An uair dheireanach anseo bhí mé ag amharc ar an fhocal aingeal, aibhleog bheo a mbaintí úsáid aisti mar chosaint ar na sióga. Agus Oíche Shamhna curtha dínn, bhí mé ag smaointiú ar ghnásanna eile a bhíodh ag an tseandream leis an ruaig a chur ar an aos sí agus eile. Bhí scéal béaloidis as Baile an Fheirtéaraigh, Co. Chiarraí, léite agam ar dúchas.ie fá chailín óg a bhí cráite ag bean sí nuair a chuaigh sí thar lios lá agus í ag dul chun na scoile. Nuair a tháinig sí abhaile dúirt sí lena máthair fán méid a bhain di. Cha dtearn an mháthair ach an cailín a ní le fual agus char bhac an bhean sí léi arís. I gcás Oíche Shamhna féin, deirtear in Superstitions of the Highlands & Islands of Scotland go scaiptí seanfhual nó steámar – nó maistir mar a thugtaí air – ar an eallach agus ar ursaineacha an tí ar na hoícheanta cinn ráithe mar chosaint ar na sióga agus ar gach uile olc.

D’aithin mé an focal úd maistir as píosa béaloidis a bhailigh an bailitheoir béaloidis Seán Ó Flannagáin in 1937 i ndeisceart na Gaillimhe, buailte le contae an Chláir, agus atá ar dúchas.ie. Baineann sé le leigheas fá choinne bó a dtearnadh drochshúil uirthi agus is é an rud a bhí i gceist: ‘buidéal do’n Mhaighistear* agus salann agus uisge thríd … *Maighistear = Urine’. Déanann sé tagairt don ‘Maighistear’ cúpla uair sa phíosa chéanna mar chosaint ar na sióga agus mar chosaint ar thinneas fosta: ‘Dhá dtéightheá isteach i dtigh fiabhrais agus trí bhraon do’n Mhaighistear ól ní thógfá an fiabhras’.

Ina aiste ‘Pregnancy and Childbirth in Blasket Island Tradition’ (Women’s Studies Review, iml. 5), pléann Pádraig Ó Héalaí úsáid an tseanmhúin leis an bhean thorrach a chosaint ar na sióga agus ar shúil an chiorraithe go háirithe agus an bhean ina leaba luí seoil. I measc na míreanna béaloidis a bailíodh san Oileán Tiar, luaitear máistir cupla uair, cuir i gcás: ‘Gheofaí buidéilín uisce coisreactha ansan agus do buailfí féna ceann é agus gheofaí buidéilín den máistir agus sháfaí isteach sa leabaidh ag cosa na mná é’. I measc na nótaí deiridh, deir sé, ‘the common word for stale urine is máistir’. Más ea, tá sé aistíoch nach bhfuil aon tagairt dó i bhfoclóirí móra an chéid seo caite, i bhfoclóirí Uí Dhuinnín, foclóir Uí Dhónaill ná i bhfoclóir de Bhaldraithe, cuir i gcás. Is i bhfoclóir Uí Raghallaigh a foilsíodh den chéad uair in 1817 atá an chéad tagairt dó: ‘maistir, s. f. urine’ (An Irish-English Dictionary). Anuas air sin, tá sé i bhfoclóir Gaeilge-Béarla Thomas de Vere Coneys a foilsíodh in 1849. Focal baininscneach atá ann arís eile agus tá foirm an ghinidigh aige fosta, maistre.

Diomaite de na téacsanna béaloidis a luadh thuas, tá trácht ar an fhocal i roinnt foinsí eile ón chéad seo caite. Tá liosta focal i gcló ag Seán Ó Súilleabháin, an béaloideasaí cáiliúil, in Éigse 4 (1943–45), agus is focail iad seo a bhailigh sé ina cheantar dúchais féin i dTuath Ó Siosta, Co. Chiarraí. Rinne Seán athrá ar na focail mar a chuala sé iad agus rinne R.B. Breathnach tras-scríobh foghraíochta orthu. Sa chás seo, tá ‘á’ san fhocal: ‘Máighistir [ˈma:ʃdjirj] colloquial name applied to urine in folk medicine. “Níl éinní is fearr chuige ná braon don mh.”’. I measc focail a thiomsaigh Séamus Ó Maolchathaigh i ndeisceart Thiobraid Árann – agus atá anois mar chuid de Focail Fholaithe Fhoclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge – tá an méid seo aige: ‘“an maighistir” = ainm ar fhual nuair dheintear aon úsáid de, dheineadh na figheadóirí úsáid de ag dathughadh an éadaigh’. Ba choir a rá go bhfuil an sainmhíniú sin ag teacht le Gaeilge na hAlban agus an iontráil atá in Faclair Dwelly a cuireadh i gcló i dtús na haoise seo caite agus atá ar fáil ar line: ‘maistir sm Urine prepared for dyeing’. Baineann na samplaí eile le Co. na Gaillimhe agus luaitear éadach le cuid acu, nó úrú bréidín, le bheith níos cruinne. Sa leabhar Airneán: ein sammlung von texten aus Carna (1996), cnuasach téacsanna a bailíodh i gCarna in 1964, tá gluais ann agus an píosa seo ann: ‘máistir m. urine (for scouring tweed)’. Seo an téacs lena mbaineann sé sa leabhar chéanna:

… ní ligfí duine ar bith bean, fear, gasúr nó páiste tao’ amach de dhoras, beag ná mór, ach chaithfeadh sé goil go dtí an dabhach sin agus a chuid uisce a dhíonamh síos insa dabhach. Agus ’sé an seanainm Gaeilge a bhí acub ar an uisce sin ná rud a dtugaidís máistir air. Agus ’sé an máistir a bhí acub le haighidh úr an bhréidín a bhaint.

Sa leabhar Cois Fharraige le mo linnse (1974) le Seán Ó Conghaile, tá an leagan gaolmhar seanmháistir aige: ‘Bhíodh seanmháistir (fual) le húrú a dhéanamh agus ba mhinic á oibriú é. Mura mbeadh sé úraithe go maith ní thógfadh sé an dath’. Ní luaitear úsáid an mhúin sa tsampla atá in Foirisiún Focal as Gaillimh (1985) le Tomás de Bhaldraithe. Tá sé spéisiúil go mbaineann an sampla seo le ceantar Charna arís agus le Cois Fharraige fosta, agus go bhfuil sé curtha le chéile le máistir, ‘master’ is dócha aige: ‘máistir f. ~ damhsa 20, bréagán adhmaid, cruth duine air is na géaga sochorraithe. 2. Seanfhual 20 [Cois Fharraige], 19 [Carna]’. Sa leabhar chéanna, tá an iontráil seanmháistir ann, agus sa chás seo luaitear níochán agus cúrsaí pisreog leis agus baineann sé le Cois Fharraige an uair seo: ‘seanmháistir f. Seanfhual a choinnítí le haghaidh níocháin, agus i gcúrsaí pisreoga 20. Buail an ~ uirthi 20.’ Tá tuilleadh eolais agus leagan foghraíochta ag de Bhaldraithe in ‘Cainteannaí as Cois Fhairrge’ a foilsíodh in Éigse 5 (1945–47) agus sa chás seo tá na daoine maithe luaite go sonrach: ‘sean-mháistir [ˈʃæ:n ˈwɑ:ʃdjirj] a.f. .i. sean-fhual (i gceist i gcúrsaí nígheacháin agus le daoine a chosaint ar shídheógaí)’.

Ó thaobh na sanasaíochta de, tá an méid seo ag Whitley Stokes in Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen

(1899): ‘maistir “urine”, from *madstri, √mad, whence Lat. madeo…’. Ina alt ar bhéaloideas an Bhlascaoid atá luaite thuas, tá neart eolais ag Pádraig Ó Héalaí agus luann sé alt a scríobhadh ar an fhocal in Tocher – iris chartlann Sgoil Eòlais na h-Alba – agus roinneann sé féin a chuid tuairimí i dtaobh an fhocail:

The common Irish word for stale urine is máistir. The cognate Scots Gaelic maighistir, is tentatively explained in Tocher, 50 (1995), 25, as ‘a Gaelic borrowing from Latin mixture [“mixture”] or old French mistur, assimilated to the better known word for “master” (from magister)’. A more likely derivation for máistir/maighistir, however, may be from medieval Latin magisterium, [‘the philosopher’s stone’], English ‘magistery’, a term applied to a specially prepared medicine or any substance capable of healing; see OED s.v. ‘magistery’.

Cinnte, tá úsáid an mhúin nó maistir/máistir i gcúrsaí leighis luaite i roinnt samplaí ach níl i gcás an-chuid cásanna eile. Mar gheall air sin, ní gá go mbeadh dealramh leis an mhéid sin ag an deireadh. Mar a dúirt mé cheana, tá an focal in úsáid in Albain chomh maith, i nGaeilge agus in Albainis fosta. Sa Dictionary of the Scots Language ar líne tá: ‘MAISTER, n.2 Also master, mester. Stale urine … [ˈmestər]’. Ag bun na hiontrála, deirtear: ‘Appar. a deriv. from Mid.Du. mest, dung, Ger. mist, id., cogn. with Du. dial. miegen, O.E. mīgan, to make water, O.Fris. mēse, urine’ – is é sin Próta-Ind-Eorpais, *meigh- ‘to urinate’ a bhfuil baint ag micturate an Bhéarla leis.

Tá sé spéisiúil nach bhfuarthas sampla ar bith den fhocal in Ultaibh – go fóill ar dhóigh ar bith – cé go bhfuil sé le fáil in Albain, i gConnachta, agus i gCúige Mumhan. Is dócha go dtiocfar ar shamplaí eile agus an Foclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge á thiomsú againn. Idir an dá linn, más fual, mún, maothachán, steámar nó maistir/máistir a thugann tú ar an uisce sin, ní mholann muid é a chaitheamh ar na páistí fiú má tá na sióga ag cur isteach oraibh.

Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959) le Julius Pokorny

Tá sé suimiúil fosta gurbh fhéidir gur shíolraigh an focal Béarla ingle ‘tine, teallach, aibhleog nó móin dhearg’ ó aingeal ‘tine’, focal atá in úsáid in Albain go háirithe, agus in Ultaibh fosta is dócha, dar leis na foclóirí Albainise ar líne (Dictionary of the Scots Language). Is ón fhocal sin a tháinig an focal ingle- nook ‘clúid na tine’. Is díol suime é go raibh piseog ag baint le húsáid an fhocail ingle in áit fire in Albain fosta, rud a bhí luaite thuas i gcás aingeal in áit tine in Uibhist a Deas. Deir John Jamieson ina fhoclóir sanasaíochta Albainise (1808) i dtaobh ingle – atá mar chuid den iontráil ar DSL :

Some silly superstition is connected with the use of this term in relation to a kiln. For the fire kindled in it is always called the ingle, in the southern parts of Scotland at least. The miller is offended, if it be called the fire.

Tá seans láidir ann mar sin gurb ionann aingeal ‘aibhleog bheo/mhúchta’ Uí Chadhain agus Chois Fharraige agus aingeal ‘tine’ atá le fáil i nGaeilgí eile agus an bhrí leathnaithe le rudaí lasta eile a chur san áireamh, sop nó fód mar shampla. D’fhéadfaí an méid sin a shamhlú in éineacht leis an phiseog gur aingeal é an rud a chosnaíonn duine, im, ál uibheacha nó barra ar dhochar nó ar fhórsaí dorcha, aingeal coimhdeachta de shaghas éigin. Cé gur creideadh go forleathan sa phiseog seo agus an chumhacht a bhain le haibhleog mar chosaint ar an tslua sí agus eile, níor thángthas ar aon samplaí eile i gcorpas Fhoclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge 1600–1926 nó i leabhair chanúnacha eile ach tá obair idir lámha faoi láthair leis an chorpas sin a fhairsingiú; beidh le feiceáil mar sin.

Íomhá sa cheanntásc: Tinteán i nGort na gCros, Co. Luimnigh (1940). Grianghrafadóir: Caoimhín Ó Danachair, Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann

Idir 1937 agus 1946 bhí an scríbhneoir Connachtach Máirtín Ó Cadhain ag obair faoi scéim de chuid An Gúm ag cnuasach focal agus leaganacha cainte as Gaeltacht na Gaillimhe. Le linn na tréimhse sin, chuir Ó Cadhain breis agus aon mhilliún focal d’ábhar chuig An Gúm, agus sin in ord agus in eagar faoi bhreis agus 1000 ceannfhocal.

Cuireadh síos ar scéim seo na Roinne in alt ar an Irish Independent i mí na Bealtaine 1937, tráth a rabhthas ag iarraidh daoine a mhealladh chun cabhrú le An Gúm bailiúcháin a dhéanamh de ‘liostaí focal agus leaganacha cainnte a bhaineas le gnáth-shaoghal na Gaeltachta agus le gach céird agus gach slighe bheatha ar leith’. Dá bharr, cuireadh daoine ar obair ar fud na gceantar Gaeltachta gur cruthaíodh stóras mór focal agus samplaí a bheadh mar dhúshraith ar ball do Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (Ó Dónaill 1977).

Ba bheacht an treoir a chuir Oifigeach Foilseacháin An Gúm, Seán Mac Lellan, ar fáil dóibh siúd a bheadh ag bailiú an ábhair:

‘Caithfear an focal nó an téarma atá i gceist a mhíniú agus a chur le h-obair ins an leagan (nó na leaganacha) nádúrtha Gaedhilge a ghabhann leis de ghnáth. Chuige sin béidh sé riachtanach abairteacha agus samplaí a thabhairt chun an chiall atá leis a chur i n-iúl go soiléir…’

Chuaigh Máirtín Ó Cadhain i mbun an chúraim go dícheallach, óir bhí sé ag obair ar chnuasach leaganacha dá leithéid, as a stuaim féin, le cúig bliana déag an t-am sin! Is ón chaint bheo is mó a tharraing sé na samplaí a chuir sé ar fáil mar léiriú ar leagan cainte a úsáid, agus tá doimhneacht agus téagar sna leaganacha uaidh a thugann léargas dúinn, ní amháin ar an chur amach a bhí aige ar an teanga, ach ar fhorbairt a intinne agus a chumais mar scríbhneoir cruthaitheach chomh maith. Chomh maith leis sin tharraing sé ar a stór amhrán agus seanchais nuair a bhí sampla oiriúnach ar fáil ansin. Tá an greann i gcuid mhaith de na leaganacha, agus tá an ghaois i gcuid mhaith eile, ach thar aon rud eile, tá gus agus gearradh na Gaeilge iontu.

Tá foireann Fhoclóir Stairiuil na Gaeilge, in Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann, ag obair ar théacs iomlán Fhoclóir Uí Chadhain a chur in eagar agus a fhoilsiú ar líne, óir tá luach as cuimse leis an ábhar i dtaca leis an fhoclóireacht. Táimid buíoch de An Gúm agus d’Iontaobhas Uí Chadhain as a dtacaíocht maidir leis an obair seo.

Mar chomóradh le linn 2020 ar 50 bliain ó d’éag Máirtín Ó Cadhain, beidh samplaí spéisiúla á gcur amach againn tríd an chuntas Twitter @OCadhain_RIA.

Leantar muid, caithfear muid a leanacht!

This month marks 250 years since the publication in Paris of Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla, an Irish-English Dictionary compiled by Bishop John O’Brien of Cloyne and Ross (d.1769).

Charles O’Connor’s annotated copy of Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla (Paris, 1768)

Bishop John O’Brien was a well-travelled priest before he was appointed to his first Irish parish, Castlelyons and Rathcormac in 1738. He received his formal education in the Irish seminary in Toulouse, from where he graduated in 1733 as Bachelor of Divinity, and he subsequently became tutor to several eminent Irish families in continental Europe, most notably that of Col. Arthur Dillon, commander of the Dillon regiment in the French army and later Stuart ambassador to the French court. Upon O’Brien’s return to Ireland as a parish priest in his native Cork, we begin to witness his engagement with the Irish language which was the native tongue, of course, of his congregation in that area; we have three sermons he penned in 1739-40 on mortal sin, on the Gospel, and on the Passion respectively. This evident understanding of the need to preach to the populace in their vernacular is an early clue as to his motivation for producing the dictionary, for in his appeal for funding for its publication, he made the case to the authorities in Rome that it would be primarily of use to priests who were ministering to the Irish-speaking faithful.

In addition, O’Brien, like many clerics throughout Ireland at that time, was a generous and appreciative supporter of native learning and poetry, and his appointment as Bishop of Cloyne and Ross in 1748 occasioned celebratory poems from several Cork poets active at the time. Seán na Ráithíneach Ó Murchú (1700-62) welcomed the appointment with a flamboyance typical of the genre:

‘tá suairceas labhartha is aiteas ag dáimh gan chiach
i gCluain ó gairmeadh Easpog de Sheán Ó Briain.’

‘full-throated joy, acclaim and cheer abound
in Cloyne since John O’Brien was made Bishop.’

O’Brien maintained close ties with two Gaelic scholar-scribes in particular, namely Mícheál Ó Longáin and Seán Ó Conaire (he employed the former between 1759 and 1762), and these are undoubtedly the ‘persons learned in the language and antiquities of Ireland’ mentioned by O’Brien in his introductory remarks in the dictionary as his assistants in that particular endeavour. Both brought with them a considerable knowledge of the manuscript sources from which they drew a headword list for the Focalóir. This augmented the word-list compiled around 1700 by Edward Lhuyd which served as the basis of the new dictionary. Together the three made a formidable team of historian-lexicographers and their finished work was a staple resource for Irish scholars for a century after its appearance.

O’Brien’s remarks on the letter H from Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla (Paris, 1768)

There are many storied copies of the Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla in various libraries and the Academy Library holds three copies, two of which show the value placed on it by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gaelic scholars.[i] One is a copy owned by the renowned scholar Charles O’Conor MRIA (1710-91) and contains extensive handwritten annotations and notes by him. Another of the three is one that was owned by the Gaelic scribe James Stanton (fl. 1800) and which later passed into the hands of one Thomas Brosnan who sold it to the celebrated scribe, poet and diarist Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin (1783-1836) of Callan, Co. Kilkenny. This copy, with the plentiful annotations and supplementary entries made by Ó Súilleabháin reflects in a very vivid way his particular vocabulary and his interests in contrast to those of the Bishop and his helpers. Ó Súilleabháin’s interjections contain everyday material related to agriculture, botany, and other country pursuits which would have been outside the ambit of O’Brien’s work, his chief sources in compiling the Dictionary being written texts, rather than the current speech of the people. Examples of Ó Súilleabháin’s additions are the entries ‘CIRCÍM, a mixture of butter and boiled eggs’; ‘CROTAL, what remains of the apples after the cyder is squeezed out’; ‘GRINNIAL, the sandy bottom under the ploughed sod’ and ‘SEASGACH, a cow having no milk’. Plant names entered include ‘BEARNÁN, dandelion’; ‘BEARNÁN BÉILTINNE, marsh-marigold’, and several plants of the pea family including the ‘PÓNAIRE FHRANCACH, French bean’, ‘PÓNAIRE CHAPAILL’ and ‘PÓNAIRE CHURRAIGH’ which are both glossed as ‘Marsh Trefoil’. Also perceived worthy of inclusion by Ó Súilleabháin is the compound noun ‘CRUINNTSEILE’ which he translates as: ‘a congregated spit; what comes from the lungs by expectoration’!

Ó Súilleabháin also feels the need at times to elaborate on O’Brien’s original definitions, especially where he feels local knowledge brings something valuable to bear. At O’Brien’s entry for Ó Súilleabháin’s home district he gives an update (in italics below):

CALLAIN, a town and territory in the county of Kilkenny, which anciently belonged to the O Glohernys, and a tribe of the Céalys. The 1st are totally extinct the 2nd of no account…

As seen below, where O’Brien has ‘TOICE, an opprobrious name given to a young woman of bad behaviour’, Ó Súillleabháin, while he acknowledges that it appears with that meaning in Merriman’s Cúirt an Mheadhon-Oidhche/Midnight Court, notices a nuance of dialect and feels the need to add the clarification ‘in Kerry opprobrious, in Kilkenny any girl.’ The later Irish lexicographer Dinneen is in agreement with Ó Súilleabháin, as he instructs us the word ‘toice’ can be ‘either affectionate or contemptuous’.[ii]

O’Brien’s dictionary was only superseded by the advent of more modern, informed techniques in philology and lexicography in the mid-nineteenth century, with the birth of the modern discipline of Celtic studies. His work is remarkable, however, for its professional engagement with Gaelic sources and the undoubted knowledge and skill which John O’Brien and his helpers brought to the task of their interpretation.

Johann Kaspar Zeuss (1806-1856) is rightly lauded as the father of the modern academic discipline of Celtic studies. His two-volume magnum opus, Grammatica Celtica, which appeared largely unheralded in 1853, established incontrovertibly through the study of Old Irish sources the relationship of the Celtic languages to the Indo-European family. His achievement is made notable by the fact that such a link had hitherto been only one of many conclusions as to their origin, reached with varying levels of academic rigour, that were doing the rounds previous to Zeuss during the early 19th century. Zeuss’ portrait from the Royal Irish Academy’s collection has recently been hung in the office of our Foclóir Stairiúil na Gaeilge/Historical Dictionary of Irish, which fitting, if inevitably humbling, event gives us occasion to consider the achievement of this unassuming Bavarian scholar and how he came to be owed so much by subsequent scholarship in Irish and Celtic philology.

Portrait of Johann Kaspar Zeuss

Zeuss grew up near the town of Kronach, spending his boyhood helping on the farm. He progressed to the University of Munich, where an aptitude in language study is evidenced by his distinguished performance in Classics, Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian and Old Slavonic. His research interests were initially in history, however, and his 800-page volume on German history, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme appeared in 1837. With it the young scholar’s reputation had been established, but was perhaps negatively influenced by a second book, Die Herkunft der Baiern von den Markomannen, published in 1839, in which Zeuss criticised other historians and their attempts to interpret history without the linguistic skills he deemed requisite to deal properly with the historical sources. An academic position in a pre-eminent university did not materialise, despite several applications. The criticism within the book refers most vehemently to scholars who could not discern between Germanic and Celtic words, and it is to be presumed that he had acquired some knowledge of the Celtic languages at this stage.

Celtomania

This was the age of ‘Celtomania’, a phenomenon which for want of learned, scientific and empirical research into their origins, had ascribed various fanciful and unproven ancestry to the Celtic languages, often relating them to mysterious peoples and exotic tongues. Only tentatively, by the time of Zeuss, had serious scholars suggested that Celtic was related to the Indo-European family, and it is notable that the great philologists Jacob Ludwig Grimm (he, with his brother Wilhelm, of fairytale fame) and Franz Bopp did not include Celtic in their great comparative surveys of German, Sanskrit, Zend (Avestan), Greek, Latin, Lithuanian and Gothic, which traced the ancestry of the premier European languages eastwards to the heart of India. Surely the Celtic languages, spoken on the very fringes of the continent, their vast early literature still only very slowly coming to be appreciated, could not be similar in origin? Arrival from the west, north or even the African continent was maintained by many to be a more likely scenario. MacPherson’s Ossian tales and the subsequent debates around the authenticity of their source, and Vallancey’s ‘absurd and fanciful etymologies’ were a further setback to the reputation of the discipline.[i]

Reproduced by kind permission of An Post © Statue of Johann Kasper Zeuss at Kronach, Germany

Grammatica Celtica

It was to this gap in the knowledge of the situation of Celtic that Zeuss addressed himself, setting about his task through his study of Old Irish sources. What is perhaps most remarkable by today’s standards is that he never visited Ireland, and it is questionable whether indeed he ever met an Irish speaker. His approach to the problem led him ad fontes; he travelled to libraries across Europe wherein were housed the earliest examples of written Irish. These were in the form of glosses, such as those found in Würzburg, Karlsruhe, Milan and Turin (mostly from the 8th century, but some in the so-called prima manus, from the 7th), in which commentaries in Irish on, for example, the epistles of Paul are found between lines and in text margins. Zeuss transcribed and interpreted these and other such examples and from his analysis he was able to lay out in Grammatica Celtica, for the first time, the grammar of the language. In his return to the earliest extant forms of the language, Zeuss was a pioneer; earlier in the eighteenth century the glosses had been identified as Irish but mistakes had been made in their interpretation. Zeuss brought to their study his modern training that enabled him to tackle the scientific study of any language. His reliance on the glosses is almost absolute, and he barely refers to any extant scholarship in Celtic, obviously preferring to build all his conclusions solely on the foundation of the sources.

Grammatica Celtica by J. C. Zeuss (Lipsiae, 1853)

John O’Donovan

One scholar whose work in the field is indeed mentioned in the preface to Grammatica Celtica is John O’Donovan, whose copy of Grammatica is in the Academy’s Library. O’Donovan introduced the great work to the Irish public in a review article in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1859 where he speaks of the ‘scarcely credible’ nature of what Zeuss has achieved, in order ‘to show how much all future Irish grammarians owe to the vast and true learning, and indefatigable industry of J. Caspar Zeuss’. With the publication of Grammatica Celtica in 1853, Zeuss had established Celtic studies on an international stage, proving what his predecessors had only glanced at and suggested.

O’Donovan was correct in his assertion that Grammatica Celtica would pave the way for further investigation into Irish grammar, and Rudolf Thurneysen’s Handbuch des Altirischen, appearing in 1909 brought matters further along, and was translated to English by D.A. Binchy and O. Bergin as A Grammar of Old Irish in 1946. Furthermore, it is no exaggeration to say that the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language, and ongoing research in Irish philology and lexicography, owes much to the achievement of Zeuss and is part of his legacy. James Henthorn Todd, the Irish historian and President of the Academy from 1856-61 was an admirer of Zeuss, and had invited him to take an academic position in Dublin, which Zeuss had accepted and he had plans to travel here. Alas he succumbed to his long-endured poor health before being able to accept this accolade; the pulmonary tuberculosis that had claimed other members of his family before him now caused his own death. Todd spoke in his inaugural speech of the need for an authoritative dictionary of the Irish language, and this endeavour was finally undertaken in the early 20th century and it continues in another form to this day, now under the studious gaze of Johann Kaspar Zeuss. Táimid go mór faoi chomaoin ag an Ghearmánach seo a tharraing gort chun míntíreachais a bhí á phlúchadh ag an fhiaile, gort inar fhás agus inar bhláthaigh an oiread sin de shaothrú scolártha, nárbh ann ach dá thaise murach é.

Charles Dillon
Eagarthóir
Foclóir Stairiúil Gaeilge
Historical Dictionary of Irish