GOTHIC LANGUAGE. 



laft verb, is alFo written anl ift the fenfe of nam-, etiim. The 

 correfponding Wi-lfti word is eilhr, derived from etejo-, ati- 

 olher. The explanation of it is this — lead us not into trial; 

 another thing, ;'. c. do another thing, namelj-, deliver us 

 from evil: on this ])rinciple the conjunction a.Wa., but, origi- 

 nated in y.Wo: Lniifci, which has given birth to various 

 words in Anglo-Saxon and in Engliih, and among the num- 

 ber to loofe, Infe, Icafe, rclaifi, let, is apparently the offspring 

 of the riebrew ^'i'^, /«z, dcceJo, recedo: to deliver from 

 evil is but to caufe to recede from evil, and thus laiifen cor- 

 vefponds in fenfe' as well as in found to the original. A 

 loofe chai-aAer is a charafter freed or loofened from tlie 

 rules of fobriety and jullice, and this deviation from refti- 

 tude is implied in the original 11^; while the compound 

 releafe comes clofe to tlie CxOthic fignification of Ituifun, to 

 deliver. The Wcllb which anfwers to this is givared, and 

 is no other than the Latin gero, (properly pronounced 

 guero,) to manage, to carry. The Arabic j;"iri, pbara, is 

 the origin of our word free, its primary fenfe. Being 

 thence applied to men, it came to fignify thofe who were 

 the heads of families, or who went before them: hence it 

 was ufed to convey tlie more general and abllracl ideas of 

 precedence or heghm'irg; in this fenfe it is the origin of ^^ii 

 in Greek, pric in Latin, fra or fram in Gothic, ifra in 

 Cimbric. In the Anglo-Saxon in is annexed, and hence 

 our word fram, thoui^h the Scotch ufe it in the original 

 purity of frae. The correiponding Wellb rhag, vrliieh 

 means far, djjlancc, has retained with great exattnefs tlie 

 found and fenfe of pn"l> rhah, its Hebrew original. The 

 Gothic ubd, German uhel, Anglo-Saxon ife, and Englilh 

 evU, is the Perfian and Arabic »7;i, lala, with a vowel 

 prefixed. The Perfian tar'ik, is the parent of the Englifli 

 dark: and as darknefs was the fymbol of evU, or of the 

 fiippofed d;emon which created it, the Celts received it to 

 exprefs ri'// under the form oidrzt'g: and it is remarkable 

 that the fame word with alpha prlvatk-um is ufed by the 

 Greeks to denote a contrary ienfe — y.-^y.y.r,:, not dark, trige- 

 niious, firtcere, true. In the fame language ■v^-i.-x.ir,: means an 

 impojlor, which tlie lexicographers, mifled by mere fimila- 

 ritv of found, have erroneoufly referred to rsuiyj:, to eat. 



From this analvfis, which we hope is worthy the atten- 

 tion of the learned, we fhall draw a few conclufions re- 

 fpefting the CJothic tongue. Firft, it appears to refemble 

 the Celtic, in having a common Afiatic bafis, and in con- 

 taining a copious influx of Greek and I^atin words. As 

 the two languages were not effentially different, there is no 

 foundation for fnppoling, with Dr. Percy, that the Celts 

 and the Goths were originally dillinft races of men. And 

 here we cannot help fpeeifying a feature in thefe tongues, 

 which, in a remarkable manner, bcfpeaks their original 

 identity, or their immediate defcent from a common parent. 



The Gothic, with its offspring the Anglo-Saxon and the 

 German, ufes the particle ga or ge prefixed to words, and 

 efpecially to verbs. The Gothic fometimes inferts g in the 

 middle of words, and frequently before the infinitive termi- 

 nation of verbs: at;uv, or aiigere, is ivahfgan, and yj^vj-^i", 

 to deride, hlabgan, to laugh. In confequence of thi.? analog)-, 

 words borrowed from Greek and Latin are remarkably dif- 

 gnifed, and they muil be llripped of this peculiarity before 

 they can be traced to tlieir true origin. The Celtic, if we 

 may judge from the Welfh, was diltinguinicd by the fame 

 characlerillic feature: thus, the Latin vir is givr; ivnum, 

 ^:t\n ; i-a^us, g'u.'aeg, &c. On this principle ly-x-. Hie, as, 

 in Welch is me^is, which bears the fenfe of tlie original. 

 Tiie identitv or limilitude of the two languages will account 

 for the Goths and Celts being called by the common name 



of Cimmerians or CImbri. which the true Britons, the int. 

 doubted defcendants of the Celts, Hill inherit under the 

 name of Cymri. 



Sir W. Jones, in his fixtli difcourfe delivered to the foclety 

 at Calcutta on the antiquities of Afia, has the following 

 paffage well worthy of our attention, as tending to confirm, 

 in a remarkable manner, the rcfult of the preceding inquiry. 

 The paffage is this : " It has been proved by clear evidence 

 and plain reafoning, that a powerful nuMiarchy was cllablifhed 

 in Iran long before the Affyrian government ; that it wa.'J 

 in truth a Hindoo monarch)', though, if any chufe to call 

 it Cufcan, Cafdcan, or Scythian, we fliall not enter into a 

 debate on mere names ; that it fubfilled many centuries, 

 and that its hillory has been ingrafted on that of the Hin- 

 doos, who founded the monarchies of Ayodhya and Indra- 

 prellha ; that 1 he language of the tirft Perfian empire was the 

 mother of the Sanfcrit, and, confequently, of the Zend and 

 Parfi, as well as of Greek, Latin, and Gothic ; that the 

 language of the AlTyrians was the parent of Chaldaic and 

 Pahlavi, and that the primary Tartarian language alfo had 

 been current in the fame empire ; although, as the Tartars 

 had no books, or even letters, we cannot, with certainty, 

 trace their unpoliflied and variable idioms. We difcover, 

 therefore, in Perfia, at the eailiell dawn of hlftory, the three 

 dillinc\ races of men, whom we defcribed on former occafions 

 as poffefl'ors of India, Arabia, and Tartary ; and wliether 

 they were collected in Iran from diflant regions, or diverged 

 from it, as from a common centre, we ihall eafily determine 

 from the following coniideratior.s. I^et us obferve, in the 

 firft i)lace, the central pofition of Iran, which is bounded 

 by Arabia, by Tartary, and by India ; whilft Arabia Ues 

 contiguous to Iran only, but is remote from Tartary, and 

 divided even from the fl;irts of India by a confiderable gulf. 

 No country, therefore, but Perlia feems likely to have lent 

 forth its colonies to all the kingdom- of Afia : the Brahmans 

 could never liave migrated from India to Iran, becaule th.ey 

 are cxprefsly forbidden by their oldefl exifting laws to leave 

 the region, which they inhabit at this day ; the Arabs have 

 not even a tradition of an emigration into Perfia before Mo- 

 hammed ; nor had they, indeed, any inducement to quit 

 their beautiful and extenfivc domains : and as to the Tartars, 

 we have no trace in hiltory of their departure from their 

 plains and forells till the invafion of the Medes, v.'ho, ac- 

 cording to ctymologiils, were the fons of Madai, and even 

 they were condufted by princes of an Affyrian tamily. 

 The three races, therefore, whom v.'e lia\e already men- 

 tioned, (and more than three we have not yet found,) 

 migrated from Iran, as from their common country : and 

 thus the Saxon Chronicle, I jjrefume on good authority, 

 brings the firft inhabitants of Britain from Armenia ; while 

 a late very learned writer conclude?, after all his laborious 

 refearches, that the Goths or Scythians came from Perfia ; 

 and another contends, with great force, that both the Iriflt 

 and Old Britons proceeded feveralLy from the borders of 

 the Cafpian ; a coincidence of conclufions from different 

 media, bv perfone wholly unconnected, which could fcarce 

 have happened, if they were not grounded on folid principles. 

 We may, therefore, hold this propofition firmly ellablilhed, 

 that Iran or Perfia, in its largelt fenfe, was the centre of 

 population, of knowledge, of languages, and of arts ; 

 which, inllead of travelling wefl.ward only, as it has been 

 fancifully fuppofed, in- eattward, as with equal reafon might 

 have been aflerted, expanded in all diredions to all the regions 

 of the world." Here we fee it Itated, as the refult of fir 

 William .Jones's inquiry, that the Goth::, the Irilb, aiid the 

 Old Britons, or the Celtje, were originally th'. fame people, 



and 



