Page:Graimear na Gaedhilge.djvu/339

Rh

Before leaving this important subject it may not be uninteresting to see what some Irish grammarians have thought of the Autonomous form.

O’Donovan in his Irish Grammar (p. 183) wrote as follows:—

“The passive voice has no synthetic form to denote persons or numbers; the personal pronouns, therefore, must be always expressed, and placed after the verb; and, by a strange peculiarity of the language, they are always ‘in the accusative form.’

“For this reason some Irish scholars have considered the passive Irish verb to be a form of the active verb, expressing the action in an indefinite manner; as,, i.e., some person or persons, thing or things, strikes or strike me; , some person or thing (not specified) struck him. But it is more convenient in a practical grammar to call this form by the name passive, as in other languages, and to assume that, and , which follow it, are ancient forms of the nominative case.”

Molloy says in his Grammar, page 62:—

“Verbs have a third form which may be properly called deponent; as, I am (usually) beaten; , thou art (usually) beaten; , he is (usually) beaten. The agent of this form of the verb is never known; but although verbs of this form always govern the objective case, like active verbs, still they must be rendered in English