Atkinson — On the Subjunctive Mood in Irish. 437 



The Independent Forms. 



In these the full subjunctive form appears, the distinction 

 being as obvious as in Latin itself, e. gr., 



Pres. 



Imperf. 



Pass. 



3 sg., doffn{,iacit; dogne, iaciat. 



3 pL, dogniat, faciunt ; dognet, faciant. 



3 sg., dognid, faciebat ; dogneth, faceret. 



3 pi., dognitis, faciebant; dognetis, facerent. 



(Pres., dognitker, &t; dognefhar, &a,t. 



\ Imper., dognithea, fiebat ; dognethea, fieret. 



I 



It "will be seen by inspection that a perfectly dejfinite rule 

 guides the use of the Subjunctive mood, the cases being far 

 too numerous to admit of doubt in its application. The few 

 instances of ' incuria ' are not sufficiently numerous to invalidate 

 its force. 



The rule may be briefly formulated as follows : — 



The SUBJUNCTIVE mood is used in tlie subordinate clause, where 

 the introductory emphasizing clause is NEGATIVE, HYPOTHETIC, 

 or CONCESSIVE. 



The concessive includes the clause beginning with ' whoever,' 

 ' whatever,' i. e. clauses introduced by cid^ cia, cidbe, secip ; under 

 the concessive come naturally also clauses introduced by amail, 

 ' as if,' and is inann ecus, * it is the same as though ' ; the hi/2J0- 

 thetic, those beginning with mad, damad, corah. 



The few instances in which the rule is not adhered to, may 

 be safely set down to error of transcription, e. gr. : — 



I. 54,23 eipe dib doni gait; 54, 15 cia dogniat; 60,9,17 mad na se grada 

 dogniat; 11. 158, ir eid dognither ; in. 12, 13 cia dani; 22,22 corab d'a flaith 

 doni ; iv. 24, 12 mad leis in buar doni ; 288, 9 ge daniter. 



In all these cases the indicative is wrong — not to mention one 

 or two cases where the text is to be altered, e. gr. : — 



III. 292, 5 coruh in inaid dligtig do niad hi sin, rendered, ' provided it is in a 

 lawful place she does the act, ' where, of coui-se, do niad is nonsense : the text should 

 be corub . . . done in ni ada hi- sin. 



