Early Modern Irish ( ga, Gaeilge Chlasaiceach, , Classical Irish) represented a transition between

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engl ...

and Modern Irish. Its literary form,

Classical Gaelic Classical Gaelic or Classical Irish () was a shared literary form of Gaelic that was in use by poets in Scotland and Ireland from the 13th century to the 18th century. Although the first written signs of Scottish Gaelic having diverged from Ir ...

, was used in Ireland and Scotland from the 13th to the 18th century.

External history

The Tudor dynasty sought to subdue its Irish citizens. The Tudor rulers attempted to do this by restricting the use of the Irish language while simultaneously promoting the use of the English language. English expansion in Ireland, outside of the Pale, was attempted under Mary I, but ended with poor results.

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

however encouraged the use of Irish even in

the Pale The Pale ( Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast ...

with a view to promoting the reformed religion. She was proficient in several languages and is reported to have expressed a desire to understand Irish, so a primer was prepared on her behalf by Christopher Nugent, 6th Baron Delvin.

Grammar

The grammar of Early Modern Irish is laid out in a series of grammatical tracts written by native speakers and intended to teach the most cultivated form of the language to student

bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise ...

s, lawyers, doctors, administrators, monks, and so on in Ireland and Scotland. The tracts were edited and published by Osborn Bergin as a supplement to ''

Ériu In Irish mythology, Ériu (; modern ga, Éire ), daughter of Delbáeth and Ernmas of the Tuatha Dé Danann, was the eponymous matron goddess of Ireland. The English name for Ireland comes from the name Ériu and the Germanic (Old Norse or Ol ...

'' between 1916 and 1955. Neuter nouns still trigger

eclipsis Irish, like all modern Celtic languages, is characterized by its initial consonant mutations. These mutations affect the initial consonant of a word under specific morphological and syntactic conditions. The mutations are an important tool ...

of a following complement, as they did in Middle Irish, but less consistently. The distinction between preposition + accusative to show motion toward a goal (e.g. "into the battle") and preposition + dative to show non–goal-oriented location (e.g. "in the battle") is lost during this period, as is the distinction between

nominative In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Eng ...

and

accusative case The accusative case ( abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘t ...

in nouns. Verb endings are also in transition. The ending ''-ann'' (which spread from conjuct forms of Old Irish n-stem verbs like "(he) hits, strikes"), today the usual 3rd person ending in the present tense, was originally just an alternative ending found only in verbs in dependent position, i.e. after particles such as the negative, but it started to appear in independent forms in 15th century prose and was common by 17th century. Thus Classical Gaelic originally had " epraises" versus or " edoes not praise", whereas later Classical Gaelic and Modern Irish have and . This innovation was not followed in

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

, where the ending ''-ann'' has never spread, but the present and future tenses were merged: "he will grasp" but "he will not grasp".

Literature

The first book printed in any Goidelic language was published in 1567 in Edinburgh, a translation of

John Knox John Knox ( gd, Iain Cnocc) (born – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordgat ...

's 'Liturgy' by

Séon Carsuel Séon Carsuel (Anglicized: ''John Carswell'', modern Scottish Gaelic: ''Seon Carsuail''; c. 1522 – 1572) was a 16th-century Scottish prelate, humanist, and Protestant reformer. Born early in the century, when Carsuel completed his educat ...

Bishop of the Isles The Bishop of the Isles or Bishop of Sodor was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of the Isles (or Sodor), one of Scotland's thirteen medieval bishoprics. The bishopric, encompassing both the Hebrides and Mann, probably traces its origins as ...

. He used a slightly modified form of the

and also used the

Roman script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Ital ...

. In 1571, the first book in Irish to be printed in Ireland was a Protestant 'catechism', containing a guide to spelling and sounds in Irish. It was written by John Kearney, treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The type used was adapted to what has become known as the Irish script. This was published in 1602-3 by the printer Francke. The

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the sec ...

(a member of the

Anglican communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

) undertook the first publication of Scripture in Irish. The first Irish translation of the New Testament was begun by Nicholas Walsh,

Bishop of Ossory The Bishop of Ossory () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has ...

, who worked on it until his murder in 1585. The work was continued by John Kearny, his assistant, and Dr. Nehemiah Donellan,

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ga, Ard-Easpag Thuama) is an archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Catholic Church. Hist ...

, and it was finally completed by William Daniel (Uilliam Ó Domhnaill), Archbishop of Tuam in succession to Donellan. Their work was printed in 1602. The work of translating the Old Testament was undertaken by William Bedel (1571–1642), Bishop of Kilmore, who completed his translation within the reign of Charles the First, however it was not published until 1680, in a revised version by

Narcissus Marsh Narcissus Marsh (20 December 1638 – 2 November 1713) was an English clergyman who was successively Church of Ireland Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, Archbishop of Cashel, Archbishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Armagh. Marsh was born at Hannin ...

(1638–1713), Archbishop of Dublin. William Bedell had undertaken a translation of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

in 1606. An Irish translation of the revised prayer book of 1662 was effected by John Richardson (1664–1747) and published in 1712.

Encoding

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

gives the name "Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic" (and the code ghc) to cover both

and Early Modern Irish.

References

{{Celtic languages Irish Scottish Gaelic language History of the Irish language Irish dialects

External history

Grammar

Literature

Encoding

See also

References