GAELIC, or ERSE, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The language spoken by the Highlanders of Scotland is termed by them the Gaelic; but the name frequently given to it by the Lowlanders is Erse, or Ersh, evidently a corruption of Irish. It is a dialect of that great branch of the Celtic languages termed the Gwyddelian or Gaelic, and to which belong also the Irish and Manx, or that spoken in the Isle of Man. According to Dr. Prichard, the Celts are of Eastern origin, belonging to the great Indo-Euro pean family. They arrived before the Teutons from the regions on the Oxus, and from Media, and penetrated through the Allophylic races along the S. shores of the Baltic Sea, at a time of which we have no historic data. At the time of the Roman invasion, Celtic was the lan guage generally spoken in western Eu rope. The dialects of the Celtic still spoken, besides the three already men tioned, are the Welsh, and the language of Brittany; while the Cornish, another dialect, though not now spoken, is pre served in books. The three dialects,
the Irish, the Scottish-Gaelic, and the Manx, approach each other so nearly as to constitute bui one language, the peculiarities which distinguish them from each other not being sufficiently broad or vital to constitute either of them a distinct language. There are also marked differences in the language as spoken in different parts of the High lands; and a native of Sutherland has some difficulty in understanding one. The Gaelic which, from a variety of cases has retained, in a considerable de gree, its original purity, is copious, bold, and expressive. Having affixes and pre fixes, it greatly resembles the Hebrew, particularly in the inflections of its nouns and verbs. In Ireland, the Gaelic spoken in the different parts varies.