London: C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SON, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,

17, PATERNOSTER Row.

Cambridge: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO.

Leipzig: B. A. BROCKHAUS

А

CONCISE IRISH GRAMMAR

WITH

PIECES FOR READING,

BY

ERNST WINDISCH,

PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LEIPZIG.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN

BY

NORMAN MOORE, M.D.

ST CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ;

YELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

EDITED FOR THE SYNDICS OF THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

CAMBRIDGE:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

1882

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

I was at work upon an edition of the fragment of the Irish version of the Historia Britonum in Leabhar pa Huidri when the Kurzgefasste Irische Grammatik of Professor Windisch appeared, and I found it so clear and well arranged a guide to the verbal forms of Irish that I wrote to ask the author's leave to translate the Grammar into English. Prof. Windisch, at once liberally gave me permission to make the translation, and has been so good as to send me several corrections which he has made since his book was published. These alterations with those given in his preface are put in their places throughout the Grammar. The whole responsibility for the translation is mine, but he has read each sheet as it passed through the press.

The earliest printed Grammar of the Irish language is by a Franciscan, Francis O'Molloy. It is in Latin, is entitled Grammatica Latino-Hibernica, and was printed at Rome in 1677. Since this publication several Irish Grammars have appeared; of which the best known are:

E. Lhwyd: (prefixed to his Irish-English Dictionary). Oxford, 1707.

Hugh Boy Mac Curtin : Elements of the Irish Language. London, 1728; Paris, 1732.

Andrew Donlevy: Elements (appended to his Catechism). Paris, 1742 and many subsequent editions.

Vallancey: Irish Grammar. 1773 and 1782.
Wm. Halliday: Uraicecht na Gaedilge. Dublin, 1808; 2nd ed. 1812.

Wm. Neilson (and Patrick Lynch): Introduction to the Irish Language.c

Dublin, 1808. Paul O'Brien : Practical Grammar of the Irish Language. Dublin, 1809.

John O'Connell: Instructions for Reading Irish. Cork, 1813.
Patrick Lynch (another): Introduction. Dublin, 1815.
E. O'Reilly: Compendious Irish Grammar. Dublin, 1817.

James Scurry: An Introduction to the Irish Language. Waterford, 1820.

Owen Connellan: Practical Grammar. Dublin, 1844.
John O'Donovan: Grammar of the Irish Language. Dublin, 1845.
J. C. Zeuss : Grammatica Celtica. Berlin, 1853.

ed. Ebel. Berlin, 1871. John H. Molloy: A Grammar of the Irish Language. Dublin, 1865.

These publications, of several of which a full account may be found in the preface to O'Donovan's Irish Grammar and in James Scurry's Review of Irish Grammars and Dictionaries (Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. xv.) may be considered as, in different ways, works of authority with perhaps the exception of the compilations of Lhwyd, Vallancey, Halliday and O'Reilly. Two brief and useful Grammars based upon that of O'Donovan

are :

Charles H. H. Wright: Grammar of the Modern Irish Language. Dublin, 1855.

P. W. Joyce: School Irish Grammar. Dublin, 1879.

The Grammars of O'Donovan and of Zeuss are those which are of most importance by far to students of Irish.

O'Donovan, who was born at Atateemore, Co. Kilkenny, in 1809, was well versed in the existing idiom of his mother tongue. In connexion with the Ordnance Survey he had travelled into every part of Ireland, and was thus acquainted with all the dialects prevalent in his day. He edited many volumes of Irish texts and transcribed a vast number of MSS., so that be also acquired an extended knowledge of the vocabulary and grammatical