AND THE DIALECTIC DIFFERENCES INDICATED BY IT. 211 



applied by the original inhabitants are usually adopted by their successors, though 

 speaking a different language ; but the generic term frequently undergoes a pho- 

 netic corruption, as in the Lowlands, where Aber has in many cases become Ar in 

 Arbroath, Arbuthnot ; Ballin has become Ban, as in Bandoch ; Pettin has become 

 Pen as Pendriech ; Pol has become Pow ; and Traver has become Tar and Tra. 



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 Kin — a head, 

 Gwyn and Fionn — white, 

 shows the phonetic difference between these dialects. 



The comparison of the generic terms which pervade the topography of a 

 country affords a very important means of indicating the race of its early inhabi- 

 tants, and discriminating between the different branches of the race to which the 

 respective portions of it belong. 



Between the Celtic and Teutonic races the generic terms afford this great 

 leading distinction, that in Celtic names they are invariably found at the begin- 

 ning of the word ; in Teutonic names, at the end of the word. Thus, Glenesk in 

 Celtic is Eskdale in Teutonic; Dunedin is Edinburgh; Auchindarroch is Oak- 

 field, and so forth. In the one, the generic term, at the beginning of the word ; 

 in the other, at the end. 



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, — " To the Gaelic lan- 

 guage a great proportion of the names of places in the neighbourhood, and 

 indeed through the whole of Fife, may unquestionably be traced. All names of 

 places beginning with Bal, Col or Cul, Dal, Drum, Dun, Inch, Inver, Auchter, 

 Kil, Kin, Glen, Mon, and Strath, are of Gaelic origin. Those beginning with 

 Aber and Pit are supposed to be Pictish names, and do not occur beyond the 

 territory which the Picts are thought to have inhabited." 



Chalmers states it still more broadly and minutely. He says, — " Of those 

 words which form the chief compounds in many of the Celtic names of places in 

 the Lowlands, some are exclusively British, as Aber, Llan, Caer, Pen, Cors, and 

 others ; some are common to both British and Irish, as Cam, Craig, Crom, Bre, 

 Dal, Eaglis, Glas, Inis, Rinn, Ros, Strath, Tor, Tom, Glen ; and many more are 

 significant only in the Scoto-Irish or Gaelic, as Ach, Aid, Ard, Aird, Auchter, 

 Bar, Blair, Ben, Bog, Clach, Corry, Cul, Dun, Drum, Fin, Glac, Inver, Kin, Kil, 

 Knoc, Larg, Lurg, Lag, Logie, Lead, Letter, Lon, Loch, Meal, Pit, Pol, Stron, 

 Tullach, Tullie, and others. , ' 



This attempt at classification is, however, exceedingly inaccurate. Two of 

 the words in the first class, Llan and Caer, are common to both British and Irish ; 



VOL. XXIV. PART I. 3 L 



