These different forms are used according to the principles laid down in 96, 100, and as those cases only which have nd before a vowel (100) infect a consonant in the beginning of the following word, they must in an older state of the language have ended in a vowel while the other cases ended in a consonant. The older form of the article might have been as follows, in accordance with the cases in the older languages. In modern Celtic only two genders of nouns are distinguished, masculine and feminine; but in old Celtic the three genders were distinguished, not only in pronouns, but also in substantives and adjectives. Afterwards the masculine and neuter were not distinguished from each other.1 The Sanskrit pronominal root an is not distinguished from ēn as neuter. In Irish an is the relative; a expressing more strongly than other vowels a demonstrative reference to. Now, in the Teutonic article may be observed an affinity between the neuter gender and the stronger demonstrative. Thus in Gothic the article is sa masculine, so feminine, thata neuter; in Anglo-Saxon, se masculine, seo feminine, thät neuter. The neuter corresponds to Sanskrit tat, but in English it has become the strong demonstrative or demonstrative of the remote; and it must have had, in its original use as neuter, a superior strength of demonstration to lead to this transition in its use. In fact, the masculine and feminine involve a sense of life, stronger or weaker as well as demonstration, but the former element is absent from the neuter; the neuter is more objective, and in it, consequently, the demonstrative element is stronger. And it is probably thus that we are to understand the stronger demonstrative an used for the neuter article in Irish. It is, however, only in the nominative and accusative singular that it is used, for in these the case relation is so light that thought dwells more on the demonstrative stem than in the other cases, so that it is thought more strongly (14). As the nominative termination -as became weakened, it was probably abbreviated, and s brought nearer to n; and as s was dropped, n tended to become nt (96). In the accusative the final nasal was similarly brought near to n, and doubled it. In the genitive singular and nominative and accusative plural of the feminine, as s was dropped, the last syllable was strengthened in utterance so as to double n. In the genitive plural, as the inflection decayed, the second n was drawn near to the first, so as to double it; and in the nominative and accusa 1 Zeuss, p. 228. tive plural neuter, the same happened in the decay of the inflection. In the dative singular the b of the inflection, after having been vocalised to the labial vowel u, was given up; but in the dative plural, yas, after having infected the a with its y, was given up, and b retained. In the dative the initial vowel is dropped after the final vowel of the prepositions. 110. The root of the British article is n, and is found attached to the end of the prepositions which end in vowels. In Armoric and Cornish there is a definite article an and an indefinite un; the n of both in modern Armoric becomes 7 before 7, is preserved before vowels and before h, n, d, and t, and becomes r before any other consonant.1 In Welsh the article is ir, r,1 in later Welsh yr, sometimes Y before a consonant.2 There is no change for case, number, or gender, in the British article.3 111. In the old Irish, which in variety of the forms of the noun far surpasses the Welsh of the same age, there is a double order of declension, which Zeuss distinguishes as vocalic and consonantal. To the former the declension of the adjectives belongs (149). The latter is applicable only to substantives, and not to so many of these as the former. There are also some substantives of anomalous declension.* The neuter differs from the masculine in forming the nominative, accusative, and vocative alike, and in the plural these cases alone differ from the cases of the masculine.5 The first or vocalic order is as follows, distributed by Zeuss into series, of which he gives these examples: 5 The second or consonantal order, distributed in series : 6 dilgolo dilgud dilgud tuisel bio dilgud tuare rann brialar tuare rainne breore tuari rainn brēðir tuari rainn brēðir Aeru fathers, is the form supposed by Zeuss for accusative plural masculine of Ser. III., and for feminine ma@ra mothers.1 Bopp perceived that the stems of Irish nouns were altered by their inflections, and that these alterations are a guide to the older forms. The older forms of the above stems were probably kelya,2 balla, tuisila, biðu,2 dilgudu, tuaryā, ranni, briaðari (Zeuss gives bria@ar),3 but probably -Oar Sans. tri, and was originally with Celtic vocalisation -Oari), animan, beniman, menman, ditiun, dītin, abir (Sans. -tri of kindred), druid, filid, katrix.7 = 4 6 4 6 In the nominative singular not only s is dropped, but also in the first order the final vowel of the stem; -ya(s) becomes -e by infection of y, and tuisila(s) tuisel by infection of i (93). In animan and beniman, -an having been dropped, n was weakened and lost between the vowels (96), but compensated in anim by strengthening m, and in benim by lengthening e. In menman and dītiun, final ʼn was dropped as in Sanskrit (4), and the a of the former weakened to e. The fourth series, Order II., is of stems in -id, -ed, -ad; they often change this termination in the nominative singular to -iu, -u, -i, or -e. So also in ka@rix, final consonant is dropped, and i divides the concurrent consonants. The sense of the subject seems to have tended to be taken up by the stem so as to weaken the ending and sometimes to strengthen the stem with more vowel life. The infection of the genitive singular shows the ending to have been with the -a stems of Series I. and II. as in Latin, Sanskrit (s)y(a); and -a, Sanskrit -a(s), with all the others; in tuaryā(s) (4), y is infected by a, and in rainne(s) (4), the stem vowel a by è. The infection of the dative singular shows -u (b vocalised) to have been the ending with the masculine neuter vocalic stems; and in Order II., Series I., -m shows an assimilation of final n to b, with infection of preceding a by -bi animimbi (11). The ending was -i with all the others. The accusative singular produces no infection of the stem different from the nominative in the masculine neuter vocalic stems; for it only adds a nasal (4). In all the other stems the infection shows that the ending was -im or -in; the objectivity tending to the stem and weakening the vowel (50). The vocative singular in Order I., Series I. and II., evidences an ending -i (4). In the nominative plural be0a, dilgola, ranna, bria@ra, seem to correspond to Sanskrit l'anavas agnayas (4), in which the extension of the plural enters as a into the stem; neuter nouns of Series I. make nominative accusative plural in -e; anman bemen suggest the neuter ending -a; beniman suffered infection in its last syllable from the i of the second syllable supported by e of the first, whereas in animan the infecting power of i is overcome by a of the first syllable. In all the other stems the nominative plural ending is -i y(as) (9). In the genitive plural, the infection of all the stems except those of bile and dilgube suggest a corresponding to Sanskrit -ām, but 1 Zeuss, p. 271. • Ibid. p. 265. Ibid. p. 267; Ebel on Irish Declension, sect. 4 in Kuhn's Beitrage, i. Ibid. p. 271. 2 Ibid. p. 726. 7 Ibid. p. 274. 3 Ibid. p. 743. these indicate a strong e, which overpowered the final u. Perhaps y of the genitive took the place of s or n in the ending sām, -nām (13), and u was subsequently dropped; thus biluyam, bi0ya, bile, dilguduyam, dilgudya, dilgube (143). In this series the genitive singular sometimes ended in -e.1 The dative plural -ib corresponds to yas, y requiring i before b, and yas was dropped afterwards. The u stems, like bie, often make the dative plural in -aib, as if from an original -abʻyas. There is something similar in Greek; in νεκύεσσι (62), and πήχεσι ἄστεσι, ο corresponds to a. The accusative plural indicates u as the ending with the masculine vocalic stems, and the masculine nouns of kindred. These have n in the Sanskrit (14), and the n is vocalised to u in Irish, as in Greek. In tuari the vowel is reduced as in the singular, but with the other stems it is -a, which, with the consonantal stems, corresponds to Sanskrit -as, or in the neuters to Greek and Latin -a; and with the stems ranni bria@ari, the accusative plural seems to have been rannias bria@arias, like Tórias óprias and then to have dropped i. The vocative plural is like the accusative, the substantive being thought as object of the call. Neuter nouns of Order I., Series I., make the nominative accusative vocative plural end in -e or i; those of Series II. end in -a, and those of Series III. have the bare stem like nominative singular. The two examples of Order II., Series I., are neuter; stems in -iun' are generally feminine. There seem to be traces of an Old Irish dual ending -¿.6 Diminutives are formed by -ān, -ēn, and -Oat, masculine and neuter, by -ēne, -ne, -nat, -net, feminine.7 112. Adjectives form a comparative degree in -ilir, or in -iu, -u; a superlative in -em or -am (82).8 There are also some anomalous comparatives in -a or -0,9 which, as well as -iu, -u, may be deduced from Sanskrit iyan, the n being vocalised to u. 113. The declension of the noun has vanished from British, the only inflections remaining being plural endings. Of these, -i is not so usual as iou, -iau, -ion, also -ou, -eu, -on. These would suggest an original -yans for the plural ending (9). There are also plural endings -t, -d, -et, -ot, -ieit, -ed, -id, -oed, perhaps originally singular abstracts capable of a plural sense, like Latin juventus. And there are collective nouns in -wys, singulatives in -in -en, and diminutives in -an -ik as well as some in -os -ax iax.10 The British degrees of comparison are -ax or ox comparative, X perhaps from u, -am -af superlative.11 114. The personal pronouns in Irish are: The plural ending is i; n is the root of first plural, and it seems to be associated with the demonstrative element s, as in Sanskrit, a with demonstrative sma; in sib, s and b are both radical as in Greek op (64), and i comes from the plural ending. The third person reminds of Sanskrit ay(am); it has a genitive ai. There is also a masculine demonstrative of both numbers, som, which seems akin to Sanskrit sma. The personal pronouns are strengthened by subjoining for first singular sa or se; for first plural sni or ni; for second singular su; for second plural si; for third singular se.1 The roots of the personal pronouns are inserted in the verb after the verbal particles and the first prepositions of compound verbs to express the object, either direct or indirect. If they follow a consonant, o or u, sometimes a is put before first or second person, i before third. After the negative nax, i is put before all the persons. Sometimes, to strengthen the expression of the relation, d is put before those vowels. The strengthening elements may in addition be suffixed to the verb, -sa for first singular, ni for first plural, -su for second singular, -si for second plural.2 The roots of the personal pronouns are also suffixed to prepositions which govern them, -m or -um for first singular; -n, -in, -un, for first plural; -t, -it, -ut, for second singular; b, -ib, for second plural; -d or a vowel for third singular dative masculine; for third singular dative feminine; -s for third singular accusative masculine; -e for third singular accusative feminine; -ib for third plural dative; -u, -o, for third plural accusative; and these may be strengthened by the above-mentioned elements, or the third person by som, sem, if feminine singular, by si3 The possessive prefixed pronouns of the singular persons are: mo, 2 3 1 2 3 1 do, a; of the plural persons, arn, ar; farn far, forn for; an a; the first form of each pair before vowels and medials, the second before other consonants. These may be strengthened by the above elements suffixed to the noun. If the possessive be third singular masculine, som is suffixed, if third feminine, si is suffixed. The roots of the possessives may be inserted between prepositions and substantives. The relative pronoun in Irish is an or no; there seems to be a genitive neix. Its root n, m, is infixed in verbs like those of the personal pronouns.5 The Irish demonstrative pronouns are: 7, se (siu locative), so, sin, sodin, de, side, ade; they are often suffixed to a substantive which has the article; so, sin, take the article, and are not then followed by a noun; side, ade, make a nominative plural, sidi, adi, a genitive singular, sidi, adi, a genitive plural side, ade; has generally the article prefixed, and takes siu, here (intisiu), to express this, tall, there (int Oall), to express that. There are also em, ām, which demonstrate emphatically, same, self; on, son, which generally demon3 Ibid. p. 340-342. 1 Zeuss, p. 332-334. Ibid. p. 343-345. 2 Ibid. p. 335-340. |