Hew Morrison Collection > Gaelic texts for schools (new code)

GAELIC GRAMMAR. 21
Comparison— the Positive, which is the simple
Adjective, and the Comparative, as duine lag,
a weak man ; an duine is laige, the iceaker man.
Exercise XI.
Tell—
(1.) The Number, Gender, and Case of the
Adjectives.
(2.) The Degree of Comparison, giving the
Positive or Comparative of each.
Tha an sneachda geal. Cha ghabh e 'bhi nis
gille. Tha mise lag ach tha thusa nis laige. Tha
an uiseag beag ach tha an dreathan-donn nis bige
{or, nis higha). Tha esan olc agus ise moran nis
miosa. Is toigh leam an te dhileas dhonn, Tha i
nis dilse. Bha lamhainean sioda air a min-bhasaibh
bana. Failt' ort fein a Mhor-thir bhoidheach. Tha
an uiseag ghrinn ri ceileir binn san speur. Tha
luasgan ard nan geug ri comhradh tlath. Aig lochran
dealrach, daite.
The elaborately stupid systems of the Comparison of Ad-
jectives taught by our various Gaelic Grammars is a very
good instance of how the language has been distorted by its
own best friends, and made to look extremely uninviting
and even repulsive. An Irish clergyman in admiration
writes, "The bards, in the glow of poetic rapture upon the
common superlative, raised a second comparative and super-
lative, and on the second also raised a third comparative and
superlative." This may be very good "poetic rapture,"
but it is nonsense. If we examine the various superlatives
first, we can see that there are no such forms of the Ad-
jective in Gaelic.
The "particles" sar, ro, Jior, &c., raise the value of the
adjective to which they are prefixed, but they constitute
no comparison. These so-called "particles" are in reality
adjectives iLsed adverbiaUy, and modifying the adjective
that follows. Thus : Sar mhaith = excellent good. ; excelleyitly
good. Fior mhaith =<r«e, good = truly good. This use of the
adjective in an adverbial sense is quite common in English,