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Untitled Article
There are none , perhaps , who need to be informed that the native Irish or Erse language is one out of four dialects of the ancient Celtic which continue to be spoken in the British Isles . It differs in some particulars from the Welsh and the Gaelic , but bears so close a general resemblance that persons familiar with either , especially with the latter , can make themselves intelligible to the Irish without much difficulty , and would probably be able in a short time to acquire such a mastery in the kindred dialect as not only
to be understood , but to be competent to address to those who speak it the voice of oral instruction . It is said , ( but here we must acknowledge that we are merely repeating at second-hand the reports of others without the means of verifying their accuracy , ) it is said , that the Irish is a peculiarly copious and expressive language , well adapted for the purposes of oratory , and possessing the advantage—no inconsiderable one , both in this respect , and with a view to the more important object of facilitating the reception and comprehension of whatever may be communicated by means of it even to the more illiterate—that all its roots are native , the derivatives from which are
framed upon analogies uniform and belonging to the language itself . These are considerations which would alone be sufficient to attract to this language , as an interesting object of philological inquiry , the attention of those who are curious in such researches ; independently of the important light which many productions in prose and verse extant in MS . in various public
libraries , but hitherto little explored , might probably throw upon the early history and literature of these islands ; at a period , too , when there is good Teason to believe that Ireland was the repository and refuge of no small portion of the learning which yet remained amidst the comparative darkness of Western Europe .
But by far the most interesting light in which this subject can be considered , both as belonging to the present times , and as coming more home , as it were , to our own business and bosoms , is the relation which it bears to the condition and character , intellectual , political , moral , religious , of the present inhabitants of that country . And upon this point we think there is good reason to believe that the public in general in this country , and even in Ireland itself , require to be disabused of many deeply-rooted prejudices , and
must be called upon to shake off many erroneous impressions . We are much mistaken if it is not the received doctrine on this side of the channel , that the native Irish is fast hastening to extinction . It may still prevail , it is supposed , in mountainous regions , lurking among bogs and other inaccessible fastnesses , but the great mass of the people in all the more populous and cultivated districts habitually use the English tongue . Those who had cherished such an idea , will be surprised to learn that the reverse is the
truth ; that there is not a single county in Ireland of which it can be said that English is universally the vernacular dialect of the people ; that in Connaught , at least nine-tenths of the people speak only Irish ; and that if the whole country were polled , a very considerable majority of the entire population would be found to be in the same predicament . There are , indeed , no authentic documents from whence any exact conclusion can be derived ,
but the personal investigations made by Mr . Anderson in an extensive tour through the country with an express view to this inquiry , and the concurrent testimony of many well-informed individuals , whose feelings and prejudices in other respects would in some instances have tempted them rather to underrate than to magnify the amount , leave no reason to doubt that the statement is substantially correct . It is admitted that a certain proportion of this class of the people are also
Untitled Article
250 Anderson's Historical Sketches of the Native Irish .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 250, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/34/
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