A practical grammar of the Irish language

132 Pages·1844·12.254 MB·English

by  Owen Connellan

I
I

PRACTICAL GRAMMAR
OF THE
IRISH LANGUAGE.
BY
OWEN
CONNELLAN,
IrishWiHlilsitaoomfrittohhgteerhIGaeVopGhs.oepsreApluettoolhfotSohrtfe.ioSrJtfo.lthahMntea"etM"tathjGheeresawt"m"imeGsar,ttahimKecmiaan"ltgDiiGcIseansoltererrgtPlearitantixehoiaensrIyoV-nv.earsnidonKing
on Irish Grammar" Compiler of the
"AnnalsofDublin,"inPettigrew
andOulton'sDirectory,
&c.&c.
DUBLIN:
PUBLISHED BY B. GERAGHTY,
11, ANGLESEA-STREET.
1844.

DEDICATION.
TO
LORD GEORGE AUGUSTA M.RJ.A.
HILL,
MemberoftheRoyalSocietyofNorthernAntiquaries; $c.$c.
MY
LORD,
This Grammar I dedicate to your Lordship, as a
mark of my respect for your Lordship's acquirements
as an Irish Scholar, and an acknowledgment of many
favours and kind patronage, which will never be
effaced from the memory of,
My
Lord,
Your Lordship's ever grateful,
And devoted Servant,
OWEN CONNELLAN.
PREFACE.
INthis Grammar I have followed the systems of Neilson and
Haliday,as beingthemostcorrect. Inthepronunciation I have
adheredto the Connaughtdialect, which willbe found to repre-
sent as closely aspossible the proper orthography ofthe modern
language, exceptin very few instances. It would be almost an
endless, andperhaps auseless undertaking, to give the varieties
ofsounds used throughout Ireland, as applied to several letters
andwords, whichmay be either localisms or corruptions. The
pronunciation, however, which I have used, (so far as I could
represent the words by English letters,) is that spoken and
tRaouygahltBbeylftahsetIInrsitsihtuPtrioofnessaonrdsoofftthheenDeuwblCiolnlUengievoefrsSti.tyC;oloufmtbhae
at Stackallen.
I havegiven manywords and phrases collected from ancient
Irish MSS., in orderto assist the learner inreading thenearly
obsolete language in whichtheyarewritten. While I wasmyself
engagedinstudyingtheancientmanuscripts,Ifoundthesephrases
andidioms one of the greatest difficulties to be overcome, and
the examples nowgivenwill supply akey to the elucidation of
many passages, otherwise, perhaps impossible to understand. In
adictionary which I was many years compiling, most of those
antiquatedidioms are fully explained.
I acknowledge with gratitude the kindness of Sir WILLIAM
BETHAM,whohasgivenme his valuableopiniononmany pointsin
this Grammar an opinion which must now be considered of
the greatest weight on anypoint connected with the Irish lan-
guage, since he has rendered so great a service to Celtic Litera-
ture by the discovery of the identity of the Irish and Etruscan
languages an identitywhich I have no hesitation in stating, he
has, inmy humble judgment, clearly andfully establishedin his
EtruriaCeltica.
I conclude with my warmest acknowledgments forthe liberal
encouragement which has enabled me to publish this Grammar,
trustingitwillpromote the cause of Irish literature, by facilitat-
ing the acquisition ofperhaps one of the most ancient, as well as
one of the mostbeautiful and expressive languages of Europe,
and thus establish a medium of communication between the
higher and lower orders ofsociety in Ireland,
AN
IRISH GRAMMAR.
ORTHOGRAPHY.
THE IRISH ALPHABET.
I.
FORMS. Corresponding English Translation
UCaps. Small. EnAglishLetters. Names. Spelling. ofNames.
A a ^iIn?, Al"-im, Palm,
b b B b bete, Beh, Birch.
C C
c c Coll, Kull, Hazel.
O D
b d OA]ft, Ddhair, Oak.
O E
e e 6A&A, Ay-a Aspen.
V
5 G TeAjtr), Farnn, Alder.
5 g 5ojtc, Gurth, Ivy.
tI LMm1i LJuOtTJrA,, LEues-ah QYueiwc.ken.
O2W8 tr)o NO n 2NDutut])o,, MNuuiinn,, VAisnhe..
o o Out, O"-ir Broom.
nP T> RP P Pel*, Peh, Dwarf-elder,
|i r Huir, Rush, Elder.
S r S s Sutl, Su^-il, Willow.
C T
U uc HU ut UCfetj,ne, QTotrh,en-e,HFeurazteh..
1) b b l)iUc, Hoo^-ah,White-thorn.
The letters are divided into vowels and consonants.
The vowels are five in number, of which A, o, u, are
broad, and e and slender. These are formed into
j
diphthongs and triphthongs. The diphthongs (or
coalition of two vowels,) are AO, Ae, At, eA, eu, eo, ej,
tA, tu, tj UA, ut, ot The triphthongs (or coalition
of three vowels,) are AO^, eot, tAt, ^ut, uAt. Of these,
AO, Aot, Ae, eu, eot, IA, tAt, ]u, UA, UAt, are always
long, and the restboth longand short, the longbeing
marked by accentedstrokesthus,eA.
* Inthe English spelling or pronunciation any two syllables
thus marked ", are to be pronounced as much as possible in
one
syllable.
SOUNDS OF THE VOWELS.
II.
The organs of speech admit only a limited numbei
ofessentially differentpositionsformative ofarticulat
sound; but, as the slightest approximation of neigh-
bouring positions must produce a corresponding di-
versity of audible effect, it happens that hardly two
languages exist, in which all the sounds are strictly
identical. Similarity, therefore, and not identity, is
sometimes all that can be furnished in thefollowingil-
lustrations, bymeans ofcorrespondingEnglish sounds
and spelling; and, where even this cannot be found,
the deficiency will be supplied from other languages,
or by description.
Vowels. Englishsounds. Examples. English Spelling.
1. & long. a in all. bat), b&ji. baz#n, loawr.
2. A short. a in what. Ale, mAfic.oltth, mortth.
3. A short. a in hat. CAJI, bjtAc.tthar, bratth.
4. A obscure. a in li-ar. AbAjtc. i'-wrk.
5. A diphthongal. A&AJIC. i'-urk,the*be-
ingpronounced as iindme; andthe6, whichis
silent, beingamere sign thatA-has this sound.
In Munster A before f) is pronounced like au,
as AT) prj, aun son.
1. & long. e in there. p, f. fay, shay.
2. e short. ein ell. ell, pell, ell, fell.
3. e obscure. {'**!?} *we. ddhin'-a.
4. e diphthongal. et), ler). ay-en, \ay-eu,
1. f long. nnmarme.rpio. ineen.
2. ] short. i in null. rpjl. iml. In Mun-
ster] beforeij is pronouncedlong, ascjfj (ttheen)
sick.
3. ] obscure, thesameas3,e. 8>iCfi. ghitth'-sha.
1. o long. o in ore. 6fi, njo\i. ore, more.
2. o short. o in monk. olc. wlk.
3. o diphthongal. O&AT). t'-an, the i as
in dz'ne. This caseis similar to thatof5, A.
l.vlong-. u in rwle. vl, cvl. ool, kool.
2. v short. u in bwt. cvft, vcc. kwr, i/ghtth.
See Walker's Dictionary under the word The.