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The Daltaí Boards » Archive: 2005- » 2011 (January-February) » Archive through January 05, 2011 » More gems from PUL's Mion-chaint « Previous Next »

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Corkirish
Member
Username: Corkirish

Post Number: 527
Registered: 10-2010
Posted on Sunday, January 02, 2011 - 02:08 am:   Small TextLarge TextEdit PostPrint Post

Other interesting things from PUL's Mion-chaint:

1. We must say "ba láidir an fear Diarmuid nuair a bhí sé óg". It does not follow that he is a strong man now. But we can say "is láidir a bhí Diarmuid nuair a bhí sé og", but it IS true now that he WAS strong then.

2. 40 stone of meal: daichead cloch mhine or daichead cloch mine. If daichead cloch be taken as a one thing, it is a phrase noun and not feminine; if the words be taken singly, then the word cloch aspirates mine. Both are correct.

3. Verbal nouns are never plural after numbers. Casadh, dhá chasadh, trí chasadh, deich gcasadh etc.

4. PUL has dhá bhó (not dhá bhuin), but does use buin as the dative elsewhere in the booklet. It seems he doesn't use the dative as the dual of this word.

5. He insists that ádh and áth are pronounced differently - the latter with a nasal vowel.

6. His present autonomous forms can be distinctive. Labharthar (not labhraítear) and codaltar (not codlaítear). He gives the example: codaltar istoíche (people generally sleep in the night-time).

7. He says the verbal noun and a possessive "was the form of our old Imperative Mood".

A chrocadh: hang him
A díbirt: send her away
A tabhairt dó: give her to him
A gcur beo i dtalamh: bury them alive
A loscadh: burn them
A grochadh: hang them
Mo bhreith as!: save me!
Ár mbreith as!: save us!
A mbreith as!: save them!

8. A chead. "Tá sé ag fearthainn". It is raining. "Bíodh a chead san aige". Let it rain!

9. Is díreach san! That is a fact!

10. PUL (born in 1839) said he had never heard "chun" pronounced "dochum" in conversation and rails against this spelling.

11. É féin - my husband; your husband. Í féin - my wife; your wife. Tá sé féin gan bheith ar fónamh - my husband is a little unwell.

12. Someone asked about comparatives with "de", eg "fearrde, all the better", and whether all adjectives could be so used. PUL has here: ní troime de an loch an lacha, the lack is not the heavier on account of the duck. And he also gives shortened forms: ní troime de an loch í, ní troime de é í.

13. While "tig liom" is thought of as an Ulster form, PUL does have "tig liom é dhéanamh" here...

14. Cuir uait! stop! Bain uait féin! Take yourself down a peg, please!

15. He rails against writing cómhair as cóir! and yet his later books do that. Maybe he changed his mind on this between 1899 and 1920? he insists cómhair has a nasal vowel and adds, with respect to these two words, "it is the scholars that confound them. The people never do".



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