Atkinson — Ttvo Inflexional Forms of the Verb in Irish. 43^ 
Of course, in all ?Mowi- clauses, the relative form will be in 
the plural with a plural subject ; e, gr. Keating : — 
36, 8 1]^ loriAnn UAifbeAtiAt) ■oobei|\i"o uaua. 
39, 6 lotiAtm fo^Ail •oogm't) fiAt). 
Now, it was in this confusion of use in wAo- clauses and 
t^j/^om- clauses that the error lay, which has helped to disin- 
tegrate the language. 
Take, for instance, the two phrases : — 
riA p|A, •oo'bei|\ An coniAi|\te, the men who give the counsel ; 
and A11 coiTiAi]Ate, 'oo'bei|Mt) nA the counsel which the men give. 
The verb must be as here written, in sg. and pi. respectively 
in these two cases : nothing can be more certain than the constant 
application of this rule. 
But it is plain that to an unskilled mind, the use of 'oo1i)ei|A 
or 'oolDei]ii*o must necessarily have seemed somewhat arbitrary, 
and to this may be attributed the notion that the use of either 
form was optional. It seems reasonable to infer that the 
extension of this (assumed) option to the verbs of single-flexion 
has had some share in bringing about the modern usage of 
the analytic mot^ix) p^*o for the older molA.i'o. ^ 
