MODERN IRISH By MfcHEAL MAc CRAITH, Department ofModem Irish, University College, Galway

I. LANGUAGE R. A. Breatnach, 'An focal jluirse f6s', Eigse, 22:2 I-24, derives the wordjluirse from the English.fluenry which originally meant 'affiuence, copiousness, abundance'. T. de Bhaldraithe, 'An Pluinceadach• ceannr6dai focl6irechta', Teangeolas, 22: Ig-25, provides an interim account of Richard Plunket's Vocabularium Latinum et Hibemum - Focloir Lainne agus Gaoidheilge (I 662), the first Irish bilingual diction• ary compiled in Ireland, containing a wealth of information on the history of the , Irish lexicography, and social history. I d., 'N6tai ar fhocail', Celtica, I 9: I 2, distinguishes between builicin and builcin, the former coming from English bulkin 'bull-calf, young bull', the latter from English bulk. The wordfeidheal is another form of meitheal, the exchange between m apd f being a not uncommon occurrence. I d., 'N6tai ar fhocail', Eigse, 22: I07-10, discusses the meanings and etymologies of uroig, piobamail, an ghf bheag, erich, pal tOg, cuitleir(e). N. McGonagle, 'The irregular verb in modern Irish, Part I: heir', ZCP, 42: gog-I 8, shows that, though this verb has retained many of its irregular features, the tendency in Ulster has been towards more regularization or stangardization. C. Ni Dhomhnaill, 'Ann coitcheann, as coitcheann', Eigse, 22: I 35-40, examines the function and meaning of coitinne as instanced in Bardic Syntactical Tracts, and applies the concept to seventeen other prepositions besides ann and as. N. Hamilton, 'The non-personal in Irish', ZCP, 42 :g66- 73, shows that the use of the non-personal in responses entails substituting the analytic for the synthetic form and deleting a pronoun from the analytic form. Such deletion/substitution, how• ever, is not always compulsory and the rules governing each modification are not always the same.

2. DIALECT STUDIES

A. J. HlJghes, 'Orthographical evidenc~ of developments in Donegal Irish', Eigse, 22: I 26-34, uses Seamas 0 Grianna's novel An Draoidin (I 959) to show that the author was well aware oflinguistic changes that had occurred in the Donegal Gaeltacht since his youth and had incorporated them into the spee~h ofyounger characters. Caoilfhionn Nic Phaidin, Cnuasach Focal 0 Uibh Rdthach, Acadamh Rioga na hEireann, v + I 24 pp., contains words and connotations not found in 568 Irish Studies the latest Irish-English dictionary (I 977), and is based on an extensive collection offolklore made in South Kerry between c. I925 and I957· Cathair 6 Dochartaigh, Dialects of , Queen's Univ. of , Institute oflrish Studies, xvi + 324 pp., analyses the corpus ofphonetic materials on Ulster Irish published in Wagner's Linguistic Atlas to complement O'Rahilly's Irish Dialects Past and Present, and thus provides the first broad based discussion 5m internal differentiation within Ulster Irish in over fifty_ years. S. 0 Murchu, 'N6tai ar [ o] agus [ u] i nGaeilge a!l iarthair', Eigse, 22: I 24-25, takes issue with R. Hickey's findings in Eigse, 2 I, and argues that the vowels [o] and [ u] myst be separated and not put together in the one phoneme. D. 0 Se, 'The copula and preverbal particles in West Kerry Irish', Celtica, I 9: 98-I I o, describes the loss of the -r element in the copula; an increase in the distinctive function of the initial mutations; an extension of eclipsis at the expension oflenition, and a clear tendency for parallel change in both copula forms and verbal particles. These morphological changes have also influenced syntac• tical,developments in the copula in West Kerry Irish. N. Stenson and P. 0 Ciardha, 'The Irish of Rath Cairn - a supplement to "Linguistic Atlas and Survey oflrish Dialects" (Part 2), discussion', ZCP, 42: I I6-37, tentatively conclude that the resettlement of Rath Cairn with native speakers oflrish has been a linguistic success, the dialect remaining essentially Conamara Irish, though not identical to any existing Conamara dialects. H. Wagner and N. McGonagle, 'Phonetische Texte aus Dunquin, County Kerry (Punkt 20 des "Linguistic Atlas and Survey oflrish Dialects")', ib., 2 I 9-4I, edit six texts from Peig Sayers and one froll} Maire Ruiseal with a phonetic transcription. S. Watson, 'Seamus 0 Duilearga's Antrim notebooks - n: Language', ib., I38-2I8, describe the dialect of the Antrim Glens as contained in the material recorded by Delargy and O'Toole (ZCP, 40).

3· SociOLINGUISTICS Liam Mac Mathuna, Pobal na Gaeilge: Oidhri agus Ceannrrfdaithe, Coisceim, v + I43 pp., uses the findings of censuses and surveys to understand the community's attitude towards the Irish language, the level of fluency and the frequency of use. John Hutchinson, The Dynamics of Cultural Nationalism, the Gaelic Revival and the Creation of an Irish Nation State, London, Allen and Unwin, viii+ 343 pp., demon• strates the role of cultural nationalism as a separate movement in the creation of modern nation states by focusing on the Gaelic revival in particular. H. uses the Irish example to prove that cultural national• ism can succeed in creating a sense of national identity, whereas