A has six sounds in the Key.

a long, like a in fame, came, tame. å, ä, åo, is the short sound of the last, as a in fate, rate, gate, final.

a is the sound of a in far, får, star, står. ǎ is the short soft sound of the last; as, in farm, fărm.

a is the short and shut sound of a, as in

can.

à is the nasal sound. The only sounds that approach this, in English, is a in palm, calm, psalm. It occurs uniformly before m, mh, and n-sometimes before th; as, in màthair, mother; àth, a ford; nathair, a serpent; math, good, and its derivatives; athar, sky, firma. ment;-in some words n is introduced for r in order to give it the nasal sound; as in cànran, mànran, mànrach, màrr. an, kàrr-an, màrr-ach; also mànr, màrr, to obstruct;-ai placed before mh, &c. has the same sound, or one nearly allied to ai in sprain, strain, brains, as the Scotch pronounce these words :-marked in the key sprèn, strèn, brèns.

á is the short nasal sound; é before n, &c. the short one of ai or áé.

à in participles thus, tyȧ sounds like short u or ao shorter a little, chyaŎ. ão has nothing like it in English; a pretty correct idea may be formed of it by pronouncing the u, in the surname Burns, long; also u in gun, without touching the -rns in the first instance, and the -n in the latter. Bão-gãothe French eu is somewhat like it. ao is the short sound of the last. E has two sounds, long and short.

ĕ long, like ee in teem, seem; feed, hired ė, ë, é2, is the short of the above.

è long, as e in there, pronounced long ther-the of the Greeks, as the Scotch and Foreigners pronounce it.

n

é is the short sound of the last. Before v, representing mh and n, it has a nasal sound-see a nasal changed into ai-also representing ea or eu; as Neumh or Nèamh, nèv, Heaven, neamh, név, venom.

I has one sound long and short; as, y in my, thy; mi, thi, short; as i in sight, might, sit, mït.

O has four sounds, long and short. ō, as o in more, mōr, tone, tōn, pole, põl ó, ö, ō, short sound of the above. ô sounds like o in lord, lôrd, cord, kord. Ŏ is the short of the last; o shorter. ò is the long nasal sound, occurring uniformly before mh, and sometimes before n; in many instances the nasal sound of o occurs otherwise placed; as, in mòd, a court of justice, being a contraction of momhad; also mò, contraction of momha, greater; also moit, fastidiousness; mothar, a horrifying voice; glothar, gag; mògharr bland. The true orthography is momhar, glomhar, &c. ó is the short nasal sound of o. Even before n, o sounds like o in pole, sole, &c. sometimes; as, tonn, tonn, a wave; n is introduced sometimes to give the nasal sounds merely; thus ònrachd, sònraich, òrr-achg, sòrr-éch; the same as ànrath, àrr-ah in a nasal.

U has a great number of sounds.

û sounds as u in pure, cure, tune.
ů, ü, is the short sound of the last.
û sounds as oo in moor, cool, tool.
ŭ is the short sound of the last.

ù is the same as the French u nearly.
ú is the French short sound.

u the same as the u in under, or un- a prefix.

X is a contraction to save room, and repre

sents the primitive sound aŏ-gh', being a kind of a syllable and a half. See -gh'. -Gh', an idea of this original sound. It is a kind of an ineffectual effort to disjoint your jaws without touching the palate or teeth with your tongue, and at the same time making a strong respiration. It is nearly akin to the Greek x. It is not possible, without oral instruction, to convey an adequate idea of -gh'.

v2, this representing mh, shews that the v is only slightly sounded, the object of mh being chiefly to give the nasal twang to the preceding vowel.

112, lly', shews that the ll is liquified, as in

filial, fé-lyal; for ll and nn initial, see and n in the Grammar.

id, de.-This is represented by ėj. It is said that it does not express the true sound. If not, Walker, and Fulton and Knight, must be wrong in pronouncing age, äj;

tedious, tēj-us, and tē-jus, tē-dyus. This sound, when not final, is often exhibited thus, deug, dyag.

èn, enn, is often not marked at all, the last n being always liquified, ĕnny'; sometimes marked én', èny', and nn' and nny'.

ty'. This sound is found in Christianity, Kris-tyė-, or ché-an-e-tė. The t is thus liquified often by putting j before it, thus, sagairt, sag-arjt, a priest; and sometimes by marking it ť.

ĕu shews also the short sound of a, as in beag, běug; ea is the short form of eu, which is always long; eu, ea, ei, are styled always diphthongs: With the exception of the very peculiar sound ao, I do not think there is such in the language, eu long, and its short sounds ea and ei, having both the vowels sounded.

Thus, feum, fa-um, the um being pronounced so quick, that they almost form one syllable. They form a syllable and a half, as is seen in ui and oi in buil, toil, bŭ'l, to'l, i. e. bŭ-ul, to-ul, being two syllables thrown almost into one.

The orthography of the Gaelic, shews more acuteness and ingenuity in its structure, than any other language the author knows any thing of. It is said, that mh and bh should give way to v;-no such thing!! Bh represents the simple form of v, and mh of v, following the nasal sound; and, besides, bh is only an occasional or accidental form: thus, bò, a cow; a' bho, uv-vhō, the cow.

A. after v. thus, v. a., verb active. a. adj. adjective.

Adv. adverb.

Arab. Arabic.

Lw. Lew. Isle of Lewis.

Lit. literally.

Lld. Lluyd. author of a huge manuscript. Loch. Lochab. for Lochaber.

M. for Island of Mull.

m. masculine gender.

Md. Alexander Macdonald the Poet; also Macd. Macdon.

Macaul. Macaulay's History of St. Kilda.
Macf. Macfar. The Rev. Mr. Macfarlane's
New Testament, Psalms, or Gaelic Vo-
cabulary.

M'D. Macdougall's Poems, also Macd.
Mland. mainland of Argyle; also Mld.
Mt. Macint. Mackintyre's Songs.

Mart. Martin's Description of the Highlands.

Mas. masculine gender.

MacC. MacCruiminn, a poet.

M'G. MacG. MacGregor's Poems.

Ml. M'L. Mr. Maclauchlan's translation of Homer, the best Gaelic translation in existence.

Mn. Martin's Highlands.

MS. MSS. manuscript, manuscripts.

Mur. Dr. Murray, late Professor of Oriental Languages, Edinburgh.

N. North, North Highlands; also N. H. n. f. noun feminine.

n. m. noun masculine.

nom. for nominative case.

Obs. obsolete.

Oss. Ossian's Poems.

P. page; also past tense; participle,

P. E. part. expl. particle expletive. pt. part. for participle.

tionary.