822
AN GAOḊAL.
Mr. Fleming's letter, continued.
"But (adds O'Donovan), this mode of govern¬
ment is not to be approved of, for it would be evi¬
dently better to leave the noun under the govern¬
ment of the infinitive mood, as it would be in the
absence of the preposition, and consider the prep¬
osition as governing the clause of the sentence
which follows it; thus re faisneis firinneach do
dheanamh."
As if he had a presentment of what "some one
of little learning and great 'brass'" would say in
after ages, Dr. O'Donovan goes on, quoting the
grammarian whom he most highly respected, in
opposition to Mr. Russell's assertion —
"Stuart agrees with this opinion in his Gaelic
Grammar p. 175, where he writes 'Prepositions are
often prefixed to a clause of a sentence, and then
they have no regimen,' as Luath chum fuil a
dhortadh, swift to shed blood.' Rom. III. 15"
Does Mr. Russell understand this ? Dr. O'Dono¬
van quotes as his own, and adopts the rule of the
grammarian who said that chum "has no regimen"
does not govern a noun in the genitive case, in
such phrases as the above, i.e. when chum is fol¬
lowed by a noun, the object of the infinitive after
it.
In the "open letter he tells me that "Not only
in the Irish sermon given in the Gaelic Journal,
but in almost all the issues of it that have been
brought out since you began to edit it, many in¬
stances can be found in which chum is found with
the nominative and accusative. Now, without
wishing to be captious, and without in any way
desiring to offend you, permit me to say that you
should take some notice of this matter in the next
issue of the Gaelic Journal. No one need be as-
ashamed of having made a mistake in Irish," &c.,
&c.
When dealing with Mr. Russell, I should now
be wonder proof. I never to my knowledge used
a nominative or accusative after chum, except
when followed by a verb in the infinitive mood;
and it would be more to the point if Mr. Russell,
had made a list of these instances.
As to the preacher of the sermon, he heard Irish
in the cradle, he learned to read and write Irish
— in fact he studied it grammatically — in early
boyhood, With the exception of Mr. Flannery, I
do not know a better modern Irish scholar, living.
He is, moreover, a man of clear and acute intellect
and a very ripe scholar — he is a great authority in
himself. As a writer, Father Donlevy had very
few equals, but Mr. Williams was certainly his
equal in his knowledge of Irish grammar.
I expect that Mr. Russell will not again claim
John O'Donavan on his side — and he was not a
man of "little learning and great brass."
Father Smiddy, of the diocese of Cloyne, when
revising the Catechism of that diocese for Dr.
Keane, made use of the "brass" expression. And
in the Irish grammar compiled for the General As¬
sembly of Ireland, by S O'M., at p. 97, we find
"tainic se cum an fear a bhualadh, he came in or¬
der or with intent to strike the man. Bualad is a
verb and governs fear in the accusative case." Dr.
Stewart's opinion, as adopted by O'Donovan, we
have seen already.
In translating trompa na b-flaitheas into Irish
(from the French, I believe), a Friar who had no
vanity to gratify, in his cell in Cork, used both
forms in one passage of Chapter II. —
Ní ḃ-fuil in gaċ mór-ḃagairt agus
tréan-ḋíoġaltus da n-deárnaḋ Dia o
ṫus an doṁain go so, aċt do ċum léir-
sgrios do déanaḋ air an ḃ-peacaḋ as
an b-peacać. - - - do ċum an
ṗeacaig do ṡaḃáil.
Any one of these authorities I have cited would
teach Mr. Russell Irish till be goes to his long
home, unless Mr. Russell goes for years to learn
patois in an Irish speaking locality in the West or
South of Ireland. Mr. Russell is not an Irish
scholar at all. In his life he has not written or
spoken half a dozen consecutive sentences in Irish
correctly. Nor is he improving. In his letter to the
Celtic times the other day, I heard as many corr¬
ections in it made, and not by me, as are in the
note at p. 141, mentioned above. Here is this
note, commenting, be it remembered, on Mr. Rus¬
sell's letter of November, 1883. I wrote (1) "In
the quotation which he gives from a former letter
of his, at top he says, 'Tabhair cead dam le radh,' -
le, as a sign of the infinitive is used when the act¬
ive verb has a passive signification, or when it sign
purpose or intention. Tabhair cead dam a
radh or e do radh, should be used here.” (2) "Ni
amhain," a little lower, would be better if written
"ni h-e amhain. (3) Do dheanadh dham sa is hard¬
ly applicable except where a favor of some kind
is conferred: do dheanadh liom-sa or orm sa is
better where criticisms or any such things are the
subject;" (4) "Acht iarraim ortha d'a dheanadh."
Deunadh is either a verbal noun or a verb in the
infinitive mood, if the former, the possessive pro¬
noun a should be used, if the latter e do (dheun¬
adh), iarram ortha a dheunadh, or e do dheunadh.
See O'Donovan’s Grammar, p. 384. (5) "Chum
lochda d'faghail leat-sa," third line of letter prop¬
er. I cannot recollect ever seeing or hearing leis
used after lochd; lochd d'faghail air is the idiom
as far as I am aware. The phrase, "Chum lochda
d'faghail" may be used to discuss what Mr. Rus¬
sell speaks of at some length somewhat further on
in this letter. That is the case of the compound
preposition chum. It is a fact that all grammari¬
ans agree that chum is followed by a genitive:
and all philosophers agree that a body in motion
goes in the direction of the force that puts it in mo¬
tion; but should a force greater than the first, and
in the opposite direction, be brought to act upon
it, the body will be turned backwards. Similarly
when chum with a noun goes before a verb in the
infinitive mood, the genitive after chum should be
changed to the accusative, because the infinitive
mood of active verbs takes the accusative when the
noun is placed before it. — O'Donovan's Irish
Grammar, rule 35. O'Donovans, too, at p. 385. in
treating of cases where a preposition and a noun
go before a verb in the infinitive mood, says, — "It
would be obviously better to have the noun under
the government of the infinitie mood, as it would
be in the absence of the preposition, and consider
the preposition as governing the clause of the sen¬
tence which follows it. Nothing can be plainer than
this, Chuaidhe se go dti an aonach chum ba (cows)
da cheannach, it is not chum bo, he went to the
fair, but to buy cows — ba do cheannach. Chum
fear do phosadh, is, not to marry men, but to mar¬
ry a man; fear being the accusative singular be¬
fore do phosadh, not the genitive plural. In the
meantime, it must be said that the authorities are
equally good in favor of both constructions — Wil¬
liams and Donlevy, for instance The one says,
