The names of Celtic communities, as they appear on the Roman Maps, may, I conceive, be proved to have been descriptive of the most prominent natural features of the regions they inhabited, and not of their lineage or descent, as seems to have been often supposed. Thus we have the Mor-ini in Belgium, and the Ar-mor-ici in Gaul on the Sea; we have the Sen-ones on the Seine, the Tamar-ici on the Tamar-is, in Hispania, &c. In the Mountainous regions it will be observed that the names of tribes are derived from the Mountains. In the flat countries they take their names from Rivers or the confluence of Rivers. In the same manner it is highly deserving of remark, that the names of the different French Departments have been derived from precisely the same natural features. Thus in the Hilly countries we have the Departments of the High Alps, “Hautes Alpes;” of the Low Alps, “Basses Alpes;” in the Champaign countries the Departments are named from the Rivers; such as the Seine, the Marne, and the Somme, &c. Many of these French names are literally equivalent to translations of the ancient Gaulish names, as interpreted by means of the Welsh and Irish languages. It is impossible to conceive a [pg 064] more perfect verification of the accuracy of these interpretations!
I may here observe, that as far as we can perceive, the various independent communities of Britain and Gaul mentioned by Cæsar, such as the Edui, the Venetes, &c., did not consist of one clan or sept, they seem rather to have been a combination of several contiguous septs, to whom no appropriate common name could have been given, except one derived from the natural features of the district they occupied.
The durability of local names has been already noticed. Of this truth we possess remarkable proofs in those of localities in France, as preserved by the modern French to the present day. I do not doubt that the present French names are, in many instances, much more faithful transcripts of the original Celtic appellations than those which occur in the Roman Maps are. Thus, for example, Bonomia, a name conferred by the Romans upon Boulogne, and of which the origin has perplexed Antiquarics, may easily be explained as a Roman abbreviation of the word Boulogne itself, of which the Celtic meaning will be shown hereafter to be appropriate and unequivocal. Here it may be noticed, that the Celtic language did not become extinct in Gaul until many centuries after the termination of the Roman sway and the establishment of the Franks in that country. The use of the old Gaulish or Celtic continued until the eighth century, nearly until the time of Charlemagne.[56] Now we know that the modern Welsh and Irish, for the most part, continue to use their own primitive names of localities in those cases in which abbreviations or translations have been substituted by the English. There can be no reasonable doubt that the ancient Gauls did the same, and that these names were in use among the inhabitants [pg 065] of each locality at the time of the final subjugation of Gaul by the Franks, by whom, in many instances, these names are more likely to have been adopted than those used by the Romans.
It will also be observed in the course of the following examples, that names of the class about to be noticed, viz., Topographical names of which the elements are not extant in the existing Celtic dialects, but occur in Oriental words, &c., are remarkably well preserved by the modern French. Thus the “Aube,” as pronounced by the French, is identical in sound with the Asiatic terms for Water, and names of Rivers, to which it is allied.
3. By many, perhaps by all those Celtic scholars who have investigated this subject, it has been assumed that the living Celtic dialects may be expected to furnish a complete clue to all the Local Names of ancient Celtic regions. This conclusion, like the theory of Lhuyd above discussed, is founded on an exaggerated idea of the stability of Human Tongues! Neither the Irish nor the Welsh, nor a combination of all the Celtic dialects, will be found to afford a complete solution of the Topographical nomenclature of the ancient Celtic regions of Europe. Names undoubtedly occur in these countries which have been preserved in none of the Celtic tongues, names which I shall indisputably show to be positive transcripts, in many instances, of appropriate terms occurring in the Hebrew and other languages, with which, in other parts of this work, the original Celtic dialects will be proved to have been originally identical. These facts lead to the conclusion that the ancient nomenclature of Celtic countries forms in reality a connecting link between the existing dialects of the Celts and the language of the Oriental stock from which they are descended.
This conclusion, though at variance with the views of many estimable writers, is nevertheless in unison with those anticipations [pg 066] which historical facts legitimately suggest. It is only reasonable to infer that since the period of their first arrival in Europe, the era at which many of these names must have been conferred (see page [10]), the Celtic tribes must have lost many words which none of the modern Celtic nations have preserved. The Celts were settled about the sources of the “Ister, and the city,” (perhaps the mountains) “of Pyrene,” even in the time of Herodotus, and how many ages had elapsed since their first arrival is unknown![57]
There is a certain Class of terms of which the meaning can reasonably be inferred from their extensive use in combination with other terms, of which the meaning may be considered as ascertained. To this class may be referred the terms immediately following.
Catti, Cassii, Casses, or Cad, seem to have meant a People, Tribe, &c., as in the following examples of the names of Celtic Tribes:
The Abr-in-Catui, in Normandy. The Catti-euch-lani, the people of Cambridgeshire and the adjoining counties. The Cassii, in Hertfordshire. The Bidu-casses, in Normandy. The Tri-casses, a people in Champagne. The Cad-ur-ci, on the Garonne.
The above words seem clearly derivable from the following Welsh words, which are allied to the Hebrew: