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348 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Scottish Highlands, are
separated from each other by a broad belt of sea. Were it otherwise,
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to follow the boundary
between Irish, INIanx, and Gaelic. Over large tracts of coun-
try where ditierent languages prevail, we find the border dialects
partaking largely of the character of the adjacent tongues. French,
Sj^anish, and Italian, though closely related, are different languages,
each with its own dialects distinctly marked. Along the
border line between France and Italy the patois of the people is
neither a French nor an Italian dialect, but a mixture of both
a dialect which again is haidly
France or in the south of Italy.
intelligible cither in the west of
A similar state of matters exists
on the frontier between France and Spain. And even among
ourselves, though the sea separates us from Ireland, an Islayman
would probably find a native of the glens of Antrim more intelligible
than a native of Assynt or Tongue.
Within the narrow precincts of the Isle of Man, Dr Kelly,
the grammarian and lexicographer, observes that on the north side
the language was considered most pure, and Dr Sachavercll, once
governor of the little " kingdom," wrote that in the northern part
of the island they spoke a deeper Manx, as they called it, than in
the south. In the Irish language the existence of dialects has
been acknowledged from the very earliest times. Fenius Farsaidh
who, according to the legend, was king of Scythia and schoolmaster
of Senaar, ordered, we are told, his Lieutenant and
Inspector-General, Gaedhal,to divide the language into five dialects.
Without going quite s:) far back as this, we find Irish scholars for
the last two or three hundred years recognising four dialects, one
for each province, which they have characterised thus :
Ta bias gan cheart ag an Muimhneach ;
Ta ceart gan bhlas ag an Ulltach ;
Ni fhuil ceart na bias ag an Laighneach
Ta ceart agus bias ag an g-Connachtach.
That is to say—In Munster there is correct accent, but not correct
idiom ; in Ulster there is the idiom without the accent ; in Leinster
there is neither the one nor the other ; while in Connaught
there is both. These main dialects again split up into sub-
dialects, so that, as in English and Lowland Scotch, each district
in Ireland has its .special linguistic peculiarities.
The same state of matters exists among ourselves. In the
Highlands not only has each county its distinctive characteristics
in sound, diction, and idiom, but every parish has its shibboleth.
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