The Scottish Celtic review

——;Till', Lawif of Auslaut in Irish. 103mental of the i- stems in i; e.g., onati from mat is (see Grassmann'sWiJiterbuch). Tliis supposition is supported by the fact that, sofar as I know, tlie Irish dative without a preposition occursonly with the function of an instrumental. It is, however,possible that this i may have originated from a primitive i-iin which case, this Irish dative would be an original locative,like the Ionic -rroXl. But the locative form iroXei for iroXejtalso would have led in Irish to a similar contraction, sincefrom tcgesi, the locative of an as- stem, the Irish tig has beenformed (see Excursus ii. 6). Of an original i-ai, or even -aj-ai,which would be a genuine dative-formation, more would probablyhave survived than the mere penetrating of i into thepreceding syllable. Finally, we have to mention that the dat.sing, of the consonantal stems and of the fem. o-stems, is,likewise, chai'acterised by internal i, and that the force ofanalogy may have contributed its part to give, as far as possible,one form to this case.XIV. u stood originally in the last syllable. In the monosyllabicparticle su, so = Skr. su (Z. SG3), it is either preservedas lb or weakened into o. In polysyllabic words, the i(- morefrequently, but not always, penetrated into the preceding syllable.Cf the remarks on -us and -u'ln under B. III. and VII.Here come under consideration :1. The nom. and ace. sing, of the neut. stems in -it.E.g., siith (fetus), for prehistoric siht-u (related to Skr. siUiis,fem. pregnancy), cf Lat. corn-u ; dorus (door), for originaldvarast-u. Cf Ebel in Beitr. zur Vergl. Spr. vi. 223.2. The 3rd pers. sing, and plur. of the imperative.E.g., berad for prehistoric herat-u — Skr. hharatit ; berut (theyshall bear), for prehistoric bcrant-u = Skr. bharant-u. In anycase, this u would have been lost without a trace ; but, especially,the 3rd pers. sing, is hardly to be explained otherwise, sinceits d or th (for original t) could not have been the originalauslaut of this form, but must necessarily have had a vowelafter it. That the dropped m does not always influence the aof the preceding syllable, is proved by the short word cath (tight,combat), for prehistoric cat-us (cf Old Gaul. Catu-rix in Gluck'sKelt. Namen, p. 47), 0. H. G. hadu-, A. S. headho-.XV. tl stood originally in the last .syllable. Before it disappearedit was shortened to u. Here come under consideration: