Part I.]
AST) ORTHOGRAPHY.
Ì7
' sith' peace, * an d' thug e ?' did he give Ì alfo in the Pro-
uoun ' thufa' thou.
D.
1 , Plain. Broad : nearly like d in done ; as * dol* g$ifig,
* dlù' near, clofe^ ' ciod' ivhat.
2. Small: likey in June,jeiuel; as * diù' refufe, * malde'
ajiick, * airde' height.
D, after ch, is commoVily founded like r, as ' bochd'
poor, pronounced as if written * bochc' (p).
3. Afpirated.
(p) I am informed that this pronunciation of chd is not uni-
versal j but that in some districts, particularly the East High-
lands, the ^ has here, as in some other places, ics proper lingual
sounds. In many, if not all the instances in which chd occurs,
the ancient Irish wrote ct. This spelling corresponds to that
of some foreign words that have a manifest affinity to Gaelic
words of the same signification ; which, it is therefore presuma-
ble, were all originally pronounced, as they were written, with-
out an aspiration ; such as.
From the propensity of the Gaelic to aspiration, the original
c was converted into ch, and the words were written with cht^ as
in the Irish ' acht' but, &c. or with the slight change of t into
d, as In ' ochd,' &c. This Is the opinion of O'Brien, when he
says the ' word ' lecht' Is the Celtic root of the Latin lectio —
* the aspirate h is but a late invention.' CBr. Ir. Diet. voc. lecht.
In process of time, the true sound of cbt or chd was confounded
with the kindred sound of chc, which was commonly, though
corruptly, given to final c.