The Scottish Celtic review

!154 Notes on Gaelic Grammar and Orthography." Agus chuala mi giith mor a neamh ag ladh, Feucb, tha pailliunDhe maille ri daoiuibh, agus ni esan comhnuidh maille riu,agus bithidli iadsan 'nan sluagh dha, agus bithidh Dia f(^in mailleriu, agus 'na Dhia dhoibh " (Assembly's Ed., 182G)."Agus chuala mi guth mor a neamh ag i-adh, Feuch, tha pailliunDhe maille ri daoinibh, agus ni esan comhnuidh maille riu,agus bithidh iadsan 'n an sluagh dha, agus bithidh Dia I'eiir mailleriu, agus 'n a Dhia dhoibh " (M'L. and C, 1860)." Agus chuala mi guth mor a neamh ag radh, Feuch, tlia. pailliuuDhe maille ri daoinibh, agus ni esan comhnuidh maille riu,agus bithidh iadsan 'n an sluagh dha, agus bithidh Dia fein mailleriu, agus 'a a Dhia dhoibh " (M'L. and C, 1880).In ayits and ay, both from the same root anc=nac coguatewith Eng. niyh, the tenuis has sunk into the medial in the modernlanguage. It may be noticed here that the conjunction is (and)is not, of course, a contraction of agus, which is only a modernform, whilst is occurs frequently in ancient Gaelic—both proseand poetry. It occurs also side by side with ocus, the ancientform of agus, with which, according to the phonetic laws ofGaelic, it does not seem to have any connection. We regret to findthis Gaelic word, which is still used in spoken Gaelic, banishedfrom the last edition of the metrical psalms, and the contraction'us (pronounced like oose in loose, goose), which does not evenrepresent the sound of ;'*, substituted for it. This change has beenintroduced under the idea that is is a contracted form of agus.Such of our readers as are not acquainted with Gaelic mayform some idea of the value of this last attempt to improve theGaelic language, by picturing to themselves two joint-editors ofVirgil trying to improve the Aeneid by substituting for theconjunction et the second syllable of atque with an apostrophebefore it to mark the elision of the first syllable, the editorshaving taken into their heads the idea that et is a contractedform of atque, and that 'que would be a much better word—inshort, that Virgil and all other Latin writers committed amistake, or something akin to a mistake, when they did not use'que instead of etThe aspiration of " chuala " is caused by the preceding particledo (understood) cognate with Eng. to, but in ancient Gaelic rocognate with Lat. pro, Gr. wpo. Bo was prefixed to the pi'eterite,with which it formed one word. It has disappeared frommodern Gaelic except in a few petrified forms, but its influenceremains in the regular aspiration of the preterite.