AN GAOḊAL.
665
tricts of Ireland as well as those I have
mentioned, similar modifications or
corruptions of the termination faḋ
may be observed, but they never, even
remotely, approached the sound of
oċaḋ, a termination which, excepting
Munster, is throughout Ireland restricted to the
future and conditional of verbs
ending in uiġ or iġ whose roots consist
of two or more syllables, of which I have given ex¬
amples in my former letter. That this termination
is misapplied by the Irish speaking peasantry of
of Munster is proved by the fact that all the Mun¬
ster writers and bards of whose beautiful songs &c.,
I have a very large collection, never
use the termination oċaḋ except in
forming the future and conditional of
verbs whose roots, ending in uiġ or
iġ consist of two or more syllables, tak¬
ing care to write the conditional of
verbs with monosyllabic roots always
in faḋ or feaḋ, as I shall show a lit¬
tle further on, and that this termination, and no
other, is the correct one, is proved from the fol¬
lowing conclusive passage on the termination of
the conditional taken from Dr. O’Donovan's gram¬
mar, page 181:
"The termination (faḋ) of the third
person singular is pronounced aċ or eaċ
in this mood (conditional) throughout
the south of Ireland, but in Connaught
and Ulster uḋ or iuḋ, the f being very
seldom heard, The f however should
not be rejected, as it adds force and
distinctness to the termination, and is
found in Irish manuscripts of the high¬
est authority, as no ḟedfaḋ, he would
be able. Battle of Magh Rath, p. 68,
ní anfaḋ he would not stay. Id p. 318
&c." I am quite sure that very few of your read¬
ers after seeing this passage from so high an au¬
thority as Dr. O'Donovan, will be willing to admit
that the termination oċaḋ || should, as
you suggest, be used instead of faḋ.
This brings me to the December issue of the
Gael in which you begin anew to criticise my let¬
ter, trying to support your argument in the fol¬
lowing statement; “We have the authority of all
the grammarians quoted by Mr. O'Donnell, and of
Mr. O'Donnell himself that the third person sing¬
ular of Irish verbs in the conditional mood end in
ocaḋ, and he gives as an instance
ṡoillseoċaḋ se, he would shine. And
we would ask Mr. O'Donnell to state
what difference, if any, is there in the
position of the organs of speech when
emitting the sound ṡoillseoċaḋ sé; d'-
[ || oċaḋ is pronounced "aċ," the final
ad being silent — the Connaught, etc. sound — Ed ]
áirdeoċaḋ sé, which he states are
correct, and ḃuaileoċaḋ se, ḋeunoċaḋ
se, which we consider to be equally
correct? and also if euphony is not the chief ob¬
ject in the determination of grammatical inflect¬
ions.” In reply to this passage I have to state,
(1.) that neither the authorities quoted by Mr.
O'Donnell, nor Mr. O'Donnell himself
would use the termination oċaḋ except
in forming the conditional and future of one class
of verbs, that in forming the conditional of a far
more numerous class of verbs, namely, those with
monosyllabic roots, they invariably
use the termination faḋ. I would re¬
spectfully refer your readers to my first letter, in
which I have given the rules for the formation of
the future and conditional of both classes of verbs,
and they will see that I have used the termination
oċaḋ in a merely relative sense, and
not in the absolute sense in which you seem
to represent me as having used it. (2.) There is
not the slightest difference in the positions of the
organs of speech when emitting the sounds
ṡoillseċaḋ se, and d'ólóċaḋ, neither is
there any difference in their position when emit¬
ting the sounds "righted” and “writed” || the one
is correct, and the other is not, so also according
to the rules of Irish grammar the forms
ṡoillseoċaḋ sé, d'airdeoċaḋ sé are cor¬
rect, because their roots soillsiġ and
áirduiġ, ending in iġ and uiġ, contain
each more than one syllable, while
d'ólóċaḋ sé, ḋeunóċaḋ sé & ḃuailoċaḋ
sé are wrong, because their roots, ól,
deun, and ḃuail are monosyllabic, and
must, according to the rule, form their
conditionals in faḋ or feaḋ, thus,
d'ólfaḋ sé, ḋeunfaḋ sé, ḃuailfaḋ sé.
(3. Euphony † is not always the chief ob¬
ject in the determination of grammatic¬
al inflections, and granting that it were
the termination faḋ is a much easier
and sweeter sound than oċaḋ, and
would therefore be used in the formation of the
future and conditional of all verbs, to the entire
exclusion of óċaḋ.
In your next paragraph you state, that of the
two forms (faḋ and oċaḋ) that which
is used by Irish speakers without exception
should be used. I have already shown on the au¬
thority of Dr. O'Donovan and from my own ex¬
perience that the termination oċaḋ for
the conditional of all verbs is confined to the Irish
speakers of Munster, and I will now prove from the
columns of the Gael itself that the
termination faḋ is the one more gener¬
ally used by Irish speakers.
(To be concluded in the next)
Mr. O'Donnell’s letter covers four pages)
[ || It is not proper to introduce a combination of
letters not found in any language
† If not, what is? — Ed.]
