Note 25 — Notes
Reading edition
It is worthy of remark that in such words as caird-eil friendly, slaint-eil salutary, the substitution of e in place of a in the termination, both misrepresents the sound, and disguises the derivation of the syllable. The sound of this termination as in fear-ail manly, ban-ail womanly, is properly represented by ail. This syllable is an abbreviation of amhuil like, which is commonly written in its full form by the Irish, as fear-amhuil, &c. It corresponds exactly to the English termination like, in soldier-like, officer-like, which is abridged to ly, as manly, friendly. By writing eil instead of ail, we almost lose sight of amhuil altogether.