And the name of each man is given to their territories, as Fib, Ce, Cait^ and the rest Thirteen kings of them took possession. Fib reigned twenty-four years; Fidach, forty years; Fortrend, seventy yean; Cait, twenty-two years; Ce, twelve years; Cirig, d^ty yean; Aenbecan, son of Cait, thirty yean; linecta, sixty yean; Goidid Gadbre, id td^ Geis, one year; Oest Gorid, forty yean; XJiges, thirty yean; Bnide Pont, thirty kings of them; and Brude was the name of each man of them, and of the divisions of the other men. They possessed an hundred and fifty years, oi Uiiinike Books of the OruUhneaek Thus ends this very curious fragment^ which PROBABLE CHARACTEB OF PIGTISH LAKOaAOS. 129 undoubtedly containB a number of Pictish vocablea I shall advert to these afterwards; at present I have to do with only one. It will be observed that the names of the thirty kings descended firom Bmide Pont consist of only fifteen vocables^ each name being repeated with the syllable ur prefixed. We have something exactly analogous to this in the old Welsh genealogies annexed to the Harleian MS. of Nennius, and written in the year 977. The ancestry of Cunedda Guledig is there thus given: — Cunedda^ son of Patem, son of Tacit, son of Cein^ son of Owrceisi, son of Doli, son of GWdoli, son of Duvn, son of OwrdxiYjL This is evidently the same thing — gtiar, gur, or jrtrr, representing the Pictish ur. Again, one of the Pictiah names is Urgest; and this name is repeated affcer- wards in the list of Pictish kings, where we twice have Ungust, son of Urgest; while the Irish Annala give the Irish equivalent as Aongus, son of Feaigus —fear representing ur. We thus get the following forms: — Cymric, gwr; Pictish, ur; Gaelic, ywr.
3. ScoLOFTH. — ^Reginald of Durham, in his Ltbellus de admirandis Beati Cuthherti Virtuttbus — a work of the twelfth century — tells of a certain ^ScolasticuB Pictorum apud Cuthbrictiskchirch,'' or Kirkcudbright in Galloway; and says he was one of those '' derici qui in ecclesia ilia commorantur qui Pictorum lingua ScoUofthes cognominantur.'^ ScolasttcuB in Welsh is yscolheic; in Irish, sgolog.
4. Cartit. — Cormac, in his old Irish Qhssarjfi compiled in the ninth century, has-^*' Cartit^ id ort VOL. I. K I \ 130 THE CELTIC DIALECTS.
delg^ id est belra cruithnechy id est delg for a curtar a choss;** that is, '' cartit^ a buckle^ is a Pictish word. It is a buckle for putting on the foot" The Welsh equivalent is gwneU; the Irish is given by Cormac, dealg.
5. DxJiPER. — ^In another of the Pictish fragments, wUch also formed part of the Pictish Chronicle^ one of the mythic kings is thus given, ** Gartnaidh Duiper.'' In the Chronicle of the Priory of St. Andrew, which contains a Scottish list of the same kings, the epithet is translated thus — " Gartnech dives," or rich. " Rich " in Welsh is goludog; in Irish, saoibher.
From these five words we gather the following phonetic changes. In the first we see the initial p in Cymric and Pictish passing over into c in Graelic, the Cymric e passing into ea in Pictish and Gaelic, and the Cjrmric gu passing into / in Pictish, and neutral- ised by aspiration in Gaelic. In the second, gtm^ becomes ur in Pictish, fear in Gaelic In the third we see the final guttural in Cymric and Gaelic softened to the dental in Pictish. The fourth is a peculiar word, but the Welsh and Irish equivalents furnish an example of g passing into d. In the fifth, the Pictish duiper and the Gaelic saoibher are the same word, showing d passing into s.
From these examples, Pictish appears to occupy a place between Cymric and Gaelic, leaning to the one in some of its phonetic laws, and to the other in others. Thus in the initial of the first word we have a Cymric form. The vowel-changes are Gaelic, and PROBABLE CHARACTER OF PICTISH LAKQUAQB. 131 the initial of the second syllable also Gaelic; and on comparing the first two words we see that^ while gw in Cymric ought, according to the general law, to pass into u in Gaelic — ^bnt in reality passes into f—iike Picfciah law combines both; and the Pictish canon is that gw in Cymric before a consonant becomes u in Pictishy and before a vowel becomes / in Pictish as in Gaelic The other words do not help ns at this stage of the inquiry; but we have another source of informa- tion in the proper names, of which we have in the lists of the Pictish kings the Pictish forms in the Irish Nenniiis and the Pictish Chronicle, and the Irish or Gaelic forms in the Chronicle of the Priory of St. Andrew and the Irish Annals, while the Welsh genealogies furnish Cymric equivalents. The phonetic laws which govern these are equally available for our purpose. First, the Pictish law which changes gw into u before a consonant and / before a vowel, appears in ^ the Pictish names Urgest, Uroid, and Fingaine; the Cymric equivalents of which are Gwrgust, Gwriad, and G^eyngenau; and the Gaelic, Feargus, Ferat, and Fingon. Then in the Pictish Drust, Beriloi, and Dalorgan, the Cymric equivalents of which are Grwst^' Gwrtholi, and Galargan, we have the g passing into d, which is a Gaelic form. In the Pictish Domnall, the Cymric equivalent of which ia Dw&wall, we have the vowel-change of w into o, also a Graelic fomu The following table will show the result of this an- alysis: — THE CELTIC DIALECTS.
TABLE m<r-COMPARISON OF CYMRIC, PICITSH, AND GAELIC WORDS.
c p G FsQgaaal Ftenialiel Oen(fb)ail Gwr Ur Fear Yscolheio Scolofih Sgolog Gwaell Cartit Dealg Goladof Duiper Saoiber P G Gwyngenan Gwiguflt Uigeet Feaigns Dwfiiwal Domnall Grwst Drost Caian Tazan Sairan C P G Gwriad Uroid Ferat Gwrtholi Deriloi < C P G Galaigati DaloTgan The Pictish tradition which I have given at length, befddes yielding the word ur, furnishes us with a series of Pictish vocables. These are, first, the seven sons of Croithne. They are said to have divided the land into seven portioius and to have given their names to them. We can identify some of them. " Fib *' is plainly Fife, the old form of which was Fibh. " Fodla *' is AthoU, the old form of which name was Athfodla. *' Fortrenn ^ IB the well-known name of the central district of the Pictaah kingdom, which has now disappeared. " Cirig ^ or '* Circin,'' as in the Pictish Chronicle, is the district of Giigin or Mdghghirghin; now corrupted into Meams, or Kincardineshire. ** Caith " is CSaithness^ as in the old poem in the Irish Nennius, — ^ From thence they conquered Alba, The noble nurse of fruitfidness, Without destroying the people or their houses, From the region of Cait to Forcn;" PROBABLE CHARACTER OF PICTISH LAKOUAGB. 133 diat is, from Caithness to the Forth, the southern boundaiy of the Pictish kingdom. ''Ce'' and ** Fidach '' I cannot identify. But it will be observed; of these seven sons^ the names of four begin with^ and the other three with c, obvious Gaelic forms; and I am inclined to think that they mark out a division of the Pictish race into two, of which one affected the gut- tural c, and the other the softer sound of the/.
Of the six names which follow, Aenbecan and Finecta are Gaelic forms; Guidid, Cjrmric; Qeet^ Urgest, and Brude, Pictish, as distinguished from either; and the untranslated epithets, Gadbre^ Geis, and Gurid, are probably Pictish words.
The names of the thirty Brudes yield also fifteen Pictish monosyllables. These are, alphabetically, Cal, Cint^ Cind, Fech, Feth, Gant, Gart, Geis, Gnith, Grith, Leo, Muin, Pont, Ru, Uip; and here also the pre- valence of the gutturals, c, g, and the soft /, is ap- parent Some of these monosyllables have a resemblance to the names of the old Irish letters which signify trees, as cal^ the name for c, a hazel; feth seems the same as pet, the name for p; gart, like govt (ivy), the name for g; muin, the vine, is the name for m; and leo resembles luis, and ru, ruts, ash and elder, the names for I and r. In the same manner three of the names of the seven sons of Cruithne have a resemblance to three of the numerals, as fib, pump, five; ce, «e, six; caith, saith, seven. These, however, may be casual resemblances.
The relation of the fifteen vocables to the proper 134 THB CELTIC DIALECTS.
names is more apparent On analysing the proper names of the Cymri and the Gael we find that both are produced by the same process — viz. a cer- tain number of monosyllables forms the first half of the name, and to these are affixed a certain number of endings^ the combination of which forms the proper names. In Cymric the initial syllables are — ^Ad, Aer, Arth, Bed, Cad, Car, Col, Cyn, Dojg, I^ygvn, El, Eur, Gar, Gor, Gwen, Gwyn, Gwyd, Gwr, Id, Mael, Mor, Tal, Tud, Ty. The Irish initial syllables are — Aen, Ain, Air, Ard, Art, Cath, Con, G>rb, CUf Domh, Donn, Dubh, Dim, Each, Echt, Eoch, Er, For, Fian, Fin, Finn, Fedh, Fear, Fail, Flaith, Flann, Gorm, Ir, Laigh, Lear, Lugh, Maen, Muir, Ragh, Beacht^ Ruadh, Bud, Saer, Tuath. It would be endless to enumerate the affixes; but the most common G3rmric are— deym, varch, wyr, swys; as, Aelgyvarch, Cadvarch, Cynvarch, Aerdejrm, C3mdeym, Arthwys, Gynwya^ etc; and in Irish, cal, or in oblique case, gal and gusa; as, Aengus, Artgal, Ardgal, Congus, Congal, Dungus, Dungal, Feargus, Feargal, and so forth. Now these fifteen Pictish vocables likewise enter into the Pictish names, as Gart in Gartnaidh, and Dergart and Geis in Urgest; Leo in Morleo, Muin in Muinait^ Uip in IHpog, and so forth. On the whole, the Pictish vocables coincide more with the Irish than with the Cymric, as Cal with Gal, Geis with Gusa, and so forth. Further, on comparing the initial forms in Irish and in Cymric, we see in Cymric no words beginning with y^ while in Irish there are nine; so that the vocables in PROBABLE CHAEACTER OF PICTISH LANOUAOE. 135 Pictish with initial/ are Gaelic On the other hand, six Yocabled begin with g in Cymric, and only one in Irish; so that here the Pictish draws to the Cymric, and stands between the two with a greater leaning to the Gaelic The same fallacy which pervades the ethnological deductions regarding the Gauls also affects this Pictiali question. It has been top much narrowed by the ach sumption that^ if it is shewn to be a Celtic dialect, it must of necessity be absolutely identic in all its features either with Welsh or with Gaelic But this necessity does not really exist; and the result I come to is, that it is not Welsh, neither is it Gaelic; but it is a Gk^c dialect partaking largely of Welsh forms.
It has always appeared to me that we can trace in the Celtic languages a twofold subordinate dialectic difference lying side by side, which is very analogous to some of the differences between high and low Ger- man. I do not mean to say that the differences be- tween these subordinate Celtic dialects are absolutely parallel to those between high and low German; but merely that they are of a nature which renders this nomenclature not inapplicable, while it affords a con- venient term of distinction. A leading distinction between the high and low German is the preference of the latter for the sharp sounds, p, t, and ib, instead of^ ^^ pf> s ox z and ck; and the instance most familiar to us is the substitution of t for ^, as wasser in high Gei^ man becomes vHiter in low, and water in English; dan in high German is dat in low, and that in English, 136 THE CELTIC DIALECTS.
Now, a similar distinction is, in one point of view, observable among the three dialects of the Cjnnric. Of these dialects, the Cornish and Breton are much nearer to each other than either is to the Welsh. It is, in fact, a mistake to suppose, as is frequently as- serted, that a Welshman and a Breton can understand leach other. One of our best Welsh scholars, Mr. Pricey who visited Bretagne, remarks: " Notwith- standing the many assertions that have been made respecting the natives of Wales and Brittany being mutually intelligible through the medium of their respective languages, I do not hesitate to say that the thing is utterly impossible. Single words in either language will frequently be found to have correspond- ing terms of a similar sound in the other, and occa- sionally a short sentence deliberately pronounced may be partially intelligible; but as to holding a conversa- tion, that is totally out of the question." Conush and Breton are much more nearly allied. Now, it is re^ madcable that in many cases d, dd, and t, in Welsh, pass into s in Cornish and z in Breton, as in "W.Tad.
C. Tof.
W.Gdudcff.
COaUoiok.
W.BUidd.
KBleu.
Vf.NoetK.
K^ac which is exactly analogous to one of the leading di£fer- encea between high and low German; and Welsh, like the latter, shows a great p jref erence for the dentals and its aspirates. I am therefore inclined to introduce the aame nomenclature among the Celtic languages^ PROBABLE CHAEACTEB OF PICTUSH LAKOUAGE. 137 and to call Welah " low Cymricy" Cotniah and Breton " high CyTnTic" dialects.
The three dialects which compose the Gaelic class are much more nearly allied to each other than even Cornish and Armoric, and may be held to represent the old Scottish. On the same analogy they all belong to a high Gaelic dialect. There are to be found, how- ever, among the synonyms in the Gaelic dialects^ low Gaelic forms accompanying high Gaelic forms^ as in Sua, DuU^ hope.
Seangan, Dtangan^ an ant Sfoif Dea$f t^j.
Samh, DomAy learning.
SeirCf JMrCy almagiTing.
Stmnaek, Tannaek, a waU.
which seems to indicate that a low Gaelic dialect has been incorporated or become blended with it The Pictish language appears to have approached more nearly to the old Scottish than even Breton to Welsh, according to Mr. Price's view; for Adomnan, who, in the seventh century, wrote the Life of St Columba, the Scottish missionary to the Picts, describes St Columba, the Scot, as conversing freely with the Picts, from the king to the plebeian, without difficulty; but when he preached to them the Word of Grod, he was obliged to make use of an interpreter: that is, he could make himself understood in conversing, but not in preaching; and, conversely, a Pict understood what he said in Scottish, but could not foUow a Scottish ser- mon. This is a point, in fact^ as to which there exists much misapprehension; and we are apt to forget how 138. THE CELTIC DIALECTS.
Teiy SEmall a difference even in pronunciation will inter- pose an obstacle to mutual intelligence. Even in Breton and Cornish, the two Cymric dialects which most nearly approach each other, Norris, the highest Cornish au- thority, says, ** In spite of statements to the contrary, the writer is of opinion that a Breton within the his- torical existence of the two dialects could not have tmderstood a Comishman speaking at any length, or on any but the most trivial subjects f and between Irish and Scotch Gaelic it would not require very much additional divergence to prevent the one firom under- standing the other.
Such being probably the mutual position of Pictish and Scottish, the few words we are able to compare show the difference between them to have been of the saine character as between the high and low dialects; for we find saoihher (rich) in Irish represented by duiper in Pictish; and in proper names, Sarran by Taran, showing 8 in the one represented by d and t in the other; while the words sgolofth, cartit, and the proper names, Bargoit, Wraid, Wid, show the preference of the Pictish for dental in place of guttural termina- tions. I consider, therefore, that Pictish was a low Gaelic dialect; and, following out the analogy, the result I come to is» that Cymric and Gaelic had each a high and a low variety; that Cornish and Breton were high Cymnc dialects, Welsh low Cymric; that old Scottish, spoken by the Scotti, now represented by Irish, Scotch Gaelic, and Manx, was the high Gkelic dialect, and Pictiah the low Gaelic dialect PROBABLE CHARACTER OF riCTISH LAKOUAOB. 139 This analogy is confirmed by the legendaiy origins of these different races^ in which, onder the form of a mythic migration, the traces of a rude and primitiye ethnology often lie hid. The tendencies which produce the high and low German are, as we have remarked^ associated with the character of the conntiy peopled by them. The low German forms arc connected with the level and marshy plains which border on the German Ocean, the high German with the more mountainous region of the south of Germany; but the same characteir* istics mark the mythic migrations of the Celtic laces which peopled Britain. In the Welsh traditions, the Cymry, which are represented by the Welsh or low Cjrmric people, are said to have crossed the German Ocean firom the north of Germany; the Iloegrys, repre- sented by the Cornish or high Cymric, are brought J&om the south. In the old Irish traditions, the different races said to have peopled Ireland fall into two classes: the one is said to have penetrated through Europe by the Bhiphaean Mountains to the Baltic, and to have crossed the German Ocean; and the other is brought by the Mediterranean and the south of Europe.* The former alone are said to have made settlements in Scot- land; and Bede, in giving the teadition of tie origin of the Picts, brings them likewise from the north of Grer- many across the German Ocean. This population which preceded the German races was, in fact, the race of ike Celts, who seem to have been driven westward by the * The one class consists of the Kemedians and the Tuatha de Danaao; the other of Partholan and his colon/, the Flrbolg and the ^'Wfirt 140 THE CELTIC DIALECTS.
pressure of the Teutonic movement; and, like the Ger- man, to have shown a twofold minor difference, produced by the same ph}rsical influence, which is known by the names of " high " and " low" German.
The platform occupied by the Pictish people was not confined to Scotland alone, for they certainly extended over part of the north of Ireland, and formed, in all probability, an earlier population of the north half of Ireland, which became subjugated by the Scots. On the other hand, the Scots at an early period occupied the district of Argyll In the north of Ireland and the west of Scotland the Picts must, at an early period, have become blended with the Scots, and their form of the Gaelic assimilated to the Scottish. In Scotland, south of the Tay, where they occupied the districts £x>m the Tay to the Forth, the region of Manau or Manann, and Gkdloway, they came in contact with the C^rmric people, and the one being a low Gaelic dialect^ and the other a low Cymric dialect^ their forms must have so fSeur resembled each other as to lead to an admiztore presenting that mixed language of low Gaelic with Cymric forms^ known to Bede as the Pictish lan- guage.
CELTIC TOPOGRAPHY OF SCOTLAKD. 141 CHAPTER IX.
THE CELTIC TOPOORAPHT OF SCOTLAND, AND THB DIALECTIC DIFFEBENCES INDICATED BT FT.
The etymology of the names of places in a country is either a veiy important element in fixing die ethnology of its inhabitants, or it is a snare and a delnsion, just according as the subject is treated. When such names are analjrsed 'according to fixed laws, based upon sound philological principles and a comprehensiye observation of facts, they afford results both important and trustworthy; but if treated empirically, and founded upon resemblance of soimds alone, they be- come a mere field for wild conjectures and £Emciful etymologies, leading to no certain results. The latter is the ordinary process to which they are subjected. The natural tendency of the hiunan mind is to a mere phonetic etymology of names, both of persons and of places, in which the soimds of the name of the place appear to resemble the sounds in certain words of a certain language, the language from which the etymology is derived being selected upon no sound philological groimds^ but from arbitrary considerationB merely.
Unhappily, an etymology founded upon- mere resemblance of sounds has hitherto characterised all <.
142 CELTIC TOPOORAPHT OF SCOTLAND: systematic attempts to analyse the topography of Scotland, and to deduce ethnologic results from it Prior to the publication of the Statistical Account of Scotland in 1792, it may be said that no general attempt had been made to explain the meaning of the names of places in Scotland, or to indicate the language firom which they were derived. We find occasionally, in old lives of the saints and in charters connected with church lands, that names of places occurring in them arc explained; and these interpreta- tions are very valuable, as indicating what may be termed the common tradition of their meaning and derivation at an early period. Of very di£ferent value are a few similar derivations in the fabulous histories of Boece, Buchanan, and John Major, which are uBuaUy mere fanciful conjectures of pedantry.
The first impetus to anything like a general etymologising of Scottish topography was given when Sir John Sinclair projected the Statistical Account of Scotland. In the schedule of questions which he issued in 1790 to the clergy of the Church of Scot- land, the first two questions were as follows:— 1. What is the ancient and modem name of the parish?
2. What is the origin and etymology of the name? This set eveiy minister thinking what was the meaning of the name of his parish. The publication of ike Poems of Ossian; and tlie controversy which followed, had tended greatly to identify national feeling and the history of Hie country with Gaelic DIALECmO DIFFERENCES IKDIOATED BT IT. 143 literature and language, and, with few exceptions, the etymology was sought for in that language. The usual formula of reply was^ ** The name of this pariah is derived from the Gaelic,' and then followed a Gaelic sentence resembling in sound the name of the parish, and supposed admirably to* express its characteristics, though the unfortunate minister is often obliged to confess that the parish is remarkably • free from the characteristics expressed by the Graelic derivation of its name. These etymologies are usuaUy suggested irrespective entirely of any known facts aa to the history or popuktion of the parish, and are purely phonetic After the publication of the Statistical Account; Gaelic was in the ascendant as the source of all Scottish etymologies, till the publication of Chalmers' Caledonia in 1807. John Pinkerton had indeed tried to direct the current of popular etymology into a Teutonic channel, but his attempts to find a meaning in Gothic dialects for words plainly Celtic were so im- successful that he failed even to gain a hearing. Chalmers was more fortunate. His theoiy was that a large proportion of the names of places in Scotland are to be derived from the Welsh, and indicate an original Cymric population. And this he has worked out with much labour and pains. In doing so, he was the first to attempt to show evidence of the dialectic difierence between Welsh and Gaelic pervading the names of places, and to discriminate between them; but for almost all the names of places in the Lowlands of ^.
144 CELTIC TOPOGRAPHY OF SCOTLAND.* Scotland he furnishes a Welsh etymology, which, like his predecessors the Scottish clergy, he supposes to be ezpressive of the characteristics of the locality. His theory has, in the main, conmianded the assent of subsequent writers, and is usually assumed to be, on the whole, a correct representation of the state of the fact Tet his system was as purely one of a phonetic etymology, founded upon mere resemblance of sounds, as those of his predecessors. The MSS. left by George Chalmers show how he set about preparing his etymo- logies, and we now know the process he went through. He had himself no knowledge of either branch of the Celtic language, but he sent his list of names to Dr. Owen Pughe; and that most ingenious of all Welsh lexicographers, who was capable of reducing every word in every known knguage in the world to a Welsh original, sent him a list of Welsh renderings of each word, varying from twelve to eighteen in number, out of which Chalmers selected the one which seemed to him most promising. His other etymologies are equally founded on a mere resemblance of sounds between the modem form of the word and the modem Welsh, as those of the clergy in the Statistical Account were between the modem form of the word and the modem Gaelic That system of interpreting the names of places, which I have called phonetic etymology, is, however, utterly unsound It can lead only to fanciful render- ings, and is incapable of yielding any results that are either certain or important Names of places are, in DIAUSUXIU DirrJEJKJSZIGBS UIDIUIkTBD BY IT. 149 fact) sentences or combinations of wdrds originallj expiessive of the characteristics of the place named, and applied to it by the people who then oocapied the country, in the language spoken by tiiem at the time, and are necessarily subject to the same philo- logical laws which governed that spoken language. The same rules must be applied in inteipretiiig a local name as in rendering a sentenoe of the lan- guage. That system, therefore, of phonetic etymology which seeks for the interpretation of a name in mero resemblance of sound to words in an existing language^ overloolts entirely the fact that such names were fixed to certain localities at a much earlier period, when the language spoken by those who applied the name must have differed greatly from any spoken language of the present day.
Since the local names were deposited in the country, the language itself from which they were derived has gone through a process of change, corrup- tion, and decay. Words have altered their forms — sounds have varied — forms have become obsolete, and new forms have arisen; and the language in its pre- sent state no longer represents that form of it which existed when the local nomenclature was formed. The topographical expressions, too, go through a process of change and corruption, till they diverge still fruther from the spoken form of the language as it now exists. This process of change and corruption in the local names varies according to the change in the population.
When the population has remained unchanged, and vou L t mm 146 CELTIC TOFOORAPHY OF SCOTLAND: the language in which the names were applied is still the spoken language of the district, the names either remain in their original shape, in which case they represent an older form of the same language, or else thej undergo a change analogous to that of the spoken language. Obsolete names disappear as obso- lete words drop out of the language, and are replaced by more modem vocables. Where there has been a change in the population, and the older race are replaced by a people speaking a kindred dialect, the names of places are subjected to the dialectic change which characterises the language. There are some striking instances of this where a British form has been superseded by a Gaelic form, as, for instance, Kirkintulloch, the old name of which, Nennius informs ns^ was CSaerpentalloch, kin being the Gaelic equivalent of the Welsh pen; Penicuik, the old name of which was Peniacop; Eincaid, the old name of which was Pencoed.
When, however, the new language introduced by the change of population is one of a different family entirely, then the old name is stereotyped in the shape in which it was when the one language superseded the other, becomes imintelligible to the people, and under- goes a process of change and corruption of a purely phonetic character, which often entirely alters the aspect of the name. In the former cases it is chiefly necessary to apply the philologic laws of the language to its analysis. In the latter, which is the case with the Celtic topography of the low country, it is necessary, DIALECriO DIFFERENCES DTDIOATED BT IT. 147 before attempting to analyse die name, to ascertain its most ancient form, which often differs greatly from its more modem aspect It is with this class of names we have mainly to do, as presenting the phenomena I am anxious to investigate.
When the topography of a comitry is examined, its local names will be found, as a general rale, to consist of what may be called generic terms and specific terms. What I mean by generic terms are those parts of the name which are common to a large nmnber of them, and are descriptive of the general character of the place named; and by specific terms, those other parts of the name which have been added to distinguish one place from another. The generic terms are usually general words for river, mountain, valley, plain, etc.; the specific terms, those words added to distinguish one river or mountain from another. Thus, in the Gaelic name Glenmore, glen is the generic term, and is found in a numerous class of words; more, great, the specific, a distinguished term, to distinguish it from another called Glenbeg. In the Saxon term Oakfield, field is the generic term, and oak the specific, to distinguish it from Broomfield, etc.
When the names of places are applied to purely natural objects, such as rivers, mountains, etc., which remain unchanged by the hand of man, the names applied by the original inhabitants are usually adopted by their successors, though speaking a different Ian* 148 CELTIC TOPOQRAPHY OF SCOTLAND: guage; but the generic term frequently undergoes a phonetic corruption, as in the Lowlands, where Aber has in many cases become Ar, as in Arbroath^ Arbutbnot; Ballin has become Ban, as in Bandoch; Fettin has become Fen, as in Fendriech; Fol has become Fow; and Traver has become Tar and Tra, as in Tranent On the other hand, where the districts have been occupied by different branches of the same race, speaking different dialects, the generic terms exhibit the dialectic differences when the sounds of the word are such as to require the dialectic change; thus in Welsh and Gaelic: — Pen and Ceann — ^a head, Gwynn and Fionn — white, show the phonetic difference between these dialects.
The comparison of the generic terms which pervade the topography of a countiy affords a veiy important means of indicating the race of its early inhabitants, and discriminating between the different branches of the race to which the respective portions of it belong. It was early observed that there existed in the Celtic generic terms a difference which seemed to indicate dialectic distinction. Even in the Old Statistical Account, the minister of the parish of Kirkcaldy remarks —