Alexander Stewart

“ Yet it cannot be denied that comparatively few ever arrive at a correct, or even a tolerable knowledge of grammar, without the help of a treatise composed for the purpose. Whoever, therefore, allows that the Gaelic must be employed in communicating to a large body of people the knowledge of revealed Truth and the way of eternal Life, will readily admit the extensive utility of investigating and unfolding its grammatical principles. Impressed with this conviction, I have been induced to offer to the public the following attempt to develop the grammar of the Scottish Gaelic. ”

“ There is incomparably more beauty and force in expressing the energy of the Verb, with its personal relation and concomitant circumstances, in one word, than by a periphrasis of pronouns and auxiliaries. The latter mode may have a slight advantage in point of precision, but the former is greatly superior in elegance and strength. The structure of the Latin and Greek, compared with that of the English Verb, affords a striking illustration of this common and obvious remark. Nothing can be worse managed than the French Verb ”

“ It may not appear obvious at first sight how a vowel should be employed, not to represent a vocal sound, but to modify an articulation. Yet examples are to be found in modern languages. Thus, in the English words, George, sergeant, the e has no other effect than to give g its soft sound; and in guest, guide, the u only serves to give g its hard sound. So in the Italian words giorno, giusto, and many others, the i only qualifies the sound of the preceding consonant. The same use of the vowels will be seen to take place frequently in Gaelic orthography. ”

“ The same term has been introduced into the grammar of the English Tongue, rather improperly, because in an acceptation different from what it bears in the grammar of all other languages. In English there is no distinction of gender competent to Articles, Adjectives, or Participles. When a noun is said to be of the masculine gender, the meaning can only be that the object denoted by it is of the male sex. Thus in the English grammars, gender signifies a quality of the object named, while in other grammars it signifies a quality of the name given to the object. ”

“ It seems therefore to be a mis-stated compliment which is usually paid to the English, when it is said that "this is the only language which has adapted the gender of its nouns to the constitution of Nature." The fact is, that it has adapted the Form of some of the most common names of living creatures, and of a few of its pronouns, to the obvious distinction of male, and female, and inanimate, while it has left its nouns without any mark characteristic of gender. The same thing must necessarily happen to any language by abolishing the distinction of masculine and feminine in its attributives. ”

“ Those who consider that there are many parts of the Highlands, where the inhabitants can, at present, receive no useful knowledge whatever except through the channel of their native tongue, will probably be of opinion that the Gaelic ought at least to be tolerated. Yet these too may condemn as useless, if not ultimately detrimental, any attempt to cultivate its powers, or to prolong its existence. Others will entertain a different opinion. ”

“ The want of the simple Present Tense is a striking point of resemblance between the Gaelic and the Hebrew verb.
I am indebted to a learned and ingenious correspondent for the following important remark; that the want of the simple Present Tense in all the British dialects of the Celtic, in common with the Hebrew, while the Irish has assumed that Tense, furnishes a strong presumption that the Irish is a dialect of later growth; that the British Gaelic is its parent tongue; and consequently that Britain is the mother country of Ireland. ”

“ The infinitive of a transitive verb, preceded by any preposition, always governs the noun, which is the object of the verbal action, in the genitive. This is an invariable rule of Gaelic Syntax; thus, ta sinn a' dol a dh' iarruidh na spréidhe, we are going to seek the cattle; ta iad ag iomain na spréidhe, they are driving the cattle; ta iad iar cuairteachadh na spréidhe, they have gathered the cattle. This regimen can be accounted for on no other principle, in Gaelic, than that the governing word is a noun, as the infinitive is confessed to be. ”

“ An adjective is a word used along with a noun, to express some quality of the person or thing signified by the noun.
Adjectives undergo changes which mark their relation to other words. These changes are made, like those on nouns, partly on the beginning, and partly on the termination, and may be fitly denominated by the same names. The changes on the beginning are made by aspirating an initial consonant. The numbers and cases, like those of nouns, are distinguished by changes on the termination. The gender is marked partly by the initial form, partly by the termination. ”

“ The practice in other dialects of the Celtic, and the authority of respectable grammarians, affords collateral support to the opinion here defended. Gen. Vallancey, the most copious writer on Irish grammar, though he gives the name of participle to a certain part of the Gaelic verb, because it corresponds, in signification, to a part of the Latin verb which has obtained that name, yet constantly exhibits this participle, not as a single word, but a composite expression; made up of a preposition and that part of the verb which is here called the infinitive. ”

“ A complex idea, whose parts are most closely united in the mind, is thus denoted by one undivided word; whereas an idea composed of parts more loosely connected, is expressed by a word, whereof the component parts are distinguished, and exhibited separately to the eye. Thus also the Gaelic scholar would have one uniform direction to follow in reading, viz., to place the accent always on the first syllable of an undivided word, or member of a word. If any exception be allowed, it must be only in the case already stated of two vowels coming in apposition, as beo-airgiod quicksilver. ”

“ To such charges a first essay must necessarily be found liable. Still there is room to hope that the work may not prove wholly useless or unacceptable. Imperfect as it is, I may be allowed to think I do a service of its kind to my countrymen by frankly offering the fruits of my labour to such as may choose to make use of them. It has been, if I mistake not, the misfortune of Gaelic grammar that its ablest friends have done nothing directly in its support, because they were apprehensive that they could not do everything. ”

“ I flatter myself that all my readers, who are acquainted with any of the ancient or the modern languages which have a distinction of gender in their attributives, will readily perceive that the import of the term Gender, in the grammar of those languages, is precisely what I have stated above. ”

“ But there is one great disadvantage which we the Gaeil of Scotland and Ireland labour under, beyond the rest of the world, that our Gaelic language has never yet been printed, as the language of every other race of men has been. And we labour under a disadvantage which is still greater than every other disadvantage, that we have not the Holy Bible printed in Gaelic, as it has been printed in Latin and in English, and in every other language ”

“ A word that signifies to be, to do, or to suffer anything, is called a Verb.
The Verb in Gaelic, as in other languages, is declined by Voices, Moods, Tenses, Numbers, and Persons.
The Voices are two: Active and Passive.
The Moods are five: the Affirmative or Indicative, the Negative or Interrogative, the Subjunctive, the Imperative, and the Infinitive. Many, but not all, Transitive Verbs have a Passive Participle. ”

“ Now, then, my very dear colleagues, who as shining luminaries guide the inferior bodies, it becomes you to examine and to use this work candidly, without regarding the meanness and insignificancy of the workman. I beseech you, men of high and of low degree alike, that you be not, like weak silly creatures, tossed to and fro by false conceits ”

“ The utility of a Grammar of the Scottish Gaelic will be variously appreciated. Some will be disposed to deride the vain endeavour to restore vigour to a decaying superannuated language. Those who reckon the extirpation of the Gaelic a necessary step toward that general extension of the English which they deem essential to the political interest of the Highlands, will condemn every project which seems likely to retard its extinction. ”

“ At least it cannot be denied that in the Gaelic, where all nouns whatever are ranked under the class of masculines or of feminines, the gender of each has been fixed by a procedure whereof the grounds cannot now be fully investigated or ascertained. Neither the natural nor artificial qualities or uses of the things named, nor the form of the names given them, furnish any invariable rule by which the gender of nouns may be known. ”

“ It is obvious that in speech the articulations (which are represented by consonants in writing) are the least liable to variation. Vowel sounds are continually varying. In this variety chiefly consists that diversity of tone and dialect which is found in the speech of different districts of the same country, where the same words are spoken. The changes, too, which are introduced by time fall with greater effect on the vowel sounds than on the articulations. ”

“ Much has been attempted, and something has been done, toward analysing single vocables, particularly names of places. But this analysis seems to have been too often made rather in a way of random conjecture than by a judicious regard to the analogy of Derivation and Composition. The passion for analysing has even induced some to assert that all true Gaelic Primitives consist of but one syllable, that all Polysyllables are either derived or compounded, and therefore that there is room to search for their etymon. ”

“ A propensity to aspiration is a conspicuous feature in the Gaelic tongue [10] . The aspirating of a consonant has been {11}usually marked, in the Irish dialect, by a dot over the letter aspirated; in the Scottish dialect by writing h after it. All the consonants have their sounds changed by being aspirated, and the effect is different on different consonants. In some cases the articulation is changed, but still formed by the same organ. In others the articulation is formed by a different organ. In others the h alone retains its power. ”

“ It must appear singularly strange that any nouns which signify females exclusively should be of the masculine gender. The noun bainionnach, is derived from the adjective bainionn, female, which is formed from bean, the appropriate term for a woman. Yet this noun bainionnach, or boirionnach, a female, is masculine, to all grammatical intents and purposes. We say boirionnach còir, a civil woman, am boirionnach maiseach, the handsome woman.
The gender of this Noun seems to have been fixed, not by its signification, but by its determination, for most Derivatives in ach are masculines ”

“ Many of the inflections of nouns and verbs are formed by adding one or more syllables to the root. The final {32}consonant of the root must always be considered as belonging to the radical part, not to the adjected termination. The sound of that consonant, whether broad or small, falls to be determined by the quality of the vowel which precedes it in the same syllable, not by the quality of that which follows it in the next syllable. It seems, therefore, unnecessary to employ any more vowels in the adjected syllable than what are sufficient to represent its own vocal sound. ”

“ In the Passive Voice, the compound tenses of the first order denote that the action is finished at the time marked by the auxiliary verb; ta mi buailte, I am struck.
Those of the second order denote that the action is newly finished at the time marked by the auxiliary [63] ; ta mi iar mo bhualadh, I am after my striking, or, I am after the striking of me, which has always a passive signification; that is, it is always understood, from this form of expression, that striking is the action of some agent different from the person struck. ”

“ If I ask 'Who was Alexander?' the Interrogative who refers to the species man, of which Alexander, the subject of the query, is understood to have been an individual. The question is equivalent to 'What man was Alexander?' If I ask 'What is Man?' the Interrogative what refers to the genus of Existence or Being, of which Man is considered as a subordinate genus or species. ”

“ In the morning we pursued our journey. As we were strangers in the land, we strike up to the top of the moor, ascend the hill with speed, and look around us on every side. We see over against us a rapid stream, rushing down a narrow valley, &c. {107}
The scrupulous chastenesss of style maintained in the Gaelic version of the Sacred Scriptures, has totally excluded this form of expression. It is, however, universally known and acknowledged, as an established idiom of the Gaelic, very common in the mouths of those who speak it, and in animated narration almost indispensable [71] . ”

“ When one Noun governs another in the Genitive, the Article is never joined to both, even though each be limited in its signification, as, mac an righ, the son of the king, not am mac an righ; taobh deas a' bhaile, the south side of the town, not an taobh deas a' bhaile [109] . For the most part, the Article is thus joined to the latter Noun. Sometimes it is joined to the former Noun; as, an ceann tighe, the head of the family; an ceann iuil, the pilot; but in such instances the two Nouns figure as one complex term, like paterfamilias, rather than as two terms. ”