Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

52 OF THE PARTS [Part II.
of a bird, g. f. 'gulb'j *crodh' m. h'mcy g, f. 'cruidh'; 'bolg'
or 'balg' m. a bag, g. f. 'builg'j 'clog or 'clag' m. a bell, g.
f. 'cluig*; 'lorg' f. ^Jiaf, g. f. 'luirge'; 'long' f. a//>, g. f.
*luinge'j *alt' m. Tl joint ^ g. f. *uilt*; *ald' m. a rivulet , g. f.
'ulld'; 'car* m. a ///r«, g. f. 'cuir'j 'carn' ni. a heap ofjiones^
g. f. 'culrn' So alfo 'ceol' m. mitftc^ g. f. 'ciuil': 'fcol' m. a
fail, g. f. 'fluir. Except nouns in on and a few feminines,
which follow the general rule : as 'bron' m. forronv, g. f,
*bròin'; 'lòn' m, food, g- f. 'lòin j *cloch' or clach' f. ■àjìone,
g. f. 'cloiche*; *cos' or *cas' f. theyào^, g. f. 'coife' : 'bròg'
f. a y/^icf, g. f. 'broige.' So alfo 'clann* f. childteny g. f.
*cloinne'j 'crann' m. a tree, g. f. *croinn*. 'Mac* m, z/on,
has its g. f. *mic'«
6. Polyfyllables characterlfed by ea change ea into i ; as
'fitheach* m. a raven, g. f. 'fithich*; 'callleach' f. an c/J ivo'
man^ g. f. 'caillich' (iij. Thefe two fufFer a fyncope,, and
add e ; 'buidheann f. a company, g. f. 'buidhne'; *fitheann'
f. venifon, g. f. 'Ixthne.'
Of monofyllables chara(fl:erlfed by ea, fome throw away a
and infert /*; as 'each' m. a horfe, g, f. 'eich'; 'beann' f. a
peak, g. f. *beinne*j *fearg' f. anger, g. f. 'feirge-' — Some
change
(k) Derivatives in an and ag should form their genitive ac-
cording to the general Rule, ain, aig; and in pronunciation they
do so. When the syllable preceding the termination ends in ft
small vowel, the Rule of 'Caol re caol' has introduced an e into
the final syllable, which is then written ean^ eag. In this case,
writers have been puzzled how to form the genitive. The ter-
minations eain, eaigy M'ould evidently contain too many vowels fov
a short syllable. To reduce this aukward number of voweh
they have commonly thrown out the a, the only letter which
properly expressed the vocal sound of the syllable. Thus from
'caimean' m. a 77mte^ they formed the gen. sing, 'caimein'j from
'cullean' m. a whc/p, g. s. 'cuilein'; from 'duileag' f. a leaf g.
s. 'duileig' •, from 'caileag' f. a girl, g. s. 'caileig'. Had they
not yielded too far to the encroachments of the Rule of *Caol re
caol' they would have written both the nom. and the gen. of
these and similar nouns more simply and more justly, thus;
Vaiman' g. s. 'caimain' ; 'cuilan' g. s. 'cuilaln'; 'duilag' g. ^■.
'duilaig'j 'cailag' g. s. 'cailaig'.