Note 48 — Chapter IV

The pronouns cach eile and cach a chéile are hardly known in Perthshire. Instead of the former, they use the single word càch pronounced long, and declined like a noun of the singular number; and instead of the latter, a chéile, as in this example, choinnich iad a chéile; thuit cuid, agus theich càch, they met each other; some fell, and the rest fled. Here càch may be considered as a simple pronoun; but the first clause, choinnich iad a cheile, they met his fellow, hardly admits of any satisfactory analysis. The phrases, in fact, seem to be elliptical, and to be expressed more fully, according to the practice of other districts, thus: choinnich iad cach a chiéle; thuit, cuid, agus theich cach eile. Now, if cach be nothing else than gach every, (a conjecture supported by the short pronunciation of the a, as well as by the authorities adduced in the preceding note,) the expressions may be easily analysed: choinnich iad gach [aon] a cheile; thuit cuid, agus theich gach [aon] eile; they met every [one] his fellow; some fell, and every other [one] fled, See 1 Thess. v. 11.