[31] It must appear singularly strange that any nouns which signify females exclusively should be of the masculine gender. The noun bainionnach, is derived from the adjective bainionn, female, which is formed from bean, the appropriate term for a woman. Yet this noun bainionnach, or boirionnach, a female, is masculine, to all grammatical intents and purposes. We say boirionnach còir, a civil woman, am boirionnach maiseach, the handsome woman.
The gender of this Noun seems to have been fixed, not by its signification, but by its determination, for most Derivatives in ach are masculines; as, oganach a young man, marcach a horseman, Albanach a Scotsman, &c. So in Latin, mancipium, scortum, though applied to persons, follow the gender of their termination.
[32] It was necessary to be thus explicit in stating the changes at the beginning and those on the termination as unconnected independent accidents, which ought to be viewed separately; because many who have happened to turn their thoughts toward the declension of the Gaelic noun have got a habit of conjoining these, and supposing that both contribute their united aid toward the forming the cases of nouns. This is blending together things which are unconnected, and ought to be kept distinct. It has therefore appeared necessary to take a separate view of these two accidents of nouns, and to limit the term case to those changes which are made on the termination, excluding entirely those which take place at the beginning.
[33] It is to be observed that these names of the cases are adopted merely because they are already familiar, not because they all denominate correctly the relations expressed by the cases to which they are respectively applied. There is no Accusative or Objective case in Gaelic different from the Nominative; neither is there any Ablative different from the Dative. For this reason, it is not only unnecessary, but erroneous, to reckon up six Cases in Gaelic, distinguished not by the form of the Noun, but by the Prepositions prefixed. This is to depart altogether from the common and proper use of the term Case. And if the new use of that term is to be adopted, then the enumeration is still incomplete, for we ought to have as many Cases as there are Prepositions in the language. Thus, besides a Dative do Bhard, and an Ablative o Bhard, we should have an Impositive Case air Bhard, a Concomitative le Bard, an Insertive ann am Bard, a Precursive roimh Bhard, &c. &c. Grammarians have very correctly reckoned only five Cases in Greek, two in English, one in French [See Moore, Murray, Buffier, &c.] because the variations in the form of the Noun extend no further. Surely nothing but an early and inveterate prepossession in favour of the arrangements of Latin Grammar could ever have suggested the idea of Six Cases in Gaelic or in English.
[34] It is not improbable that anciently all feminine nouns, except a few irregular ones, added a syllable to the nominative, as e or a, in forming the genitive. The translators of the S. S. have sometimes formed the genitive of feminine polysyllables in this manner, as sionagoige from sionagog, Mark v. 36, 38. But it appears more agreeable to the analogy of inflection that such polysyllables should now be written without an e in the genitive.
[35] It is probable that this noun should rather be written àdh. See McFarlane's Paraphrases, III. 3. also Lhuyd and O'Brien, in loco.
[36] Derivatives in an, and ag should form their genitive according to the general Rule, ain, aig; and in pronunciation they do so. When the syllable preceding the termination ends in a small vowel, the Rule of 'Caol re caol' has introduced an e into the final syllable, which is then written ean, eag. In this case writers have been puzzled how to form the genitive. The terminations eain, eaig, would evidently contain too many vowels for a short syllable. To reduce this awkward number of vowels they have commonly thrown out the a, the only letter which properly expressed the vocal sound of the syllable. Thus from caimean m. a mote, they formed the gen. sing. caimein; from cuilean m. a whelp, g. s. cuilein; from duileag f. a leaf, g. s. duileig; from caileag f. a girl, g. s. caileig. Had they not yielded too far to the encroachments of the Rule of 'Caol re caol' they would have written both the nom. and the gen. of these and similar nouns more simply and more justly, thus: caiman, g. s. caimain; cuilan, g. s. cuilain; duilag, g. s. duilaig; cailag, g. s. cailaig.
[37] In many instances, the Plural termination a is oftener written with this final n than without it. When the vowel preceding the termination is small, the termination a or an is very needlessly written e or ean, to preserve the correspondence of vowels.
[38] We are informed by E. O'C. that this is the usual construction in the Irish Dialect, and it appears to be the same in the Scottish. Thus, air son mo dhà shùl, for my two eyes.—Judg. xvi. 28. Ir. & Scott. versions.
[39] So in Hebrew, we find a noun in the singular number joined with twenty, thirty, a hundred, a thousand, &c.