Page:An Irish-English dictionary, being a thesaurus of words, phrases and idioms of the modern Irish language, with explanations in English.djvu/14

x work permitted, to give examples of the principal idioms that involve the prepositions and other important words, but it is obvious that there are many idioms depending on the collocation of words which can be learned only by practice.

The treatment of local words, some of which are of very doubtful genuineness, was a matter of some anxiety. In some parts of the country certain English words have got an extraordinary twist, and in the mouths of Irish speakers pass for genuine Irish words. Moreover, words that are really Irish are sometimes very much corrupted locally, and the corrupted forms are of doubtful advantage to a lexicon. The local use of words, however, when properly ascertained, is of great assistance in determining their origin and meaning.

A word may be said about modern loan words. They are practically all taken immediately from the English, though many are loan words even in English. Some have been introduced with scarcely any change of pronunciation, but with a somewhat altered or extended meaning. Thus is from schemer, but is used in a peculiar way in Irish;  is from sort, but not identical in use with the English word. Many English words get an Irish terminal form as from crook, and the termination, of the verbal noun is often added to English verbs—, tending, and the like. Of forms like these, some have got a footing in the language, while others, as the one just quoted, must be regarded as barbarous.

With regard to the general question of the insertion of loan words in a dictionary or their use in the spoken and written language, it is to be said that