The Scottish Celtic review

Gaelic Orthognipht/— Common Mistakes. 275The translators of the Gaelic Scriptures, having had no opportunityof availing themselves of the light which ancient Gaelic hasthrown upon the forms anil idioms of the modern language, concludedthat ar in the formuliu, "aon ar fhichead," &c., is an abbreviationof thai; the aspirated form of the pre]>. tar (over, across,beyond), which is cognate with the Lat. prep, trans (across),and governs the accusative. Accordingly, we find, in theearly editions of the Gaelic Scriptures, both "thar fhichead" (cf.1 Kings xxii. 42 :" cuig bliadhna deug thar fhichead," " thirty-fiveyears)," and " 'ar fhichead" (cf. Gen. vi. 15: "deich 'ar fhicheadlamh-choille," " thirty cubits "), with '«?• as an abbreviation of thai:The correct preposition, ar, is not found in any edition, but itsmodern form, air, occurs in the earliest editions in Deut.xsxiv. 8: "deich laithean air fhichead" (thirty days). It has,however, been removed from the later editions, in which itsplace IS supplied not by ar, but by \i,r, as an abbreviation ofthar.Likewise in Stewart's Grammar, the preposition used in thesenumeral formulas is thar and the abbreviated form 'ar. This, however,is only one of many mistakes which occur in Dr. Stewart'svaluable but now somewhat antiquated work. Among thosemistakes may be mentioned the remarks on cha'n (not) p. 73,giun (that) p. 176, cionn (dat. of ceann, head) p. 133, and seadh(it is) pp. 12G, 127.The following reasons prove that, in the above numeral forraulie(" aon ar fhichead," &c.), the use of thar is erroneous :1. Ar, not thar, is the preposition which correctly represents thepronunciation of this word in spokeu Gaelic.In illustration of thisstatement, it is interesting to notice that, in the last edition of theGaelic Scriptures, the National Bible Society's Reference Edition(18S0), " 'ar fhichead" has been uniformly sub.stituted for "tharfhichead," although the mark of abbreviation shows, that theeditors, whilst recognising that ar is the proper sound of the preposition,thought they were dealing with the preposition thar,which they have abbreviated to suit the pronunciation !2. The uniform aspiration oifichead in these fornmlw shows thatthe preceding preposition is not thar, which, having terminatedoriginally in a consonant (thar=tar^* tars), never aspirates (cf"thar tomhas," "thar balla," "thar muir," "thar monadh "), butar, which, as above stated, terminated originallv iu a vowel, and