266
AN GAOḊAL.
Persent Tense.
Singular.
1 Molaim, molimh, I praise.
2 Molair, molirh, thou praisest.
3 Molaiḋ, sé, he (or it) praises; Mol¬
aiḋ sí, she (or it) praises.
Plural.
1 Molmuid, molmuidh, we praise,
2 Moltaiḋ, molthee, ye praise
3 Molaid, molaidh, they praise,
The interrogative is formed by put¬
ting an (whether) before the verb; as
an molaim, do I praise?
The Relative form, by adding as to
the root, mol, as; an te ṁolas, he who
praises: —fas, for the Future Indica¬
tive, after the relative; the ending, as
is used in other instances whenever
emphsis is employed. [See previous
Lessons.]
Imperfect Tense.
1 Ṁolainn, I was wont to praise.
2 Ṁoltá, thou wert wont to praise.
3 Ṁolaḋ sé, he was wont to praise.
Plural.
1 Ṁolmuis, we were wont to praise.
2 Ṁoltaiḋ, you were wont to praise.
3 Moldís, they were wont to praise.
We promised to treat in a future Les¬
son about the sound of aḋ final.
OBS. 1 — As a general rule, aḋ final
in words of two or more syllables, is
pronounced, in Munster, like a unac¬
cented; in Connaught and Ulster, like
oo (English) or u [long] Irish. This
peculiar pronunciation the learner
should remember, as aḋ final occurs
almost in every sentence of Irish, read
or spoken.
With regard to words of one syl¬
lable, and their compound forms, the
Munster pronunciation of aḋ final is
adopted not only in the South, but in
the West and North of Ireland. Ex.
áḋ, luck; mi-áḋ, bad-luck, misfortune;
biaḋ, food [pronounced as if bia, beea]
bláḋ, fame, renown; cliaḋ, a ditch,
formerly spelled, clui; cráḋ, anguish;
geur-ċráḋ, piercing anguish; buan-
ċráḋ, lasting anguish; feaḋ [pronoun¬
ced short] length, duration; air feaḋ,
for the length, during; fleaḋ, feast;
gaḋ, peril; gráḋ, love; dian-ġráḋ, in¬
tense love; tír-ġráḋ, patriotism; ráḋ,
speaking; coṁráḋ, speaking together,
a chat; cunnráḋ [from cuing, a bond,
and ráḋ], a covenant; roiṁ-ráḋ, a pre¬
face, a prologue; seaḋ [for is é], yes;
OBS. 2 — In verbs, participles, and
verbal nouns, the ending uġaḋ, is pro¬
nounced oo, i.e., uġ, as if aḋ were not
in the syllable — aḋ being like ent in
French verbs, not sounded. This pro¬
nunciation of uġaḋ is common through
out Ireland. It is a termination like
“tion” in English, peculiar to a vast
number of words; as, beannuġaḋ [ban-
noo] a blessing, from beannuiġ, bless
thou; cruṫaġaḋ, [kruhoo] creating,
creation, from cruṫuiġ, create thou,
prove thou; gráḋuġaḋ, loving [graw-
oo], loving, from gráḋuiġ, love thou;
slánuġaḋ, [slawnoo], salvation, from
slánuiġ, save thou.
In Munster and in the South of Con¬
naught, in parts of the counties of Gal¬
way and Roscommon, the ending aḋ
of the third person singular imperative,
and of the imperfect tense, indicative,
is sometimes vulgarly and incorrectly
pronounced with a guttural accent like
agh ; glanaḋ [glonagh, instead of glon-
oo] sé, let him cleanse; ġlanaḋ (ylan-
agh, instead of ylonoo) sé, he used to
cleanse; biḋeaḋ (beeyagh, instead of
beyoo] sé, let him be.
The learner is at liberty to adopt, in
words of two or more syllables, the
Munster or Connaught pronunciation
of this ending, aḋ, or eaḋ; viz., that of
a unaccented, or of oo (English). But
he should be careful not to entertain
the not uncommon erroneous impress¬
ion, under which those who have only
a slight acquaintance with the lang¬
uage labour, of imaginining that the
written language of Munster differs
from that of Connaught, because the
Irish-speaking natives of the two prov¬
inces differ in their pronunciation of
some syllables.
VOCABULARY.
