שק
a sack, has been transplanted from the Hebrew into many languages, among the rest the Gaelic, where it has been always written sac, although now pronounced sachc. In none of the other languages in which the word is used (except the Welsh alone), has the final palatal been aspirated. It would appear therefore that the sound sachc is a departure from the original Gaelic pronunciation. The same change may have happened in the pronunciation of other words, in which the plain c is now aspirated, though it may not have been so originally.
[17] Though th be quiescent in the middle of a polysyllable, over the North and Central Highlands, yet it is, with more propriety, pronounced, in the West Highlands, as an aspiration; as, athair father, mathanas pardon, pronounced a-hair, mahanas.
[18] I am informed that this pronunciation of chd is not universal; but that in some districts, particularly the East Highlands, the d has here, as in other places, its 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 presumable, were all originally pronounced, as they were written, without an aspiration, such as,
| Latin. | Old French. | Gaelic. | |
| Noct-u Noct-is, &c. | Nuict | an nochd, to night. | |
| Oct-o | Huict | Ochd, eight. | |
| Benedict-um | Benoict | Beannachd, blessing. | |
| Maledict-um | Maudict | Mallachd, cursing. | |
| Ruct-us | Bruchd, evomition. | ||
| Intellect-us | Intleachd, contrivance. | ||
| Lact-is, -i, &c. | Lachd, milk. | ||
| Dict-o, -are, &c. | Deachd, to dictate. | ||
| Rego Rect-um |
| Reachd, a law, institution. | |
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.—O'Br. Ir. Dict. voc. lecht. In process of time the true sound of cht or chd was confounded with the kindred sound of chc, which was commonly, though corruptly, given to final c.
[19] It is certain that the natural sound of d aspirated is that of [the Saxon ð] or th in thou; as the natural sound of t aspirated is that of th in think. This articulation, from whatever cause, has not been admitted into the Gaelic, either Scottish or Irish, although it is used in the kindred dialects of Cornwall and Wales.
[20] In sean old, the n has its plain sound when the following word begins with a Lingual. Accordingly it is often written in that situation seann; as, seann duine an old man, an t-seann tiomnaidh of the old Testament.
[21] So in Latin, canmen from cano was pronounced, and then written carmen; genmen from the obsolete γενω passed into germen.
[22] Another mode, proposed by a learned correspondent, of marking the distinction in the sound of the initial Linguals, is by writing the letter double, thus ll, nn, rr, when its sound is the same with that which is represented by those double letters in the end of a syllable; and when the sound is otherwise, to write the letter single; as, llamh hand, llion fill, mo lamh my hand, lion mi I filled.