Beside the fire/Notes on the Irish Text
NOTES ON THE IRISH TEXT.
Page 2, line 5, abalta air a ḋeunaṁ = able to do it, a word borrowed from English. There is a great diversity of words used in the various provinces for "able to," as abalta air (Mid Connacht); inneaṁuil ċum (Waterford); ionánn or i ndán, with infinitive (West Galway); ’niniḃ with infinitive (Donegal).
Page 4, line 18, ni leigeann siad dam = they don't allow me. Dam is pronounced in Mid Connacht dumm, but daṁ-sa is pronounced doo-sa. Dr. Atkinson has clearly shown, in his fine edition of Keating's "Three Shafts of Death," that the "enclitic" form of the present tense, ending in (e)ann, should only be used in the singular. This was stringently observed a couple of hundred years ago, but now the rule seems to be no longer in force. One reason why the form of the present tense, which ends in (e)ann, has been substituted for the old present tense, in other words, why people say buaileann sé, "he strikes," instead of the correct buailiḋ sé, is, I think, though Dr. Atkinson has not mentioned it, obvious to an Irish speaker. The change probably began at the same time that the f in the future of regular verbs became quiescent, as it is now, I may say, all over Ireland. Anyone who uses the form buailiḋ sé would now be understood to say, "he will strike," not "he strikes," for buailfiḋ sé, "he will strike," is now pronounced, in Connacht, at least, and I think elsewhere, buailiḋ sé. Some plain differentiation between the forms of the tenses was wanted, and this is probably the reason why the enclitic form in (e)ann has usurped the place of the old independent present, and is now used as an independent present itself. Line 30, madra or madaḋ alla = a wolf. Cuir forán air = salute him—a word common in Connacht and the Scotch Highlands, but not understood in the South. Line 34. Ḃeiḋeaḋ sé = he would be, is pronounced in Connacht as a monosyllable, like ḃeiṫ (veh or vugh).
Page 6, line 8, earball, is pronounced rubbal not arball, in Connacht. Ni and níor are both used before ṫáinig at the present day.
Page 8, line 18. Go marḃfaḋ sé = that he would kill; another and commoner form is, go maróċaḋ sé, from marḃuiġ, the ḃ being quiescent in conversation. Line 31, anḃruiṫ = broth, pronounced anṫruiṫ (anhree), the ḃ having the sound of an h only.
Page 12, line 27. An ċuma iraiḃsó is more used, and is better. Sin é an ċuma a ḃí sé = "That's the way he was." It will be observed that this a before the past tense of a verb is only, as Dr. Atkinson remarks, a corruption of do, which is the sign of the past tense. The do is hardly ever used now, except as contracted into d’ before a vowel, and this is a misfortune, because there is nothing more feeble or more tending to disintegrate the language than the constant use of this colourless vowel a. In these folk stories, however, I have kept the language as I found it. This a has already made much havoc in Scotch Gaelic, inserting itself into places where it means nothing. Thus, they say tha ’s again air a sin: Dinner a b fhearr na sin, etc. Even the preposition de has with some people degenerated into this a, thus ta sé a ḋiṫ orm, "I want it," for de ḋiṫ.
Page 14, line 9. For air read uirri. Line 12. seilg means hunting, but the reciter said, seilg, sin fiaḋ, "Shellig, that's a deer," and thought that Bran's back was the same colour as a deer's. Uaine, which usually means green, he explained by turning to a mangy-looking cur of a dull nondescript colour, and saying ta an madaḋ sin uaine.
Page 16, line 30. bearna and teanga, and some other substantives of the same kind are losing, or have lost, their inflections throughout Connacht. Line 31. tiġeaċt is used just as frequently and in the same breath as teaċt, without any difference of meaning. It is also spelt tuiḋeaċt, but in Mid-Connacht the t is slender, that is tiġeaċt has the sound of t'yee-ught, not tee-ught.
Dr. Atkinson has shown that it is incorrect to decline teanga as an -n stem: correct genitive is teangaḋ. Reasta: see rasta in O'Reilly. Used in Arran thus: Ní’l sé in rasta duit = you cannot venture to.
Page 18, line 15. Gual means a coal; it must be here a corruption of some other word. Muid is frequently used for sinn, "we," both in Nom. and Acc. all over Connacht, but especially in the West.
Page 20, line 3. Deimuġ (d'yemmŏŏ). This word puzzled me for a long time until I met this verse in a song of Carolan's
Níor ṫuill sé diomuġaḋ aon duine.
another MS. of which reads díombuaiḋ, i.e., defeat, from di privitive, and buaiḋ "victory." Deimuġ or diomuġ must be a slightly corrupt pronunciation of díombuaiḋ, and the meaning is, that the king's son put himself under a wish that he might suffer defeat during the year, if he ate more than two meals at one table, etc. Line 15. reasta = a "writ," a word not in the dictionaries—perhaps, from the English, "arrest." Cúig ṗúnta. The numerals tri ceiṫre cúig and sé seem in Connacht to aspirate as often as not, and always when the noun which follows them is in the singular, which it very often is. Mr. Charles Bushe, B.L., tells me he has tested this rule over and over again in West Mayo, and has found it invariable.
Page 22, line 2. cá = where, pronounced always cé (kay) in Central Connacht. Line 17. má ḃfáġ' mé = If I get. In Mid-Connacht, má eclipses fáġ, as ni eclipses fuair.
Page 26, line 18. I dteaċ an ḟaṫaiġ = In the giant's house. Tiġ, the proper Dative of teaċ, is not much used now. Line 20. cuaille cóṁraic = the pole of battle.
Page 28, line 9. Trian dí le Fiannuiġeaċt = one-third of it telling stories about the Fenians. Line 10. This phrase soirm sáiṁ suain occurs in a poem I heard from a man in the island of Achill—
“’Sí is binne meura ag seinm air teudaiḃ,
Do ċuirfeaḋ na ceudta ’nna g-codlaḋ,
Le soirm sáiṁ suain, a’s naċ mór é an t-éuċt,
Gan aon ḟear i n-Eirinn do ḋul i n-eug
Le gráḋ d’á gruaḋ.”
I have never met this word soirm elsewhere, but it may be another form of soirḃe, "gentleness." Line 18. Colḃa, a couch, pronounced colua (cul-looa): here it means the head of the bed. Air colḃa means, on the outside of the bed, when two sleep in it. Leabuiḋ, or leabaiḋ, "a bed," is uninflected; but leaba, gen. leapṫan, is another common form.
Page 30, line 30. Daḃaċ, "a great vessel or vat;" used also, like soiṫeaċ, for ship. The correct genitive is dáiḃċe, but my reciter seemed not to inflect it at all.
Page 32, line 14. Haiġ-óiḃir—this is only the English word, "Hie-over." Line 21. Copóg = a docking, a kind of a weed.
Page 36, line 2. Cloiḋeaṁ na trí faoḃar, "the sword of three edges." In the last century both tri and the faoḃar would have been eclipsed. Cf. the song, "Go réiḋ, a ḃean na dtrí mbo."
Page 40, line 33. Íocṡláinte = balsam. Line 25. Ḃuitse, the English word "witch." The Scotch Gaels have also the word bhuitseachas = witchery. Gaelic organs of speech find it hard to pronounce the English tch, and make two syllables of it—it-sha.
Page 42, line 21. Srannfartaiġ = snoring.
Page 44, line 3, for srón read ṡróin. Line 16. Cruaiḋe = steel, as opposed to iron.
Page 46, line 21. Crap = to put hay together, or gather up crops.
Page 48, line 1. Greim = a stitch, sudden pain.
Page 52, line 15. “Súf!” a common expression of disgust in central Connacht, both in Irish and in English. Line 18. Uile ḋuine. This word uile is pronounced hulla in central Connacht, and it probably gets this h sound from the final ċ of gaċ, which used to be always put before it. Father Eugene O'Growney tells me that the guttural sound of this ċ is still heard before uile in the Western islands, and would prefer to write the word ’ċ uile. When uile follows the noun, as na daoine uile, "all the people," it has the sound of ellik or ellig, probably from the original phrase being uile go léir, contracted into uileg, or even, as in West Galway, into ’lig.
Page 54, line 9. Goile = "appetite," properly "stomach." Line 30. An ṫrioblóid = the trouble, but better written an trioblóid, since feminine nouns, whose first letter is d or t, are seldom aspirated after the article. There is even a tendency to omit the aspiration from adjectives beginning with the letters d and t. Compare the celebrated song of Bean duḃ an ġleanna, not Bean ḋuḃ.
Page 56, line 4. Aicíd = a disease. Line 24. D'ḟeiceál and d'innseaċt are usual Connacht infinitives of feic and innis. Line 21. Caise = a stream. Line 26. Strácailt = dragging along. Line 32. Luiḃearnaċ, often pronounced like leffernugh = weeds.
Page 60, line 8. Tá beiseac or biseaċ orm = "I am better;" tá sé fáġail beisiġ, more rightly, bisiġ = He's getting better. Line 22. Maiseaḋ, pronounced musha, not mosha, as spelt, or often even mush in Central Connacht. Line 28. Marṫain, infinitive of mair, to live. Cuiḃlint = striving, running a race with.
Page 64, line 4. Tig liom = "it comes with me," "I can." This is a phrase in constant use in Connacht, but scarcely even known in parts of Munster. Line 15. Oiread agus toirt uiḃe = as much as the size of an egg. Line 23. As an nuaḋ = de novo, over again.
Page 66, line 2. Ag baint leis an uisge = touching the water.
Page 66, line 15. Moṫuiġ = "to feel." It is pronounced in central Connacht like maoiṫiġ (mweehee), and is often used for "to hear;" ṁaoiṫiġ mé sin roiṁe seo = I heard that before. Line 20. Sgannruiġ is either active or passive; it means colloquially either to frighten or to become frightened.
Page 68, line 12. Fan mar a ḃfuil tu = wait where you are, fan mar tá tu = remain as you are. Line 17. Ċor air biṫ, short for air ċor air biṫ, means "at all." In Munster they say air aon ċor.
Page 70, line 3. cad ċuige = "why;" this is the usual word in Connacht, often contracted to tuige.
Page 72, line 13. Cáṫair-na-mart = Westport.
Page 74, line 7. Lubarnuiġ, a word not in the dictionaries; it means, I think, "gambolling." Line 20. Ceapaḋ = seize, control. Line 22. Múlaċ = black mud.
Page 76, line 2. Anaċain = "damage," "harm." There are a great many synonyms for this word still in use in Connacht, such as damáiste, dolaiḋ, urċóid, doċar, etc. Line 16. Breóiḋte = “destroyed.”
Page 78, line 3. Coir, a crime; is pronounced like quirrh. Láiḋe = a loy, or narrow spade.
Page 80, line 5. Ar ḃ leis an teaċ mór = “who owned the big house.” A raiḃ an teaċ mór aige = who had in his possession the big house. Line 21. Truscán tiġe = house furniture. Line 26. ’Niḋ Dia ḋuit, short for go mbeannuiġ Dia ḋuit. Line 27. Go mbuḋ h-éḋuit = “the same to you,” literally, “that it may be to you,” the constant response to a salutation in Connacht.
Page 84, line 22. A gan ḟios dí = “without her knowing it,” pronounced like a gunyis dee. I do not see what the force of this a is, but it is always used, and I have met it in MSS. of some antiquity.
Page 86, line 33. Dá’r ḋéug, pronounced dá réug, short for dá ḟear déag, “twelve men.” Stangaire = a mean fellow.
Page 92, line 10. Bóṫairín cártaċ = a cart road.
Page 94, line 22. Táir = tá tu, an uncommon form in Connacht now-a-days.
Page 66, line 13. Go dtagaiḋ another and very common form of go dtigiḋ.
Page 98, line 22. Níor ḟan an sagart aċt ċuaiḋ a ḃaile, i.e., ċuaiḋ sé aḃaile; the pronoun sé is, as the reader must have noticed, constantly left out in these stories, where it would be used in colloquial conversation.
Page 100, line 27. Seilḃ and seilg; are the ordinary forms of sealḃ and sealg in Connacht.