Blair Collection > Vestigia celtica

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by the "space" idea which regulates all his
attempts at sentence-building, he rather
puts it that the one is in his angel, and the
other in his devil.
With this suggestion, I leave the sphere
of theory, and turn to facts, the only basis
on which theories can ever be profitably
reared.
I propose, therefore, now (i) to show, as
clearly as I can, wherein the principle of
this idiom consists, and (2) to classify and
exemplify its main varieties.
The question cioda tli ann f is translated
by Stewart as " what is it ? " This, how-
ever, is not a translation, but a paraphrase.
Written without contraction the question
is ciod a tha ann ? and the translation is
"what which is in it?" In like manner,
Stewart's answer to this question, is inise
tJi ann, would, if written at length, be is
fnise a tha ann = it is I that is in it. And
it is significant that the colloquial English
of districts in which Gaelic was long the
dominant language, still answers exactly to
this idiom. In such districts the great