The Scottish Celtic review

274 Gadic Orthography— Common Mistalces.I. The prep. Ihar (over, across, beyond) erroneously used insteadof the prep, ar (for, against, on, to, &c.).lu the formulaj, "aon ar fhichead " (twenty-one, lit., one to [i.e.,in addition to] twenty), " a dlia ar fhichead " (twenty-two, or, twoto twenty), " tri ar fhichead " (twenty-three, or, three to twenty),&c., by which the numerals from twenty-one to thirty-nine inclusiveare expressed, the prep, ar has retained its ancient form, asin "ar son" (for the sake of), "c'ar.son" (why), and "araon"(both), phrases which, like "a staigh " (within, inside), "a muigh "(without, outside), " an diu " (to-day), " a reir " (according to), &c.,may be regarded as stereotyped formulae, in which the words havestill preserved tlieir ancient forms. E.Kcept in such expressionsas those quoted and in compound words, ar has become air inmodern Oaelic. 1'his change, together with the circumstancethat now air stands for three prepositions {ar, for, and iar, iarn)which ai'c entirely distinct in the ancient language, has given riseto great confusion in writing modern Gaelic, as well as to muchwaste of ingenuitj' in attempting to explain why air sometimesaspirates and sometimes does not aspirate the word which followsit—the simple explanation of this fact being that uAr {—ar, for,on, to, &c., cognate with Gr. irapa), having terminated originally ina vowel, aspirates by rule, as in " air chiil " (behind), " air chois" (onfoot"), "air thoiseach " (first), "air chall " (lost), "air dheireadh"(hindmost), "air chionn" (against), whilst air {=for, on, upon, cognatewith Gr. inrep, Lat. super, Goth, vfar), having terminated originallyin a consonant, does not aspirate, as "air bord " (on board), "airball " (immediately, on the spot), "air cnoc " (on a hill), " air mullachan taighe " (on the top of the house), and air {=iar, iarn, after, connectedwith iar, west), having terminated originally with n, doesnot aspirate, but (in modern Irish) eclipses the initial consonantof the following word, wlien capable of eclipsis, as " air cruinneachadhnan ard-shagart uile dha" = Ir. " ar gcruinuiughadh nanard-sliagai't uile dho " (he having gathered all the chief priests).It would, therefore, greatly help to pi-event the confusion referredto if it were kept in mind that, in Modern Gaelic, air representsthree prepositions which are entirely ditierent in etj'mology,meaning, and phonetic influence. These prepositions diiier alsoin their government, for while ar and for govern the dative andaccusative (the first when rest in, and the latter when motion toa place is implied), iar governs the dative only.