THE GAELIC LANGUAGE. 243 



mixed that the Janguages must necessarily have been greatly changed 

 and broken up, while the people in the Highlands and in Ireland have 

 been so isolated that their branch of the old language has been, as it 

 were, bottled up, sealed and preserved for the use of the philologist. 

 Words change but little when spoken by the same race, buL when 

 pronounced by alien lips they may change so as not to be recognized. 

 The names, Dumbarton and Stirling, in Scotland, conceal their mean- 

 ing when pronounced by Englishmen, but when pronounced by the 

 Gael, they are still Dunhreaton, the Briton's fort, and Sruithlia, the 

 rock stream. 



The Gaelic system of orthography is so different from the English, 

 that English scholars have been deterred from studying it. The 

 Germans have been the great pioneers in this as in many other 

 studies. It is to be hoped that, they having cleared the way, British 

 philologists will follow, and take a share of the honour of working 

 this interesting mine so long neglected. 



