338 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



But the most striking and peculiar feature of the MS, system, not found 

 in the Ogham system, is the regular variation in consonant values 

 according as the symbols are initial or not initial. In the initial position 

 the consonants normally preser-^-e the same values as in Latin or in the 

 Ogham system. When they pass from the initial position, these values are 

 consistently changed : 



1. To express the tenuis, the syml)ol is doubled, macc^ cepj^, lott. 



2. To express the media, the tenuis is used, 6a c, opair, fofa : sometimes 

 the doubled media, alib (= Latin ahhas), Coirthre, citcIcJ. 



3. To express the aspirate tenuis, h is added, loseph, cath, cell. 



4. To express the aspirate media^ the simple media is used, dub, ug, fid. 

 (Ms. usage here coincides with Ogham usage, which makes no distinction 

 between stops and aspirates of any class.) 



Whence did this apparently conventional treatment of the consonants 

 originate ? With regard to ph, th, cli, they were evidently borrowed from 

 the Latin devices for the representation of Greek sounds. The other con- 

 ventions are not of Latin origin. They can only have arisen in one way, 

 like the vowel values in modern English, through changes in pronunciation. 



These changes in pronunciation did not occur in Ireland. Original c in 

 Ireland became cli, not g, in internal position. The Celtic adjective ending 

 acos becomes -ach in the earliest mss. But in Welsh, this ending has become 

 -oAvg,-og—i\~iSit is to say, the Brythonic consonant has undergone precisely 

 the change which corresponds to the conventional value of the symbol in 

 early Irish mss. It is true that in early Welsh mss. the change in 

 pronunciation is not noted, and the symbol c is retained, just as in modern 

 English we still write " ace " as Shakespeare wrote it, but we pronounce it 

 " ess " ; Shakespeare pronounced it " ass." 



Christianity and Christian learning were introduced into Ireland mainly 

 hy Britons, and an intimate intercourse between the Christians of Ireland 

 and Britain was kept up for several centuries. But the written language 

 which the British missionaries introduced into Ireland w^as Latin, not 

 Cymric. It cannot be maintained that the early Christian writers of Ireland 

 used distinct values for their consonants according as they wrote in Latin, 

 their staple literary language, or in Irish, which they gradually introduced 

 into MS. usage. Hence the orthographical conventions of early Irish mss. 

 reflect the early Irish pronunciation of Latin. This pronunciation of Latin 

 they adopted from their British teachers. Latin during the Eoman rule 

 became a second language to the Britons, and its pronunciation, being 

 domesticated, followed the changes in pronunciation of the native language. 



