practical grammar of irish language.pdf - Cryptm.org

PREFACE.
IN this Grammar I have followed the systems of Neilson and
Haliday, as being the most correct. In the pronunciation I have
adhered to the Connaught dialect, which will be found to represent
as closely as possible the proper orthography of the modern
language, except in very few instances. It would be almost an
endless, and perhaps a useless undertaking, to give the varieties
of sounds used throughout Ireland, as applied to several letters
and words, which may be either localisms or corruptions. The
pronunciation, however, which I have used, (so far as I could
represent the words by English letters,) is that spoken and
taught by the Irish Professors of the Dublin University ;
of the
Royal Belfast Institution and of the new College of St. Columba
at Stackallen.
I have given many words and phrases collected from ancient
Irish MSS., in order to assist the learner in reading the nearly
obsolete language in which they are written. While I was myself
engaged in studying the ancient manuscripts, I found these phrases
and idioms one of the greatest difficulties to be overcome, and
the examples now given will supply a key to the elucidation of
many passages, otherwise, perhaps impossible to understand. In
a dictionary which I was many years compiling, most of those
antiquated idioms are fully explained.
I acknowledge with gratitude the kindness of Sir WILLIAM
BETHAM, who has given me his valuable opinion on many points in
this Grammar an opinion which must now be considered of
the greatest weight on any point connected with the Irish language,
since he has rendered so great a service to Celtic Literature
by the discovery of the identity of the Irish and Etruscan
languages an identity which I have no hesitation in stating, he
has, in
my humble judgment, clearly and fully established in his
Etruria Celtica.
I conclude with my warmest acknowledgments for the liberal
encouragement which has enabled me to publish this Grammar,
trusting it will promote the cause of Irish literature, by facilitating
the acquisition of perhaps one of the most ancient, as well as
one of the most beautiful and expressive languages of Europe,
and thus establish a medium of communication between the
higher and lower orders of society in Ireland,