On the Affinity of the Hiberno- Celtic and Phenician Languages. By Sir WitL1am 
Berna, F.S.A. M.R.I.A. Secretary of Foreign Correspondence, Member. of 
the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, &c. §c. 
Read 28th of November, 1836. 
In my former paper, read the 23d May and 27th June, I have stated that the 
names of places in Ptolemy’s Geography are significant of their local position, cir- 
cumstances, or peculiar qualities, in the Hiberno-Celtic language ; from which it may 
fairly be inferred, that the Celta must have been an early colony of Phenicians, as all 
those names were avowedly borrowed from the Phenician mariners. 
Before I proceed to lay before the Academy the results of my more recent inyesti- 
gations, I wish to say something in answer to the observation—which, as it has been 
made by many, requires, perhaps, some preliminary remarks—viz. That my theory 
derives the Celte, and all their early learning and science, from Ireland and the 
Trish. 
This is altogether an erroneous notion. I claim for Ireland itself no pre-eminence 
in science, learning, or the arts, above the other branches of the Celt ; all I de- 
mand for Ireland is— That her people, being a branch of the great colonizing people 
of antiquity, enjoyed an equal portion of civilization with the mother country, im the 
ratio which colonies usually possess. 
It is no part of my theory that the other colonies of the Phenicians, or branches 
of the Celt, derived anything from Ireland, or the British islands, further than what 
Cesar asserts, that the chief seat of Druidic science and learning was from thence. 
Were I to assert that the early Greeks and Romans borrowed their learning, 
science, and civilization, from the Irish, I should receive and deserve the ridicule due 
to such an assertion. I shall not, however, fear it, when I assert that they derived 
those blessings from the Phenician ancestors of the Irish Celta. Were I to assert 
that the Etruscans and Pelasgi were descended from the Irish, I should receive the 
derision such a declaration would justly call for ; but I do not fear it when I assert 
that they were colonies of the same great people. 
VOL. XVII. PP 
