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Irish téad leagaidh spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic teud leagaidh spoken by Tony Dillworth Irish téad leagtha spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic teud leagte spoken by Tony Dilworth Click the play button to hear them spoken. help from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840) Tead leagaidh - Falling string Tead leagtha - The string fallen The second of these, reading téad leagtha, causes no difficulty, because téad means 'a string' and leagtha means 'having been dropped', being the past participle of the verb leag, a transitive verb meaning 'knock down, lower or drop' (different from its intransitive parallel tuit, which means 'fall': Bunting's English is a little misleading on this point). No.22, however, which is called Teadleaguidhe, 'the falling string, or high bass key', in a footnote on on p.23, is more difficult. Its literal meaning may be 'string of dropping', which Bunting understands as equivalent to 'in the process of falling' (but not quite leagtha, 'dropped'). But this meaning is only possible if leagaidh is the genitive case of leagadh, 'dropping', verbal noun of leag. One difficulty with this is that Irish verbal nouns ending in -adh (the most common form) normally have their genitive in -tha; thus the normal genitive of leagadh is leagtha, identical in form and pronunciation with its past participle. We may therefore question the validity of Bunting's distinction between leagaidh and leagtha here, though the musical distinction is doubtless real enough. One possibility is that we take account of Scottish Gaelic, where the genitive of verbal nouns in -adh is quite correctly -aidh, so that leagaidh therefore could mean 'of dropping', allowing the interpretation Bunting has in mind. This explanation would, however, depend on the existence of Irish dialects which behave like Scottish ones in this matter, and where the genitive case of leagadh might be leagaidh; I know of no such dialect. To sum up, it is not clear how exactly the term téad leagaidh gets the meaning Bunting claims for it. Colm Ó Baoill 2002
Irish téad leagtha spoken by Gráinne Yeats Scottish Gaelic teud leagte spoken by Tony Dilworth Click the play button to hear them spoken. help from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840) Tead leagaidh - Falling string Tead leagtha - The string fallen The second of these, reading téad leagtha, causes no difficulty, because téad means 'a string' and leagtha means 'having been dropped', being the past participle of the verb leag, a transitive verb meaning 'knock down, lower or drop' (different from its intransitive parallel tuit, which means 'fall': Bunting's English is a little misleading on this point). No.22, however, which is called Teadleaguidhe, 'the falling string, or high bass key', in a footnote on on p.23, is more difficult. Its literal meaning may be 'string of dropping', which Bunting understands as equivalent to 'in the process of falling' (but not quite leagtha, 'dropped'). But this meaning is only possible if leagaidh is the genitive case of leagadh, 'dropping', verbal noun of leag. One difficulty with this is that Irish verbal nouns ending in -adh (the most common form) normally have their genitive in -tha; thus the normal genitive of leagadh is leagtha, identical in form and pronunciation with its past participle. We may therefore question the validity of Bunting's distinction between leagaidh and leagtha here, though the musical distinction is doubtless real enough. One possibility is that we take account of Scottish Gaelic, where the genitive of verbal nouns in -adh is quite correctly -aidh, so that leagaidh therefore could mean 'of dropping', allowing the interpretation Bunting has in mind. This explanation would, however, depend on the existence of Irish dialects which behave like Scottish ones in this matter, and where the genitive case of leagadh might be leagaidh; I know of no such dialect. To sum up, it is not clear how exactly the term téad leagaidh gets the meaning Bunting claims for it. Colm Ó Baoill 2002
Click the play button to hear them spoken. help
from Edward Bunting, Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin 1840)
Tead leagaidh - Falling string Tead leagtha - The string fallen
The second of these, reading téad leagtha, causes no difficulty, because téad means 'a string' and leagtha means 'having been dropped', being the past participle of the verb leag, a transitive verb meaning 'knock down, lower or drop' (different from its intransitive parallel tuit, which means 'fall': Bunting's English is a little misleading on this point).
No.22, however, which is called Teadleaguidhe, 'the falling string, or high bass key', in a footnote on on p.23, is more difficult. Its literal meaning may be 'string of dropping', which Bunting understands as equivalent to 'in the process of falling' (but not quite leagtha, 'dropped'). But this meaning is only possible if leagaidh is the genitive case of leagadh, 'dropping', verbal noun of leag. One difficulty with this is that Irish verbal nouns ending in -adh (the most common form) normally have their genitive in -tha; thus the normal genitive of leagadh is leagtha, identical in form and pronunciation with its past participle.
We may therefore question the validity of Bunting's distinction between leagaidh and leagtha here, though the musical distinction is doubtless real enough. One possibility is that we take account of Scottish Gaelic, where the genitive of verbal nouns in -adh is quite correctly -aidh, so that leagaidh therefore could mean 'of dropping', allowing the interpretation Bunting has in mind. This explanation would, however, depend on the existence of Irish dialects which behave like Scottish ones in this matter, and where the genitive case of leagadh might be leagaidh; I know of no such dialect.
To sum up, it is not clear how exactly the term téad leagaidh gets the meaning Bunting claims for it.
Colm Ó Baoill 2002
