Atkinson — Two Inflexional Forms of the Verb in Irish, 425 
[v.] 
It is in fact evident that this unwarrantable practice is 
quite modern, and belongs to the present century — no doubt, 
mainly owing to the influence of the extended use of English, 
and the consequent admixture and misunderstanding of the 
forms. 
The indefinite [aoristic] English present is rendered by the 
Irish simple present : — 
inotAiT) fe, he praises. 
The inwiediate present is made in both languages by peri- 
phrasis : — 
he is [«0M>] praising, aca fe Ag iiioIat). 
But the Irish has further a verb of habit : — 
he is [habitually] praising, bi fe Ag molAt). 
It is to the last of these three forms that the Anglo- Irish 
expression he does hey &c., corresponds: — 
bi' fe Aj "out Ann a|\ mAi-om, 
he does be going there in the morning. 
Now, the practice of using the enclitic -^nn with negatives, 
as ni triot^nn fe, brought about m l3i['6]eA.nn fe, for *he does 
not he, &c. With the introduction of this bi-oexsnn (which 
never occurs in the Keating, though it crept early into the 
language, through the influence of analogy^) every preparation 
was made for going astray, for the meaning of habit, which lay 
in the verb bi, was ultimately transferred to the ending -x^nn ; 
and through the constant use of ^he does be'' in Anglo-Irish, 
the dissemination of this bi-oeAnn, combined with the familiar 
usage of the ending -Min, wrecked the proper construction of 
the latter, and opened the way for the verbal corruption that 
ensued. 
^ It is noticeable that in Halliday's Grammar [1808], p. 72, the consuetudmal or 
habitual mood of the auxiliary beic by implication limits the use of this ending to 
the 2nd and Srd singular; though at p. 75, in the verb cef , he uses it throughout 
the plural. 
E.T.A. PIIOC, SEE. III., VOL. I. 2H 
