Chapter 72

THE CELTIC STOCK OF LANGUAGES, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE ENGLISH.

§ 57. The languages of Great Britain at the invasion of Julius Cæsar were of the Celtic stock.

Of the Celtic stock there are two branches.

1. The British or Cambrian branch, represented by the present Welsh, and containing, besides, the Cornish of Cornwall (lately extinct), and the Armorican of the French province of Brittany. It is almost certain that the old British, the ancient language of Gaul, and the Pictish were of this branch.

2. The Gaelic or Erse branch, represented by the present Irish Gaelic, and containing, besides, the Gaelic of the Highlands of Scotland and the Manks of the Isle of Man.

§ 58. Taken altogether the Celtic tongues form a very remarkable class. As compared with those of the Gothic stock they are marked by the following characteristics:--

_The scantiness of the declension of Celtic nouns._--In Irish there is a peculiar form for the dative plural, as _cos_ = _foot_, _cos-aibh_ = _to feet_ (ped-ibus); and beyond this there is nothing else whatever in the way of _case_, as found in the German, Latin, Greek, and other tongues. Even the isolated form in question is not found in the Welsh and Breton. Hence the Celtic tongues are pre-eminently uninflected in the way of _declension_.

§ 59. The _agglutinate character of their verbal inflections_.--In Welsh the pronouns for _we_, _ye_, and _they_, are _ni_, _chwyi_, and _hwynt_ _respectively_. In Welsh also the root = _love_ is _car_. As conjugated in the plural number this is--

car-wn = am-amus. car-ych = am-atis. car-ant = am-ant.

Now the -wn, -ych, and -ant, of the persons of the verbs are the personal pronouns, so that the inflection is really a verb and a pronoun in a state of _agglutination_; i.e., in a state where the original separate existence of the two sorts of words is still manifest. This is probably the case with languages in general. The Celtic, however, has the peculiarity of exhibiting it in an unmistakable manner; showing, as it were, an inflection in the process of formation, and (as such) exhibiting an early stage of language.

§ 60. _The system of initial mutations._--The Celtic, as has been seen, is deficient in the ordinary means of expressing case. How does it make up for this? Even thus. The noun changes its initial letter according to its relation to the other words of the sentence. Of course this is subject to rule. As, however, I am only writing for the sake of illustrating in a general way the peculiarities of the Celtic tongues, the following table, from Prichard's "Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations," is sufficient.

Câr, _a kinsman_.

1. _form_, Câr agos, _a near kinsman_. 2. Ei gâr, _his kinsman_. 3. Ei châr, _her kinsman_. 4. Vy nghâr, _my kinsman_.

Tâd, _a father_.

1. _form_, Tâd y plentyn, _the child's father_. 2. Ei dâd, _his father_. 3. Ei thâd, _her father_. 4. Vy nhâd, _my father_.

Pen, _a head_.

1. _form_, Pen gwr, _the head of a man_. 2. Ei ben, _his head_. 3. Ei phen, _her head_. 4. Vy mhen, _my head_.

Gwas, _a servant_.

1. _form_, Gwâs fydhlon, _a faithful servant_. 2. Ei wâs, _his servant_. 3. Vy ngwas, _my servant_.

Duw, _a god_.

1. _form_, Duw trugarog, _a merciful god_. 2. Ei dhuw, _his god_. 3. Vy nuw, _my god_.

Bara, _bread_.

1. _form_, Bara cann, _white bread_. 2. Ei vara, _his bread_. 3. Vy mara, _my bread_.

Lhaw, _a hand_.

1. _form_, Lhaw wenn, _a white hand_. 2. Ei law, _his hand_.

Mam, _a mother_.

1. _form_, Mam dirion, _a tender mother_. 2. Ei vam, _his mother_.

Rhwyd, _a net_.

1. _form_, Rhwyd lawn, _a full net_. 2. Ei rwyd, _his net_.

From the Erse.

Súil, _an eye_.

1. _form_, Súil. 2. A húil, his eye.

Sláinte, _health_.

2. _form_, Do hláinte, _your health_.

§ 61. The Celtic tongues have lately received especial illustration from the researches of Mr. Garnett. Amongst others, the two following points are particularly investigated by him:--

1. The affinities of the ancient language of Gaul.

2. The affinities of the Pictish language or dialect.

§ 62. _The ancient language of Gaul Cambrian._--The evidence in favour of the ancient language of Gaul being Cambrian rather than Gaelic, lies in the following facts:--

The old Gallic glosses are more Welsh than Gaelic.

a. _Petorritum_ = _a four-wheeled carriage_, from the Welsh, _peder_ = _four_, and _rhod_ = _a wheel_. The Gaelic for _four_ is _ceathair_, and the Gaelic compound would have been different.

b. _Pempedula_, the _cinque-foil_, from the Welsh _pump_ = _five_, and _dalen_ = _a leaf_. The Gaelic for _five_ is _cuig_, and the Gaelic compound would have been different.

c. _Candetum_ = a measure of 100 feet, from the Welsh _cant_ = 100. The Gaelic for _a hundred_ is _cead_, and the Gaelic compound would have been different.

d. _Epona_ = _the goddess of horses._ In the old Armorican the root _ep_ = _horse_. The Gaelic for a horse is _each_.

e. The evidence from the names of geographical localities in Gaul, both ancient and modern, goes the same way: _Nantuates_, _Nantouin_, _Nanteuil_, are derived from the Welsh _nant_ = _a valley_, a word unknown in Gaelic.

f. The evidence of certain French provincial words, which are Welsh and Armorican rather than Erse or Gaelic.

§ 63. _The Pictish most probably Cambrian._--The evidence in favour of the Pictish being Cambrian rather than Gaelic lies in the following facts:

a. When St. Columbanus preached, whose mother-tongue was Irish Gaelic, he used an interpreter. This shows the _difference_ between the Pict and Gaelic. What follows shows the affinity between the Pict and Welsh.

b. A manuscript in the Colbertine library contains a list of Pictish kings from the fifth century downwards. These names are more Welsh than Gaelic. _Taran_ = _thunder_ in Welsh. _Uven_ is the Welsh _Owen_. The first syllable in _Talorg_ ( = _forehead_) is the _tal_ in _Talhaiarn_ = _iron forehead_, _Taliessin_ = _splendid forehead_, Welsh names. _Wrgust_ is nearer to the Welsh _Gwrgust_ than to the Irish _Fergus_. Finally, _Drust_, _Drostan_, _Wrad_, _Necton_, closely resemble the Welsh _Trwst_, _Trwstan_, _Gwriad_, _Nwython_. _Cineod_ and _Domhnall_ (_Kenneth_ and _Donnell_) are the only true Erse forms in the list.

c. The only Pictish common name extant is the well-known compound _pen val_, which is, in the oldest MS. of Beda, _peann fahel_. This means _caput valli_, and is the name for the eastern termination of the Vallum of Antoninus. Herein _pen_ is unequivocally Welsh, meaning _head_. It is an impossible form in Gaelic. _Fal_, on the other hand, is apparently Gaelic, the Welsh for a _rampart_ being _gwall_. _Fal_, however, occurs in Welsh also, and means _inclosure_.

The evidence just indicated is rendered nearly conclusive by an interpolation, apparently of the twelfth century, of the Durham MS. of Nennius, whereby it is stated that the spot in question was called in Gaelic _Cenail_. Now Cenail is the modern name _Kinneil_, and it is also a Gaelic translation of the Pict _pen val_, since _cean_ is the Gaelic for _head_, and _fhail_ for _rampart_ or _wall_. If the older form were Gaelic, the substitution, or translation, would have been superfluous.

d. The name of the _Ochil Hills_ in Perthshire is better explained from the Pict _uchel_ = _high_, than from the Gaelic _uasal_.

e. Bryneich, the British form of the province Bernicia, is better explained by the Welsh _bryn_ = _ridge_ (_hilly country_), than by any word in Gaelic.--Garnett, in "Transactions of Philological Society."

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