Blair Collection > Kelt or Gael

CHAPTER III.
Keltic Dialects. Reason for Grammar Alphabets-
Irish OR British Alphabet. Grammar. Welsh
Grammar. Six Dialects of Keltic or Gaelic. Two
Groups. Irish, Scotch, and Manx compared. Welsh,
Cornish, and Armoric compared. Reasons for
sketching Irish and Welsh Grammars.
Keltic dialects. There are SIX dialects of Keltic or Gaelic which
have a known literature — the Irish, the Scotch,
and the Manx forming one group, and the
Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armoric forming a
Two groups, second group. From local names and such
words as road, ford, town, down, fell, combe,
avon, I am satisfied that all these dialects were
spoken in Southern Britain.
The Irish, the Scotch, and the Manx are
sometimes called Gallic or Gaelic ; but the word
so applied is misleading. Keltic and Gaelic are
equivalents, the only difference being that Keltic
is a word of Greek origin, and Gaelic or Gallic
a word of Latin origin. The Keltoi and the
Galli appeared to have called themselves Gall
or Gael or Gaidhel, for the three words are
pronounced in the same way ; and in one form
or another the word is found in every known
dialect of the sub-Danubian peoples. Welsh is