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On the Dialects of Scottish Gaelic 345
or that show the unity and niif^lit of that great stem,
its branches ;
from which the branches sprang, in tracing to a common origin
the ?toi«-clivergent forms of their (doubtless), once identical language.
For while Saxons, and Danes, and Normans, and Dutch,
and Germans, are strangers and aliens on British soil (though all
combine in forming that individual of most complex nationality —
an Englishman !), the Celts can in the truest sense of all look on
Great Britain as their fatherland ; and their magnilicent language
(now stigmatised by Lowlanders and Englishmen as barbarona)^
was formerly universal throughout the land.
Pi'ofessor Mackinnon's paper was as follows:
ON THE DIALECTS OF SCOTTISH GAELIC.
Some thirty years ago the question used to be often asked
Where was the best Gaelic spoken ? whether at Inveraray or at
Inverness 1 My home was in Argyle, and I need hardly say what
the answer would be in that quarter. A large majority of the members
of the Gaelic Society of Inverness render linguistic allegiance
to the Northern Capital, and will perhaps wonder how such a question
could ever have been asked. One's judgment is, however, subject
to moditication even upon such a delicate matter as this by
increasing knowledge and reflection. It was my good fortune,
early in life, to become intimately acquainted with a dialect of
Scottish Gaelic far reinoved from my own ; and three years ago
I had the rare privilege of hearing, over the length and breadth
of the Highlands, old men who knew no language but Gaelic
speak of the ordinary afiairs of their daily life and occupation in
the dialects of their re.spective districts. After such experience,
if I were to answer briefly the question which I used to hear in
the days of my boyhood, I should be disposed to say that there is
less Gaelic spoken both in Inverness and in Inveraray than I
should have wished, and that the quality as well as the quantity
of the dialect spoken in both places might, with advantage, be
improved.
The object of the present paper is not, however, to discuss
the relative merits and demerits of the Northern and Southern
Dialects. My purpose takes a wider range. I desire to urge
the immense importance, philological and literary, of a knowledge
of all the dialects of Gaelic. My aim is to try to prove that the
subject is deserving of scientific study, and to endeavour to per-
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