Of this approximation, the features of identity between the Anglo-Saxon and the Icelandic, pointed out by the writers whose views Professor Rask combats, furnish a reasonable presumption, which is converted into positive proof by the evidence collected by Professor Rask himself, that the same features occur in all the ancient, though they do not in the modern, specimens of the Languages of the Scandinavian Peninsulas. It is true, this learned writer, of whose researches I have chiefly availed myself in this Section, maintains that there are some features in which all the Scandinavian differ from the Anglo-Saxon and other Teutonic Dialects, a conclusion, however, but feebly supported by the examples he has adduced, and scarcely reconcilable in any way with the resemblance which the primitive Swedish dialect of Dalecarlia is said to bear to the Gothic. But, assuming the occurrence of some features of difference, even in the earliest specimens we possess, this assumption leaves untouched the proposition that these specimens show a rapid rate of approximation, which, if equally rapid prior to their date, implies that at an era not many ages anterior the identity of the languages of Germany and Scandinavia must have been complete.
Section V.
The Origin of the Irish Nation. The original Language of the British Isles was a Union of Welsh and Irish. Union of the Irish, Welsh, &c. in the ancient Local Names in the Celtic Countries of Gaul, &c. These Names a connecting Link between the existing Celtic Dialects and the Oriental, Greek, and other Languages, &c.
The origin of the Irish nation, or Gael, forms—for numerous reasons—a highly interesting and important subject of inquiry. Of this Nation the very same theories have been maintained as those which have been adopted in some quarters with respect to the North American Indians, the Negroes, and other branches of the Human Family; viz., that they are of a stock aboriginally inferior and distinct, by nature incapable of the virtues of civilization. Let the views advocated by Pinkerton with respect to the Gaelic race—views received with no slight degree of favour in his time—be compared with the doctrines of many modern writers on the subject of the native African and American Races, and an instructive lesson will be learnt on the force of prejudice and the uniformity of error!
On the other hand, it must be allowed that the opinions which have been generally espoused on the subject of the origin of the Gael by many of the Historians and Scholars of Ireland and of the Highlands of Scotland, can scarcely be said to possess a better claim to the approbation of a calm and dispassionate judgment. Eminently distinguished as the Irish are by Literary genius, there is probably no subject on which their native talent has appeared to less advantage than in the investigation of the early History of their own [pg 050] Country. Fictions the most extravagant, borrowed from the Chronicles of the dark ages, have been credulously adopted by their first Scholars in lieu of those solid truths to which a calm and sober inquiry alone can lead. Thus we find Mr. Moore, at once the Poet and the Historian of Ireland, lending the sanction of his name to the Fable that the Irish are of Spanish origin; and citing, in answer to the more reasonable hypothesis of a British origin, a variety of Irish writers of no mean note, and some Welsh writers also, in favour of the assertions: 1, that the Irish Language is almost totally unlike the Welsh or Ancient British; and 2, that the Welsh is not a Celtic but a Gothic Tongue! There is every reason to conclude that Mr. Moore—unacquainted, probably, with any of the Celtic dialects himself—resorted to those authorities which he might naturally have deemed most deserving of confidence. But this only renders more lamentably conspicuous the credulity, carelessness, and ignorance of those to whose labours he has appealed. The assertions, 1, that the Welsh and Irish are unlike; and 2, that the Welsh is a Gothic dialect, are contradictions of the plainest facts.
Influenced by national feelings Gaelic Scholars have also advanced various other theories, calculated to exhibit the antiquity of their language and race in a favorable point of view. The Gaelic has been maintained to be the Parent, at least in part, of the Latin, the Welsh, &c.; while to the first Colonists of Ireland a Carthaginian or Phœnician origin has been assigned.
These conclusions cannot be sustained. But it is highly probable, notwithstanding, that the proofs on which they have been based will be found, in many instances, to contain the germs of important truths, though blended with an admixture of error. The traces of affinity between the Irish [pg 051] and other ancient languages which have been collected by Gaelic Scholars, may be open in many cases to the same remark, which is clearly applicable to the examples of affinity pointed out by Mr. Catlin between the dialect of the North American Indian tribe the Mandans and the Welsh; viz., these features may consist of clear and genuine traces of a generic, though they may afford no proofs of a specific, affinity of race. There can be no doubt that the Irish preserves many primitive forms which the kindred Celtic of Wales has lost; there can be no doubt also that the Irish approximates to the Latin, to the Greek, and to the Egyptian,[49] &c. in many features which the Welsh no longer exhibits. The examples adduced in Appendix A of the connexion of the Irish language with the Hebrew, Egyptian, &c. are sufficient to show that the Irish are a nation of Oriental origin. But on the other hand it must be borne in mind, that inasmuch as the Welsh, Latin, &c., have also preserved primitive forms which the Irish has lost, there is no ground for concluding that the Gaelic is a Parent rather than a Sister of these venerable Tongues; and inasmuch as the evidence of the Eastern origin of the Gael, however unequivocal, is not clearer or closer than the accompanying[50] evidence with respect to the Welsh, English, and other European nations, there are no peculiar grounds for referring the first colonization of Ireland to a direct migration from the shores of Palestine or Africa, rather than to the gradual diffusion of population from a central point.
The following comparison presents examples of features in which the Irish approximates to the Gothic and other Languages, at the same time that it differs more or less from the Welsh.
Words in which the Gaelic resembles the Gothic, and other European Languages, more closely than it resembles the Cymraeg or Welsh.
| English. | Gaelic. | Illustrations. | Cymraeg. |
| 1. Father. | Ath-air, (Ir.) | Atta, (Gothic.),Ayta, Aydia, (Basque.),Attia, (Hung.),Otek, (Russ.),Fader, slightly varied in all the Gothic dialects, except the Gothic properly socalled, Pater, (Greek & Latin.) | Tad, (W.) |
| 2. Mother. | Math-air, (Ir.) | Mater or Mutter (withsome trifling variations) in Latin, Greek, and all the Teuto-Scandinaviandialects except the Gothic—also in the Sclavonic and Bohemian.Ath-ei, (Gothic.) | |
| Mymmog, (Manx dialect. | Mam, (W.) | ||
| 3. Brother. | Brathair, (Ir.) | The Irish form,Brathair, occurs in the Latin and Teuto-Scandinav. tongues; theWelsh form, Brawd, inthe Sclavonian tongues. | Brawd, (W.),Bredar, (Cornish.) |
| Breur, (Manx dialect | Breur, (Arm.) | ||
| 4. Sister. | |Siur, (Ir.) | The Irish form prevails in the Latin, Teuto-Scand. and Sclavonic. | Chwaer, (W.) |
| Piur, (Scotch.) | Hor, Huyr, (Cornish.) | ||
| 5. A Company. | Drong, (Ir.) | Drang, a Throng, a Crowd, (German.) | Torv. |
| 6. Mock. | Magom, (Ir.) | Mock, (English.) | Gwatwor, (W.) |
| 7. Evil. | Neoid, (Ir.) | Naughty, (Eng.) | Droug, (W.) |
| Olk, (Ir.) | Ill, (Eng.) | ||
| 8. The Bank of a stream. | Rang, (Ir.) | Rand,[51] (Germ.) | Glan, (W.) |
| 9. A Step. | Beim, (Ir.) | Bēm-a, a Step, (Greek.),Bain-o, to go, Bahn, a Path, (Germ.) | Cam. |
| 10. To bear. | Beir-im, (Ir.) | Fero, (Latin.) Ge-Bähr-en, (Germ.) | Dwyn. |
| 11. Jeering, Delight, A Desire. | Fon-amhad (Ir.), Foun, (Ir.) | Fun, (Eng.), Vonne, Delight, (Germ.), Vunsch, a Wish, (Germ.) | Vynn, or Mynn, a Wish, (W.) |
| 12. A Woman. | Geon, (Ir.) | Cwen, (Ang.-Sax. & Icel.) | Gen-eth, a Girl, (W.) |
| 13. To know. | Fis-ay-im, Fod-am, (Ir.) | Viss-en, (Germ.), Vit-an, (Ang.-Sax.), “I wot,” (Eng.) | Wys, or Gwys, Wyth, or Gwyth, Knowledge (W.) |
| 14. To heat, or warm. | Gorm, (Ir.) | Warm, (Eng.) | Gwresogi, (W.) |
| 15. A Shadow. | Sgath, (Ir.) | Skia, Skiad-on, (Greek.), Schatten, (Germ.) | Cysgod, (W.) |
| 16. To speak. | |Raid-him, (Ir.) | Read-en, (Germ.) | Siarad, (W.) |