Bourke Ulick J. Easy lessons, or Self-instruction in Irish / Легкие уроки: самоучитель ирландского языка
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EASY LESSONS:
SELF-INSTRUCTION
IN IRISH.
REV.
ULICK
J.
BOURKE,
Professor of
Logic,
Natural Philosophy, and
Languages,
St. Jarlath's College, Tuam.
imxtl)
(^Vúm.
A KEY
IS ANNEXED
TO
THE
END
OF
EACH
PART.
DUBLIN:
JOHN
MULLANY,
PRINTER
AND
PUBLISHER
OF
CATHOLIC
WORKS,
1 PARLIAMENT-STREET.
1865.
V1358
^
/c^,
/'/j2Jt
PEEFA.CE
The
following
Easy
Lessons were
written
to
satisfy the
repeated
demands made on
The
Nation by
the
Irish
public
to
supply them with rudimental knowledge
in the
lan-
guage of fatherland.
They
are now reproduced in
a
book form,
revised and
improved
by
the
writer. His only
object,
first in compos-
ing
and
now in
republishing
them, has been, to
afford
those who
are mere
nurslings in
Gaelic, the
milk
of
Irish
elementary
knowledge at once
light
and nutritive
;
and
to
circulate more
widely than ever the language of Old
Eire
Of
the six groups
which
compose the
Indo-European
fimily of
languages, the
Keltic has
been
proved by
J.
C.
Zeuss,
a
native of
Bavaria, and
is now generally
admitted
to
be,
the
most important as it is the most ancient.
From
the
analogies
introduced in the
Lessons
between
the languages
of Europe and
Gaelic, the lovers
of
philology
will, it is
hoped, derive an
additional zest
to cultivate
a
knowledge of
Irish,
the largest
and most
extended divi-
BÍon of
the Keltic group
;
while the
mere learner, being
amply supplied besides
with easy
instructive matter, can,
without attending
to
this
foreign
element, obtain from
them sufficient rudimental
knowledge
of the language
of
the Gael.
It
may be objected
that
in
Easy Lessons, philosophic
deductions
from
the general
and
special
principles
of
language are umiecessarilj introduced.
Those
who would
so object should
bear mind that
nothing,
no
matter how
simple, can
to a learner
appear
easy
unless he
knoAvs the
principles on which
its
objective truth
is founded.
In
order
therefore to
knoio
whatever we
learn, it
is necessary
to be
acquainted with the
philosophic
truths fi-om
which
such
knowledge is
derived. With
a few
admirable excep-
tions, the
works ah'eady
published
mere
or less elementary
in Irish,
have been
written
with
little
or no
attention
to
the
philosophy or
peculiar genius
of
the language,
and
are
found,
therefore, to
be hj
no
means calculated
to make
the
study of om-
venerable
tongue agreeable
to students.
Works still more
simple, or at least more
concise than
the present Volume,
may yet be produced.
Indeed, should
these
Easy Lessons
meet
encouragement,
smaller and
cheaper
introductory
works intended for the
use
of
Schools,
shall,
with God's blessing, be
published.
To
make
these Lessons as
fully
available as possible,
the
learner
should
not only repeat the sentences
formed in
each
exercise,
but from the aid furnished him
in the
several
Vocabularies, he
should strive to form
new sentences of his
own,
according to
the grammatical
instructions imparted
in
each
Lesson. This process he
should
repeat
again and
again,
saying several times
o^-er
the same word
or words
imder
new
combinations. This
practice, continued with
perseverance,
will make the
yomig
learner
become,
in
a
very
short time, a
master of the
language.
FuAST OF
All
Saints,
1Só9,
PREFACE
TO
THE
SECOND
EDITION.
TiiK
fact
that
the
first
edition of
the
First
Part of
"
Easy
Lessons
IN
Irish"
has
been
sold
oif
while the
Second
Part
was
printing
proves
there
are
many
lovers of
the
Gaelic
tongue
ready
to
patro-
nise
our
eiforts.
A
second
edition
is
therefore
issued,
improved
as
far
as
im-
provement
was
required.
Feast
of
the
Aacemion
of
our
Lnd,
I860.
PREFACE
TO
THE FOURTH
EDITION.
In
five
years this
little work has
gone through three
editions.
The
demand has been
steadily
increasing. On this
account the
fourth
thousand
is now
issued.
Some
ten years ago
written
Irish
had
been
nigh reckoned a
thing of
the past.
Not
so
to-day
;
it is written,
as well
as
read
and
spoken, by
thousands of
the growing youth
—
young men and
maidens—
in many parishes
thoughout Connaught.
In several
districts
through
Ireland, persons who ought
to encourage the
cultivation of their
mother tongue—if for no higher
motive, for
the
sake, at
least,
of
learning and scholarship
—
actually neglect
or
despise it : still there are found many young men, after the
manner
of the learned and lamented Thomas
Davis, endeavouring
by
private study to acquire a knowledge
of
that
tongue which it
was
their
misfortune, in earlier
days, not to
have beard—or if they
heard,
not to have appreciated.
Of our
own
knowledge, we
are
aware that
there exists a patriotic
rivalry in this respect
amongst the students of several
colleges
in
Ireland,
France,
Rome, Spain,
in
the Canadas, New
Brunswick,
the United
States.
The
"
Easy
Lessons" have
found their way
to
"
the ends of
the
earth."
This
little work, and
the
"
College
Irish Grammar,"
of
which
it is the
complement,
are prized in
an especial m.mner by
the
savants
in English
and
German
universities.
Scholars
and
men
of mind
in
countries
beyond
the Irish shore,
are
more
alive
to the value
of
Gaelic, than
Irishmen
in Ireland seem
to be.
Witness Pritchard,
Latham, Blackie
professor of Greek in
the
University of
Edinburgh
;
Newman
(London), Donbavand, Sir
G.
C.
Lewis,
Englishmen
all;
Pictet,
of Geneva; Zeiiss,
Herr
Gliick, Bopp,
Leo,
Korner,
Sparschuh,
Hermann
Ebel,
Gorres,
and Holtzman,
Germans
;
with
Edwards and
others,
Frenchmen.
The causes
of this apathy,
like the
causes
of
Irish
poverty,
are
manifold
;
but
for
all that, Irishmen
have it
in their
power
to do
more
than they
actually
eiiect, to render,
if
they
please,
their
names
conspicuous for
scholarly attainments
or worldly wealth.
Away
with
that horrible
materialism
which measures
greatness
by
the
standard
of money,
or that of private
advantage, and
which
asks:
"What
good is Gaelic
to me
?
What
shall I gain
by it ?
Where will
it
carry
me to if I leave
the Irish shore
?"
Surely,
to
a
mind capable
of correct thought
and calm
judgment,
the oldest language
in
Europe
—
nay,
the parent
of the oldest,
ought
to
appear worth retaining
in
life
; and this is all
we claim,
or
by
our
efforts seek to attain. One may
add,
that
for what
it
was, and is, and is
calculated
to effect, and from its relationship
with those European
dialects
whose
history and
speech we praise,
it deserves
not
only to be retained, but to be
fostered.
Look to
Welshmen, our
Celtic brethren.
See
what they do for their lan-
guage. Cannot we
Celts do
as
much for ours ? But, to Irish-
men
is
it not
reason enough, along with
those given,
that Gaelic
is
our
ow'n
—
is
the language of our
fathers, of our race,
of St.
Patrick, of the saints
and
sages
who, for fourteen hundred years,
have ffourished in
this island ! People !
patriots
! !
priests
of
Ireland, are
these reasons sufficient?
If
you
think
so,
encourage
the study of our
mother tongue. In
any case should it, after the
lapse of another
century,
or half
century, perish,
the
"
Lessons"
now edited, and the
"
College
Irish Grammar,"
with the new
dictionary
published
in the pages of the
Nation,
will
save much
of the wreck
of
that
stately
ship in
which our race for more than
three
thousand years sailed
on the waves
of
time in safety
and
security.
5/.
Jarlath's
College,
Tuam.
Feast
of
St. Catherine
of
Sienna, 1865.
^"
The key
to Part
1.,
and synopsis of
tlie
verb
bo
beic,
to he, are
found
at
p.
59;
the key
to Part II.,
at
p.
139;
that
of
Part
III.,
at
p.
216.
%*
The dialogues in Parts
I.. III.,
IV.,
are
hest
suited
to beginners;
those of Parts II.
and
V.,
for
more advanced students.
Some beginners
have, they
say,
found
Part 11.
somewhat
difficult.
This
is
owing
to
the
in.
troduction, necessarily, of
the
important subjects of
eclipsis,
gender,
and
how
nouns
in Irish
form
the
plural. Nothing,
however,
can
be
easier than Parts
I., III., and
IV,