J. F. Campbell Collection > Poems of Ossian > Volume 3

AUTHENTICITY OF OSSIAN's POEMS. 383
of the etyiiion of this appellation, allow the conjec-
ture to have sonie weight. Uail, iii Gaelic, signifìes
iUustrious, or rcnouned. Uaisle, nobility, gentry, or
generosity ; from which is derived Uisleacha, to en-
nohle, &c. But the Scottish historian Buchanan,
also Dr. Macpherson, and others, affirm, on more
solid grounds, tliat tlie initial W or U of the Teuto-
nic language is commonly equivalent to the G of
tlie British, Irish, French, and Italian languages.
Thus, tlie JVealcs of the Anglo-Saxons is pronounced
by tht; French Galles, as it is hy the Irish and ancient
Scots Gaulìve. Hence the Anglo Saxons denominated
the Britons in the South Jl'eales iu their own lan-
guage, and Gauli, in the monkish Latin of their times,
terms literally signifying strangers, or foreigners :
and in the German language, tlie word JVatsch still
signifies strangers. Gaul, or Gaitld, in the Gaehc,
has the same signification at this day in the High-
lands, and is applied to lowlanders, or strangers. Thus
the compound giU-gauld, in Gaelic signifies a lowland,
or strange youth. The distinction thercfore between
Gael and Gauld is obvious to every Gaehc scholar.
The first relates to the ancient language and country
of the Albions ; and the Highlanders of Scotland, in
speaking of tlieir own language, call it Gaelic-Alba-
ìiach, the language of the Gael in the Highlands, in
contradistinction to GaeUc-Eirinacìi, the language of
the Gael inlreland; hence it may be demonstrated,
that those congenial dialects may be referred to the
same parent-stock, but which of them is now the
least corrupted, by the exclusion of exotic words,
or terms, must depend on the internal evidence to be