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VI
particular works lived, while still used in other places.
The usual rule hitherto adopted in Gaelic Dictionaries
with regard to English words in Gaelic dress has been
clarc, s.m. A clerk.
Sometimes Eng. or
A new system has
have been inserted
Eng. word is added, but not often.
been adopted here, and all such words
thus
clarc, s.m. Gaelic spelling of clerk.
This is the first Dictionary of the Gaelic language
in which an attempt has been made to explain words by
means of diagrams, and the first in which especial care
has been taken in collecting localisms, the names of old
Highland implements, &c., and their parts, many of which
are now only to be found in one or two remote parishes
of the Western Isles, from which they are fast disappearing.
The lists of technical terms here given have never
been published before, and the whole of the illustrations,
with one or two exceptions, have been specially drawn
for the work.
It is a cause of regret that type of a larger size
could not have been used, but, owing to the great increase
that would have caused in the bulk of the book, it was
found to be impossible.
No attempt has been made to give a so-called phonetic
spelling of each word as MacAlpine does. The
orthodox spelling of the Gaelic language being practically
phonetic on its own lines, by far the simplest way is to
learn the correct sounds of the various Gaelic combinations
of letters from some good text-book, of which there
are many, and if possible, with the aid of a native Gaelic
speaker.
Eeaders must use their own discretion in practising
some of the forms given when translating from English
into Gaelic. Many of the words which have here been
added to MacLeod & Dewar's vocabulary are localisms
and the persons or books from whom they were obtained
being nearly always indicated by signs or initials, the