Part 38 (1/2)

This pronunciation is not universal over the Highlands In some parts the _c_ retains its proper sound in all situations

If the articulation in question had, frohly probable that it would have been represented, in writing, by a combination of letters, such as _chc_; especially as we find that the sale consonant, but by a coht that boc _a buck_, and bochd _poor_, were originally pronounced alike, when they are distinguished both in writing and signification?

The word [Hebrew: SHQ] _a sack_, has been transplanted fro the rest the Gaelic, where it has been alritten sac, although now pronounced sachc In none of the other languages in which the word is used (except the Welsh alone), has the final palatal been aspirated It would appear therefore that the sound sachc is a departure froe may have happened in the pronunciation of other words, in which the plain _c_ is now aspirated, though it h _th_ be quiescent in the hlands, yet it is, with hlands, as an aspiration; as, athair _father_, mathanas _pardon_, pronounced a-hair, mahanas

[18] I am informed that this pronunciation of _chd_ is not universal; but that in sohlands, the _d_ has here, as in other places, its proper lingual sounds In many, if not all the instances in which _chd_ occurs, the ancient Irish wrote _ct_ This spelling corresponds to that of son words that have a nification; which, it is therefore presuinally pronounced, as they ritten, without an aspiration, such as,

_Latin_ _Old French_ _Gaelic_

Noct-u Noct-is, &c Nuict an nochd, _to night_

Oct-o Huict Ochd, _eight_

Benedict-u_

Maledict-u_

Ruct-us Bruchd, _evomition_

Intellect-us Intleachd, _contrivance_

Lact-is, -i, &c Lachd, _o } Rect-um } Reachd, _a law, institution_

Froinal _c_ was converted into _ch_, and the words ritten with _cht_, as in the Irish acht _but_, &c, or with the slight change of _t_ into _d_, as in ochd, &c

This is the opinion of O'Brien, when he says the word lecht is the Celtic root of the Latin _lectio_--the aspirate _h_ is but a late invention--_O'Br Ir Dict voc lecht_ In process of time the true sound of _cht_ or _chd_ was confounded with the kindred sound of _chc_, which was coiven to final c

[19] It is certain that the natural sound of d aspirated is that of [the Saxon ] or _th_ in _thou_; as the natural sound of _t_ aspirated is that of _th_ in _think_ This articulation, from whatever cause, has not been adh it is used in the kindred dialects of Cornwall and Wales

[20] In sean _old_, the _n_ has its _plain_ sound when the folloord begins with a Lingual Accordingly it is often written in that situation seann; as, seann duine _an old man_, an t-seann tiomnaidh _of the old Testament_

[21] So in Latin, _canmen_ froenermen_

[22] Anotherthe distinction in the sound of the initial Linguals, is by writing the letter double, thus ll, nn, rr, when its sound is the same with that which is represented by those double letters in the end of a syllable; and when the sound is otherwise, to write the letter single; as, llamh _hand_, llion _fill_, mo lamh _my hand_, lion e now even so slight an alteration as this in the Orthography of the Gaelic, which ought rather to be held as fixed beyond the reach of innovation, by the happy diffusion of the Gaelic Scriptures over the Highlands

[23] _Leathan re Leathan, is Caol re Caol_

Of the many writers who have recorded or taken notice of this rule, I have found none who have attempted to account for its introduction into the Gaelic They only tell that such a correspondence between the vowels ought to be observed, and that it would be improper to write otherwise Indeed, none of them seem to have attended to the different effects of a broad and of a small vowel on the sound of an adjacent consonant From this circumstance, duly considered, I have endeavoured to derive a reason for the rule in question, the only probable one that has yet occurred to me

[24] As deanuibh or deanaibh _do ye_, beannuich or beannaich _bless_

[25] It is worthy of remark that in such words as caird-eil _friendly_, slaint-eil _salutary_, the substitution of _e_ in place of _a_ in the teruises the derivation of the syllable The sound of this termination as in fear-ail _manly_, ban-ail _womanly_, is properly represented by _ail_ This syllable is an abbreviation of amhuil _like_, which is commonly written in its full form by the Irish, as fear-alish termination _like_, in _soldier-like_, _officer-like_, which is abridged to _ly_, as _ _eil_ instead of _ail_, we alether

[26] Froiven by Lhuyd, Vallancey, and others, it appears that the rule concerning the correspondence of vowels in contiguous syllables, was by no radually extended by the more modern Irish writers, from whom, it is probable, it has been incautiously adopted by the Scottish writers in its present and unwarrantable latitude

The rule we have been considering has been reprobated in strong terers, particularly O'Brien, author of an Irish Dictionary printed at Paris 1768, and Vallancey, author of an Irish Gra Irish antiquities, froes: ”This Rule [of dividing one syllable into two by the insertion of an aspirated consonant]

together with that of substituting small or broad vowels in the latter syllables, to correspond with the vowel i syllable, has been very destructive to the original and radical purity of the Irish language” _Vallancey's Ir Gram Chap III

letter A_ ”Another [Rule] devised in like manner by our bards and rhyus Leathan le leathan_, has been woefully destructive to the original and radical purity of the Irish language This latter (much of a more modern invention than the forard to it) i, or contributing to form, two different syllables, should both be of the same denomination or class of either broad or sard to the primitive elementary structure of the word” _O'Brien's Ir Dict Reed sometimes into _bioran_ and _bioranach_ by the abusive rule of _Leathan le leathan_” _Id in voc_ Fear The opinion of Lhuyd on this point, though not decisive, yet may properly be subjoined to those of Vallancey and O'Brien, as his words serve at least to show that this judicious philologer was no advocate for the Rule in question ”As for passing any censure on the rule concerning broad and s any remark at all upon theet _silver_, instead of airgiod as rite it, never used to change a vowel but in declining of words, &c And I do not know that it was ever done in any other language, unless by sonorance, were guilty of it”

_Archaeol Brit Preface to Ir Dict translated in Bp Nicolson's Irish Historical Library_

[27] Pinkerton's Inquiry into the History of Scotland