A Grammar of the Irish Language: Pub. for the Use of the Senior Classes in the College of St. Columbia |
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Common terms and phrases
adjective agus ancient manuscripts aspirated Battle of Magh Book of Fermoy Book of Lismore broad characteristic vowel cleanse Coll compound CONDITIONAL MOOD Connaught consonants Consuetudinal Past Cormac's Glossary dative declension denote dialect diphthong do'n Dubl Dublin eclipsed eclipsis English word Erse féin Four Mast Future Tense gaċ Gælic gender genitive singular Gloss Hist IMPERATIVE MOOD INDICATIVE MOOD infinitive mood inflections Irish Grammar Irish language Keat king Latin Leabhar Breac Leinster letters Magh Rath modern Irish modern language Moling mór Munster naċ nominative plural nouns O'Molloy ocus Ogham old manuscripts past tense Patrick person plural prefixed preposition Present Tense pronounced pronunciation rule slender sometimes sound south of Ireland spoken language SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD substantive syllable termination thee thou Trin Ulster verb vowel Welsh writes written
Popular passages
Page 253 - Adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express compendiously in one word, what must otherwise have required two or more : as, " He acted wisely," for he acted with wisdom ; "prudently," for, with prudence;
Page xxviii - 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 Ireland, is very manifest from a comparison of the Irish tongue partly with the modern Spanish, but especially with the Cantabrian or Basque; and this should engage us to have something of more regard than we usually have to such fabulous histories.
Page lviii - 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 arrangement 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."1 From an opposite viewpoint, at the beginning of the revival.
Page 397 - QUANTITY. The quantity of a syllable is that time which is occupied in pronouncing it. It is considered as long or short. A vowel or syllable is long, when the accent is on the vowel ; which occasions it to be slowly joined, in pronunciation, to the following letter ; as, "Fall, bale, mood, house, feature.
Page lxx - ... absolutely perfect in all them books, 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 too, so that the antiquaryes posterity were forced to follow husbandry, etc., to get their bread, for want of patrons to support them.
Page xlvii - O'Gibelan, Master of art, one exceeding well learned in the new and old laws, civille and 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...
Page xxxix - Gadelian language, so called, as it is pretended, from liis name ; and the latter a grandson of that king by his son Niul, 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...
Page xxxix - 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 certainly could have no notion of the plain of Sennaar, of Pharaoh, 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.
Page 253 - NOTE 1. That adverbs seem originally to have been contrived to express compendiously in one word what must otherwise 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 Hercules me juvet, &c.
Page 445 - great is the blindness and sinful darkness, and ignorance and evil design of such as teach, and write, and cultivate the Gaelic language, that, with the view of obtaining for themselves the vain rewards of this world, they are more desirous, and more accustomed, to compose vain, tempting, lying, worldly histories, concerning the Tuaib de (human, and concerning warriors and champions...