594
AN GAODHAL.
In the number of the Journal just received, No.
23, Vol. II a note by Donovan, which declares
no man competent to write an Irish grammar
who does not know Irish from his infancy, is cop¬
ied, and thereby assumed to represent the senti¬
ments of the Journal. Yet the learned editor dev¬
otes fourteen pages of the Journal to criticising Der¬
mot and Graine recently revised by Mr. O'Duffy,
a young student of the Irish Language. Mr.
O'Duffy deserves great credit for the splendid pro¬
gress which he has made in the study of the lang¬
uage, but no one would expect that he could write
critically correct Irish after a few years' study.
Mr. T. O'N Russell criticised the title page of the
Gael, though at that time he was as young a stu¬
dent of Irish as Mr. O'Duffy is now, yet our Gael¬
ic Journal friends seemed to side with Mr. T. O'N
Russell, notwithstanding idiom, custom and O'Don¬
ovan's authority to the contrary. We have heard
good Irish speakers and we never heard one use
the words teanga na gaedhilge, but invariably, an
teanga gaedhilge, and Mr. Gilganon, one of the
best Irish speakers in America, used it and uses it
still. Then what is the use in quoting O'Donovan
in the Gaelic Journal?
It seems to us that there is bad blood in both
our Dublin societies, and that both deserve a good
spanking, as we say here. We do not hold the
learned editor of the Gaelic Journal blameless
either, because, “To whom much is given, of him
much is expected". He permitted his scholars to
run truant in the beginning, and now when he tries
to check them. they become saucy and rebell¬
ious.
This is the Gael's conclusion:
The Gaelic Journal as now conducted is an au¬
thority in Gaelic matters and should be read and
supported by every Irishman. The other journals
and papers, such as the Gael for instance, care
more for propagating the language than for a crit¬
ical consideration of it, although generally no very
gross grammatical blunders are permitted. When
a student sends his contribution to a journal if
such contribution has not very gross grammatical
errors the journalist will not interfere with it
lest such interference should dampen the writer's
enthusiasm. Hence, our advice to the Journal is
to continue to print correct Irish so that those de¬
sirous of seeing such may find it there, and let
the propagators, students and learners pursue their
course unmolested.
Mr. Durnin writes —
I want to know, and ask you to be
pleased to give me the pronunciation
of the word rangadar, is it rang-adar
or ranag-adar? And also, the pro¬
unciation of such words as labhairt, ta¬
bhairt, etc. In county Louth we said
ló-bhairt, tó-bhairt, etc. and I see it giv¬
en law-bhairt and lou-bhairt. I notice in
Bourke's Easy Lessons, page 323, gabh,
(gaw). I do not know whether "gaw"
means gádh or gahoo; yet another, so
and súd. We pronounced, shoh and
shudh; as when a hunted game came
in view we said, siúd í: Were we
right? I have an opinion different
from Easy Lessons p. 323, where iar¬
bal is pronounced as if written riabal,
transposing i and r respectively; we
had it robal or rubal in Louth, accent¬
ing the first syllable. My view of it is
taken from Joyce's Grammar, p. 14. —
When consonants do not coalesce an
obscure vowel sound is heard between
them. In iarbal this obscure sound
is required between r and b, and the
letter b acquiring thereby such strong
emphasis, caused it in the course of
time to monopolize the accent, chang¬
ing it from iar to the heretofore ob¬
scure vowel b, and eventually lea¬
ving the original accented syllable iar
to take the place of obscurity except
the r which could not be omitted and
had to go somewhere in company.
I take the liberty to write you some
remarks on acht & ag before vowels
and consonants. Although Gaelic pro¬
nunciation in county Louth was and
must be in many cases erroneous, acht
was generally pronounced ach before
a consonant, and acht or ochd before a
vowel: and it was the same with ag
in participles beginning with a vowel
or with a dh or gh, and using ga or a'
before consonants, ag árdúghadh, ga thabh¬
airt. If these forms are not correct,
they certainly are euphoneous. Ped¬
antry is an unbounded source of error
in pronunciation, as plainly proved by
a sign painting thus: A B Thames,
which is a laughable stumbling block
to pedants who cannot, for their life,
read "Guo Tems" out of it. They are
heard to say Thames, etc. Oh that
we had a Pádruic in overy community.
Henry Durnin.
[We think friend Durnin knows his
native language well. Ed G.]
