Blair Collection > Gaelic texts for schools

22
GAELIC GRAMMAR.
and can be readily understood. That does away at once
with all the Superlatives so called ; there are none such.
Now, as regards Comparatives. Munro in his grammar
has three, thus —
Positive, Tlia e lag, lie is iveak.
1st Comparative, Tha e nis laifje, lie is weaker.
2d do. Is laigid e sin, he is loeaker for that.
od do. Tha e 'dol an laigead, he is getting weaker.
But this Third Comparative, laigead, is a noun as plainly
as it can be. Literally rendered it is, He is going into weak-
ness; where no one would make weakness an adjective.
Laigead is a noun governed by " an," into, in the Dative
Case. Such Third Comparatives then are always abstract
nouns, formed from adjectives certainly, but not adjec-
tives. Our best grammar, that of Dr Stewart, does not give
this form at all, yet he gives two forms of com2)arison —
the First and the Second.
The Second Comparative is seen in the example given. Is
laigid e sin. And Donnovan says, " The preposition de is often
postfixed to the comparative form of the adjective." We see
therefore that the correct form is laigide {laige-de) ; as we
have it in " is gilide e sin, he is the whiter for that." But the
postfixing is simply an accident, a development of the modern
speech. In the older spoken language it was separate and
distinct, thus : Isfearr de Uilleam a chomhairle, the advice
is better for William ( William is better for the advice). Any
one can see that Uilleam is governed by de, and that really
de has nothing of relation with the adjective fearr ; it is an
accident that they run together. It will be seen that the
structure is the same as that of the Latin Sum governing a
Dative with the Accusative. If for sake of convenience this
Second Comparative is to be retained it must be distinctly
observed that the noun or i:)ronoun coming after is always in
the Dative Case for the reason shown ; and it must also be
clear that it is not a form of the adjective but a noun with
the " postfix " de.
But further even than that, the first comparative form is
not a pure adjective, and does not govern the noun directly
but by an indirect secondary reference to it. Is e an sneachda
is gile, the snow is whiter (Lit. It is the snoiv that is ivhiter).
The comparison is instituted with "that" (thing) which is
whiter. We can see it very plainly in Tha e nis gile, it is
(thing is) tvhiter. Nis here is just ni a is, the thing which is.
Another instance, Bha an sneachda ni bu ghile, the snow was
(the thing ivhich ivas) whiter — of the things compared.