GAELIC LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, The term Gaelic (Gwyddelian or Gad belie) is used in two senses. In its wider signification, it designates the northern branch of the Celtic languages, comprehending the Irish, the Highland-Scottish, and the Manx. See CELTIC NATIONS and IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITENATTERE. In its narrower signi / fidition, it designates the Highland-Scottish dialect, also known by the name of Erse or Irish. Mr. W. F. Skene, one the latest and best informed writers on the subject, holds that the differences between the language spoken by the Scotch Ilighlanders and the language spoken by the native Irish are (1) " partly in the pronunciation„ where the accentuation of the Ipmguage is different, where that peculiar change in the initial con sonant, produced by the influence of the previous word, and termed by the Irish gram marians eclipsis, is unknown except in the sibilant, where the vowel sounds are differ ent, and there are even traces of a consonantal permutation; (2) partly in the grammar, where the Scottish Gaelic prefers the analytic form of the verb, and has no present tense, the old present being now used for the future, and the present formed by the auxiliary verb, where the plural of one class of the nouns is formed in a peculiar manner, resem bling 'the Anglo-Saxon, and a different negative is used; (3) partly in the idioms of the language, where a greater preference is shown to express the idea by the use of substan tives, and the verb is anxiously avoided; and (4) in the vocabulary, which varies to a considerable extent, where words now obsolete in Irish are still living words, and others are used in' a different sense."—The Dean, of Lismore's Book, introd. pp. xiv. xv. (Edin. 1862).
The origin of the differences thus described is a question still in dispute. Mr. Skene contends that they are ancient, and enter into the organization of the language. The Irish scholars, on the other hand, hold that they are comparatively modern and unim portant, and little more than provincial corruptions of the mother-language of Ireland. The late Mr. Richard Garnett, one of the most learned of English philologists, is on the Irish side, holding " that Irish is the parent tongue, that Scottish Gaelic is Irish stripped of a few inflections, and that Manx is merely.Gaelic with a few peculiar words, and
disguised by a corrupt system of orthography;" and, again, that the language of the Scottish Highlands " does not differ in any essential point from that of the opposite coast of Leinster and Ulster, bearing, in fact, a closer resemblance than Low German does to High German, or Danish to Swedish."—Philological Essays. pp. 202, 204 (Loud. 1859). That the n. of Ireland. and the Scottish Highlands and West islands, were, at en early period, peopled by the same race, or races, is admitted on both sides. Mr. Skene further admits, that from about the middle of the 12th c. to about the middle of the 16th c., Ireland exercised a powerful literary influence on the Scottish Highlands; that the Irish sennaeldee and bards heads of a which ilich led the Wee , Gaeta. • 31-c) Gage.
I Highlands; that the Highland sennachies were either of Irish descent, or, if they were of native origin, resorted to bardic schools iu Ireland for instruction in the language and the accomplishments of their art; that in this way the language and literature of the Scottish Highlands must have become, by degrees, more and more assimilated to the language and literature of Ireland; and that it may well be doubted whether, towards the middle of the 16th a., there existed in the Scottish Highlands the means of acquir inv.: the art of writing the language except in Ireland, or the conception of a written and cultivated literature, which was not identified with the language and learning of that island. Mr. Skene holds, at the same time, that a vernacular Gaelic, preserving many of the independent features of a native language, existed among the Scottish Highland ers as a spoken dialect; and that a popular and unwritten literature existed in that native and idiomatic Gaelic, in the poetry handed down by tradition, or composed by native bards innocent of all extraneous education in the written language of Ireland.