PREFACE. THESE lectures are offered as a contribution to a study conducted until lately on lines the reverse of scientific. What the late Dr Reeves and Dr Joyce have done for the place-names of Ireland, Canon Isaac Taylor has done for those of England, and Mr A. W. Moore for those of the Isle of Man, has never been adequately performed for Scotland. It was my original intention to expand these lectures, condensed from material collected during many years, into a tolerably exhaustive treatise on the subject; but I am advised to publish them at once, just as they were delivered; and I am encouraged by the numbers and attention of those who listened to them in the belief that there are plenty of students ready to apply sound principles and cautious analysis to a branch of archæology and philology at present in a very backward state. I have, it is needless to say, derived much assistance from the writings of the scholars above mentioned, as well as from those of Professors Rhys and W. W. Skeat, and the late Dr Skene. I have also availed myself largely of the volume on Scottish Place-Names lately published by the Rev. J. Johnston, of Falkirk, who has rendered good service to students by the extensive list which he has compiled. I regret that the pressure of other occupations has not allowed me to supply what undoubtedly ought to have been given-viz., exact reference to authorities quoted, and the different manuscripts from which old spellings have been collected. I can but offer an apology to my readers for this omission, with the assurance that they may rely on the care with which such extracts have been made. HERBERT MAXWELL. MONREITH, January 1894. CONTENTS. Difficulties to be encountered-Every place-name means something -Permanence of place-names-Their origin not usually poeti- cal, but matter-of-fact-Arbitrary orthography-Importance of early spelling-Changes in vowel sound-The significance of stress-Its movement with the qualitative in compounds—In- fluence of railways on pronunciation-Popular and map-makers' PAGE Traces of pre-Celtic speech-The Iverian or Silurian race-The Fir- bolg of the Irish Annalists-The Ernai-The two main branches of Celtic speech—Obsolete words—The operation of umlaut— Linguistic change-Effects of aspiration and eclipse-Difference b Pictish speech-Conflict of authorities-Place-names in Pictland— Mythical descent of the Picts-Columba's mission to Pictland - Pictish vocables-Polyglot passage in Bede's Chronicle—The place-names of Galloway-Conclusions-Anglo-Saxon speech- The Frisian colonies-Order of generic and specific in Teutonic Scandinavian or Old Norse and Danish-Obliteration of Celtic speech in the Northern Isles - Mixture of tongues in the Western Isles-Norse names disguised as Gaelic-Aspiration of Gaelic consonants-Confusion on the maps-Gaelic names disguised as Norse-Relative antiquity of certain place-names -Traces of Norse occupation in Scotland-Resemblance be- tween Norse and Saxon speech-Norse test-words-Their dis- tribution Inferences therefrom-Mixture of languages in |