Ebook: A Grammar of Old Irish

Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946.Part I of Rudolf Thurneysen Handbuch des Altirischen appeared in 1909 in the series Indogermanische Bibliothek published by Carl Winter's Universitätsbuchhandlung, Heidelberg. Although the book was primarily intended for philologists-its purpose being, in the author's words, 'to make Old Irish accessible to those familiar with the comparative grammar of the Indo-European languages'-it has been for more than a generation the standard work for all who have made Old Irish their special study. Since its SYSTEMation, however, considerable advance has been made in the investigation of the older language, much of it due to Thurneysen himself, and an up-to-date edition of the Handbuch has long been a desideratum of Irish scholarship.
Ten years ago, the author, at the request of the Irish Government, undertook to prepare a new edition in English, in which he would have the assistance of a former pupil, Mr. Michael Duignan (now Professor of Celtic Archaeology in University College, Galway). Mr. Duignan spent two years in Bonn, working under Thurneysen's direction, mainly on an interleaved copy of the German edition which contained farreaching alterations and additions, and by 1938 he had completed a draft English translation, the typescript of which was subsequently revised by Thurneysen. It was intended, on Mr. Duignan's return to Ireland, that this version should be set up in galley-proofs and submitted to Thurneysen for further revision. But although about a third of the work was eventually set up, the outbreak of war in 1939 made communication between Dublin and Bonn virtually impossible, and in August of the following year came the news of Thurneysen's death.
Six months afterwards Mr. Duignan, with the consent of the Minister for Education, generously offered all the material-Thurneysen's interleaved German text and two typescripts of the draft translation (each of them revised separately by Thurneysen), as well as the galley-proofs-to the recently founded
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School of Celtic Studies in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. At that time ( 1941) both of us were associated with the School, and we gladly undertook, in memory of a great teacher and friend, to complete, as best we could, the task he had not been spared to finish.
This task has proved more formidable than we anticipated. In the German version, on which our revised translation is primarily based, Thurneysen had obviously not yet said his last word on a number of points. In revising Mr. Duignan's draft translation, he had made several changes and additions, and had even rewritten entire sentences and paragraphs, sometimes in German, sometimes in English. He must have intended to do similar work on the proofs, and had he lived to pass the whole book for press, he would undoubtedly have removed various inconsistencies and corrected minor inaccuracies. As we felt it would be an excess of pietas to let these stand, we have silently removed inconsistencies in spelling, accentuation, references, and translation. We have not, however, aimed at absolute consistency, which in a language with such fluctuating orthography is scarcely attainable. Nor have we interfered with the author's practice in unimportant points of transcription where there was no likelihood of confusion. For example, Thurneysen generally separates a geminating final from the following initial by a hyphen, but occasionally he writes the two words together (ba-calar beside niténat p. 152). On the other hand, we have adopted a uniform of system of transcription for compared forms of other Indo-European languages, such as Sanskrit.
In dealing with the numerous examples cited by the author, we have permitted ourselves a certain amount of latitude. A doubtful example, or one which in our opinion did not illustrate the rule, we have omitted altogether where it was but one of several examples. Where, however, it was the sole example cited in support of the rule, and other unambiguous examples were at hand, we have substituted one of these. On the other hand, where not merely the example but the rule itself seemed doubtful to us, we have retained both unaltered, commenting on them, when this seemed advisable, in the notes at the end of the book. Occasionally, too, we have transferred one or more examples to the heading under which they seemed more properly to belong.In the text itself, apart from minor corrections of fact and bibliographical additions, we have introduced no chances. On the contrary, we have tried to convey as accurately as we could Thurneysen's views even when we disagree with them. On one occasion only did we depart, unwisely as we now think, from this rule by omitting an entire sentence (after p. 327 l. 31) which we believed the author would himself have wished to strike out had the arguments against it been put before him. Subsequently we decided to include it in the translators' notes (no. 129), as its reinsertion in the text would have upset the pagination.
In these notes we have as far as possible avoided controversy. We have not discussed any of the etymologies proposed by Thurneysen; nor have we dealt with questions which would require fuller treatment than could be afforded here, and which in any case belong to the province of a reviewer rather than a translator. In matters of long-standing controversy between experts, where we felt that Thurneysen, with all the evidence before him, had definitely made up his mind on one side, we have as a rule refrained from presenting the views of others except where these views have since been reinforced by fresh evidence. We have, however, included references to differing solutions of problems discussed in this Grammar which have recently been advanced by other scholars. The bibliography, too, has been brought up to date, sometimes in the text itself (where the new systemations form part of a series already mentioned), otherwise in the notes. In these we have also made some additions to Thurneysen's lists of forms.
Finally, we have made a number of chances in the format of the book, which, as originally planned, was to have been identical with that of the German edition. Clarendon type is used for every Irish word in the body of the work, but not as a rule for the analysis or the constituent elements of a word, nor for roots, stems, or reconstructions of earlier forms, all of which remain in italics. The vowel of a stressed syllable is sometimes printed in heavy italics, as in the German edition, to indicate the position of the stress (e.g,. pp. 27-30). Forms occurring on inscriptions (whether in the Ogam or the Latin alphabet) are printed in small capitals (roman). Following the author's practice, square brackets are used for letters and syllables wrongly omitted in the MS.; round brackets for letters which may be inserted or omitted at will (such as glide-vowels), occasionally also to denote the expansion of scribal symbols and suspension marks, e.g. da (nau ), t (ra ) p. 557, auc (taru ) p. 563, etc. For all other languages italics are used, even for most Gaulish forms, where it would have been more consistent to use small capitals; this type appears only in those Gaulish forms where its use was indicated by Thurneysen.
The index of Irish words has been compiled on the principles followed in the German edition, but more exhaustive references have been given. Each of the remaining Celtic dialects has been indexed separately. For the convenience of philologists we have added indexes of the compared forms of other IndoEuropean languages, omitting such forms as are cited only for morphological or syntactical comparison.
The second part of the Handbuch, which appeared as a separate volume in 1909, contained a selection of Old Irish texts, with notes and glossary, which the author intended as a short Reader for students of the first volume ('Grammar'). A new edition in English, based on Thurneysen's interleaved copy of the German original, is in course of preparation.
We wish to offer our sincere thanks to Professor R. I. Best. who has given us constant help with the translation, and to Professors Michael O'Brien and J. Lloyd Jones for information on various points. The task of seeing the book through the press has been greatly lightened by the unfailing assistance we have received from the Registrar and other members of the staff of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, in particular from Miss K. MacFadden, whose typescript of the extremely difficult 'copy' was a model of accuracy. It only remains for us to apologize for the long delay in completing this revised translation, and to express the hope that, as it leaves our hands, it is not unworthy of the illustrious scholar whose name it bears.
D. A. B. O. J. B.
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