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

by Arthur James Johnes

I conceive the evidence adduced in the previous pages must serve to place beyond all doubt the truth of the propositions illustrated in this Section, viz., that the language of the primitive Celts of Europe and the British Isles originally consisted of a combination of the Welsh and Irish, and other living Celtic dialects, united with many words and forms preserved in none of those dialects, but traceable in the Hebrew, the Greek, and the languages of other ancient and distant nations.

The uniformity that presents itself in the ancient local nomenclature of all the Celtic countries is a very remarkable and instructive feature, of which an adequate conception can be formed only by an examination of the Roman Maps. The identity of names, for example, is found to be as complete [pg 086] when the Roman Maps of Gaul and Britain are compared, as we meet with in examining the Maps of two English Counties! To this rule Ireland, as far as we can judge from the imperfect nature of the information transmitted to us, formed no exception. These facts lead to the inference that the Celts must have diffused themselves, within a comparatively short interval of time, over all the regions of Europe of which the Romans found them in possession! Had the process of diffusion occupied a great many ages, there must have been a commensurate change in the Celtic language, which would have displayed itself in the local names of the more distant regions. But no such difference occurs, the local nomenclature of Britain, for instance, being identical with that of Switzerland and Spain!

Section VI.

Summary of the Results deducible from the previous Sections. The Changes which have occurred in the English, Scandinavian, and Celtic Languages, sufficient to account for the Differences among all Human Tongues. Causes which give rise to the Abandonment and specific Appropriation of Synonymes. Total Differences of Grammatical Forms no Proof of a fundamental Difference of Language. The Relation which the Languages of one Continent, viewed in the aggregate, bear to the individual Languages of such Continent, the same as that which the ancient Scandinavian bears to its derivative Dialects, &c. Incipient Changes in the Language of Australia.

The facts developed in the previous Sections obviously present a satisfactory solution of the problem suggested at page 25, viz., whence it has come to pass that languages almost totally different in their present composition could have sprung from one original Tongue? That existing languages have sprung from one source is a proposition of which the proofs have been explained in the same Chapter in which this problem has been suggested. (See Chap. I.)

In the preceding Sections it has been shown, agreeably to the statement contained in Section I., that Languages are exposed to two prominent causes of change; viz., the abandonment by different branches of the same race—1, of different Synonymes; 2, of different meanings of the same Synonyme.

From the facts Historically proved in the previous Sections it will be found to be an indisputable truth, that—assuming their operation to be continued for an adequate period of time,—these [pg 088] two causes are calculated to produce, from one parent Tongue, languages of which the differences are apparently fundamental. For example, if the differences between the Gothic and Celtic languages noticed at page [28],—languages which differ almost totally,—are compared with those which have been proved to have arisen in the last nine hundred years among the various branches of the Scandinavian and the Celtic, it will be seen at once that the latter are of precisely the same nature as the former. The only distinction is that they are fewer in point of number! But on the other hand, it is certain that the same causes of change—acting at the same rate during a previous period of treble that length of time—might have produced between two branches of a common original speech differences equally numerous with those which the Gothic and Celtic exhibit; in other words, differences sufficiently extensive almost entirely to exclude all vestiges of original unity!

But it must be added, that it would be highly erroneous to infer that the rate of change previous to the commencement of the Historical period was the same as it has been since; it must have been much more rapid! Changes of this nature are prompted by the dictates of convenience, which suggest the extinction of superfluous words, and the appropriation of the remainder to distinct though kindred purposes; names for “Water, Rivers, the Sea,” for example, were doubtless in the first instance applied indifferently to all these objects. Now, inasmuch as languages are more redundant in their earlier than they are in their later stages, it is apparent that these changes, of which this redundant character is the source, must be more rapid.

This explanation would fully account for the diversity of structure evinced by the Gothic and Celtic Tongues, which probably differ as widely as any languages of the globe, without referring the commencement of their separation to a [pg 089] more remote date than would be quite consistent with received systems of Chronology. That the Celtic and Gothic were originally one speech, and that the differences which they now display have arisen in this manner, will be evident from Section II. (page [26],) combined with the facts developed in the other Sections of this Chapter.

Difference of Grammatical forms has been supposed to afford proof of a fundamental difference of language. A comparison of those of the languages previously noticed will show this to be a highly erroneous conclusion! The Welsh and Irish differ most widely in their grammars, though the general resemblance of these languages proves their original identity. The German and English also differ very widely, the majority of the Pronouns being unlike. Again, even the modern and the provincial English have different Auxiliary Verbs, &c. &c. These are results of the same principle, viz., the tendency to abandon, or appropriate differently, the various elements of a common parent speech.