﻿380
AN GAOḊAL
PROF. ROEHRIG ON THE IRISH LANG-
UAGE.
Continued from page 362.
Irish is one of the Celtic tongues, and these be¬
long to the great family of Indo-European langua¬
ges. The Celtic group of languages seems to have
diverged from the common Stock much earlier than
any of the other members of the same wide-spread
family. This Celtic group consists of two great
branches: the Gaelic and the Kymric. There is no
Celtic tongue or dialect known that does not belong
to either the Gaelic or the Kymric branch; although
there may have been other branches of Celtic, which
have become lost, or disappeared under Roman
rule or influence. Thus, the Celtic languages form
two distinct classes, viz: on the one hand, Irish,
Scotch and Manx — belonging, all three to the
Gaelic ; and on the other hand, Welsh, Cornish
and Armoric, — belonging to the Kymric branch.
Each of these two classes presents some special
characteristics. Where we have in the Gaelic tong¬
nes a guttural letter commencing a word, we have in
the Kymric a labial. For example: Old Irish cethir
(four), Modern Irish ceathair, Scotch ceithir, Manx
kiare; while the same word appears in Welsh as
pedwar, Cornish peswar, Armoric peouar. This
'p,' where we find it as the original initial of a word
has, owing to the peculiar reluctance to such ini¬
tials, been dropped in Celtic: e. g., the plenus is,
in Old Irish, lan: Old Welsh, laun; Armoric, leun;
the Latin pater appears in Irish without the initial
p, as athir, Latin pisc is, Kymric pysg, Irish iasg,
etc.] In the same way, we have in Irish cland (pos¬
terity), Kymric plant; Irish crann tree), Kymric
pren ; Irish ceann (head), Kymric pen; Irish nech
[person], Kymric nep ; Irish mac son, Kymric
map, etc. Then again we have in Latin septem,
Irish secht and many more such cases. Even
with foreign words, we notice this phonetic predil¬
ection for gutturals in Irish, instead of labials ; e.
g., Pascha [Easter], Kymric Pasg, is in Irish Casg;
the Latin purpura is in Irish corcur; while on the
other hand, the Kymric uses labials for gutturals,
even in borrowed proper names, as in the case of
the Irish Saint, Ciaran, whose name becomes Piar¬
an in Welsh. These are not, however, mere casu¬
al occurences or isulated facts, but a consistent,
essential, well marked difference, which exists also
in other languages; as, for instance, in Latin, when
compared with with Greek; the former
having a guttural as in Irish, where the latter of¬
ten has a labial (as in Welsh]. So also, when we
compare Latin with other ancient Italic dialects,
we have in the latter often a labial, where Latin
has a guttural, e. g., Latin nec, Oscan nep, Latin
quatuor, Oscan petora, Umbrian petur, Latin quis
Oscan and Umbrian pis; Latin siquis, Oscan and
Umbrian svepis; Latin quid, Oscan and Umbrian
pid; Latin quod, Oscan and Umbrian pod etc. So
also, when we compare English and German, we
meet with instances where gutturals interchange
with labials, either in their pronunciation such
as, German schacht, English shaft [in the sense of
a passage into a mine], or also in their orthogra¬
phy. This occurs even in the same language, for
instance, draught, and draft, both deriving their
origin from the verb to draw; just as to draw and
to drag are related to the Latin traho. Thus, also
the word enough, where gh has nearly the sound
of the labial, f. The same is seen in the verb to
laugh gh=f], in tough, rough. In hiccough, gh
sounds like the labial, p, and this pronunciation
is often rendered visible by another orthography,
viz., hiccup or hickup for hiccough. Other exam¬
ples of this interchange of gutturals and labials,
are, German magen, English maw. Ger. eigen, Eng.
own, Ger. zwerg [Swedish dwerg, Eng. dwarf,
etc. The frequency of such an interchange or per¬
mutation of gutturals and labials is easily seen
when we compare related languages with each oth¬
er, or trace words through their successive changes
in cognate tongues, or even in dialects of one and
the same language; thus Latin cavea, French cage
Latin rabies, French rage, Latin, rubeus, French
rouge. Latin, tibia, French, tige, Latin, diluvium,
French, deluge, Latin, salvia, French sauge, Ger¬
man wolf, and English wolf, Russian wolk, etc.
The word for air is in German luft [with the labi¬
al, fl. in Dutch or Hollandic lucht [with the gut¬
tural, ch]; force is in German kraft [with f] in
Dutch kracht [with ch. Latin sapius, French sage
To be continued
The son of the late Grand Duke of Mecklenburg
Schwerin, Paul, married a Catholic princess, the
Princess Marie of Windischgratz, he promising
that she could bring up the children, if any, in the
Catholic religion. When the first child was born
the Grand Duke, Paul's father, ordered that the
child should be baptized by the Protestant court
chaplain. To avoid being again forced to break
his promise to his wife, the Duke and Dutchess
took up their residence in Algeria, and took good
care that the second child should receive Catholic
baptism. The Duke also becoming a Catholic. It
seems now that the present reigning duke has com¬
pelled him to sign articles waiving all claims to
the the throne on behalf of himself and his chil¬
dren under threat of withholding his regal pen¬
sion. To avoid his persecutors, Duke Paul has
taken military employment in the Austrian ser¬
vice.
C. M. EGAN
Millinery
237 COLUMBIA ST.
S BROOKLYN,
Hats Pressed, Cleaned and Dyed.
Feathers Curled.
Orders A Specially.
