Careful study and research have enabled philologists to establish a
system of linguistic classification. They have given us such families
as the Chinese, the Polynesian, the Scythian, the Semitic, and others;
and above them all the great Indo-European Family, which comprehends ten
members—three Asiatic and seven European.
Seven of these ten families have long been recognized, namely: Iranian,
or Ancient and Modern Persian; Indian, or Sanskrit, used in Hindostan;
Hellenic—Ancient and Modern Greek; Italic, that is, the Latin and
its descendants—Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Provençal,
Rheto-Romanic, and Wallachian; Slavonic, preëminently the Russian;
Celtic, or Keltic, made up of the Cymric and the Gaelic; Teutonic,
subdivided into Gothic, Scandinavian, High German, and Low German. Into
the Low German the English falls. Recent scholars have added to these
seven the Lithuanian, Armenian, and Albanian, making ten in all.
So unlike are these languages now, that it was not suspected until this
century that they were once the same speech spoken by a people dwelling
together long enough to build up a respectable vocabulary and a common
language. The home of this mother-tribe is involved in obscurity.
Conjecture, at one time, placed it upon the high table-land of Eastern
Persia. Recent surmise, principally German, locates it in Germany, in
Scandinavia, in Russia just north of the Caucasus mountains. When, and
in what order, the migrations took place is also conjectural. That great
migrations did occur, and that each migrating horde carried along with
it the parent speech, is no longer questioned. Strong authorities make
it credible that the Celtic tribes were the first to abandon the old
homestead and seek their fortunes in new and strange lands.
Of this people, the Celts, when first they appear upon the historical
horizon, some prefatory remarks are needed. They occupied the Spanish
Peninsula, Gaul when conquered by Cæsar, and Britain, when visited by
him in 55 and 54 B. C. In Britain, they were divided into many tribes,
and were seldom known to unite in a common cause. They lived in houses
hollowed out of the hills, built with low stone walls, thatched with
reeds and straw, and lighted only by the door. Their dress consisted of
the tunic and short trousers. Fruits, milk, flesh, and grain bruised
and baked, constituted their food. They manufactured earthenware, war
chariots, arrows, the sword, the spear, the battle-axe, and the shield,
burned or buried their dead, tattooed their bodies, and were largely
controlled by their priests. The latter—the _druids_—monopolized the
learning, took to themselves supreme authority, settled all disputes,
civil and criminal, and were exempt from taxation and all public duties.
No determined resistance was offered by the Celts to Roman occupancy
of Britain, for, under Agricola, the Romans had by 84 A. D., conquered
as far north as the Firth of Forth, which they joined to the river
Clyde by the wall of Antoninus. Subsequently, they built as additional
protection against the Picts, the noted wall of Severus, sometimes called
Hadrian’s wall, which united the Solway and the Tyne. No attempt of a
thorough conquest of the island was made by the Romans, but with their
headquarters at Eboracum, now York, they held it by a chain of fortified
posts, whose site is now mainly indicated by towns with names terminating
in _chester_, _cester_ or _caster_—modifications of the Latin _castra_,
a camp. These posts the Romans connected by broad and straight military
roads over which their legions could readily march.
Roman aggrandizement was of primary importance. Taxes were levied on
arable land, on pasture land, and on fruits, and duties were exacted
at the ports. Agriculture was fostered, and large quantities of grain
exported to Rome. But the imperial city whose empire was so wide, and
whose armies were mostly composed of conscripts from subjugated people,
and led by generals of their own blood, was threatened by invading
hordes, and was compelled to withdraw her legions for home defense. By
420 the soldiers had all been withdrawn, and the Celts were themselves
once more. But their freedom and rejoicing were of short continuance.
A more formidable invasion than that of the Roman followed, and by the
middle of the fifth century they were the slaves of the Angles, the
Saxons, and the Jutes.
Upon the withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain, the unsubdued
Picts and Scots of the north attacked the Celts of the south, who had
been subjects of Roman oppression. Whether the assailed Britons detached
the Gothic tribes from an alliance with the Picts and Scots, and turned
them against their former allies; whether, without having been in league
with them, the strangers came from their home beyond the North Sea to
help beat back the Picts and Scots; or whether, tempted by the fertile
soil, they came on their own account, we may never know; but one thing
is certain, that they came, and that they came never to go away. Their
coming is of weighty significance, for they became the basis of the
English nation, and their speech the parent of the English language.
The unconquered Celts of the west and north spoke their own tongue—the
Celtic—while that of the conquered portion was overwhelmingly the
language of the conquerors, and was called the Anglo-Saxon. It was
not, however, entirely pure, for some few Celtic words had unavoidably
entered it. The names for the rivers, lakes, hills and mountains, given
by the Celts, clung pertinaciously to these objects, and are found with
the English of the present day. Throughout the whole of England there
is hardly a river-name that is not Celtic. _Avon_, Celtic for _water_,
occurs as the name of fourteen English rivers upon our maps. _Esk_, of
like meaning, designates more than twenty, and has also entered into the
names of towns, as in _Ax_minster, _Ex_eter, _Ox_ford, and _Ux_bridge.
_Cam_, _Humber_, _Ouse_, _Thames_, and _Wye_, and many other river-names,
are Celtic. _Pen_, or _Ben_, Celtic for _mountain_, is seen in the name
for the range called _Pen_nine, in that of the hills called _Pen_tland,
and in _Ben_-Nevis and _Ben_-Lomond. _Dun_, a hill-fortress, is found in
_Dum_barton, _Dun_dee, _Dun_keld. Hundreds of other Celtic words can be
observed on almost any map of England, and, indeed, on the maps of Spain,
France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. The names of the rivers Rhine,
Rhone, Garonne, and Seine are Celtic. Italy is Celtic for “beautiful
region,” and German for “rough man.” Besides the numerous geographical
names of Europe that are traceable to this language, such common names as
_camel_, _clock_, _comma_, _fodder_, _gun_, _snake_, and _whiskey_, owe
to it their origin, not to mention scores of well-known family names of
every-day occurrence.
The remains of the Celtic language are still to be found in the Welsh,
the Gaelic of the Scottish Highlands, the Erse or Irish, and the Manx of
the Isle of Man.