Remarks on the Irish Language, with a Review of its Grammars, 

 Glossaries, Vocabularies and Dictionaries ; to which is added, a 

 model of a comprehensive Irish Dictionary. By James Scurry. 



Read Oct. 23, 1826. 



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The laudable desire recently evinced by the Royal Irish Academy, 

 conformably with the spirit of its institution, to promote inquiries 

 respecting the literature and antiquities of Ireland, has given rise to 

 the following essay. It has been compiled with a view to ascertain 

 how far the efforts of our Grammarians and Lexicographers have 

 unfolded the analogies of our language, to what extent their 

 exertions have tended to preserve its purity or establish a correct 

 standard of orthography, and, particularly, whether their labours are 

 calculated accurately to facilitate its attainment.* This investigation 

 has necessarily led to a review of the excellencies and defects of 

 our Philological compilations, and of what yet remains to be per- 

 formed, in order to achieve the foregoing objects. The whole 

 is followed by a model of a Dictionary, intended to comprise 

 rules for pronunciation, the etymologies of words, their various 

 meanings in Irish synonyma, Latin, English, »S;c., examples taken 

 from our most approved writers, and other particulars incident 



• Archbishop Usher has ranked the Irish language " among the first in elegance and rich- 

 ness" — " Est quidem Lingua Hibernica et elegans cum prirais, et opulenta" : — The remainder of 

 the sentence, as will appear in the sequel, after a lapse of nearly 200 years, is equally applicable to 

 the present period." — " sed ad earn isto modo excolendam (sicuti reliquas fere Europae linguas 

 vernaculas intra hoc seculum excultas videmus) nondum cxtitit hactenus, qui aniraum adjiccret ; 

 nullum adhuc habemus liujus linguae Lexicon, sive per se factum, sive cum alia lingua compara- 

 turn." — Epist,- J. UssERii Armagh. Archiep. 



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