172
AN GAOḊAL.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
In our answers to correspondents in the last is-
sue, in reply to our friend E C of Trinidad, a ty-
pographical error appeared in the first issue in put¬
ting the Gaelic of Johnson instead of Wilson, thus:
Alistrin MacṠeáġain instead of
Alistrin MacUilliam.
R. S. Dunmore says “Please tell me if in spel-
ling Irish you give the dotted letters their true
sound, as if they were not dotted. For instance,
in this sentence, a ḋaoine uaisle, do
you give the ḋ the sound it takes in
the word, ḋaoine, or sound it as if it
was not dotted ; also, the ċ in gaċ, &c.?
Every aspirated letter undergoes a change ; in
such instances the primary sound of the letter is
entirely lost.
ḋ and ġ have the sound of y when
beginning a word. We would recommend
our readers to commit to memory the sounds of
of the aspirates. They are fully explained on
page 176.
J. C. Sheep Ranch, Cal.— Gaodhal is applied
to the descendants of Gael, son of Niul, son of
Fenius Farsaidh, the immediate progenitor of the
Gaelic race, and founder of the first education-
al establishment known in the world. — the Uni-
versity of Shenaar. The characteristics of the
Gaodhails of the four provinces of Ireland are
distinguished thus. —
"Gaoiḋil na Muiṁneaċ flaṫaċ, feol-
ṁuir, féastaċ, fíonṁuir, daoiḋeaċ,
morġalaċ.
Gaoiḋil na Laiġneaċ faoḃraċ, niṁneaċ,
fealṁar, gléasṁuir, ceolṁuir, daoind-
eaċ, connaġaraċ,
Gaoiḋil na g-Conaċtaċ freaċṁuir, fo-
cal-lioṁṫa, gasta, deáġlaḃraċ,
Gaoiḋil na n-Ulltaċ brontaċ, taḃair-
ṫeaċ, nearṫṁar, coḃarṫaċ, neaṁsgaṫ-
ṁaraċ."
M. J. C. Writes — "When the Rev Dr — was read-
ing the piece that you published in the last num-
ber of the GAEL about T. O’N. Russell, he was very
angry with Mr. Russell, and said it was very un-
gentlemanly on his part to quarrel with you who
was doing so much for the cultivation and expan-
sion of the language of dear old Erin. He said
that Ireland was once England's master, and that
it is to Ireland and to Irishmen, Englishmen are
indebted for all the knowledge they now possess,
and he said that not only England and Scotland but
the Catholics of the whole Continent of Europe
owed a deep debt of gratitude to Ireland, because
her missionaries went forth and christianized and
civilized them when they were semibarbarians.
There may be some, he said, that would not ap-
preciate what I say, but Irishmen have just cause
to be proud of the sublime grandeur of their prim-
itive history. He spoke of the many great seats
of learning which were formerly in Ireland, to
which students flocked from various countries,
but when they meet together on the streets at Cil-
macdau and Clann-macnois they all conversed to¬
gether in Latin, the grand old language of
Our Holy Mother — the Catholic Church.
Friend, M. J. C. Your German clerical friend's
sentiments are appreciated by the GEAL, you will
see on page 174 a poetical protest from an Irish
clerical friend of the Irish Language cause to
Mr. Russell’s very peculiar stand.
No one ever heard an Irish-speaking person say
"na teanga Gaeḋilge, no more than
láṁ "na cailín." The masculine article
is always used before "cailín"; the
masculine pronoun sé, never.
Owing to pressure on our space we are compell-
ed to hold over many matters which we intended
to publish this month, including the reply to Too-
my’s "Drinking Song," sent us by the Hon. De-
nis Burns, and another Gaelic matter from Mr.
O’Keeffe. Major Maher and others have written
to us concerning the want of cheap, suitable Irish
English and English-Irish dictionaries. — We are
looking to see what can be done and shall report
the result in next issue.
Those Irish nationalists who despise the lan-
guage of their country because they are unable
to speak it, and too indolent to learn it, ought en-
deavor to found a British republic. They would
then show some consistency in their actions. They
must know that the English Republican is as
averse to Irish separation as the English monar-
chist, and when they are one in language, and
therefore in sentiment, this is only natural. It is
as natural for the English Republican to man-
tain the integrety of the British possesions
as a republic as it was for these Northern States
to put down the Southern Rebellion. There is not
a shade in the difference. So that Ireland as an
English speaking nation can never seperate from
England. Then we would recommend the Irish
English republicans to change their base of ac-
tion by devoting their energy to the establish-
ment of a British republic, and we would stake
our existance that it would be far easier to ac-
complish it than to found an Irish-English re-
public.
Note — In future where the preposition-
"ann" or "a" is used we shall employ
in and i. Also, we shall substitute an
inverted comma for the unaccented a
in the active participle of verbs of the
Second Conjugation. The a is so much
used in Irish that its box in the case is
empty when the others are compartive¬
ly full; hence we shall dispense with it
whenever permitted by modern usage,
