IRISH (GAELIC) LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. (Gaelic) is one of the still living Celtic languages (see CELTIC NaTioxs). The alphabet consists of the folloW ing eighteen letters—a, b, e, d, e, f, g, k, i. 1. m, n, o, p, u, corresponding in their forms with the Roman characters of the 5th c. after Christ. In Irish there is no indef inite article; nouns are masculine or feminine, and anciently a neuter gentler existed. The nominative and accusative are the same in form, as are also the dative and ablative; the nominative and vocative feminine, and the genitive and vocative masculine, always have similar terminations. Nouns substantive have five, and nouns adjective for declensions. Verbs arc active, passive, regular, irregular, impersonal, and defective; their moods are indicative, consuetudinal, past in dicative, imperative, infinitive, and conditional; regular active verbs have. no subjunctive; the tenses are the present, con suetudinal present, preterite, cousuetudinal past, and future; in the tenses of the pas sive voice there is no distinction of number or person. Prepositions are rarely com pounded with verbs or adjectives, instead of which the Irish use prepositions or adverbs placed after the verbs. Adverbial phrases composed of two or more parts of speech are very numerous both in ancient and in modern Irish. The simple conjunctions are few, but there are many conjunctional phrases. Interjections arc numerous, and vary throughout the provinces. The regular versification of the Irish consists of four dis tinct meters, styled Oglachas, Droighneach, Bruilingeacht, and Dan Direach; of the last, there are five species, each distinguished by peculiar features. There are also classes of popular poetry possessing distinct linear and syllabic components. The best authorities on the Irish language are the Irish Grammar, by J. O'Donovan (1845); the Gmnonatica Celtica of J. C. Zeuss (185G); and Irish Glosses (1860), published by the Irish archaeological and Celtic society.
The oldest existing specimens of the Irish language are to be found in sepulchral inscriptions in Ireland, and in the glosses or interpretations affixed to Latin words in documents transcribed by Irish ecclesiastics of the 8th and succeeding centuries, now preserved in some continental libraries. The principal ancient vernacular manuscripts
in Ireland are Leablthr na-h-Uitihre, and the Book of Leinster (12th c.); the Books of Bal lymote, Lewin, and Dun Doighre, or Leabhar Breae (14th c.); all compiled from older writings on historical and miscellaneous subjects. The most ancient manuscripts in Leland containing original matter in the Irish language arc the Book of Armagh (9th c.), and the Book of Hymns, of a somewhat later date, both ecclesiastical in their contents. The writings extant in the Gaelic language of Ireland consist of ecclesiastical docu ments, laws, bardic or semi-historic tales, historic tracts, genealogies, historic poems, treatises on medicine, translations from foreign authors. proverbs, compilations of the 17th c., popular poetry. political and satirical poems and songs, composed by native Gaelic writers in Ireland within the last century. Of the ecclesiastical documents the next in importance, after the Book of Armagh and the Book of Hymns, are the metrical Festologies of tEngus Celle De (9th c.). the Martyrology of Tallaght (10th c.), and that of Mulattos O'Gorman (12th c.). In this department there are also extant many lives of saints, monastic rules, devotional and religious poems. A large body of old Irish juris prudence, known as the Brehon Laws, is preserved in manuscripts of the 14th and 15th centuries. Of. the Irish bardic or semi-historic tales, numbers are extant ranging in date from the 12th to the 1Sth century., The principal Irish historic tracts are those nit the tribute styled Borumha, the wars of the Danes with the Irish, and the wars of Tho mood. Copiousgenealogies of the principal native families exist in various manuscripts, and from such sources MacFirbis, a learned Irish antiquary of the 17111 c.. made au elaborate compilation known as Leabhar Genealach, or the "Genealogical Book," now considered a high authority. The chief composers of poems on the history of Ireland were Eochadli O'Flin (10th c.), Gilla Caemhain, and Flan of Monasterboicc (11th cen tury). The most important ancient Irish annals are those of Tighernach, of Ulster, of Inisfallen, and of Connacht.