Some random notes on areas of vocabulary and grammar that appear to differ between the Cork of Peadar Ua Laoghaire and modern Cork Irish.
1. PUL did not lenite the autonomous form of the verb in any tense, whereas the modern usage reserves this treatment for the past tense only. The following are among the forms he used:
ní deintear
ní deineadh
ní déanfar
ní deinfí
ní deintí
2. bainim: a distinction has emerged between bainim “to cut”, and buainim “to reap”. PUL has buanaí reaper, but does not use buaint, prefering forms like ag baint choirce.
3. dias “ear of corn” is according to IWM now pronounced lias, but PUL has dias, despite his policy of using a spelling that fully reflected Cork dialect.
4. PUL is careful to decline nouns correctly: he has caraid and carad where the modern usage would be more likely to be cara. The dative of bean is mnaoi in PUL.
5. PUL used the correct imperfect of gheibhim: do gheibhinn, instead of the modern d’fhaighinn.
6. PUL had tuitim instead of the modern titim.
7. PUL had tar as the imperative, instead of tair.
8. PUL had taraing instead of tarrac. It would be interested to know if he pronounced it this way too.
9. PUL had leigim instead of leogaim. It would be interested to know if he pronounced it this way too.
10. PUL had matalong instead of batalang.
11. PUL had comairce instead of coimirce.
12. PUL had Micheál, implying a short i; compare the long i given in IWM.
13. PUL had urchar, but IWM says this is pronounced ruchar in Cork Irish.
14. PUL used tré instead of trí, but tríd with the article.
15. PUL had a more or less consistent use of lenition of the prepositions do and de and their various forms after a vowel.
16. PUL consistently differentiated between do and de.
17. PUL’s works have buídheach instead of baoch, but it is unclear how he himself actually pronounced the word.
PUL is careful to decline nouns correctly: he has caraid and carad where the modern usage would be more likely to be cara. The dative of bean is mnaoi in PUL.
You mean now it differs in modern Cork Irish, and form carid, card, mnaoi is not used anymore?
Comment by Eain — June 11, 2011 @ 1:45 pm
PUL used the correct imperfect of gheibhim: do gheibhinn, instead of the modern d’fhaighinn.
how can it be? As I know, dipendent is stille used in northen and southern dialects, and may even in connacht (maybe) .
Comment by Eain — June 11, 2011 @ 1:53 pm
Yes, Eain, the modern Gaeltacht speakers do not use caraid, mnaoi etc – because they are under heavy influence of the TV and the education system. It is similar to the way that British English is influenced by American English. While you can hardly say that the British variant of English is dead, it is not exactly the same as it was 100 years ago, and there are many Americanisms now accepted in speech (eg, using “impact” as a verb; some British speakers have started saying “do you have X?” instead of “have you got X?” etc). It is very difficult not to absorb linguistic influences from your environment. As for “how can d’fhaighinn exist?” Well I think this is in Stair na Gaeilge, but I haven’t checked it recently. The pronunciations of d’fhaighinn and do gheibhinn are quite similar in rapid speech – there is a /j/ in the latter.
Comment by admin — June 11, 2011 @ 3:34 pm