GOTHIC LANGUAGE. 



But they who take the Gothic chavafters to be the fame with 

 the Runic, are miitakcD ; as is (hewn by 01. AVormius, Junius 

 in his preface to the Gofpels written in Gothic letters, and Dr. 

 Hicks on tlie Runic Tongue. 



Gothic Column is any'round pillar in a Gothic building, 

 either too thick or too fmall for its height. 



There are fome found even twenty diameters high, with- 

 out either diminution or fw elling. 



GoT/ltc Language, the language of the Goths. This lan- 

 guage, as the acknowli;dged parent of the Englilh, is of con- 

 liderable importance ; while its remote antiquity, the fcanti- 

 nefs of its records, and the circumilance of its having been ftu- 

 died only by few among the learned, have rendered it a matter 

 of great uncertainty as to its character and origin. The quef- 

 tions refpecting its antiquity and genius are refolvable into 

 thole in regard to the people who ufed it. Monf. Mallet, 

 in his " Northern Antiquities,'' fuppofes that the ancient 

 Gauls and Germans, the Britons and the Saxons, were all 

 originally one and the fame people : and thus he makes the 

 Gothic the fame with the Celtic tongue. This opinion, 

 Xvhich was firft taken up by Cluverius in his " German An- 

 tiquities," has been fince adopted by Keyfler in his " Nor- 

 thern and Celtic Antiquities,'' andPellouticr in his " Hillory 

 of the Celts," and maintained by them with uncommon eru- 

 dition. According to thefe writer?, the ancient and original 

 inhabitants of Europe confiftcd only of two dilHnct races 

 of men, v'fz. t'le Celts and Sarmatians ; and from one or 

 other of tlafe, but chiefly from the former, all the ancient 

 nations of Europe are defcendcd. The Sarmatians, or Sau- 

 romat.r, were the anceftors of all the Sclavonian tribes, viz. 

 the Poles, Ruffians, Bohemians, Wallachians, &c. who con- 

 tinue to this day a dilHnft and feparatc people, extremely 

 different in their chai-acter, manners, law 5, and language trom 

 the other race, which was that of the Celts ; from whom, as 

 they fuppofe, were defcended the old inhabitants of Gaul, 

 Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, and Spain, who were all in- 

 cluded by the ancients luidtr the general name of Hyper- 

 boreans, Scythians, and Celts, being all originally of one 

 race and nation, and having all the fame common language, 

 religion, laws, cuftoms, and manners. 



This opinion, though fupported with an uncommon dif- 

 play of deep erudition and a great variety of fpecious argu- 

 ments, is controverted by the late learned and ingenious Dr. 

 Percy, in a preface to Monf Mallet's Northern Antiquities, 

 which he has tranflated and enriched with notes. This pro- 

 found antiquarian, in oppofition to the French writers, ftatcs 

 that ancient Germany, Scandinavia, Gaul, and Britain, were 

 not inhabited by the defcendanls of one fincjle race ; but, 

 on the contrary, divided betw een two very different jieople ; 

 the one of whom he calls with moll of the Ro;nan authors 

 Celtic, who were the anceilors of the Gauls, Britons, and 

 Irilh ; the other Gothic or Teutonic, from whom the Ger- 

 mans, Belgians, Saxons, and Scandinavians derived tlieir 

 origin ; and that thefe were ab origine two dillinct people, 

 very unlike in their manners, cuiloms, religion, and laws. 



The Gothic, then, is radically different from tlie Cfltic ac- 

 cording to Dr. Percy, who, on the authority of Hicks, as 

 ilated in the preface to his " Inrtitutiones Grammatici An- 

 glofaxonicj;," gives the following genealogy of the two lan- 

 guages. Gothic is the parent of i. Old Saxon, or Anglo- 

 Saxon; 2. i'Vaiicic or Franco-Theotifc ; 3. Cinibric, or Old 

 Icelandic. From the lirll, -viz. the Anglo-Saxon, an- again 

 derived Englilh, Broad Scotch, Belgic, or Low Dutch, and 

 Frific. From the Francic, are derived German, or Higli 

 Dutch, German of Swabia, and Swifs ; ^vllile the Cimbric, in 



its turn, gave birth 10 t!ic Icelandic, Norwegian or Norfe. 

 Danifti, and SwcdiOi. On the other hand, the Celtic i j rrpre- 

 fented by the fame writer as the parent of the ancient Gau- 

 lifh, the ancient Britidi, (ramified into the Cornilh, Armori- 

 can, or Bas-Bretagne, and Wellh,) and the ancient Inihi 

 whicii was fubdivided into Manks, or language of the Ifle of 

 Man, into Erfe, or Highland Scotch, and Irilh. To thir 

 old original mother tongue of all the Gotluc Uialefts, it ha.' 

 been ulual to ijivi; the name of Teutonic, r.(A fo much as Dt. 

 Percy affcrts from its being the language of Tuiilo, tbr 

 great father and deity of tl c Gcrinan trib<t,as from the Teu- 

 tones, the people who ufed it : the fame probably with" tL- 

 Cimbri, or as the Greeks called tlscm Kivu.ji'.., who inha- 

 bited the northern regions, and more particular!) the Dan.i': 

 illands. Now, in oppofition to this writer, we arc fi-ee t-i 

 affirm, there is no ground for believing that this mother 

 tongue, whether called Gothic or Teutonic, was in its pri- 

 mxval form different from the Celtic. And this propolitiotj 

 we fliall endeavour to make maiiifeft from the very fpecixen» 

 by which Dr. Percy has attempted to (hew their cff-nUaJ 

 difference. But before we enter on this qucftion, it is r.ccef- 

 farj- to remark, that learned men, in their enquiries concern- 

 ing t'lie arigin of nations, have not fufficiently attended to 

 the confideration which we learn from, the Mofaic Iiillory, 

 that all nations originated in a common family, and at finl 

 fpoke a common language. /Let us lupj ofe that fome mem- 

 ber'^ or dt fcendants of this family, (as we read of Gomcr,) 

 emigrated from Afiato Europe. If they fettled in Gnrce, 

 they introduced with tlicm the primaval cuftoms, and lai-- 

 guage, though fomewhat corrupted no doubt from its ori- 

 ginal purity. Others, aftuaud by the fame fpirit cf crri- 

 gration, would loon follow ; and, if n.ore powerful, would 

 diflodge their predeccfibrs, who had no other refource but t« 

 feek new hibitations in remoter regions,' 



As thefe wanderers multiplied, they advanced, till, in tjie 

 courfe of years, all the countries on the north and wcA, as 

 well as on the call cf Europe, were completely peoj-LJ. 

 But this population of courfe could not take place bef.MC 

 they had been divided into independent tribes, mnd diltir.- 

 guiihed by correfpondent difference in dialects and manuci.~. 

 But ftill a very great refemblance mull have as yet been \i- 

 fible am.ong them in both thefe refpecls, however feparated 

 from each (>t!ier : for in the earlier periods of fociety, lan- 

 guage, though widely ufed, muil long have continued tlic 

 fame, with 1 ttle variations, it being corrupted and diverfilied 

 into dillinci tongue.^ only by the progrcfs of civiUzation, by 

 the refinements of literature, by improvements in art and in 

 government, and by thofe political convulllons which th? 

 love of conquell, infpired by confcious fuperiority in thofe 

 arts, produces. All the nations of Europe, therefore, in tlic 

 ruder and more early ages, may be confidercd as uhng only 

 the fame great primordial fpecch, grown indeed into dikinct 

 brandies, and affuming in one country the appearance of 

 being independent of, and unconnected with thole ufed Li 

 other couHtries. Now, if we fuppofe that the Celtx were 

 the firll emigrants from Afia, who, pervading Europe, letlled 

 in Gaul, Old Spain, Britain and Ireland ; while their bre- 

 thren, under the iiaanes of Getx (Goths'), Scytlix, Cimbr:, 

 &c. directing their courfe to the North, occupied Thrair.. 

 Scandinsvia, and other northern territories ; it w ould toLovv, 

 that thefe tribes, however remote, ufed at firll either tlie 

 fame language, or languages which had a dole aifimty tron 

 their relation to the common prima-val loiiguc. Nor would 

 there be material differciiee in this co'.iclufion, t'uough we 

 fliould fuppofe, with many learned men, that the iahabilaiu". 

 of tijc North of Europe came, not from Uie Eail but fr>/m 

 3 Q - ^^ 



