Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

132 GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.
Foremost among these ranks J. K. Zeuss, who in 1853 published his Grammatica Celtica, a
truly noble monument of indomitable perseverance and of profound scholarship. Ebel,
Windisch, Rhys, and Whitely Stokes have thrown much additional light on the subject ; but for
many years to come the Grammatica Celtica will form the chief quarry from which the Celtic
student must draw his building materials.
For the last thirty years the language has received a degree of attention which forms a
striking contrast to the contempt with which it had been treated during centuries. It has now
its acknowledged place in every able work on philology. A French periodical — Revue Critique
— has for several years been wholly devoted to its elucidation. It forms the subject of
lectures in various German Universities. In Paris, Oxford, and Dublin, Celtic Chairs have
been founded ; and Scotland has at length rolled away the reproach under which it lay for its
strange indifference to a language which had so many peculiar claims on its attention. In 1 883
a Chair was founded in the University of Edinburgh for the ' Study of Celtic Comparative
Philology,' etc., etc. — a good work almost wholly due to the energy of Professor Blackie ; and
Mr M'Kinnon, its first occupant, is fitted by high qualifications to make amends for the
lateness of his appointment.
The Celtic language is divided into two main branches, now termed Brythonic and
Goidelic, but formerly Cymric (or Welsh) and Gaelic : and in this article we retain the old
familiar names. The Cymric was a living language in Cornwall until the middle of the last
century. It is still spoken in Brittany — the Armoric dialect — and also in Wales, where it
boasts of a rich literature, both ancient and modern.
But it is of the Gaelic branch we are to treat. It is divided into three sub-classes — the
Manx, the Irish, and the Scottish Gaelic. Of the first, little need be said. It is confined to the
Isle of Man, has no old records, has adopted the phonetic mode of spelling, uses all the letters
of the English alphabet, and is likely to be soon swallowed up by English.
The Irish, on the other hand, possesses a store of ancient literary treasures of which any
nation might be proud. During the sixth, seventh, eighth, and part of the ninth centuries,
when Europe generally was in such wild turmoil after the breaking up of the great Roman
Empire, the remote island of Ireland remained in peace. At that time several truly great men
sprang up in it — men of high scholarship, and of fervent, enlightened, Christian zeal, who did
great and glorious work in imparting the blessings of the Gospel to the heathen. From Iona in
the West, they Christianised the North of Scotland and of England. They travelled to the
shores of the Baltic, and even to Iceland. They founded monasteries and colleges in various
parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Italy; and many proofs of their scholarship and zeal are still
to be seen in the Libraries of Wurtzburg, Milan, St Gall, Brussels, and other seats of Con-
tinental learning. The laws, civil and ecclesiastical, which these men and their contemporaries
drew up for their own country — at least as early as the eighth century — are published under the
title of the ' Brehon Laws of Ireland,' and show an advanced state of civilisation far beyond
that of any neighbouring country. According to the able work of Professor Eugene O'Curry
(1861), there are masses of unpublished MSS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, as well
as in other libraries, British and Continental. They treat of everything which can interest
a nation — religion, education, commerce, warfare, music, poetry, etc., etc. ; and one thing
remarkable is, that, in all the laws, the foremost honour is assigned to learning. The Oliamh, or
' Doctor of Laws,' took precedence of the highest nobility.
The Irish had a very ancient mode of writing known as the Ogham, similar to the Runic,
and consisting entirely of straight lines variously arranged. It is believed to have belonged to
the Druidical period ; but comparatively little is known with certainty regarding it. At the
introduction of Christianity— in the fifth century — the Roman alphabet was adopted ; but as
the form of the letters used at that time was very different from that now in use, the English
reader finds considerable difficulty in mastering the Irish character. Both Irish and Scottish
Gaelic have limited themselves to eighteen letters, rejecting/, k, q, v, w,x, y, and z. Gaelic has
suffered much from phonetic decay. Of old it used three genders ; but in modern days it
has discarded the neuter. It had many terminational inflections ; but these have, in many in-
stances, disappeared, though not so completely as in English. They have, however, left traces
of their existence unexampled in other languages, and known as eclfpsis and aspiration. These
terms mean changes produced by a word on the beginning of that which immediately follows it,
so that the language is declined both by initial and terminational inflections. Another
peculiarity is, that according as the last vowel in any syllable of a word is broad or small, the
first in the next syllable must conform ; thus, in athair= ' father,' the second a is entirely mute,
and serves no known purpose. This rule holds good in some Turanian dialects, but is unknown
to the Aryan, except in Gaelic ; and, while frequently condemned as useless and cumbrous,
it is still followed by Gaelic writers. The Gaelic is generally denounced by English people
as extremely harsh, and even unpronouncable. But it is strange that its aspirations of