Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

Part I.] AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 35
hands, ' cluas-an' ears. But if the laft vowel be fmall an e
is thrown into the termination ; as * sùil-ean' eyes, * froin-
ean' nofes. Now if it be obferved that, in the two laft exam-
ples, the fmall found of the / and n in the root is determined
by the preceding fmall vowel i with which they are necelTa-
rily connected in one fyllable ; and that the letters an fully
reprefent the found of the termination; it muft be evident
that the e in the final fyllable is altogether fuperfluous. So
in forming the dative plural, if the laft vowel of the root
be fmall, ibh is added ; as ' sùil-ibh, froin-ibh.' But if the
laft vowel of the root is broad, the termination is written
aibh ; as ' lamh-aibh, cluas-aibh ;' where the a, for the rea-
fon already afligned, is totally ufelefs.
Thefe obfervations apply with equal juftnefs to the tenfes
of verbs, as will be feen by comparing the following ex-
amples j '^ creid-idh' ivill believe, * ftad-aidh' will Jlop i
' chreid-mn' / tuould believe^ ftad-oinn' / luetildjiop ; * creid-
^am let me believe, ' ft ad- am' let me Jlop ; ' creid-ibh' believe ye,
' ùad.aihh' Jlop ye.
The fame obfervations may be further applied to deriva-
tive words, formed by adding to their primitives the fyl-
lables ach, achd, ag, an, ail, as ; in all which e has been un-
neceflarily introduced, when the laft vowel of the preceding
fyllable was fmall; as fannt-ach' covetous, * toil-^ach* willing;
* naomh-achd' holinejs, * doimhn-*?achd' depth ; ' fruth-an' a n-
vulet, * cuil-^'an* a whelp ; ' cuach-ag' a little cup, ' cail-^ag*
z. girl ; * fear-ail' manly, * cuita-eW! friendly (y); * ceart-as'
jujlice, ' c-à\tò.-ezs friendjhip.
'The
(y) It is worthy of remark that in such words as ' caird-eil*
friendly y ' slaint-eil' salutary^ the substitution of ^ in place of a in
the termination, both misrepresents the sound, and disguises 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 ' amhuiP lihe, which is
commonly written in its fiill form by the Irish, as ' fear-amhull,
&c. It corresponds exactly to the English termination lihe, in
soldier-