My thanks are due first and foremost to my wife Bríd, whose help and support was, as always, immeasurable. I owe a debt of gratitude to three friends and colleagues, Dr. Pádraig de Brún, on whose advice and assistance I so often relied, to Dr. James McCloskey for his detailed comments on the text and his unstinting support and to Dr. Arndt Wigger with whom I co-authored Córas Fuaimeanna na Gaeilge, which underpins Parts I and II of the present work which he also kindly read and commented on.

My gratitude is also due to the readers for the Cambridge University Press for their many useful comments and recommendations, to Penny Carter for her editorial assistance and help, to her successors Marion Smith and then Judith Ayling, and to Catherine Max.

I should also like to thank Paul O'Loughlin Kennedy and Sharon Slowey of Dublin Online Typographic Services Ltd. for their skill and efficiency in typesetting.