Elements of Gaelic Grammar Part 39

Of the former I find no satisfactory a.n.a.lysis. The latter cia b' e is literally _which it be_, or _which it were_; which is just the French _qui que ce soit_, _qui que ce fut_ expressed in English by one word _whosoever_, _whichsoever_. We find cia used in this sense and connection, Psal. cx.x.xv. 11. Glasg. 1753. Gach uile rioghachd mar an ceadn' _cia_ h-iomdha bhi siad ann, _All_ _kingdoms likewise, however numerous they be_.

See also Gen. xliv. 9, Rom. ii. 1.

[47] This p.r.o.noun is found written with an initial c in Lhuyd's "Archaeol.

Brit." t.i.t. I. page 20. col. 2. ceach; again t.i.t. X. voc. Bealtine, cecha bliadna _each year_. So also O'Brien, cach _all_, _every_, like the French _chaque_. "Irish Dict." voc. cach.

[48] The p.r.o.nouns _cach eile_ and _cach a cheile_ are hardly known in Perths.h.i.+re. Instead of the former, they use the single word cach p.r.o.nounced long, and declined like a noun of the singular number; and instead of the latter, a cheile, as in this example, choinnich iad a cheile; thuit cuid, agus theich cach, _they met each other; some fell, and the rest fled_. Here cach may be considered as a simple p.r.o.noun; but the first clause, choinnich iad a cheile, _they met his fellow_, hardly admits of any satisfactory a.n.a.lysis. The phrases, in fact, seem to be elliptical, and to be expressed more fully, according to the practice of other districts, thus: choinnich iad cach a chiele; thuit, cuid, agus theich cach eile. Now, if cach be nothing else than gach _every_, (a conjecture supported by the short p.r.o.nunciation of the _a_, as well as by the authorities adduced in the preceding note,) the expressions may be easily a.n.a.lysed: choinnich iad gach [aon] a cheile; thuit cuid, agus theich gach [aon] eile; _they met every [one] his fellow; some fell, and every other [one] fled_, See 1 Thess. v.

11.

[49] In the older Irish MSS. the Particle _do_ appears under a variety of forms. In one MS. of high antiquity it is often written _dno_. This seems to be its oldest form. The two consonants were sometimes separated by a vowel, and the _n_ being p.r.o.nounced and then written _r_, (See Part I. p.

19.) the word was written doro. (See _Astle's Hist. of the Orig. and Progr.

of Writing, page 126, Irish Specimen, No. 6._) The Consonants were sometimes transposed, suppressing the latter Vowel, and the Particle became nod (_O Brien's Ir. Dict. voc._ Sasat, Treas,) and rod (_id. voc._ Ascaim, Fial.) Sometimes one of the syllables only was retained; hence no (_O'Br.

voc._ No,) ro (_id. voc._ Ro,) and do in common use. Do likewise suffered a transposition of letters, and was written sometimes ad. (O'Br. _voc._ Do.)

[50] This correspondence of the Termination with the Root was overlooked in the older editions of the Gaelic Psalms; as p.r.o.nnfidh, cuirfar, molfidh, innsam, guidham, coimhdar, sinnam, gluaisfar, &c.

[51] The disposition in the Gaelic to drop articulations has, in this instance, been rather unfortunate; as the want of the _f_ weakens the sound of the word, and often occasions a _hiatus_. There seems a propriety in retaining the _f_ of the Future, after a Liquid, or an aspirated Mute; as, cuirfidh, mairfidh, molfidh, geillfidh, p.r.o.nnfidh, brisfidh, &c., for these words lose much in sound and emphasis by being changed into caithidh, mairidh, &c.

[52] The incorporation of the Verb with a Personal p.r.o.noun is a manifest improvement, and has gradually taken place in almost all the polished languages. There is incomparably more beauty and force in expressing the energy of the Verb, with its _personal_ relation and concomitant circ.u.mstances, in one word, than by a periphrasis of p.r.o.nouns and auxiliaries. The latter mode may have a slight advantage in point of precision, but the former is greatly superior in elegance and strength. The structure of the Latin and Greek, compared with that of the English Verb, affords a striking ill.u.s.tration of this common and obvious remark. Nothing can be worse managed than the French Verb; which, though it possesses a competent variety of _personal_ inflections, yet loses all the benefit of them by the perpetual enfeebling recurrence of the personal p.r.o.nouns.

In comparing the Scottish and Irish dialects of the Gaelic, it may be inferred that the former, having less of inflection or _incorporation_, than the latter, differs less from the parent tongue, and is an older branch of the Celtic, than its sister dialect. It were unfair, however, to deny that the Irish have improved the Verb, by giving a greater variety of inflection to its _Numbers_ and _Persons_, as well as by introducing a simple Present Tense. The authors of our metrical version of the Gaelic Psalms were sensible of the advantage possessed by the Irish dialect in these respects, and did not scruple to borrow an idiom which has given grace and dignity to many of their verses.

[53] Such at least is the common practice in writing, in compliance with the common mode of colloquial p.r.o.nunciation. It might perhaps be better to retain the full form of the Preposition, in grave p.r.o.nunciation, and always in writing. It is an object worthy of attention to preserve radical articulations, especially in writing; and particularly to avoid every unnecessary use of the monosyllable _a_, which, it must be confessed, recurs in too many senses.

[54] The Preposition iar has here been improperly confounded with air _on_.

I have ventured to restore it, from the Irish Grammarians. Iar is in common use in the Irish dialect, signifying _after_. Thus, iar sin _after that_, iar leaghadh an tshoisgeil _after reading the Gospel_, iar sleachdadh do niomlan _after all have kneeled down_, iar seasamh suas _after standing up_, &c. See "Irish Book of Common Prayer." Air, when applied to time, signifies not _after_, but _at_ or _on_, air an am so, air an uair so _at this time_, air an la sin _on that day_. There is therefore sufficient reason to believe that, in the case in question, iar is the proper word; and that it has been corruptly supplanted by air.

[55] The Imperative seems to have been anciently formed by adding _tar_ to the Root. This form is still retained in Ireland, and in some parts of Scotland, chiefly in verbs ending in a Lingual; as, buailtear, deantar.

(See the Lord's Prayer in the older editions of the Gaelic Version of the a.s.sembly's Catechism; also, the "Irish N. Test." Matt. vi. 10. Luke xi. 2.) In other verbs, the _t_ seems to have been dropped in p.r.o.nunciation. It was, however, retained by the Irish in writing, but with an aspiration to indicate its being quiescent; thus, togthar, teilgthear, "Ir. N. T." Matt.

xxi. 21, Mark xi. 23, crochthar, Matt. xxvii. 22. So also the "Gaelic N.

T." 1767, deanthar. Matt. vi. 10, Luke xi. 2. In the later publications the _t_ has been omitted altogether, with what propriety may be well doubted.

[56] To preserve a due correspondence with the p.r.o.nunciation, the Pa.s.s.

Part. should always terminate in _te_, for in this part of the verb, the _t_ has always its _small_ sound. Yet in verbs whereof the characteristic vowel is broad, it is usual to write the termination of the Pa.s.s. Part.

_ta_; as, togta _raised_, crochta _suspended_. This is done in direct opposition to the p.r.o.nunciation, merely out of regard to the Irish Rule of _Leathan ri leathan_, which in this case, as in many others, has been permitted to mar the genuine orthography.

When a verb, whose characteristic vowel is broad, terminates in a Liquid, the final consonant coalesces so closely with the _t_ of the Pa.s.s. Part.

that the _small_ sound of the latter necessarily occasions the like sound in p.r.o.nouncing the former. Accordingly the small sound of the Liquid is properly represented in writing, by an _i_ inserted before it. Thus, l _drink_, Pa.s.s. Part. ilte; p.r.o.nn _pound_, proinnte; crann _bar_, crainnte; sparr _ram_, spairrte; trus _pack_, truiste. But when the verb ends in a mute, whether plain or aspirated, there is no such coalescence between its final consonant and the adjected _t_ of the Participle. The final consonant if it be p.r.o.nounced retains its broad sound. There is no good reason for maintaining a correspondence of vowels in the Participle, which ought therefore to be written, as it is p.r.o.nounced, without regard to _Leathan ri leathan_; as, tog _raise_, Pa.s.s. Part. togte; croch _hang_, crochte; sath _thrust_, sathte; cnamh _chew_, cnamhte.

The same observations apply, with equal force, to the Pret. Subj. in which the _t_ of the termination is always p.r.o.nounced with its _small_ sound, and should therefore be followed by a small vowel in writing; as, thogteadh, chrochteadh, not thogtadh, chrochtadh.

[57] In all _regular_ verbs, the difference between the Affirmative and the Negative Moods, though marked but slightly and partially in the Preterite Tense, (only in the initial form of the 2d Conjugation,) yet is strongly marked in the Future Tense. The Fut. Aff. terminates in a feeble vocal sound. In the Fut. Neg. the voice rests on an articulation, or is cut short by a forcible aspiration. Supposing these Tenses to be used by a speaker in reply to a command or a request; by their very structure, the former expresses the softness of compliance; and the latter, the abruptness of a refusal. If a command or a request be expressed by such verbs as these, tog sin, gabh sin, ith sin, the compliant answer is expressed by togaidh, gabhaidh, ithidh; the refusal, by the cha tog, cha ghabh, cha n-ith. May not this peculiar variety of form in the same Tense, when denoting affirmation, and when denoting negation, be reckoned among the characteristic marks of an original language?

[58] This part of the verb, being declined and governed like a noun, bears a closer resemblance to the Latin Gerund than to the Infinitive; and might have been properly named the Gerund. But as Lhuyd and all the later Irish Grammarians have already given it the name of Infinitive, I choose to continue the same appellation rather than change it.

[59] The Editor of the Gaelic Psalms printed at Glasgow, 1753, judging, as it would seem, that cuidich was too bold a licence for cuideachaidh, restored the gen. of the full form of the Infinitive; but in order to reduce it to two syllables, so as to suit the verse, he threw out the middle syllable, and wrote cuid'idh.

[60] I have met with persons of superior knowledge of the Gaelic who contended that such expressions as--ta mi deanamh _I am doing_, ta e bualadh _he is striking_ (see page 83), are complete without any Preposition understood; and that in such situations deanamh, bualadh, are not infinitives or nouns, but real participles of the Present Tense. With much deference to such authorities, I shall here give the reasons which appear to me to support the contrary opinion.

1. The form of the supposed Participle is invariably the same with that of the Infinitive.

2. If the words deanamh, bualadh, in the phrases adduced, were real Participles, then in all similar instances, it would be not only unnecessary, but ungrammatical, to introduce the preposition ag at all. But this is far from being the case. In all verbs beginning with a vowel, the preposition ag or its unequivocal representative _g_ is indispensable; as, ta iad ag iarruidh, ta mi 'g iarruidh. Shall we say, then, that verbs beginning with a consonant have a present participle, while those that begin with a vowel have none? But even this distinction falls to the ground, when it is considered that in many phrases which involve a verb beginning with a consonant, the preposition ag stands forth to view, and can on no account be suppressed; as, ta iad 'g a bhualadh _they are striking him_, ta e 'g ar bualadh _he is striking us_. From these particulars it may be inferred that the preposition ag must always precede the infinitive, in order to complete the phrase which corresponds to the English or Latin pres. participle; and that in those cases where the preposition has been dropped, the omission has been owing to the rapidity or carelessness of colloquial p.r.o.nunciation.

3. A still stronger argument, in support of the same conclusion, may be derived from the regimen of the phrase in question. The infinitive of a transitive verb, preceded by any preposition, always governs the noun, which is the object of the verbal action, in the genitive. This is an invariable rule of Gaelic Syntax; thus, ta sinn a' dol a dh' iarruidh na spreidhe, _we are going to seek the cattle_; ta iad ag iomain na spreidhe, _they are driving the cattle_; ta iad iar cuairteachadh na spreidhe, _they have gathered the cattle_. This regimen can be accounted for on no other principle, in Gaelic, than that the governing word is a noun, as the infinitive is confessed to be. Now, it happens that the supposed participle has the very same regimen, and governs the genitive as uniformly as the same word would have done, when the presence of a preposition demonstrated it to be a noun; so, ta mi bualadh an doruis, _I am knocking the door_; ta thu deanamh an uilc, _you are doing mischief_. The inference is, that even in these situations, the words--bualadh, deanamh, though accompanied with no preposition, are still genuine nouns, and are nothing else than the infinitives of their respective verbs, with the preposition ag understood before each of them.

4. The practice in other dialects of the Celtic, and the authority of respectable grammarians, affords collateral support to the opinion here defended. Gen. Vallancey, the most copious writer on Irish grammar, though he gives the name of participle to a certain part of the Gaelic verb, because it corresponds, in signification, to a part of the Latin verb which has obtained that name, yet constantly exhibits this participle, not as a single word, but a composite expression; made up of a preposition and that part of the verb which is here called the infinitive. The phrase is fully and justly exhibited, but it is wrong named; unless it be allowed to extend the name of Participle to such phrases as _inter ambulandum_, [Greek: en toi peripatein].--Lhuyd, in his Cornish Grammar, informs us, with his usual accuracy, that the Infinitive Mood, as in the other dialects of the British, sometimes serves as a Substantive, as in the Latin; and by the help of the participle _a_ [the Gaelic ag] before it, it supplies the room of the participle of the present tense, &c. "Archaeol. Brit." page 245, col.

3. This observation is strictly applicable to the Gaelic verb. The infinitive, with the particle _ag_ before it, _supplies the room of the present Participle_. The same judicious writer repeats this observation in his "Introduction to the Irish or Ancient Scottish Language": The Participle of the Present Tense is _supplied_ by the Participle _ag_ before the Infinitive Mood; as, _ag radh_ saying, _ag cainnt_ talking, _ag teagasg_ teaching, _ag dul_ going, &c. "Arch. Brit." page 303, col. 2.

[61] It may appear a strange defect in the Gaelic, that its Verbs, excepting the substantive verbs Bi, Is, have no _simple_ Present Tense. Yet this is manifestly the case in the Scottish, Welsh, and Cornish dialects (see "Arch. Brit." page 246, col. 1, and page 247, col. 1.); to which may be added the Manks. Creidim _I believe_, guidheam _I pray_, with perhaps one or two more Present Tenses, now used in Scotland, seem to have been imported from Ireland, for their paucity evinces that they belong not to our dialect. The want of the simple Present Tense is a striking point of resemblance between the Gaelic and the Hebrew verb.

I am indebted to a learned and ingenious correspondent for the following important remark; that the want of the simple Present Tense in all the British dialects of the Celtic, in common with the Hebrew, while the Irish has a.s.sumed that Tense, furnishes a strong presumption that the Irish is a dialect of later growth; that the British Gaelic is its parent tongue; and consequently that Britain is the mother country of Ireland.

[62] From observing the same thing happen repeatedly or habitually it is naturally inferred that it will happen again. When an event is predicted it is supposed that the speaker, if no other cause of his foreknowledge appears, infers the future happening of the event from its having already happened in many instances. Thus the Future Tense, which simply foretells, conveys to the hearer an intimation that the thing foretold has already taken place frequently and habitually. In Hebrew, the Future Tense is used with precisely the same effect. In the law of Jehovah he _will_ meditate; _i.e._, he _does_ meditate habitually. Psal. i, 2. See also Psal. xlii. 1, Job ix. 11, xxiii. 8, 9, &c., _pa.s.sim_.

[63] Though this be the precise import of the Compound Tenses of the second order, yet they are not strictly confined to the point of time stated above; but are often used to denote past time indefinitely. In this way, they supply the place of the Compound Tenses of the first order in those verbs which have no pa.s.sive participle.

[64] See Moor. So tha 'n tigh 'g a thogail, _the house is in building_.

[65] Teid the Fut. Negat. of Rach to _go_, has been generally written d'theid; from an opinion, it would seem, that the full form of that Tense is do theid. Yet as the participle _do_ is never found prefixed to the Future Negative of any regular verb, it appears more agreeable to the a.n.a.logy of conjugation to write this tense in its simplest form teid. See "Gael. New Test." 1767, and 1796, Mat. xiii. 28. xiv. 15. A different mode of writing this tense has been adopted in the edition of the "Gael. Bible,"

Edin. 1807, where we uniformly find dtheid, dthoir, dthig.

[66] Throughout the verb tabhair, the syllables _abhair_ are often contracted into _oir_; as, toir, torinnn, &c. Acts xviii. 10. Sometimes written d'thoir, d'thoirinn; rather improperly. See note 65.

[67] Tig rather than d'thig. See note 65.

[68] A Pres. Aff. of this Verb, borrowed from the Irish, is often used in the G. SS. Deiream _I say_, deir e _he saith_, deir iad _they say_.

[69] Dubhairt, dubhradh, are contracted for do thubhairt, &c. Abairinn, abaiream, abairear, are often contracted into abrainn, abram, abrar.

[70] It may appear an odd peculiarity in the Gaelic, that in many of the most common phrases, a proposition or question should thus be expressed without the least trace of a Verb. It can hardly be said that the Substantive Verb is _understood_, for then there would be no impropriety in expressing it. But the fact is, that it would be completely contrary to the idiom and usage of the language, to introduce a Substantive Verb in these phrases. It will diminish our surprise at this peculiarity to observe that in the ancient languages numerous examples occur of sentences, or clauses of sentences, in which the Substantive Verb is omitted, without occasioning any obscurity or ambiguity; and this in Prose as well as in Verse. Thus in Hebrew; Gen. xlii. 11, 13, 14. We [are] all one man's sons--we [are] true men--thy servants [are] twelve brethren--the youngest [is] with his father--ye [are] spies--&c.

[Greek: Ouk agathon polukoiranie.]--_Iliad_, B. 204.

[Greek: kaka kerdea is' atesi.]--_Hes._ [Greek: E. kai e. a].

[Greek: ego de tisou tachupeithes.]--_Theoc. Idyl._ 7.

Et mi genus ab Jove summo.--_Virg. aen._ VI. 123.

Varium et mutabile semper Femina.--_aen._ IV. 569.

Omnia semper suspecta atque sollicita; nullus locus amicitiae. _Cic. de Amic._ 15.

  mira feritas, foeda paupertas; non arma, non equi, non penates; victui herba, vest.i.tui pelles, cubile humus; sola in sagittis spes, &c.--_Tacit. de. mor. Germ. Cap. ult._ In these and the like examples, the Substantive Verb might have been expressed, if with less elegance, yet without grammatical impropriety. What has been frequently done in other languages, seems, in Gaelic, to have been adopted, in certain phrases, as an invariable mode of speech.

The omission of the Substantive Verb is not unknown in English; as,

"In winter awful thou."--_Thomson._ "A ministering angel thou."--_Scott._ "A cruel sister she."--_Mallet._

[71] The effect of this Tense in narration seems to be very nearly, if not precisely, the same with that of the Present of the Infinitive in Latin; as in these pa.s.sages:

"----misere discedere quaerens, _Ire_ modo ocius; interdum _consistere_; in aurem _Dicere_ nescio quid puero."--_Hor. Sat. 1. 8. v. 9._

"At Danaum proceres, Agamemnoniaeque phalanges Ingenti _trepidare_ metu; pars _vertere_ terga, Ceu quondam petiere rates; pars _tollere_ vocem."--_aeneid. VI. 492._