noà. u^ GAELIC GRAMMAR CONTAINING THE PARTS OF SPEECH AND THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PHONOLOGY AND ETYMOLOGY WITH A CHAPTER ON PROPER AND PLACE NAMES BY GEORGE CALDER. b.d., d. litt., Lecturer in Celtic, University of Glasgow. GLASGOW: Alex. MacLaren & Sons, 360-362 argyle street. Paper made, printed and hound in Scotland DO M' OILEANAICH A THA, 'S A BHA, 'S A BHIOS — INTRODUCTION. &.RAMMAR," says Professor Bain, "is a science or nothing." Grammar, one may add, is the description of a language, as Geography is the description of a country. The rules of Grammar rest on use and wont, and on induction from observed facts ; and the examples are illustrative, not exhaustive. In dealing with fading usages, however, like" dual da, fviller illustrations are de- sirable ; and in intricate combinations like article with noun, preposition with pronoun, and the verbal system, exhaustive treatment is the only satisfactory course. Attracted by Celtic philology, and following in the footsteps of Zeuss, international scholars have since his time, in increasing numbers, studied Old Irish ; and the mass of material being manageable, they have produced many admirable grammatical works, which, though differing widely in aim and importance, throw much light upon modern Gaelic. Comparatively Uttle has been done in this restricted field since Stewart published his grammar, a great work, which evoked the admiration of O 'Donovan. The time seems ripe for an attempt to lay before the Gaehc-speaking public the main results of modern scholarship ; and in order to save the time and energy of teachers, the editor has set down, in grammatical order, facts that have constantly emerged and engaged his attention as a teacher of Gaelic during the last decade. These pages contain some matters not hitherto treated adequately or at all in Gaelic grammars. The time has come for dealing with philological changes, compound nouns, proper names, and the compounding of verbs with preverbs, of nouns with prenouns, of nouns with suffixes ; and the use and derivation of enclitics and particles. While these topics will interest pupils who have made some progress in the language, the Grammar may be also used with advantage in the hands of a skilful teacher for the instruction of junior pupils. The noun forms, the adjectives, the numerals, the pro- nouns, the prepositions, the prepositional pronouns, and the verb forms may be learnt by the youngest pupil, with this added advantage, that he may at the same time read and assimilate the examples which may be found suited to his state of advancement. The Editor makes grateful acknowledgements to Pro- fessor Eraser and to Mr. Calum Macpharlan for having read part of the proofs. The sheets have been looked over also by Mr. Neil Shaw and Mr. James MacLaren, and thanks are due to them for pointing out some errors. The Editor is greatly indebted to the Rev. Dr. J. King Hewison for the loan of the pastoral visitation roll (MS.) of the Rev. Dr. MacLea, minister of Rothesay, 1760-1824, containing all the names and surnames in the parish. Finally, the Editor has much pleasure in acknowledging his obligations to Principal Sir Donald MacAHster for the great interest he has taken in the work from first to last, and for many helpful suggestions. An Comunn Gàidhealach has generously given a grant of ;£100 to the Editor to aid him in producing the work. Glasgow, May, 1923. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction V. Authorities quoted or referred to xii. Abbreviations XV. The Alphabet : disused letters, lost -p 1 Vowels : broad and slender 1 Consonants : liquids, mutes, spirants 2 Grouping, phrase groups, order of words in sentence groups 4 Elision, of vowels 5 ; of consonants 6 ; an, ag, dO, de, a, CO 7 Syncope, in trisyllables, dissyllables, monosyllables ; com- pensatory lengthening 9 Vowel infection ... 9 The accents 10 ; the stress on first syllable, even stress on -an -ag 1 1 ; stress on long amorphous cpds. 12 ; shifting of the stress 1 2 ; first elements of ipf . cpds not stressed 13 Assimilation of consonants 14 Dissimilation, of joined and separated consonants, dissimila tion in phrases Reduplication, of pronoun sinne ; of preposition an, do, CO ; of adj. motha ; of words and phrases Metathesis Projection of consonants : -t- of art., -s- of preposition anns -C- of mac. Retraction Nasalisation, before vowels ; in petrified phrases ; before con sonants, liquids, and -S-, 20 ; before -f- ... sometimes written EcUpsis of -p-, -t-, -C- 21 ; projected nasal before mediae ; eclipsis misunderstood a cause of bad spellings 21 ; eclipsis of mediae ... Inflected words causing eclipsis : ar, bhur, an Uninflected words causing eclipsis : gu, mu. na, 0, bho ; the negative an ; the interrogative an 23 ; the preposition an, negative cha, relative an, a.s. and g.p. of art. ... 24 Denasalisation, in conversation 24 ; in literature anns, COm-, ml-, mr- ; examples, initial and medial 25 ; n pro- nounced r after c, g, m, t ;; PAGE Aspiration defined, the sign is h 26 Exempt from asp. SO, sin, SUd, gach, but not dO, de as pre- verbs and compounded ; also exempt Sb-, Sg-. Sm-, sp-, st-; I final exempts following dental ; n final exempts follow- ing dental, liquid, and S ; homo-organic letters : gutturals, dentals, nasals, do not aspirate one another 27 Aspiration after voc. a ; def . art. 29 ; rel. pronoun a 29 ; s.; ma 30 ; g.p. of nouns indef. 30 m. nouns asp. adjj. in g. -0- nouns def. in d.s., and stems in n.p. 30 ; aon, gun, a' cheud, da, trl, ceithir 30 ; mi after cha, bu 30, tu in ace, often in nom., but not after s and d ; then tu is pronounced du 31 ; after mo, dO thy, a his, de. dO, fO, nar, o, bho, roimh, troimh, glè, ro 31 cha aspirates all initials except dentals and S 31 ; dO-, ro-, as preverbs ; aspiration of verbs by analogy 32 ; rel. as asp. f ; bu asperates all cons, except dentals, and S ... 32 Medial aspiration 33 ; second part of pf . cpd. is aspirated 33 ; adjj. preceding nouns, except gach, iomadh, liuthad, and adjj. with attributive nouns 34 ; uile, a h-uile some- times aspirates 34 ; do-, mi-, neo-, SO-, ion-, bith-, ath- aspirate regularly ; an-, am-, amh-, ain-, aim-, aimh- irregularly 34 The dropping of a non-aspirating particle causes aspiration 34 DeaspLration, with metathesis, with palatalisation 35 Palatalisation: the rule caol ri cao! 35 Depalatalisation, through weak pronunciation of slender vowels and palatalised consonants, especially r ; ex- ceptions to caol ri caol 36 Prothetic f, process still continuing ; f lost ... ... ... 37 Prothetics; s for Welsh ff ; s lost 38 Vowels, Simple, long and short ; long stressed are accented ; 0, e have two accents 39 ; four sounds of a 39 ; one sound of u, three sounds of i, four sounds of 40 ; nine sounds of e : long open e (eu), diphthongised ia 40 ; close e ; close e before S 42 ; or with voiced stop ; open e before d 42 ; the breaking of e : e unbroken, broken 43 ; and breaking ea into close i 44 ; ea into open io ; ea into iu ; ea into iau 45 Diphthongs defined, rising and falling 45 ; rising eo, iO, ill 46 , falling ài, èi, ìa, ÌO, Òi, lu with the corresponding short 47 ; ua, UÌ 50 Triphthongs begin with e, i, or u ; aoi a diphthong or a simple vowel ; eòi 51 ; iùi, uai 52 H a short voiceless stop 52 ; represents a lost letter b, C, d, 8, t, 53 ; Indo-European p lost in Gaelic before vowels 53; before consonants, between vowels 54 Consonants : the tenues c, t, (p), 55 ; initial en-, cr-, tn-, tr-, pr-, str- 56 Labials : p 56 ; b, m, f, 57 ; f for bh and th 58 loch, slender Gutturals : c initial, medial 58 ; ch like hew, like flat voiced Ch, -idh like -ich 59 ; g ; gh, dh broad ch, slender like y 60 Dentals: t, d60<; s 61 Liquids : I broad, slender 62 ; aspirated 63 ; n broad, slender, aspirated ; ng 63 ; n-, after c, g, m, t, becomes r 64 ; n unvoiced before fh, th, ch : r broad, and aspirated, slender and aspirated 64 ; r unvoiced ... ... ... 65 Interchanges of Consonants : c- for p-, CU- for wh-, d for c, g for p, g for y, b for p, f for b, f for bh, f for m, f for p, for f, for for in- p for f 65 ; p for b, p for t, ph b m, b w, b for truded, m for b, mh for nn 66 ; nn for mh, nn for ng, s t, t for S, t intruded, t for h, t for V, S for h, S for ch, S for j, II S lost, g for d, g for t, I for r 67 ; I for n, I disappears, disappears with compensatory lengthening ; bh for I r, (II), d for I (Islay), d f or n ; n for I, n for m 68 ; n for n for t, n in banrigh, n intruded ; r for I, r for n, r assi- milated before I, n 69 ; r epenthetic ... 70 Svarabhakti vowel : between words, between letters 70 ; Sv. repeats parent vowel, except io 71 ; Sv. produced by liquid before labial or g, ch ; by m before ch, S ; by S before mh, ch 72 ; Sv. before disappearing spirant 73 ; effect of stress on Sv. ... ... ... ... ... 73 Gender : males mas., females fern., with exceptions 74 ; dif- ferent words for m. and f . ; firionn, ban, boo 75 ; gender inferred from terminations or meaning ; neuter gender 76; survivals of ... ... ... ... ... ... 77 Inflection of Nouns. Root and stem 77 ; Vowel stems, con- sonantal stems ... ... ... ... ... ... 78 Declension of nouns 78 ; description of vowel stems and consonantal stems ; meaningless termination in -ibh, and compared 80 -a 79 ; o and a stems, terminations : 2.