galaxyrocker wrote:
On top of that, I just went and checked out many other pre-Caighdeán works by native speakers. Tomás Ó Máille and his brother both used it without the hyphen, as did Ó Cadhain and Pádraig Óg Ó Conaire. Seosamh Mac Grianna didn't use the hyphen, and, since apparently on stuff written in Munster is 'authentic', neither did An Seabhac, himself a very well-educated native speaker from Kerry.
And, going to other famous authors of the type, An Craoibhín Aoibhinn also didn't use the hyphen.
First of all, An Seabhac was *not* a native speaker of Irish. I have read a couple of chapters of his Beatha Wolfe Tone, a translation he did. The spelling is impeccable in that book. But he appears not to know how to use "féin" and "-sa" and regards them as interchangeable. I think he lived near Irish-speaking people, but emphatically was a learner of the language.
If any of the people you mentioned didn't spell h- with a hyphen, then they deviated from O'Donovan's grammar, the Christian Brothers' grammar, the usage of Dinneen and Ua Laoghaire. I've got to let you into a secret: some people write "yoghurt" with an h. A totally incorrect spelling, which has been rolled out by a downmarket supermarket, Tesco.
I have to say, and it is a shame, that the Irish language "movement" attracts the most unpleasant people in Ireland. I find nearly all Irish people pleasant, welcoming etc - APART FROM the Irish-language movement people. If you see how this forum treated Dave Smith! Thankfully, the L2 Gaeilgeóirí are NOT representative of the Irish nation. This very thread is shameful.