186 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



LESSONS IN ENGLISH. XXXIX. 



THE CELTIC ELEMENT. 



THE Celtic element in the English language has received far 

 less attention than it deserves. Till recently, indeed, its exist- 

 ence was scarcely known; and when at length it compelled 

 recognition, its appearance was restricted to ? names of places, 

 particularly the great outlines of the country, such as hills, 

 mountains, headlands, rivers, etc. 



The ordinary teaching of the schools was, that the original 

 British natives of these islands were extirpated by the invading 

 and conquering Saxons to such an extent, that the former were 

 able to sustain themselves only in the mountain fastnesses of 

 the extreme parts of the country, Scotland in the north, Corn- 

 wall in the south, and Wales in the west. In those parts, 

 unquestionably, the native British successfully withstood their 

 Saxon invaders, and there transmitted their vernacular tongue 

 from generation to generation. Not less is it true that the 

 British element in the population of the lowlands was neither 

 uprooted nor absorbed. Extermination is a rare event in the 

 migrations and changes of tribes and nations. Scarcely would 

 it be too much to affirm that extermination never takes place. 

 And even absorption is only partial. Besides, if blood is ab- 

 sorbed, it does not lose its primitive qualities. Still less easy 

 of absorption is a language. A living language that is, a 

 language vernacular to the aboriginals of a country stamps 

 itself on the entire land and on the whole life of the people. 

 That impression is all but indelible. Only the attrition and 

 abrasion of centuries can wear the image down, much less 

 wholly efface it. The language of the cottage is one of the few 

 permanent things on earth ; and when, by the extruding power 

 of the language of the court, and of books, and of commerce, 

 it is compelled to withdraw into narrower and narrower limits, 

 it ceases to be a language only to become a dialect and a patois 

 (the language of the peasants of a province), and still maintains 

 an existence in what we call provincialisms and vulgarisms, 

 when at length it is wholly banished from cultivated society. 

 Nor only there does it survive ; it lives on in the warp and woof 

 of the spoken and written tongue. These allegations are borne 

 out by the fact that in our present English, the original Celtic 

 of these islands still remains to no inconsiderable extent. 



The Celts (or, as the fashion now is, the Kelts), as far back as 

 history goes, were the primitive inhabitants of England, Wales, 

 Scotland, and Ireland. The race at large, in an ante-historic 

 period, migrated from Central Asia into Europe, and, spreading 

 over its surface, penetrated to its western limits. 



The Celtic language is now acknowledged to have affinities 

 with the important group of languages denominated the Indo- 

 Germanic, of which the Sanscrit, the Greek, and the German may 

 be taken as representatives. At the same time, the Celtic lan- 

 guage, as being a language spoken by an independent family of 

 nations, possesses essentially independent features. 



There are still six Celtic tongues or dialects recognised in 

 Europe. Of these, four belong to the British Islands. A fifth, 

 the Cornish, now nearly or quite extinct, also pertained to the 

 same insular home of the Keltai or Celts. The sixth, the Ar- 

 morican, belongs to Brittany, a country connected with Britain 

 in history as well as in name. 



THE CELTIC TONGUES. 



I. THE GALLIC OR BRITISH, 

 including 



1. Cymric or Welsh. 



2. Cornish. 



3. Armorican or Breton. 



II. THE GAELIC OK ERSE, 

 including 



1. Fenic or Irish. 



2. Gaelic or Highland Scotch. 



3. Manx. 



The statements that have been made as to the survival of the 

 Celtic element in our national life and literature may be con- 

 firmed by a quotation from an author of merit, whose studies 

 . and whose subject would naturally incline him to give predomi- 

 nance to Saxon claims : " Nothing is more 'common or less true 

 than the exaggerated account of total exterminations and mise- 

 rable oppressions in the traditional literature of conquered 

 nations ; and we may very safely appeal even to the personal 

 appearance of the peasantry in many parts of England as evi- 

 dence how much Keltic blood was permitted to subsist and even 

 to mingle with that of the ruling Germans ; while the signatures 

 to very early charters supply us with names assuredly not Teu- 

 tonic (or Saxon), and therefore possibly borne by persons of 



Keltic race, occupying positions of dignity at the courts of 

 Anglo-Saxon kings." * 



In a list given by the very learned German philologist Adelung 

 (Mithridates II. 40) of genuine Celtic words found gathered 

 from very ancient sources, and found in Teutonic tongues, the 

 following have representatives in the English of the present 

 day: 



Aber, as in .dberconway and several other "Welsh names, denotes the 

 mouth of a river, the confluence of a river with the sea ; and hence a 

 bay or harbour. It is found in the French Havre (Havre-de-Grace) 

 and in the English liarhow. 



Alpes, the ancient Gallic designation, for any high land; hence our 

 Albion, so called from its lofty cliffs. 



Bard, the Gallic name for poet, singer, prophet. 



Bastard, from the Welsh bas, low, and tardd, to come forth ; hence, 

 persons of low and unworthy birth. 

 Becco, Gallic, our beafc. 



Beria, a level field, a plain ; hence the numerous instances of bery as 

 a termination of English names of places. 



Braca, Gallic, a dam, a limit; Scotch, bray; French, braie, a hedge. 

 Braccce, Gallic, breeches. 



Brace, i.e., corn, whence the Gauls made their beer ; hence the words 

 breic, bracer, beer. 



Bria, briga, perhaps from the Welsh brig, brigyn, a hill-top. Briga 

 itself signifies in the Celtic a toacn, as in Boroughbridge. 



Cam, a group of stones or rocfcs ; hence our Cam or Cairn -and Corn- 

 wall (stony Wales). 



Carra, a Gallic four-wheeled carriage, a car, cart, to carry, carter. 

 Carruca, among the Gauls a convenient travelling carriage ; French, 

 caroche ; English, coach. 



Craig, in Welsh a rocfc, precipice ; our crag. 

 Druid, the Gallic name for priest. 



Dur, water ; Welsh, dwr ; as in Derwent, Derby, Dorchester. 

 Foil, foolish ; Welsh, ffoll ; French, fou ; Scotch, fou (tipsy) ; English, 

 fool ; German, toll. 



Lancea, Gallic for lance. 



Marga, marl ; whence Itfarlborough and Albemarle. 

 Nant, water, river ; whence Wa?iiwich. 



Pen, a summit, head ; as in Peucraig in Hereford and Pengover in 

 Cornwall, Penistone in Yorkshire, Penrith in Cumberland. 



Bit, a ford; hence the ending rit as in Camboritum, Cambridge. 

 Soldurii (sol, bond, and m; Latin, vir, a. man), bound-men, or men 

 engaged to each other and to their leader in war ; our soldier. 



Spatha, a tico-edged sword ; whence, through the German spaten, is 

 our spade. 



Tan, land, as in Britain (Britannia, the land of the Britti, or painted 

 people; so we say the blacks, the odiites, the fair.) 



The names father, mother, sister, and brother, are of necessity 

 among the first. They are also the most enduring. Consult, 

 then, this table : 



Breton. Welsh. English. 



Tad (dad), tad, fiather, dad, daddy. 



Mamm, mam, mother, mamma, mammy. 



Breur, brawd, brother. 



Choar, chwaer, sister. 



Our words father and mother come to us from the Indo-Ger- 

 manic stem; but the cottage words, the nursery words, the 

 words of intimate affection, dad, daddy, mam, mamma, mammy, 

 are derived from our British or Celtic forefathers. -The oldest 

 forms of a language are found in the cottage and on the hill- 

 side. In both those spots, and in the provincialisms which still 

 in a measure survive, a considerable number of Celtic words 

 remain. These words are among the most expressive. Take 

 the term mettle. Even Webster, after other great lexicographi- 

 cal authorities, originally derived this from . the Greek root 

 which gives us metal, namely, metallan, io scrutinise, to seek jor 

 by digging ; as if a man of mettle and a man of metal were not 

 as much opposed to each other as a high-spirited man and a 

 money -grub. Turn to the Welsh, and you find in meddwl (mind, 

 courage, which by the vulgar is called plucTc), the exact idea 

 which mettle conveys ; for example 



" The winged courser, like a generous horse, 



Shows most true mettle when you check his course." Pope. 

 To fettle, is in the genuine Lancashire dialect a very expressive 

 word, giving rise to the general idea of making a thing good, 

 excellent, delicious ; and,. occurring in such instances as to fettle 

 a horse, means to restore him to soundness; tf> fettle a ivife, 

 means to put her to rights,; fettled ale means ale warmed with 

 spice, spirits, eggs, etc. The word, together with our common 



* "The Saxons in England," by J. M. enib?e, 2 yols. ,8vo, 1849; 

 Vol. I.,'p. J 21, 



