Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

exclusive or principal attention to their final changes and attenuations, must lead to endless perplexity.

I shall present here the modes of declining the following nouns-la a day, mi a month, cro a hovel, bỏ a cow, bean a woman, and clañ children. I omit many others that are irregular, but of less common use. The following are taken from O'Brien and O'Reilly.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Plur.

laeże, laojie.

la.

laeċjb, laojċib.

mi a month, masc. and fem.

Plur.

na mjosa,

Gen. na míosa, or an mjos.......... na mí, or mios.
Dat. do'n mir, or mir.............. do na mjosajb.

cro a hovel, masc.

Sing.

Nom. an cró

Gen. an ċraor

Plur.

na craol, or craojċe. na gcró, or cɲó.

Dat. do'n gcró, or ċrú, or cró. do na craorb, or

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

An is expressive of the diminution of a substantive, thus cnoc a hill, cnocan a hillock. Some of these have inferior diminutions, as chosen a very small hill; which are formed by adding the of the primitive gen. in the penultimate syllable, and changing the last

into 1.

1

Of NOUNS ADJECTIVE.

NOUNS Adjective abound in the Irish language, and to them its poetry owes much of its beauty and force: like substantives they suffer changes, both in their initials and terminations, which mark their relation to other words; and the same circumstances contribute to these changes, as cause similar variations in substantives.

The adjectives generally follow their substantive; and, when they precede them, they suffer no change in their termination: but, if they begin with vowels, they will require a t prefixed to the nom. sing. masc. h to the gen. sing. fem. and n to the gen. plural, when preceded by the article. They suffer no change in their terminations, when they end with vowels; and, when monosyllables are placed before a substantive, so as to form a compound with it, they are inflected as noun substantives are.

Adjectives following substantives generally suffer changes as follows

I. With mutables for their initials, (except d, s, or t, following a noun ending with n,) they must be aspirated in the nom.* and voc. sing. of the fem. gender, and in the gen. dat. and voc. sing of the masc. gender; likewise in the plural the gen. fem. must be aspirated.

II. Terminating in consonants, and having 1. Their last vowel broad, they require in the masc. gender an i after them, or else to have the broad vowel changed to an i in the gen. sing.; but, if they be of the fem. gender, there must be added a small increase in the gen. sing. 2. If their last vowel be slender, there is

* Neilson adds the dative and ablative also; but O'Reilly prefers eclipsing them.

no change from the nom. in the gen. masc. but a small increase in the genitive feminine.

3. According to some grammarians, all the cases of the plural, except the genitive, take a broad increase, if the last be a broad vowel; and a slender increase, if the last vowel be slender.

Some few adjectives of one syllable, with their last vowel broad, take a broad increase in their genitive feminine; and some, as well as substantives, are so irregular, that they are not reducible to rule.

Two instances of adjectives, declined in the first three cases of both numbers, will suffice as examples here.

Sing.

crañ ard, a high tree, masc.

Nom. aŋ crañ ard..

[merged small][ocr errors]

na crajñ arda.

Gen. an ċrajñ aird.................................. .......... na gcrañ ard. Dat. do'n cran or gcrañ ard. do na crañajb arda.

bean ard, a tall woman, fem.

Nom. an bean ard............................ na mna arda.

.......

Gen. na mija ajrde

.............

na ban ard.

Dat. don mnaoj ard, or aird. do na mnajb ajrde, or

arda.

DEGREES OF COMPARISON.

There are regularly but three; but in poetry the bards, as Mr. O'Brien remarks, "passed the ordinary bounds; and upon the superlative, which their heated imaginations made the positive degree, raised a second comparative and superlative;" and on this even a third of each of these.

The comparative now in common use is formed by adding e to the positive; and attenuating the last vowel, if it be broad. The superlative is the same as the comparative, with the addition of the particle ar. It is also expressed by the following particles added to the positive, which aspirate its initial letter, if it be a mutable consonant

an, sar, ró.

Njor corrupted from ni ra or ni bur, is often prefixed to the comparative: no signifies very; and is rather a sign of eminent quality in a thing, than a degree of comparison; so also are fin, un, and according to Mr. O'Reilly, sár: an is a particle of excess still more forcible.

The following adjectives are irregular in their comparison (See O'Reilly, Lynch, &c.)

Positive.

maji, good..... olc, bad

[ocr errors]

.........

mór, great beag, little... geam, short

........

Fada, long.....

.........

Comparative.

feam, feimrde.

measa, miste, measide.

mo, mojde.

luga, lużajde.

gioma, gimide.

Faide, fia, fajdjde, séidide.

easy............................... pvsa, fvsajde, vsa, vsajde.

[ocr errors][merged small]

teat, hot.......

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]

Fogvr, near

• ̈teo, tej¿e, tej¿jde.

Fojcre, foirge.

Adjectives of place end in ac, added to the name of the place; thus, Spain Spain, Spajneać, Spanish— also a Spaniard, or Spanish man.

Adjectives of numbers are as follows—(see Neilson,

&c.)

[blocks in formation]

All that follow, up to twenty, are expressed by com

binations of the foregoing, thus

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

compounds, up to 100.

30, dejć ar Ėjċċead,

desċṁead ar fjċċead.

aon déag i fjċċe, aonad déag ar fjċċead.

31,

[blocks in formation]

There is an idiom in very common use, which is to call 7 great 6

Ex. móir feirjur, 7.

Persons are thus-aon, one person; dír or beirt, two persons; trup, three; and so on, ceatarar, crigen, reiser, sęċtar, oċtar, naonṁar, dejćnaṁar. Numbers over ten are thus expressed-aon-fęr-dévg, eleven men, &c. The influence of these numbers on aspiration shall be noticed hereafter.

The termination of a vowel before n is therefore often indicative of person, and, added to a word, gives it that character; thus mealta, deceived, mealtair, or mealtor, deceiver.

The termination act is, in general, the sign of a substantive formed from an adjective, somewhat similar to the termination ness in English; thus, rearaṁysł manly, fearaṁlaċt manliness. When the primitive adjective ends in ta, the substantive is formed by the addition of r, thus, macanta, honest, macantas, honesty.

The following example will serve to exhibit some of the combinations usual, in the formation of derivative words, in the Irish language; but I do not conceive it necessary to enlarge upon this subject here.

meallta deceived, is the part. past of the verb to deceive. mealltair a deceiver, mealltaireaċt deceit. mealltan a low deceiver, mealltanas low deceit.

C

« AnteriorContinua »