A close analogy may be traced between the Gaelic and the French in the collocation of the Adjective. In both languages, the Adjective is ordinarily placed after its Noun. If it be placed before its Noun, it is by a kind of poetical inversion; dorchadas tiugh, des tenebres epaisses; by inversion, tiugh dhorchadas, d' epaisses tenebres; fear mòr, un homme grand; by inversion, in a metaphorical sense, mòr fhear, un grand homme. A Numeral Adjective, in both languages, is placed before its Noun; as also iomadh, plusieurs; except when joined to a proper name, where the Cardinal is used for the Ordinal; Seumas a Ceithir, Jaques Quatre.
[98] The same seems to be the case in the Cornish Language. See Lhuyd's "Arch. Brit." p. 243, col. 3.
When an Adjective precedes its Noun, it undergoes no change of termination; as, thig an Tighearn a nuas le ard iolaich, the Lord will descend with a great shout, 1 Thes. iv. 16; mar ghuth mor shluaigh, as the voice of a great multitude, Rev. xix. 6.
[99] Thus, bhur inntinn your mind, Acts xv. 24.
[100] This, however, does not happen invariably. Where the Sex, though specified, is overlooked as of small importance, the Personal or Possessive Pronouns follow the Gender of the Antecedent. See 2 Sam. xii. 3.
[101] I am aware of the singularity of asserting the grammatical propriety of such expressions as ciod e Uchdmhacachd? ciod e Urnuigh? as, the nouns uchdmhacachd, urnuigh are known to be of the feminine Gender; and as this assertion stands opposed to the respectable authority of the Editor of the Assembly's Catechism in Gaelic, Edin. 1792, where we read, Ciod i urnuigh? &c. The following defence of it is offered to the attentive reader.
In every question the words which convey the interrogation must refer to some higher genus or species than the words which express the subject of the query. It is in the choice of the speaker to make that reference to any genus or species he pleases. If I ask 'Who was Alexander?' the Interrogative who refers to the species man, of which Alexander, the subject of the query, is understood to have been an individual. The question is equivalent to 'What man was Alexander?' If I ask 'What is Man?' the Interrogative what refers to the genus of Existence or Being, of which Man is considered as a subordinate genus or species. The question is the same with 'What Being is Man?' I may also ask 'What was Alexander?' Here the Interrogative what refers to some genus or species of which Alexander is conceived to have been an individual, though the particular genus intended by the querist is left to be gathered from the tenor of the preceding discourse. It would be improper, however, to say 'Who is man?' as the Interrogative refers to no higher genus than that expressed by the word Man. It is the same as if one should ask 'What man is Man?'
In the question 'What is Prayer?' the object of the querist is to learn the meaning of the term Prayer. The Interrogative what refers to the genus of Existence, as in the question 'What is Man?' not to the word Prayer, which is the subject of the query. It is equivalent to 'What is [that thing which is named] Prayer?' In those languages where a variety of gender is prevalent, this reference of the Interrogative is more conspicuously marked. A Latin writer would say 'Quid est Oratio*?' A Frenchman, 'Qu' est-ce que la Prière?' These questions, in a complete form, would run thus; 'Quid est [id quod dicitur] Oratio?' 'Qu' est-ce que [l'on appelle] la Prière?' On the same principle, and in the same sense, a Gaelic writer must say, 'Ciod e urnuigh?' the Interrogative Ciod e referring not to urnuigh but to some higher genus. The expression, when completed, is 'Ciod e [sin de 'n goirear] urnuigh?'
Is there then no case in which the Interrogative may follow the gender of the subject? If the subject of the query be expressed, as it often is, by a general term, limited in its signification by a noun, adjective, relative clause, &c; the reference of the Interrogative is often, though not always not necessarily, made to that term in its general acceptation, and consequently be 'What is the Lord's Prayer?' Here the subject of the query is not Prayer, but an individual of that species, denoted by the term prayer limited in its signification by another noun. The Interrogative what may refer, as in the former examples, to the genus of Existence; or it may refer to the species Prayer, of which the subject of the query is an individual. That is, I may be understood to ask either 'What is that thing which is called the Lord's Prayer?' or 'What is that prayer which is called the Lord's Prayer?' A Latin writer would say, in the former sense, 'Quid est Oratio Dominica†?' in the latter sense, 'Quaenam est Oratio Dominica?' The former of these expressions is resolvable into 'Quid est [id quod dicitur] Oratio Dominica?' the latter into 'Quaenam [oratio] est Oratio Dominica?' The same diversity of expression would be used in French: 'Qu' est-ce que l'Oraison Dominicale?' and 'Quelle est l'Oraison Dominicale?' The former resolvable into 'Qu' est-ce que [l'on appelle] l'Oraison Dominicale? the latter into 'Quelle [oraison] est l'Oraison Dominicale? So also in Gaelic, 'Ciod e Urnuigh an Tighearna?' equivalent to 'Ciod e [sin de'n goirear] Urnuigh an Tighearna?' or, which will occur oftener, 'Ciod i Urnuigh an Tighearna?' equivalent to 'Ciod i [an urnuigh sin de 'n goirear] Urnuigh an Tighearna?'
* See a short Latin Catechism at the end of Mr Ruddiman's Latin Rudiments, where many similar expressions occur; as 'Quid est fides? 'Quid est Lex? Quid est Baptismus? Quid Sacramenta?' &c.