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On the Dialects of Scottish Gaelic. 3G1
now universally acknowledged. But the study of tlie Gaelic
dialects is important on literary grounds as well. In the case of
of a literature like the English literature, whose stores are inexhaustible,
the most exacting aspirant to literary distinction ought
to be satisfied with the wealth of diction and idiom wliich a long
roll of illustrious men have i)laccd at his disposal. The young
Highlander who is ambitious to distinguish him.self as a Gaelic
speaker or writer is in a difierent position. Gaelic literature,
excellent in its way, is limited in quantity and narrow in range.
The translation of the Scriptures, by far the noblest monument of
the resources of the language, is a great woi k, the work of great men.
Of it and of them we Highland people have just cause to be proud.
But this great undertaking was executed under considerable disadvantages.
The amount of standard Gaelic literature published in
the last century was very limited. We have no Shakespeare, and
if our Homer existed at the time in Gaelic, it was known to the
world in the other languages of Europe only.* The translators of
the Scriptures into Gaelic belonged to the same district of country
— Killin, Glenoi'chy, and Athole. A thorough knowledge of the
dialects was unattainable, and, according to the ideas of the time,
the idioms of the people were considered vulgar. Writing under
such conditions, these excellent scholars failed to use many forms,
words, and idioms characteristic of Scottish Gaelic, while they
adopted others from the Irish translation which, whether native to
the Irish idiom or not, were foreign to ours.
An example or two will illustrate what I mean. The passage
from the New Testament which I quoted above consists of only three
verses, but it contains two words, one of which can hardly be said
to be a Gaelic word, the other a very good one, but wrongly used.
The sailors of the vessel in which St Paul was wrecked are said to
have hoisted the priomh-shedlto the wind. The Greek word dpr^fiuv
thus peculiarly rendered into Gaelic, is rarely met with and the
precise meaning is perhaps doubtful. In the authorised English
version the word is translated mainsail. The late Mr Smith
of Jordanhill, author of " The Voyage and Shipwreck of St
Paul," rendered the word by foresail, and the English revisers
have adopted this translation. We could say in Gaelic seol-meadhoin
with the authorised English version, or seol-toisich with the
revised version, both words being perfectly familiar to every High-
» The translation of the Bible into Gaelic was completed in 1801. By
that date Ossian was published, in whole or in part, in Latin, English,
French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Greek.
It was printed in Gaelic in 1807.