We know the Gaelic language now in three stages:—
1. Old Gaelic up to 1000 A.D. The most ancient relics of this period are the glosses of St. Gall in Switzerland, the Ambrosian [Library of Milan], &c., discovered by Zeuss.
2. Middle Gaelic, from 1000-1500 A.D., is represented by an extensive mass of manuscript literature.
3. Modern Gaelic from the sixteenth century, when books began to be printed, to the present day.
The softening caused by excessive aspiration is the greatest change which the language has undergone.
As spoken in Scotland at the present day the chief dialectic differences are:—
1. The ia of the North for the eu of the South and West Highlands, illustrated by Bial, Beul, mouth; Fiar, Feur, grass.
2. The vowel-tone difference, illustrated in such words as Oran, song. The o is pronounced in three different ways; in Islay and other parts of Argyll like o in old; in Mull and other place like ou in foul; in the North generally like aw in law.
3. The consonantal difference illustrated [in the pronunciation] of c and chd.