of the European languages, is of opinion that the Celtic was spoken
from the borders of the Hellespont to the ocean, and from Troy to Cape
Finisterre and Ireland. "La langue Celtique, dans son sens le plus
extendu, est la langue que parlerent les premiers habitans de l'Europe,
depuis les rives de l'Hellespont & de la Mer Egée, jusques a celle de
l'Ocean; depuis le cap Sigée aux portes de Troie, jusques au cap de
Finisterre en Portugal, ou jusques en Irelande."----Dis. Prelim. art.
2.
From this language, he says, sprung the Greek or Pelasgic, prior to
Hesiod and Homer--the Latin or that of Numa--the Etruscan, spoken in
a considerable part of Italy--the Thracian, spoken on the Danube, from
the Euxine to the Adriatic sea, which was the same as the Phrygian--the
Teutonic or German, spoken from the Vistula to the Rhine--the Gaulish,
spoken on the Alps, in Italy, on this side the Po, and from the Rhine
to the Ocean, including France, the Low Countries, Switzerland,
Alemain, and the two Bretagnes--also the Cantabrian, or ancient
language of Spain--in short, the Runic, spoken in the North, Denmark,
Sweden, &c.
The only pure remains of this primitive Celtic, the same author
supposes, are found in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany in France, where
the people still speak dialects of a language which is proved to be the
ancient British.
"Separes ainsi du reste de l'univers, ces debris des anciens Celtes
ont conservé leurs anciens usages, & parlent une langue qui n'a aucun
rapport a celles des peuples qui les ont subjugués, & qui s'est
partagée en trois dialectes, le Gallois, le Cornouaillien, & le Bas
Breton; dialectes qui ont entr'eux le plus grand rapport, & qui sont
incontestablement les precieux restes de l'ancienne langue des Celtes
ou des Gaulois."----Dis. Prelim.
"Separated from the rest of the world, these remains of the ancient
Celts have preserved their ancient customs, and speak a language which
_has no agreement with those of their conquerors_, and which is divided
into three dialects, the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armoric--dialects
which have a close affinity with each other, and which are, beyond
dispute, the precious remains of the ancient Celtic or Gaulish
language."[128]
In this passage the author seems to contradict what he had just before
advanced, that the Celtic was the primitive language of Europe,
from which sprung the Gothic or German. Now the Franks, Normans and
Saxons, who subdued Gaul and Britain, spoke dialects of the Gothic;
consequently there must have been, upon our author's own hypothesis,
some agreement between the ancient Celtic and the more modern languages
of the Goths, Saxons, and other northern conquerors of the Celtic
nations. This agreement will appear, when I come to collate a number of
words in the different languages.
Many learned men have attempted to prove that the Northern Goths and
Teutones, and the Celts who lived in Gaul and Britain, were originally
the same people. Mons. Mallet, the celebrated historian, has composed
his "Introduction to the History of Denmark" upon this hypothesis. His
translator is of a different opinion, and has generally substituted the
English word "Gothic" for the "Celtique" of the original. In a preface
to his translation, he endeavors to confute the opinion of Mons.
Mallet, Cluverius, Pellutier and others, and prove that the Gothic and
Celtique nations were _ab origine_ two distinct races of men. Great
erudition is displayed on both sides of the question, and those who
have a taste for enquiries of this kind, will receive much satisfaction
and improvement, in reading what these authors have written upon the
subject.
After a close examination, I freely declare myself an advocate for the
opinion of Mons. Mallet, Lhuyd, and Pellutier, who suppose the Celts
and Goths to be descended from the same original stock. The separation
however must have been very early, and probably as early as the first
age after the flood. To say that the Gothic and Celtique languages have
_no affinity_, would be to contradict the most positive proofs; yet the
affinity is very small--discoverable only in a few words.
The modern English, Danish, Swedish and German are all unquestionably
derived from the same language; they have been spoken by distinct
tribes, probably not two thousand years, and almost one half of
that period, the sounds have been in some measure fixed by written
characters, yet the languages are become so different as to be
unintelligible, each to those who speak the other. But, suppose two
languages separated from the parent tongue, two thousand years earlier,
and to be spoken, thro the whole of that time, by rude nations,
unacquainted with writing, and perpetually roving in forests, changing
their residence, and liable to petty conquests, and it is natural to
think their affinity must become extremely obscure. This seems to have
been the fact with respect to the Gothic and Celtic tongues. The common
parent of both was the Phenician or Hebrew. This assertion is not made
on the sole authority of Moses; profane history and etymology furnish
strong arguments to prove the truth of the scripture account of the
manner in which the world was peopled from one flock or family. Of
these two ancient languages, the Celtic or British comes the nearest
to the Hebrew, for which perhaps substantial reasons will be assigned.
The Gothic bears a greater affinity to the Greek and Roman, as being
derived through the ancient Ionic or Pelasgic, from the Phenician.
Lhuyd, a celebrated and profound antiquary, remarks, Arch. Brit. page
35. "It is a common error in etymology to endeavor the deriving all
the radical words of our western European languages from the Latin
and Greek; or indeed to derive constantly the primitives of any one
language from any particular tongue. When we do this, we seem to forget
that all have been subject to alterations; and that the greater and
more polite any nation is, the more subject, (partly for improvement,
and partly out of a luxurious wantonness) to new model their language.
We must therefore necessarily allow, that whatever nations were of
the neighborhood and of one common origin with the Greeks and Latins,
when they began to distinguish themselves for politeness, they must
have preserved their languages (which could differ from theirs only
in dialects) much better than they; and consequently no absurdity
to suppose a great many words of the language, spoken by the old
aborigines, the Osci, the Læstrigones, the Ausonians, Ænotrians,
Umbrians and Sabines, out of which the Latin was composed, to have been
better preserved in the Celtic than in the Roman. "Lingua Hetrusca,
Phrygia, Celtica (says the learned Stiernhelm) affines sunt omnes;
ex uno fonte derivatæ. Nec Græca longe distat, Japheticæ sunt omnes;
ergo et ipsa Latina. Non igitur mirium est innumera vocabula dictarum
Linguarum communia esse cum Latinis." And that being granted, it must
also be allowed that the Celtic (as well as all other languages) has
been best preserved by such of their colonies, as, from the situation
of their country, have been the least subject to foreign invasions.
Whence it proceeds that we always find the ancient languages are best
retained in mountains and islands."
The result of this doctrine is, that the primitive Celtic was
preserved, in greatest purity, in Britain, before the Roman and Saxon
conquests, and since those periods, in Wales and Cornwall. Hence the
affinity between the Hebrew and British, which will afterward appear.
Wallis remarks that it is doubtful whether many words in the English
and German languages are derived from the Latin, or the Latin from the
Teutonic, or whether all were derived from the same stock. "Multas
autem voces, quæ nobis cum Germanis fere sunt communes, dubium est an
prisci olim Teutones a Latinis, an hi ab illis, aut denique utrique ab
eodem commune fonte, acceperint."----Gram. Cap. 14.
But I presume that history, as well as etymology, will go far in
solving the doubt, and incline us to believe that the Teutonic, Greek
and Latin were all children of the same parent tongue.
We first hear of men in the mild climate of Asia Minor, and about the
head of the Mediterranean. Soon after the flood, the inhabitants began
to migrate into distant countries. Some of them went northward and
settled in Bactriania and Hyrcania, thence extending westward along the
shores of the Caspian sea into Armenia. From these Asiatic colonies,
sprung the Scythians and the numerous tribes that afterwards covered
the territory of modern Russia, Sweden and Denmark. The different
tribes or hordes of these people were called Cimbri, (perhaps from
Gomer) Galli, Umbri, &c. and settled the northern parts of Europe as
far as the Rhine.
The northern Greek countries, Thrace and Mysia, were peopled by the
descendants of Tiras or Thiras, a son of Japhet. The whole country from
Thrace to Peloponnesus was inhabited by the posterity of Javan and
Cittim; indeed Ionia, the ancient name of Greece, seems to be derived
from Javan, _J_ or _I_ being anciently pronounced as liquid _i_, or _y_
consonant, and as it is still pronounced in the German _ja_, _yaw_.
These settlements were made long before the Pelasgic migrations into
Greece, which happened at least 2000 years before Christ. The original
language of Greece was called _Ionic_, from _Javan_ or _Ion_. The
Pelasgi were probably Phenicians; and ancient historians relate that
they carried letters into Greece; but these must have been in a very
rude state, so early after their invention;[129] nor do we find that
they were ever much used; at least no records or inscriptions, in these
characters, are mentioned by the Greek historians.
Cadmus introduced the Phenician letters into Greece 1494 years before
Christ. These letters were introduced with some difficulty, and both
Cadmus and his followers were obliged to adopt the _Ionic_ or original
Japhetic language, which was afterwards written in his Phenician
characters.
The Greeks, at different periods, sent colonies into distant parts of
the country. These settled in Thrace, Macedon, on the banks of the
Euxine, in Asia Minor, in Italy, Sicily and on the southern shore
of the Mediterranean. This Ionic or Japhetic language was therefore
the root of the Greek and Latin. It was also the root of the Gothic
language, spoken in the north of Europe; and from which, after the
revolution of ages, the shocks of war, and the improvements in science,
no less than seven or eight different languages are derived.[130]
Profane history therefore warrants us in asserting that the Greek,
Roman, and all the modern languages of the north of Europe, and the
English, among the rest, had a common stock. But history alone would
not silence our objections to this theory, were it not incontestibly
proved by a number of radical words, common to all, which are not
yet lost in the changes of time. Etymology therefore furnishes a
demonstration of what is related in history. When one sees the words
~ginôskô~ and ~gnoô~ in Greek, _nosco_, and anciently, _gnosco_ in
Latin, and _know_ in English, conveying the same idea, he is led to
suspect that one nation borrowed the word from another. But when did
the English borrow this word? The word was used by the Saxons, long
before they could have had any knowlege of Greek or Roman authors. It
furnishes therefore a strong presumption that all the streams came from
the same fountain. But when we examin further, and find many, perhaps a
hundred words or more, common to all these languages, the evidence of
their common origin becomes irresistible. This in fact is the case.
The authors then who have labored to prove the Greek and Latin
Languages to be derived from the _Celtic_, mistake the truth. The
_Celtic_ was not _prior_ to the Greek and Latin, but a branch of the
_same stock_; that is, cotemporary with those languages.
This Japhetic language, I take to be coeval with the Phenician or
Hebrew; and there are some Hebrew words in the English language, which
must have been derived thro the Saxon or Teutonic. But the old British,
as I before remarked, retained the greatest affinity to the Hebrew. The
reason which appears probable, has been already assigned; the Celts
and Britons in the west of Europe, remained, till the times of Julius
Cæsar, less disturbed by wars and revolutions, than the inhabitants of
Asia, Egypt and Greece.
But I am inclined to believe further, that the descent of the Britons
from the first Japhetic tribes that settled in Greece, was more direct,
than thro the Gomerians or Cimbri, who travelled northward along the
shores of the Baltic. I suspect that very ancient colonies settled on
the shores of the Mediterranean, in Italy and Spain, and thence found
their way to Gaul and Britain, before the northern tribes arrived
thro Germany and Belgium. This would account for the affinity between
the Hebrew language and the Welsh. The opinion however is not well
supported by historical facts, and the ancient name of the British
language, _Cymraeg_, denoting its descent from the _Cimbric_ is a
weighty objection.[131]
It is certain however that Carthage was settled by Phenicians, about
900 years before Christ. Greek colonies went thither in the following
century, and not long after they settled at Marseilles in Gaul. The
people therefore on both shores of the Mediterranean were descended
from the same stock as the northern nations.
Accordingly we are not surprized to find some radical words nearly
the same in all the existing languages of Europe. See Jackson's
Chronological Antiquities, vol. 3, with Lhuyd, Geblin, and others.
To illustrate what I have advanced, respecting the first peopling of
the world, and the derivation of most European languages from one
mother tongue, I will here insert some remarks from Rowland's Mona
Antiqua Restaurata, p. 261, with a table of words, evidently of Hebrew
original.
"_A_ TABLE, _shewing the Affinity and near Resemblance, both in
Sound and Signification, of many Words of the Ancient Languages of
Europe with the Original Hebrew Tongue_.
"For the better understanding of the parallels of this following table,
it is to be observed, that letters of one and the same organ are of
common use in the pronunciation of words of different languages--as
for example, _M_, _B_, _V_, _F_, _P_, are labials: _T_, _D_, _S_,
are dentals: _G_, _Ch_, _H_, _K_, _C_, are gutturals--and therefore
if the Hebrew word or sound begins with, or is made of, any one of
the labials, any of the rest of the same organ will answer it in the
derivative languages. The same is to be observed in using the dental
and the guttural letters. For in tracing out the origin of words,
we are more to regard the sound of them than their literal form and
composition; wherein we find words very often, by the humors and fancy
of people, transposed and altered from their native sounds, and yet
in their signification they very well fit their original patterns. I
shall only exemplify in the letters _M_, _B_, and _V_, which are of one
organ, that is, are formed by one instrument, the lip; and therefore
are promiscuously used the one for the other, in pronouncing words of
one language in another. The Hebrew _B_ is generally pronounced as a
_V_ consonant. And the Irish also, most commonly in the middle of a
word, pronounce _M_ as a _V_; as we find the ancient Britons to have
made use of _V_, or rather _F_, which they pronounce as _V_, for _M_
and _B_ in many Latin words; as,
LATIN. BRITISH.
_Animal_ _Anifail_
_Turma_ _Tyrfa_
_Terminus_ _Terfyn_
_Calamus_ _Calaf_
_Primus_ _Prif_
_Amnis_ _Afon_
_Arma_ _Arfau_
_Firmus_ _Ffyrf_
_Monumentum_ _Monfent_
_Firmomentum_ _Ffurfafen_
_Lamentor_ _Llefain_
_Elementum_ _Eifen_
_Memorare_ _Myfyrio_
_Hyems_ _Gauaf_
_Clamare_ _Llafaru_
_Numerus_ _Nifer_
_Columna_ _Colofn_
_Gemelli_ _Gefeill_
_Roma_ _Rhufain_
_Scribo_ _Scrifenu_
_Liber_ _Llyfr_
_Remus_ _Rhwyf_
_Domo_ _Dofi_
_Rebello_ _Rhyfela_
_Pluma_ _Pluf_
_Catamanus_ _Cadfan_
_Dimetæ_ _Dyfed_
_Lima_ _Llif_
_Lamina_ _Llafn_, &c.
"We are not to wonder at this analogy of sounds in the primitive
distinction of languages. For before the use of writing, which has
established the correct form of words, people were only guided by the
ear in taking the sound of words, and they pronounced and uttered them
again as the organs of their voice were best fitted for it; and it
happening that the aptitude and disposition of those organs, peculiar
to some people and countries, were various (as we find to this day some
nations cannot shape their voice to express all the sounds of another's
tongue,) it accordingly affected and inclined some parties of people to
speak the same consonants harder or softer, to utter the same vowels
broader or narrower, longer or shorter, as they found themselves best
disposed to do. And thereupon custom prevailing with particular sets
of people, to continue the use of such different pronunciation as they
affected, the words so varied came at length to take on them different
forms, and to be esteemed and taken as parts of different languages,
tho in their origin they were one and the same.[132]
_Hebrew._ _Derivatives._ _English._