Blair Collection > Elements of Gaelic grammar

INTRODUCTION, Xlll
who do not understand the GaeHc, but yet may
be desirous to examine the structure and proper-
ties of this antient language. To serve both
these purposes, I have occasionally introduced
such observations on the analogy between the
Gaelic idiom and that of some other tongues,
particularly the Hebrew, as a moderate know-
ledge of these enabled me to collect. The Irish
dialect of the Gaelic is the nearest cognate of
the Scottish Gaelic. An intimate acquaintance
with its vocables and structure, both antient and
modern, would have been of considerable use.
This I cannot pretend to have acquired, I have
not failed however to consult, and to derive some
advantage from such Irish philologists as were
accessible to me : particularly O'Molloy, O'Brien,
Vallancey, and Lhuyd. To these very respectable
names I have to add that of the Rev. Dr Neilson,
author of " An Introduction to the Irish Lan-
guage," Dublin, 1808; and E. O'C. author of
" A Grammar of the Gaelic Language,'* Dublin,
1808; to the latter of whom I am indebted for
some good-humoured strictures, and some flatter-
ing compliments, which, however unmerited, it
were unhandsome not to acknowledge. I know
but one publication professedly on the subject of
Gaelic grammar, written by a Scotsman *. I
have consulted it also : but in this quarter I have
no obligations to acknowledge.
With
* Analysis of the Gaelic Language, by William Shaw, A. M.