Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

35 OF pROXUNCiATiox [Part I.
The foregoing obfervations appear fufficient to eftablifli
this general conclufion, that in all cafes in which a vowel
ferves neither to exhibit the vocal found, nor to modify the
articulations of the fyllable to which it belongs, it may be rec-
koned nothing better than an ufelefs incumbrance. There
feems therefore much room for fimplifying the prefent fyf-
tem of Gaelic Orthography, by the rejection of a confi-
derable number of quiefcent vowels (z),
Almofl
soldier-Iihe, qfficer-ltke, which is abridged to /y, as fnanly, friendly.
By writing eii instead of ail, we almost lose sight of ' amhuil' al-
together.
(%) From the extracts of the oldest Irish manuscripts given
by Lhuyd, Vallancey, and others, it appears that the rule con-
cerning the correspondence of vowels in contiguous syllables,
was by no means so generally observed once as it is now. It
was gradually extended by the more modern Irish writers ; from
whom, it is probable, it has been incautiously adopted by the
Scottish writers, in its present unwarrantable latitude. The rule
we have been considering has been reprobated in strong terms
by some of the most judicious Irish philologers ; particularly
O'Brien, author of an Irish Dictionary printed at Paris 1768,
and Vallancey, author of an Irish Grammar, and of various ela-
borate disquisitions concerning Irish antiquities j from whom I
quote the following passages : ' This Rule [of dividing one syl-
* lable into two by the insertion of an aspirated consonant,] toge-
* ther with that of substituting small or broad vowels in the lat-
* ter syllables, to correspond with the vowel immediately follow-
* ing the consonant In the preceding syllable, has been very de-
* structive to the original and radical purity of the Irish Ian-
* guage.' Vallanceifs Ir. Gram. Chap. 111. letter ^4. ' — another
* [Rule] devised in like manner by our bards or rhymers, T
* mean that which Is called Caol le caol, agiis Leathan le leathan,
* has been woefully destructive to the original and radical purity
' of the Irish language. This latter rule (much of a more mo-
* dern invention than the former, for our old manuscripts show no
« regard to it) imports and prescribes that two vowels, thus
* forming, or contributing to form, two different syllables, —
* should both be of the same denomination or class of either
« broad or small vowels ; and this without any regard to the
' primitive elementary structure of the word.' 0''Brien''s Ir.
Diet. Remarks on J. '^ — the words biran and biranach changed
somctimef