PREFACE.
ALTHOUGH this book, from the character of its origin, might appear to many to be of merely local interest, nevertheless I venture to express the hope that it may receive due attention from all students of Irish idiom.
Part I. consists of about one-third of some three summers’ gleanings in the parish of Ring, Co. Waterford, one of the few parishes where Irish is still the every-day language of the entire native population, of the men working in the fields or trawling the deep, and of the little children at play. In the spirit of reverence, with which I always approach the living speech of the people, I have refrained from touching the winged word with desecrating hand, and have set down, as far as was consistent with my personal limitations, every expression in the precise form in which it passed the speaker’s lips. The omission of genitives or plurals in the list of nouns, or of forms of similar importance in the lists of adjectives and verbs, will, therefore, be ascribed to the fact that such forms have not been heard. Similarly, the appearance of the same word in slightly different spelling will be explained by those divergences in pronunciation which are found in every language area, and which the faithful reporter should not ignore. The entire matter has been arranged in grammatical order, with notes appended, which may be of help to the student, or suggest to him new lines of investigation. The index of subjects will, it is hoped, be of use for conversational purposes. As the book is intended for students who have made such progress in their Irish studies as to be able to
