AN GAODHAL.
641
all regular verbs form their future in
fad, fead or ad those which make
their fut. in eochad or ochad, must be ir¬
regular verbs. But this cannot be, for
all the irregular verbs with the except¬
ion of faghaim which makes gheabhad
form their future in faid or fid, accor¬
ding as the root is broad or slender. Col, Vallan¬
cey gives the Irish verb no conditional mood, and
hence no rule for its formation.
The Rev. Dr. O’Brien, who, about 80 years ago
was professor of Irish in Maynooth College, in his
"Practical Grammar of the Irish Language," pub¬
lished in Dublin in 1809, throws as little light
upon this subject as Col. Vallancey. His rules for
the formation of the future tense and conditional
mood are one series of contradictions from begin¬
ning to end. He gives the Irish verb two conju¬
gations (page 99) — the first embracing verbs hav¬
ing the last vowel of the root broad as
glan, congabh, the second consisting of
verbs the last vowel of whose root is
slender, as, bris, foillsigh; the first con¬
jugation forming its future in fad, and
the second in, ed — no notice whatever
being taken of whether the root con¬
tains one or more than one syllable ;
so that while the future tense of glan
and congabh would be glanfad and con¬
gabhfad, the future tense of bris and
foillsigh would be brised and foillsighed.
But the author in page 98 of his gram¬
mar paragraph 3 says, that the letter f
should never be omitted in the future
tense of any verb except the auxiliary
bidhim; yet why omit it from the future
of all the verbs which he classifies under the second
conjugation? Again, in page 101, Dr. O'Brien
gives general rules for the formation of the moods
and tenses of all verbs, and without any regard
for the rules which he lays down in page 99, already
quoted, respecting the conjugation to which the
verb may belong, he says that the third person
sing. future tense of all verbs ends in
fadh; so that while making the futures
brisedh sé and foillsighedh sé according to
the rule which he gives for forming the future of
verbs of the second conjugation, we should, accor¬
ding to the rule which he gives in page 101 write
brisfadh sé and foillsighfadh sé — forms
which any one acquainted with the first principles
of Irish grammer knows to be wrong. For the
conditional mood he gives but one rule which
makes the present tense third person singular of
all verbs end in fadh; but this termin¬
ation belongs only to one particular class of verbs,
as stated in the foregoing part of this letter, and
consequently is inadmissible in either the future
tense or the conditional mood of verbs with mon¬
osyllablic roots the last vowel of which is slender,
and which requires fidh in the future
and feadh in the conditional ; and in¬
admissible also in the same tense and mood of
verbs whose roots consist of two or more syllables,
most of which form their future tense and condition¬
al mood in eochad, a termination which
Dr. O’Brien completely ignores, notwithstanding
the fact that it has, as Dr. O'Donovan testifies,
been used by Keating and the best Irish writers of
the last three centuries.
The Rev. Canon Bourke, in his “College Irish
Grammar,” devotes several pages to the subject of
conjugation, aud dwells at much length upon the
formation of the future tense and conditional mood.
Like some of his predecessors he divides the verb
into two separate conjugations, but in dealing with
verbs the last vowel of whose root is slender, he
is obscure and misleading. For instance in page 63
of his grammar, after devoting most of the two
preceding pages to the propriety of having a second
conjugation—most grammarians having given only
one conjugation—the Rev. author says, “Again
this difference in conjugation is confirmed by all
grammarians who have written on the language;
for they have classed those verbs ending in
ig, il, ir, is which I call the second
(codjugation) as exceptions to their
single conjugation." Now if verbs end¬
ing in ig, il, ir and is belong to what
the author calls the second conjugation, and that
all verbs of that conjugation, as he says in page 82
form their future tense and condition¬
al mood in ochadh, then will bris and
buail, and all the monosyllabic verbs
ending in ig, etc. form their future tense
and conditonal in ochad; and instead of
brisfidh sé, buailfidh sé, bhrisfeadh sé,
and bhuailfeadh sé, we would have bris¬
ochadh se, buailochadh sé, bhrisochadh sé and
bhuailochadh sé; and hence the author
very plainly contradicts another rule given by him
in page 61, which says that all verbs with mono¬
syllablic roots are of the first conjugation, which
conjugation, he says in page 76, forms
its future and conditional in fad, fid,
or fead. Canon Bourke is mistaken
when he says that all grammarians who have writ¬
ten on the language have classed these verbs as
exceptions to their single conjugation, for Dr. O’¬
Donovan, whose grammar was published in 1845,
eleven years before Canon Bourke's grammar saw
the light, clssifies them with those verbs which
form their future and conditional according to the
general rule, making exceptions only of all verbs
of more than two syllables in the present indicat¬
tive active, ending in ighim and uighim,
which make their future and condition¬
all in eochad, and a few others whose
present indicative ends in am, im, ir,
and um, which form their future and
conditional irregularly.
There are many verbs, which, though consisting of
only one syllable in the root, yet are so pronounced
that they seem to convey two distinct sounds. Of
