AN GAODAL
621
SECOND BOOK (Continued from p. 573)
THE GAELIC ALPHABET.
Irish.
Roman.
Sound.
Irish.
Roman.
Sound.
a
a
aw
m
m
emm
b
b
bay
n
n
enn
c
c
kay
o
o
oh
d
d
dhay
p
p
pay
e
e
ay
r
r
arr
f
f
eff
s
s
ess
g
g
gay
t
t
thay
i
i
ee
u
u
oo
l
l
ell
RULE X.
Verbs beginning with a mutable
consonant are aspirated after ní, no,
not ; ma, if; mar, as; sul, before ; and
after the relative pronoun a. who,
which [sometimes do], whether ex¬
pressed or undeastood.
EXERCISE IXIII.
Examples.
ni bhéidh sé, he will will not be,
a chailleas é, who loses it.
a dheunas é, who does it.
mar fhoillsigheann mé, as I show.
ní bh-fuil sé, he is not,
a ghrádhuigh sinn, who loved us.
a mheallas sibh, who deceives you.
má phósann tú, if you marry,
má shaoileann tú, if you think.
a shaoil, who thought.
sul thangas, before I came.
Exercise XXIV.
a, his, her, it; mar sin, so, as that.
1 ní bheidh sé go brát. 2 An té a
chailleas an cath. 2 má shaoileann tú
mar sin. 4 is é sin a mheallas mé. 5
an té do ghrádhuig isinn. 6 ní bh-fuil sé
ann so anois. 7 is sé neart a dheunas
ceart. 3 má phósann tú seanduine ,9
á chaill a shláinte. 10 mar shoillsigheas
sul do thangas.
1 It will not be for ever 2 He who
looses the battle. 3 If you think so. 4
It is that (which) deceives me. 5 The
individual who loved us. 6 He is not
here now. 7 It is might which makes
right. 8 If you marry an old man. 9
Who lost his health. 10 As I showed
before I came.
The Second Book has inn here, and
in a note says, "In the spoken lang¬
uage sinn and sibh are more frequently
used but the forms inn and ibh are more
correct in this case.” Why ? And es¬
pecially in a work intended for those
who wish to learn to speak the lan¬
guage: an té do ghrádhuigh inn, as spo¬
ken would plainly convey to the ear
of the listener the person whom I us¬
ed to love and not he who loved us.
This is an additonal proof that no
man is able to write any work for stu¬
dents who is not himself a practical
speaker of the language. And so it is
with regard to the ending of the third
person of the conditional of the verb.
Grammarians, some of whom [Joyce,
for one, it is said] had no practical ac¬
quaintance with the spoken language,
make some verbs, in the person and
mood referred to, end in ochadh and oth¬
ers in fadh, while all who speak Irish
naturally end all the verbs in that in¬
stance, in ocadh, pronounced thach. We
are taxed with approving of "bad Irish"
because we maintain that instead of a
few verbs being made end in ochadh the
whole class in accordance with Irish
speaking, end in it. How can we be
taxed with introducing an innovation
when Burke and Joyce make some of
their verbs end in the same form and
when that form is the one used by all
Irish speakers ?
Gaelic literature was not publicly
discussed heretofore pecause there was
no medium through which to discuss
it. But now, thanks to the Brooklyn
Philo-Celtic Society who brought the
Gael the first Gaelic journal ever pub¬
lished, into existence, Gaelic matters
may be discussed like any other pub¬
lic subject.
Since the above was put in type Mr
O'Donnell tells us that Joyce did con¬
verse in Irish, Ed.
The best way to preserve the Irish
Language is, to circulate Irish litera¬
ture. Talk is cheap ; actions point to
the true lovers of the cause.
