PR E F AC E. The following Outlines of Gaelic Etymology originally formed of was bound fir t G , , s part and up with the edition of the aelic , b E MacBain . tymological Dictionary by the late Dr The pu lisher, now thinking that there are students of the Language who might “ w a haLnd orm ish to have the Outlines in separate and y f , is here publishing them . S words b The upplement, the and letters in square rackets, and a few slight changes from the original are the work of the G u . H Rev Dr eorge enderson, Lect rer in Celtic Languages and r U G as ow wh o u d Literatu e in the niversity of l g , fo n it necessary to abandon his intention of seeing the Gaelic Etymological Dictionary through the press, after reaching the sixteenth page ” of these Outlines . OUTL INES OF GAEL IC ETYM OL OGY. G I t c AEL C belongs to the Celtic group of languages, and the Cel i is itself a branch of the Indo-Euro eam r A c 5 p vg ryan family of spee h for it has been found that the languages of Europe (with the e c H s and U o- x eption of Turkish, ungarian, Ba que, gr Finnish), and 1 t A c hose of sia from the Cau asus to Ceylon, resemble each other i n grammar and vocabulary to such an extent that they mus t all b e e consider d as descended from one parent or original tongue . “ u c ll A -E a This parent tong e is variously a ed the ryan, Indo urope n, I o-G — It w as o a . nd ermanic, and even the Ind Celtic langu ge s n is l e hr c poke , it be iev d, some t ee thousand years in an ient Sarmatia or South Russia and from this as centre 2 the speakers o f A c w ff the ryan tongue, whi h even then sho ed dialectal di er e n ces s , radiated east, west, north and south to the variou countries n ow b c z occupied y the des endant languages . The civili ation of the primitive Aryans appears to have been an earlier and more m f of that us b the no adic orm . presented to by the Celtic tri e of ’ H a H a v n umb er l u s elvetii in C esar s time . ere of vil age comm nitie , w w r u u b tt eary of the ork of ag ic lt re, or led by the desire of e er cut t w t soil, heir crops, pulled do n heir lightly built houses and u c w m h ts, pa ked child and chattel on the waggons ith their tea s of « x tu t a . wa o en, and sought their for ne in a dis ant l nd In this y the Celts and the Italians pa rt ed from the old Ar yan home to tt the a d the move up the Danube, the former se ling on Rhine n tt G t w n la er on the ulf of Venice . The o her races e t their several w — w the ays the Indians and Iranians east ard across the steppes, - eut w w H t . T ons ent to the north est, and the ellenes to the sou h The Aryan or Indo-European languages fall into six leading o ut u groups (leaving Albanian and Armenian of account), th s — I . NDO R NI N ARI N b t two I I A A or A , divisi le in o branches a r c S n ow a but ( ) Indian b anch, in luding anskrit, de d, dating in its literature to at least 1 000 and the descendant or a as H u modern (dialects ) langu ges, such ind stani, n t . Be gali, and Mahra ti 1 2 i c Et m o See Supp lem nt to Outli n es of Gael y ol gy. F Y Y . ii . OUTLINES O GAELIC ET MOLOG 11 w c m Z n ( ) Iranian branch, hi h co prises end or Old Bactria . 1 000 81 . (circ . Old Persian and Modern Per an GR K ancl G II . EE or HELL ENIC, inclusive of ancient modern reek i G was (from Homer in 800 onwards). Anc ent reek . divided traditionally into three dialects Atti c or er G c E c . lit ary reek), Dori , and ho I —the III . ITAL C, divided in early times into two main groups — F Latin and the Umbro Oscan . rom Latin are descended S u Rhoeto- o and Italian, French, panish, Port guese, r manic ral . Roumanian, called gene ly the Romance languages I w IV. CELT C, of hich anon, V T NI w c u — a Eas or . TEU O C, hich in ludes three gro ps ( t Teutonic A D b Nort-h S Gothic (fourth cent. ) ( ) Teutonic or candi n s n navian, i clusive of Old Nor e and the modern la guages c Nor we ian Sw an d 0 called Icelandi , g h edish, Danish ; and ( ) c w i H G n West Teutoni , hich div des again into igh erma m G H G (whence odern erman), the Old igh erman being a w G m language contemporary ith Old Irish, and Low er an, S A -S E h which includes Old axon , nglo axon, nglis , Dutch, and. Frisian . - - . S V NI S V NI w L i hu VI BALTO LA O C or LETTO LA O C, hich includes t m ania , dating from the seventeenth century, yet showing t the remarkable traces of antiqui y, Lettic, Old Prussian of fifteenth u n ow and sixteenth cent ries, extinct, Old Bulgarian S c w c the wa or Church lavoni , into hi h Bible s translated in S r the ninth century, and the lavonic mode n languages of Russia, etc n t b ‘" These six groups ca no , save pro ably in the case of Latin and r w o a Celtic, be d a n closer t gether in a gene logical way. c m c Radiating as they did from a o mon entre, the adjacent groups t E are more like one another han those further off. The uropean. n A a la guages, inclusive of rmeni n, present the three primitive w a e w the —a vo els , , o intact, hile Indo Ir nian group coalesces them all into th e soun d a . Again the Asiatic languages join with the - S a h A ta 7c Balto l vonic in c anging ryan pala l into a sibilant sound . Similarly two or three other grou ps ma y b e found with common G an d c w oi peculiarities reek, Latin, Celti ith or i in the nom . l . o c . p masc of the de lension) Latin and Celtic, further, show h c i intimate relations in aving in ommon an in the gen . sing . of ' o -tz on the declension (originally a locative), verbal nouns, a b future in , and the passive in 3 See Su lemen t to Outli n es o Gaeli c Et molo pp f y gy . IN S or I Y OUTL E GAEL C ET MOLOGY, iii , n ow The Celtic group comprises five living languages in the 18th w century there were six, hen Cornish still lived . These six u two b Celtic lang ages are grouped again into ranches, which may be BR ITTO NI GADEL IC named the Q and the . The former includes , , G B IG the Welsh Cornish and Breton ; the A EL comprises Irish, G c S . Manx, and ( cottish) aeli The main difference between these two branches of the Celtic group consists in this : the velar u A u w we g ttural of the ryan parent tong e, hich represent here by b w b w the sym ol q, hen la ialised, that is hen the sound w or n c ts it c atta hes i elf to , be omes in Brittonic a simple p and in “ ” Gadelic c k u . u five um a ( , Ogam q ) Th s the Welsh for is p p , m em G em e w Cornish p y p , and Breton p p , aulish p p . hereas the G 0675 uei czi zf : aelic is 9, Manx q g, and Irish g the corresponding Latin form is qui nque . Professor Rhys has hence called the two bra—nches of the Celtic the P group and the Q group (from Ogmic z J qu Gaelic c). The distinction into P and Q groups existed ’ b G a efore the Christian era, for the auls of C esar s time belonged P u i c ms mainly, if not altogether, to the group s ch d stin tive for as G eter edwf ar' G c cei thi r e o-s aulish p , four (Welsh p , aeli ), p , horse ebol G c each em e five (Welsh , aeli ), and p p , , already noted, with At the some others, prove this amply . the beginning of Chr istian era the Celtic langu ages were distributed much as w : U IS c S but follo s GA L H, spoken in Fran e and pain, fast dying before the provincial Latin (and disappearing finally in the fifth u G —R I ISH R I NI cent ry of our era) ; ALLO B T or B TTO C, spoken in b G b I ISH b to Britain y the conquering aulish tri es ; P CT , elonging the G l - o c u Sc a lo Britt ni or P gro p, and spoken in otland and, E G B IG possibly, in northern ngland ; and A EL , spoken in Ireland and perhaps on the West Coast of Scotland and in the Isles .