Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race

by Arthur James Johnes

“Ben-heder,” the ancient Irish name for “The Hill of Howth,” interpreted by Mr. Moore “The Hill of Birds.” (Adar, “Birds,” Welsh. The word does not exist in Irish.)

Arran, A mountainous Island. (Arran, a Mountain, Welsh. This word does not exist in Irish,) &c. &c.

Mr. Chalmers in his Caledonia states that the prevalent ancient names of localities in Britain and Ireland are essentially the same.

The conclusions to which these facts legitimately and necessarily lead are, that the British Islands were originally colonized by Settlers, who, at the time of the first occupation of Great Britain and Ireland, spoke one uniform language, in which the Welsh, Irish, and other living Celtic Dialects were combined. We may infer, and I conceive most clearly, that these dialects must be viewed in the light of “Disjecta Membra” of the speech of the old British and Irish Celts, just as the Icelandic, Norwegian, &c. are fragments of the ancient “Danska Tunge,” as noticed in the previous section.

It has been shown by Dr. Prichard that the population of Islands has been derived from the neighbouring Continents, and that the population of the more distant Islands has been derived in like manner from those which are nearer to the common source of migration. It is highly unreasonable to assume that Ireland has formed an exception to this general rule, considering that the common basis of the Irish and ancient British or Welsh languages are confessedly the same, unless it can be proved that the accompanying differences are such as to require the solution Lhuyd has suggested. Here, then, the question arises, are the features of difference between the Welsh and Irish languages more numerous or more fundamental, in relation to the interval of time that has elapsed since the Roman Invasion of Britain, than the varieties of dialect among the Scandinavian nations are in relation to the period that has elapsed since the colonization of Iceland? They are not! It will thence be seen that Lhuyd's theory, as to the remote date of the separation of the Gaelic or Irish from the British or Cymraeg branch of the Celts, is founded on an exaggerated conception [pg 059] of the stability of Human Tongues; and that the abandonment by various septs of different synonymes used conjointly by their common forefathers will satisfactorily account for the differences between the Welsh and Irish, to which he attaches so much weight. It will be perceived, for example, that in the Icelandic, of which the existence commenced in the ninth century, and the Continental Scandinavian from which it then sprang, totally different terms are used for “Water,” the very instance to which Lhuyd especially adverts, as regards the languages of the Welsh and Irish, whom we know to have existed as separate nations in the time of Cæsar eighteen centuries ago!

Another highly instructive test of the correctness of his theory may be derived from the investigations of Lhuyd himself, who, in his comparison of the Welsh and Irish languages, uniformly distinguished the current terms from the obsolete synonymous words that occur only in ancient MSS. This comparison proves distinctly that the Irish and Welsh languages approximate, as we ascend, at a rate which, if as rapid previously as we know it to have been up to the date of the earliest MSS., would imply that these languages must have been identical about the era of the Roman invasion. As the changes which languages undergo in their infancy are more rapid than those which occur at later stages of their growth, it is possible that the unity of these Tongues may be ascribed even to a much later period, an opinion which has been maintained by a very judicious and excellent writer, Mr. Edward Davies, who in his “Claims of Ossian” has published an early specimen of Irish Poetry, which in Language and Style he regards as identical with the most ancient productions of the Welsh Bards. Making every allowance for the irregularity of the changes which occur in Languages, I do not conceive it possible that the Welsh and Irish could have differed very essentially [pg 060] in the time of Cæsar. This leads directly to another conclusion, viz. that the first colonization of Ireland could not have taken place a great many centuries before the Roman invasion. Had such been the case, the differences between the Welsh and Irish Languages must have been proportionately more extensive. In the time of the Romans we learn that an Irish traitor arrived in Britain, who stated that Ireland might be kept in subjection by a single legion, an incident which tends, however slightly, to favour the opinion that the sister Island was at that period but thinly, perhaps because but recently, peopled.

Of the extent of the changes which the Celtic languages have undergone since the first arrival of the Celts in Europe, we possess proofs of far more ancient date than the earliest literary specimens of the living dialects of the Celtic in the Local names of Celtic regions, as preserved in Roman Maps, and in the existing languages of the French, English, and other nations, who occupy countries of which the Celts were the first inhabitants. These names I shall show to consist of three elements: A union of 1, Welsh, Cornish, &c.; 2, Irish, Highland Scotch, &c.; and 3, Terms not extant in any Celtic Tongue, but preserved in the Oriental, Greek, and other languages.

As regards the Names of the 1st and 2d Classes, it will abundantly appear from the ensuing examples that, in the Topographical Nomenclature of Gaul, Britain, and other Celtic regions of Europe,[53] words derived from all the various Celtic dialects now extant, occur in a manner that leads distinctly to the inference that these “Disjecta membra” must have simultaneously belonged to the language of the old Celts. Dr. Prichard, who has examined these vestiges of the [pg 061] ancient Celtic Populations of Europe with much ability and success, leans to the opinion that the Cymraeg or Welsh Dialects predominate in these names. But the following examples, which comprise many names derived from the Irish or Gaelic that have not been noticed by Dr. Prichard or by previous writers on this subject, will serve to render it manifest that the ancient Names in Europœa Celtica did, in fact, include all the various living Celtic dialects very equally and harmoniously blended.

How luminous and distinct these proofs of the identity of the ancient with the modern Celtic nations are, will be better understood by a preliminary statement of certain rules, which will serve to give greater precision and perspicuity to the illustrations selected:

1. There can be no doubt that the Romans, in the Celtic, as in other countries conquered by them, modified the native terms by the addition of their own peculiar grammatical inflections, as in “Judæ-i, Britann-i, Sen-ones,” &c. Now it is obvious that in identifying the Celtic terms we must reject these mere Roman inflections.[54]