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MONDAY, MAY 22, 1865. 

 The Veey Rev. Chaeles Geaves, D. D., President, in the Chair. 

 On the recommendation of the Council, it was — 



Resolved, — That a sum not exceeding £20 be granted by the Aca- 

 demy, to have a certified transcript made of the Census Returns of 1659, 

 upon which a paper was recently read by Mr. Hardinge. 



Mr. Pateick "W. Joyce, A. M. T. C. D., M. R. I. A, read the fol- 

 lowing paper : — 



On Changes and Coeetjptions in Irish Topogeapeical Names. 



I have often observed that there are many interesting peculiarities in 

 the process of altering Irish topographical names from ancient to mo- 

 dern English forms ; and that the changes and corruptions they have 

 undergone are, in numerous instances, the result of phonetic laws that 

 have been in operation from the earliest times, and among different 

 races of people. Irish names, moreover, afford the only existing record 

 of the changes that Irish words undergo, in the mouths of English- 

 speaking people. For these reasons the subject appears to me to possess 

 some importance, both in an antiquarian and philological point of view ; 

 and I have thrown together the following observations, with the hope 

 that they may prove interesting to the Academy. 



In anglicising Irish names, the leading general rule is, that the pre- 

 sent forms are derived from the ancient, as they were spoken, not as 

 they were written. Those who first committed them to writing aimed 

 generally at preserving the original pronunciation, by representing it as 

 nearly as they were able in English letters. The great majority of 

 names are anglicised on this principle ; and, allowing for the difficulty 

 of representing Irish words by English letters, it will be found that, on 

 the whole, the ancient pronunciation is fairly preserved. "Whenever 

 it so happens that the original combination of letters is pronounced 

 nearly the same in Irish and English, the names are commonly modern- 

 ized without much alteration either of spelling or pronunciation ; as 

 for instance, dun, a fort, is usually Anglicised dun or doon; ho, a cow, ho ; 

 druim, a long hill, drum ; leitir, a wet hill side, letter, &c. In most 

 cases, however, the same letters do not represent .the same sounds in 

 the two languages ; and accordingly, while the pronunciation was pre- 

 served, the original orthography was in almost all cases much altered. 

 I do not now speak of corruption : if the present letters convey the ori- 

 ginal sound without material alteration, we do not call it corruption, 

 though the written form of the word be changed. For example gabliailin 



E. I. A. PEOC. VOL. IX. 2 H 



