The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-16
THE IRISH LANGUAGE.
Evidence Going 10 show That GalIIc
Is Very Much Alive.

and who is not anouymous-bears what
Is generally considered an Irish name, but
which Is really Of gypsy, or Romany, orr
gin. The narrator is sad TO have heard
from him, but while he has never seen
him it's dollars to doughnuts that he has
black hair with the suggestion Of a curl in
it. If he were of the full-blooded Gaelic
race he possibly would not have put the
question. OF course. while there are many
corruptions Of what are known as the
languages, there are but few basic
tongues. You have probably heard of
some young woman or precocious gentle
man of your acquaintance who speaks
dozen languages, That is all rot. There
are not dozen languages. and probably
not mar a dozen. This, il is likely, is what
was agitating the mind Of our correspond
ent when he wrote his letter The mar
rator once heard Melville Phnlips-one of
the cleVerest of our younger literary men
talk In his light and yel thoughtful way
on this subject, and so, in response to this
interrogatory, he has seduced him into
discoursing in the following strain:
Is the Irish language language
Dear Seen and Heard? We divil, yore
mockin' me. If 1t isn't a language I'm a
Dutchman, and speak Chinese. II not only
is a language but Adam spoke il. and the
'Leabhar na-h-Uidhre let alone the Book
of Armagh Is better vernacular literature
than any of the bastard early English ex-
tant. The Irish language, like Chips
pup, may say with pride to its sister
tongues:
l may be yaller and covered with leas
But my pants. thank the Lord, don't bag
al the knees.
"It may have only eighteen letters. and
have been robbed in its infancy of !, k O.
V, W, y, z (Which Is the sad TRUTH, but
even so, If you will take a day off and stir
up the oral ambition of the peasants in
Connaught, Munster, the remote parts of
Ulster. the south of Lenster or any of
the islands off the western coast, you'll
be surprised to find how little this appar-
emily serious loss obstructs the expression
of Irish thought A Russian may have
three times as many letters in his shame
full alphabet as his native vodkl may have
twice the deviltry in it of poteen, but
there never lived Muscovite who could
out-talk a Hlbernian If you will let me
choose the particular Irish Imagination
this Is not personal-and the particular
brand of Irish whisky. l would like to
back them, Handicapped In a grand
linguistic contest open TO all the world. /
eeAh sec my hldil GllttIiully ana nuGUitY
recitlng choice passages from the Leab-
har Genealach" long after his distinguish
ed competitors, Gladstone, the Kaiser and
Mr.. Rooney-who were enormously sup
posed to have talked too much-had re-
tired in chagrin.
Irish Is so much Of a language that
professorships of 1t exist In Trinity Col
lege, Dublin; in the Queens Colleges at
Belfast, Cork and Galway and in the
qfhnlip C1lIpgn at In
words, It is technically the Gaelic one of
the still living Celtic languages. That,
however, is a mere pathological bagatelle.
Gaelic is all very well in its way, as the
root, let us say of the lofty tree whose
far-reachng branches have met In com
passing the earth. From the root the boil,
from the trunk the branch, from the
branch the stem-then the leaf. So we
get to the brogue. That is now the real
Irish wit, which. singular TO say, largely
consists Of bull and blunder. That is the
| truth. Brogue bull and blunder Unique
and lovable. The language of Ireland, /
take 1t, Is father to its unfortunate histo-
ry 1t is always short. Ireland has been
in need Of a spendthrlft trust for some CEN
turtles. She has not only enriched France,
Spain and Austria with an infusion Of her
militant blood, and given her overload a
Stee.e, a Sterne, a Wellington and down
to date a Roberts-but she has wantonly
sacrificed her title to individuality among
nations. However, If only the peasants
and a few landowners speak the Gaelic
to-day, a kindred condition exists in Rus
STA, where the multi-Slavonic language is
about the only thing the upper classes per-
NIT the Mujk to own and use all by him
self. Tolstoi weeps over this. but writes
in French, and In conversation prefers
| German to English. One who has heard
two excited Russian peasants engaged in
| talk cannot blame him To learn Russian
| you must first cultivate the art of elicit
| ing music out OF a haircomb covered with
tissue paper, varying the practice from
time to time by trying TO crack she'll
| bark nut between your back teeth.
III anyone wishes to learn how much
alive the Irish Gaelic language is he has
| only to buy O'Donovan's Irish Grammar,
| Zeuss' Grammatical Cetica' and literary
relics of the kind. But, as l began to say,
that Is not the existing Irish language. As
we have It from the days Of Brian Boru,
1t is a thing beyond procrustean definition.
Daniel O'Connell, himself, when asked for
his autograph, replied:
! Sir, 1 never send autographs. Yours,
Daniel O'ConnelI
THAT is the typical Irish language Of to-
day. At once direct and shrewd, and, even
! If vague with a vein of humor to il. AS
! In the instance Of the Irish crier at Bal
| linasloe, who was ordered to clear the
court, and did, with this announcement:
| Now, then, all We blackguards that isn't
| lawyers must lave the coort
In the way Of modern literature con-
slider this brief, pathetic note which an
Irishman wrote TO the wife of his sick
| brother:
| If jamie isn't dead yet, remoind him OF
| the twinty shillins he owes me on the pigs
and, IL he is, tell him rot TO. give himself
| any consarn about 1t.
! "The beauty about the I6sh language IL
| that II stands aoof and alone. 1t has mo
| indefinite article. for instance. Its inter-
| jections are not only numerous, but they
/ vary throughout the provinces and yet are
! constantly In use Lady Wilde, mother oil
| the unspeakable Oscar tells us In her An.
| Gent Legends and Superstitions of Ire
| landf that The Irish race were never much
| Indebted to the written word OF course
not Every 1rishman is born with the gift
| of speech, just as the sheepshead is borr
| with a lucky stone
Jeremiah Curtin tried some years age
TO prove that the Irish language held suf
| hcicnt internal evidence TO show that tho
! Cells left the home Of the Aryan race al
a period far anterior to any of the pre-.
vious migratlons. ! haven't any doubt o,
IT, Think for yourself. II 1t were neces.
sary for most of us, BECAUSE let US say
| of Bryanic or volcanic disturbances, Il
! take boat for the other hemisphere, who
do you think, would be the first at IN,
| dock2 Outside of the Hibernian thronf