Note 2 — INTRODUCTION.
Reading edition
It will be seen from the title of this work that the author does not adopt what he ventures to call the pedantic affectation of using the form of Alba instead of Alban. The oldest form of the word is Albu, as that of the name for Ireland was Eriu. Thus, in the oldest Irish Glossary—that of Cormac—we have, sub voce Trifod, ‘Eriu agus Manann agus Albu.’ The inflections are Eriu, G. Erenn, D. Eirinn, A. Erinn. Albu, G. Alban, D. Albain, A. Albain or Albu. In the later Irish documents the forms of Eire and Alba usually occur in the nominative. A nominative form derived from the genitive is, however, also found; and the names of places ending in a vowel seem to have a tendency to fall into this form in current speech. Thus we have Erin for Eiriu or Eire, Alban for Albu or Alba, Arann for Ara, Rathlin for Rechra, etc. In his Irish Glosses, Mr. Whitley Stokes has ‘Eirinnach (gl. Hibernigena), from the old name of this island, which is declined in the Book of Leinster and Lib. Hymn. Nom. herinn (Maelmura Othna’s poem), Dat. dond erinn, Gen. and Acc. herenn (see Fiacc’s hymn. vv. 7, 8, 10, and the Orthain at the end, and the quatrain from Marianus Scotus, Z. 944).’—(Irish Glosses, p. 66.)
The name of Alban occurs in this form in the nominative also in the Prophecy of St. Berchan throughout, as ‘Dia mo lan Alban is Eire’ (Chron. Picts and Scots, p. 79); Ba ard Albain chathair bhinn (ib. p. 87); Mescfaidh Albain ima chenn (ib. p. 89); Ba lomlan Albain o a la (ib. p. 91, etc.).
So also the form of Alban appears as the name of Scotland in all the Welsh documents, and the Pictish Chronicle, which is evidently translated from a Gaelic original, has Albania, which must have been formed from Alban.
The affectation of using the form Alba in the English rendering of the name was first introduced by the late Dr. O’Donovan, and has been adopted without much consideration by some Scottish writers; but the late Professor O’Curry, an equally accurate Irish scholar, invariably used the form Alban, and the author prefers retaining this conventional form.