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340 Gaelic Society of Inuerness.
ON ETYMOLOGICAL LINKS BETWEEN WELSH
AND GAELIC.
On being requested to write a paper on some Celtic subject,
to be read before the Gaelic Society of Inverness, my first impulse
was to plead my utter incompetency to undertake such a
work ; and, in now endeavouring to comply with that request, I
must at once state that I do so with the greatest dittidence. So
far from aspiring to be, in any sense, an authority on Celtic matters,
I am mei'ely a humble student of the Gaelic language ; and
that only so far as concerns my pastoral work, and the services of
the Church. Hence I venture to beg for myself a large share of
indulgence from those who may either hear or read this paper.
In what I shall say, I am fully aware that I shall be merely,
as it were, touching the fringe of a very wide subject ; and my
object is rather to start some discussion on a matter which is most
interesting and instructive (in my opinion), and on which I myself
want to learn very much more, than to lay down my opinions
with a confidence (not to say impertinence) which would be, in my
case, unseemly in the extreme.
No doubt there must be etymological links of connection between
all Celtic languages, since they all spring from a common
source ; the connection between the Irish and the Scottish Gaelic
is, of course, so very close as to constitute them practically one
and the same language—each being merely a ditferent dialect of
that language ; the difference being no greater than, even if as
great as, that which exists between the various provincial dialects
of English, in counties so widely apart as (for instance) Yorkshire
and Somersetshire, or Cumberland and Hampshire. I know nothing
of the Manx language ; but from the fact of places in the
Isle of Man having distinctly Gaelic names (as I have been informed),
I should gather that it is very closely akin to either the
Irish or the Scottish forms of the Celtic tongue. The connection
between our own Gaelic and the Welsh is not, at first sight (to
ordinary i)eople at least), so very plain and obvious. In some
nu.'asure, no doubt, this arises from the spelling ; which, on both
sides, tends to obscure the derivation of words. I imagine; that
to an ordinary student of Gaelic, the extraordinary combinations
of letters in many words of the Welsh language must utterly
mystify him, when he attempts to pronounce them intelligibly; and
probably Gaelic would present the same difficulty to a Welshman
—as it certainly docs, possibly in a much greater degree, to a