726
AN GAOḊAL.
very hard, But language is subject to a continual
wear and tear and thus terminations both of stems
and inflections are more or less worn or distorted
when we have traced the mighty national streams
of language back to their common meeting point,
even then that common language looks like a rock
washed down and smoothed for ages by the ebb and
flow of thought." ¶ And if such be the case in the
olden time what must it be now? Take even the
common word nostril and you would hardly recog¬
nize it as nose-thrill, sheriff is worn down to shire-
reeve, orchard from wort-yard, i.e., root yard, &c.,
and if these changes have come about (1.) in a com¬
paratively short time, and (2) in words each of
which conveyed a distinct and probably equally
important idea, what must we expect (1) in an
unlimited lapse of time, and (2) in terminations
which of themselves convey no special significance.
Thus e. g., there was a suffix man and a root gna.
Gna means to know and gna-man meant a name,
in Latin this appears as nomen, in French nom, in
Irish ainm, in German name, in Eng¬
lish name, and suffix might suggest to you why our
plural is in anmanna, the search for
these suffixes and analysis of words from the most
difficult but at the same time the most interesting
labor of the philologist.
In this search there are certain principles which
guide him and as later on in these lectuses after ex¬
amining the present classification of Irish declen¬
sion we may have to apply these principles. I will
formulate them very briefly here.
I. The first general principle is "the desire to
do what is to be done with the least expenditure of
energy."
Hence, 1. "People will substitute an easeir sound
for a sound or combination of sounds which they
find difficult, or they will drop the sound altogeth¬
er." e. g., Anglo-saxon cild became child and we
have sought instead of socht, so in I¬
rish we have c(u)naiṁ for cnaim, oiḋċe
for aidċe, croiḋe for criden, and so
on through nearly every word in the
language.
2. "A vowel acts upon a vowel without being in
contact with it," drawing the two vowel sounds
closer together, thus Manni became menni (Men)
and German Mann forms its plural manner. This
principle which is developed in Modern Irish to a
far greater extent than any other language is
known there as caol le caol agus lea¬
ṫan le leaṫan.
3. It also occurs with consonants, thus when two
meet which are incompatible or are at least difficult
to pronounce together they are assim¬
ilated alind has become aluinn, druim,
comes from dromse. Lat. dorsum, coll
from cosl. Eng. hazel &c.
4. Under this head we may put another device by
which case of punctuation is obtained namely met¬
athesis, e. g., baistim for baitsiṁ, beur¬
la for belre [still in Munster] laṁ for
palma, cf. also diskin for dixon.
II. Second General Principle; "When a conso¬
nant has dropped out of a word the speakers seem
to have had an uneasy feeling that the word has
been unduly shortened, and therefore to make up,
they lengthened the vawel." This principle is cal¬
ed compensation. Thus we have mís
and mensis, gé, chen, goose, and ganz,
hanser, primitive ghansa, dét, tooth &c.,
dentem, danta, &c.
III, "There are many new forms which are not
in any way easier to pronounce than old ones, but
the new habit is superseding the old. The reason
is not clear, it may be ascribed to mental indolence
which dislike preserving a variety of forms or to
an instinctive seeking and regularity which prompts
us to reduce apparent irregularites. Changes of
this sort are commonly described as being due to
analogy, because each new form is made on the an¬
alalogy of those which have preceded it." * Thus
aiṫreaċa is no way easier to pronounce
than aiṫre and yet it has superseded
it in two cases of the plural and dis¬
putes the other three. Aṫair however
and can end in the same way. Ca¬
ṫair and a number of nouns ending in
in give plural aċa and it was sought
to oust, the apparently anomalous form
aiṫre by substituting the really anom¬
alous form aiṫreaċa. In the Gaelic
spoken by the uneducated people you
will hear this carried out to an extra¬
ordinary extent, thus I have heard
bordanaiḋ as the plural of bord and
besides bailte and bailteaċa. I
have occasionally met with bailiḋ.
To sum up. The great cause of change in lan¬
guage are (1) the desire to pronounce the words
with the last expenditure of energy — shearing them
down and displacing sounds within the limits of
intelligibility. (2) Lengthening of vowels to com¬
ensate for dropped consonants. (3) The desire for
regularity which tends to inflect words alike which
seem to belong to the same class. These in short
are the principles which will guide in the next lec¬
ture in examining Irish declension.
¶ Max Muller, India, What can it teach us.
Sec. I.
* Peile, Phil. ch. I. §§24-40.
(To be continued.)
We have not received many replies
to Father Mulcahy's queries as yet.
A gentleman who signs himself Séa¬
mus Fada, says. —
Jackstones, cloċa pluiríniḋe,
pump, taosga;
round thing, rud cruinn;
wire, snáċ iaruinn.
We hope others will try the remain¬
ing questions.
