45 



person, not knowing Irish but as a dead language, to give a true re- 

 presentation or description of its sounds. It is asserted that '* The rule 

 Caol le caol and leathan le leathan, has been carried too far," but to 

 what extent is not shewn ; a few examples, indeed, are given, but not 

 at all sufficient or satisfactory for a learner. It is also asserted that 

 " The vowels of each class, when unaccented, may be indifferently 

 written for the other." This is too indefinite. The author should have 

 known, that though they are sometimes commuted by writers, 

 a grammarian is bound to point out the propriety or impro- 

 priety of so doing, and whether custom or analogy should be fol- 

 lowed. He then proceeds : " It is impossible to give a correct repre- 

 sentation of the sounds of Irish diphthongs and triphthongs by any 

 usual combination of English vowels." He should have given an 

 instance of this ; it would have been a better proof than mere as- 

 sertion : but this he would have found rather difficult. I do not 

 know any vowel sound, in our language, that cannot be represented 

 by English vowel sounds either pure or mixed. If it were said that 

 some sounds, peculiar to a few of our consonants, could not be repre- 

 sented by any sound in the English language, the assertion would have 

 been well founded, such as the flat and thick sounds of t, ti, "6 and 5, 

 and also of ^15, &c. when initial, and of |i slender, when it happens 

 to follow ) in the termination of a syllable. 



Chapter the third treats " Of the consonants and their divisions, 

 combination and influence on each other :" — It is asserted that " cc, 

 '^^, |3|a and cc are never used but in the beginning of words, except 

 cc, which is sometimes used in the termination." — But cc often oc- 

 cur in ancient manuscripts, as well at the end as in the middle of 

 words. On Orthography tliis Grammar is entirely defective. 



Etymology — 1st, of the Parts of Speech. Tlie author agrees with 

 his Predecessors in shewing that the Antients reckoned but three Parts 

 of speech ; but he says that the Moderns reckon ten, — Article, IVoun 



