDi- As the rectifying of the disor- 51 na h-anmu pip in b-peallparh ders of the soul belongs to the mópalea, innap co cpucócaióe moral philosopher, who is to é a n-aibiocib maice, ap map arrange them in proper habits, pin benup pip in liaij an cpláin- so it belongs to the physician to ce oo coimeo coh-imcuibe; 7 preserve the health properly; an rhéio 00 rhoóaib 1 n-a claec- and as many modes as the body luijrep an copp co h-éijincac, is violently impaired, so many 452 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. n. ap í an mem pm a cá oo ciné- luib ap an leijep ; oip claec- lui^m aicíoiji na h-anma áp cuipp-ne ; ap an aóbap pin do jabap aen cinél leijeip, 7 aen pejimen uura ; 7 íp pip in liaij benup íac b'airne. 7 ap íac po na h-aicmiji pin, .1. peapj 7 jaipbecup, eajla 7 bobpon, cu- angac, 7 naipe ; oip gluaipcep an puil coilepóa cum an cpoióe a n-aimpip na peipgi ap pon coclaoibi an bijalcaip búpac- cuij, 7 jabann pé lapaó cuije cum jluapacca bona, 7 leacap nipa mó ná cóip, 7 00 nize\\ an copp co h-uile 00 línaó, 7 50 b-áipijée na boill poipimella- ca le oapacc an ceapa ; óip an uaip jluaipcep an reap 7 an ppepma cum na m-ball pin, 7 cum an cpoibe 00 péip conna- pacc, ó minceacc an jluaipce 7 o'n céajao móp eipmui^cep an copp uile; 7 íp pollop 50 b-céi- pn an peapj, áp 50 lapann pin an cpoióe 7 an ppepma, 7 co pjailcep cum na m-ball co h-uile an ceap, 7 co h-aipi^ci íp in opomj 05 a m-bí ceapláibip, 7 mopan ppepma ; jióeaó an oponj ag a m-bi zeay anpann, an uaip peapjuijrep iab, 7 coclaio bijalcap 00 óénam, ní h-eibip a ceap 00 oipjailc cum na m-ball poipimellac, ace bic na boill poipimellaca puap, different kinds of cure there are. As the diseases of the soul sub- due our bodies, so the one kind of cure and one regimen is de- rived from them ; and it is the office of the physician to know them. These are those diseases, viz. anger, joy, fear, melancholy, sorrow, and shame. For in the time of anger the choleric blood is moved to the heart, to excite it to violent revenge, and becom- ing inflamed for bold motion, it expands more than what is just, whereby the whole body is filled, particularly the external mem- bers, with the violence of the heat ; for when the heat and the sperma are driven to these mem- bers and to the heart, with vio- lence, from the frequency of the motion, and from the great heat- ing, all the body is dried ; and it is obvious that anger heats, be- cause it inflames the heart and the sperma, so that the heat is circu- lated to all the members, and particularly in the people who have strong heat and much sper- ma. But those who have weak heat, when they are angered, and desire to take revenge, the heat cannot be discussed to the exte- rior members ; but the exterior members are cold and palsied, while at the same time the heat is strong in the heart. We therefore app.il] Specimens of the Irish Language. 453 cpiecmac, an cein oo biaó an see many angered people, who ceap láioip annp a cpoióe ; ap have a desire of revenge, seized an aóbap pin do ciamaio mo- with trembling ; but this should pan oo oaoinib peapgaca ap a not be called powerful anger, but m-biao coil inoeacao 7 iae ap anger accompanied with fear, epic; 7 ni F ea P5 Foipbpiéi íp Wherefore, the change which coip 00 páó pia po, ace Feapj anger causes in the human body maille le h-ea^la. CCp an aó- is not meet in the regimen of bap pin an claocloó 00 ni peapj health, for active anger disturbs annp a copp oaonna ni h-imc- the whole reason ; therefore, let uibe a pegimen na pláinee é, the occasion of anger be avoided, oip buaiópió an F ea P5 S^róap- except as far as reason orders it eac an peapun uile; maipeaó in cases of consent. For it is peacameep aóbap na peipji ace meet, in many well -intended, an méio popálup an péapun é permitted cases, to provoke an- a 5-cúipib eoileamla ; oip im- ger, although it be not fit for cuibe FeapQ* 00 oeanarh co the regimen of health in general; mime a g-cúipib pocpaiói 7 And there are some ceaoaijceaca, 5m cob ímcuibe diseases of which anger is a a pejimen plainei b-i ; proper remedy, as Hali relates 7 aea cuio 00 na h-eapláincib in his commentary on Almusar, oap ab leijep ímcuibe peop^-, that a Duke, who was affected map mnipip hali aj oeanam with stupor, was under the care jluapa ap Qlmupap, 50 paib of a certain physician, that the oiuic ap a paib poupap, '5a physician ordered his anger to leigeap aj liaig eigin, 7 jup be provoked, and that, as soon popail an liai 5 peapj 00 co- as the anger was produced, he Q-aipm aip, 7 ap njemeariiain was cured of the stupor, na peipje, gup leigeapuó é ó'n poupap. X. Extract from Bishop Carsuel's Gaelic translation of the Confession of Faith, Forms of Prayer, &c, used in the Reformed Church of Scotland : printed in the year 15G7 S . 8 This is the passage so often concerning the antiquity of Os- referred to in the controversy sian's poems. A free translation 454 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. ii. {From the Epistle Dedicatory.) Acht ata ni cheana is raor an leathtrom agas an uireasbhuidh ata riamh orainde h Gaoidhil Al- ban agus Eireand, tar an gcuid eile don domhan, gan ar gcan- amhna Gaoidheilge do chur agcló riamh mar ataid a gcanamhna But there is one thing, it is a great distress and want that we the Gaels of Alba and Erin have ever laboured under, beyond the rest of the woild, that our dia- lects of the Gaelic have never yet been printed, as their dialects agus a dteangtha fein a gcló ag and tongues have been by every gach uile chinel dhaoine oile sa race of people in the world ; and domhan, agus ata uireasbhuidh is mó ina gach uireasbhuidh oraind, gan an Biobla naomhtha do bheith a gcló Gaoidheilge againd, mar tá sé a gcló laidne agas bherla agas in gach tean- gaidh eile o sin amach, agas fós gan seanchus ar sean no ar sind- sear do bheith mar an gcedna a gcló againd riamh ; acht ge tá cuideigindotseanchus 1 Ghaoidh- we labour under a want, which is greater than every want, that we have not the Holy Bible printed in Gaelic, as it has been printed in Latin, in English and in every other language whatsoever; and also that we have never had in print the his- tory of our ancients, or our an- cestors ; for though there is some portion of the history of of it has been given in the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, appointed to inquire into the nature and au- thenticity of the poems of Ossian, published by Mac Pherson. This passage is pure Irish, and agrees with the Irish manuscripts of the same period in orthography, syntax, and idiom. It is the oldest specimen of the Erse that has been as yet adduced by the Erse grammarians, though there are certainly extant older Erse compositions. This specimen disproves many grammatical rules laid down by Stewart, and shews that his Grammar is drawn from the spoken dialect of the Scotch Gaelic, and not from any manuscript or even printed au- thorities of an age much older than his own time. h , Or abide, on us. Here are several instances of nd written for nn in the Erse, a combination unknown in the modern lan- guage. See chap. III., pp. 34, 35, and chap. IV. p. 138 ; see also the words Fhind, Dhanond, &c, in this extract. 5 Do tseanchus. This is an in- stance of t being prefixed to s in a situation where it might be also aspirated. See chap. III. p. 6 1 . Various examples of this app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 455 eal Alban agas Eireand sgriobh- tha a leabhruibh lámh, agas a dtamhlorgaibh fileadh agus ol- lamhan, agas a sleachtaibh suadh , is mor tsaothair sin re sgrio- bhadh do laimh, ag fechain an neithe buailtear sa chló ar ai- bresge agas ar aithghiorra bhios gach én ni dhá mhed da chrioch- nughad leis. Agas is mor an doille agas an dorchadas peacaidh agas aineolais agas indtleach- da do lucht deachtaidh agas sgriobhtha agas chumhdaigh na Gaoidheilge, gur ab mó is mian leo agas gur ab mó ghnathuidheas siadJ eachtradha dimhaoineacha buaidheartha, bregacha saogh- alta do chumadh ar Thuathaibh Dédhanond agas ar Mhacaibh Mileadh k , agas ar na curadh- the Gaels of Scotland and Ire- land written inmanuscriptbooks, in the compositions of poets and ollavs, and in the remains of learned men, there is great la- bour in writing them over with the hand, whereas the thing which is struck off with the type, how speedily and expeditiously is it completed, be it ever so great. And great is the blindness and darkness of sin and ignorance, and of the intellect of the teach- ers, writers, and preservers of the Gaelic, that, with a view of obtaining for themselves the vain rewards of this world, they are more desirous and more ac- customed to compose, maintain, and cultivate idle, turbulent, lying, worldly stories concerning accidence are found in good Irish manuscripts, as eipj cpaillci, salt fishes ; old Med. ISIS, by John O'Callannan of Rosscarbery, da- ted 1414; oo cpp, always, Id.; oo cpeilj, to chase, paper MS. transcribed 1679, penes an.cto- rem; oom cpuipjió, to woo me, Id., p. 62. J Ghnathuidheas siad. They ac- custom. — Here is an instance of the simple present tense of the indicative mood ending in eas, for Irish parallels to which, see Part II. chap. V. p. 156, line 3. This contradicts an assertion of Stewart's Gaelic Grammar, 2nd edit. p. 97, note m , that the verbs of the Erse, except hi, is, have no simple present tense. See it remarked at p. 189. k Ar Mhacaibh Mileadh This is translated "concerning war- riors and champions," in the translation of this passage given in the Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, but most incorrectly ; for, by Macaibh Mileadh, the Irish and Scotch writers, previously to the period of the forgeries of the last two centuries, always meant "the sons of Mileadh or Milesius" from whom the Highlanders or Gaels of Scotland, as well as the Gaels of Ireland, were believed to be descended. 456 Specimens of the Irish Language. [app. it. aibh 1 agas Fhind Mhac Cumh- aill m go na fhianaibh, agas ar mhóran eile nach airbhim agas nach indisim 11 and so do chum- the Tuatha De Dananns, the sons of Milesius, the heroes, and concerning Finn Mac Cum- haill with his Fians, and con- dach, agas do choimhleasugh- cerning many others which I do not here enumerate or mention, than to write, teach, and main- tain the faithful words of God, and the perfect ways of truth. agh, do chiond luadhuidheachta dimhaonigh an tsaoghail dfhagh- ail doibh féin, ina briathra disle Dé, agas slighthe foirfe na firinde do sgriobhadh, agas dheachtadh agas do chumhdach. XL Extract from the Annals of the Four Masters. A. D. 1174. Sluaicceaó lapin A. D. 1174. An army was led íccpla o'inópaó TTlurhan. Slu- by the Earl [Strongbow] to cocceaó ele la "Ruaiópi oia him- plunder Munster. Another army oea^ail poppo. Oc cualaccap was led by Roderic to protect it na 55°'^ Ruaiópi oo code íp in against them. When the Eng- TOumain í naipeapcaéa ppiu,po lish heard that Roderic had x Ar na curadhaibh ; concerning the heroes. — By " the heroes" is here meant, not heroes in general, but the Heroes of the Red Branch in Ulster, who were generally called " The Heroes" by Irish writers of romantic tales. They flourished previously to Finn Mac Cunihaill, and were believed to be superior to him and his contemporaries in valour and feats of arms. The zealous bishop seems to have heard those stories himself from the Highland and Irish bards, who were then gain- ing more worldly emoluments by the recital of them than they would have gained by preaching the Word of God, a thing which they would not have been al- lowed to do at the time, even if they had been so inclined. m Ar Fhind Mhac Cunihaill, rendered Fingal, the son of Cumhal, in the translation above alluded to, which is also given, as approved of, by Stewart in his Gaelic Grammar, p. 198. But there is no gal in the original ! n Nach airbhim agas nach in- disim. — Here are two instances of a simple present tense of verbs different from the verb substan- tive, though Stewart asserts that this dialect wants that tense altogether. Will the Scotch grammarians ever be satisfied to tell the whole truth, or to give us fair specimens of their dia- lect from existing manuscripts ? When will they be enlightened enough to give up fabrications, and love truth better than Scot- land ? app. ii.] Specimens of the Irish Language. 457 cocuippoc JJo'M' CCca cliac Dice arrived in Minister, for the pur- paijió, 7 ni po haipipeaóleo 50 pose of giving them battle, they panjaccap 50 Ouplap. Uanaic invited the English of Dublin Ooriwall Ua 6piain 7 Dal to them, and they delayed not 5-Caip, 7 car íapéaip Connacc, till they reached Thurles. There 7 mopcar Shil TTluipfoaij, cen- came thither Donnell O'Brien and mora bipim t>ea£plua£po pace- the Dal Cais, and the battalion baó lap an pij "Ruaiópi. "Ro ofWestConnaught, andthe great pijeaó car cpoóa ecep Jyxllaib battalion of Sil- Murray, besides a 7 <5 aoii) ^ a, tt an &u r ,n ? 5° P° numerous brave host left by the ppaoineaó po oeoió cpe neapc King Roderic. A brave battle íommbualca pop na jallaib, 7 was fought between the English po mapbaó pecc cceo oécc 00 and Irish at that place, where JJhallaib íp in car pin, co nac the victory was at length gained, ceapna ace ciopuaippi beacc through dint of fighting, over beo ap in car pin t>o JJhallaib the English, and seventeen hun- imon lapla. Caeo pióe po méla dred of the English were killed 01a 05 50 popclaipge. Soaip in that battle, so that there es- Ua 6piain 01a £15 lap ccopccup. caped not from that battle but a small remnant alive of the Eng- lish, with the Earl, who repaired in sorrow to his house to Water- ford. O'Brien returned home in triumph. 3 n III. ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. The Author, on a most careful perusal of these sheets, after they had been worked off, discovered some inad- vertent mistakes, which he begs here to notice and correct as briefly as possible. Page 7, line 4, for " scarcity," read " sacristy." 22, after line 16, insert, " In ancient Irish MSS. íe is some- times used for ia." 34, line 16, for " c, m," read " c, 5, m." . „ 48, _- 12, for " ua," read " ucn." 53, — 14, for " a filib," read " a p.lib." 64, — 23, after the period here, insert: " In the fragments of Irish composition by Tirechan, in the Book of Armagh, the adventitious and eclipsing letters are separated by dots placed before and after them, thus : .n.eppcuip." 101, line 7, for " onus, oneris" read " opus, operis." 102, — 2, after the period in this line, insert, " In ancient MSS. an attempt was made to make a genitive in ae, or cu, in imitation of the Latin, as cpé met) in crnechcai,in consequence of the greatness of the snow." Vit. Moling. Suibniu madDae- laehumai. — See p. 43. 107, last line, for " after," read " before." 112, line 8, for " min," read " min." 123, — 1, for " Section 3," read " Section 4." 135, — 29, for " jiba ba é," read " 5ÍÓ ba é." 136, — 23, for " against," read " against thee." 139, — ] 4, for " jcuaib," read " cujaib." 146, — 6, for " cpb," read « cpib." , 151, — 27, cfefe "he did be, &c." 153, — 21, for "thou concealest," read "you conceal." 156, — 28, for " má ceilim," read " má ceilim." 158, — 13, for " ellipses," read " eclipsis." 158, — 19, ítefc "náp.". app. in.] Addenda et Corrigenda. 459 Page 168, — 12, for " bibmip, or íomaoip," read "bímíp, or biomaoip." 186, lines 6, 9, 10, for " ^lanpáióeap," read " glanpaíóeap." 191, — 26, for " a bpipeam," read " a bpipeann." 199, — 22, for " oo éionpnaó," read " t>o cionp^naó." 207, — 23, after the period, insert, " except in the first per- son singular, which ends in cm." 218, line 2, although acnajap is here translated "was given" it is really the historic present, and means u is given" 224, line I, for " pa m," read " paicim." 264, — 23, for " hipuioiu," rará " hipuioiu." 286, — 17, for " Ré, or pia, before the article," read " pé, or pia, before, when placed before the article." 289, line 8, for " pop oinb," read " pop cm&." 301, — 13, for " Moling," read " Molaisi." 349, — 19, for " participles," read " particles." 353, — 27, /or " Act 1," read " Act 4." 354, — 19, for " hands," rawZ " heads." . 356, — 8, for " we are not, camaoio," read " we are; not ramaoib. — 400, last line, for " unerring," read " erring. 5 dp n-a cpíocnújaó a n-Gé cliac Duiblmne le Seaan, mac Gamoinn O15 Uí Dhonnabáin, ó Qic a' cije móip, ppi Sliab Ua njjpinn a noip, a n-Uib t)eájaió Oppaije, an cúijeaó lá picioo oe mi meáóoin an c-Sarhpaió, 'p an m-bliaóain o'aoip ap o-cije- appa 1845. JJo 5-cuipió t)ia cpioc mair oppainn uile. Qmen. THE END. DATE DUE J ul 'i i : m f UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS, INC. #859-5503 o \ FBiea304 Cr^.a- 9 i^LD onovan AUTHOR TITLE j Job 2650 JO. A