THE LATIN VERB JUBERE. 361 



ledge, and the link of connection between the two families is most 

 easily traced through the Keltic. 



(2) Elementary monosyllabic roots, denoting the primitive ideas 

 in human speech, are capable of receiving and from frequent use 

 are likely to undergo numerous changes of form and application ; 

 and so, although some maintain the contrary, the earliest root 

 words of the undivided language of mankind may have been 

 comparatively few in number. 



(3) As the original seats of the human race were mountain 

 regions and elevated tablelands, it is probable that the earliest 

 speech was in harmony with the physical experiences of the people, 

 and consisted largely of hard and even harsh consonant sounds. 

 The Hebrew and the Keltic still retain these features, and in my 

 opinion are specially worthy of the attention of philologists, while 

 the Sanskrit and the Greek exhibit the softening influence of 

 climate and separation from the parent language. 



(4) The Kelts, having been the first, probably, of the Aryan 

 races to occupy the south and west of Europe, may have left a 

 considerable portion of their own population and of their own 

 language in those localities where they dwelt, and there we may 

 reasonably expect to find traces of their influence. The fashion 

 at present supreme among philologists, that of referring everything 

 in Latin and Greek to Sanskrit as the only umpire, seems to be 

 both unwise and fallacious. The plea that Sanskrit possesses 

 written records of great age is equally cogent in favour of Hebrew, 

 and if any Keltic words can be shown to have an identity with 

 the Hebrew, this should be taken as establishing the antiquity of 

 these words, in the absence of an ancient Keltic literature. 



(5) The important part which the digamma plays, in the 

 etymology of Greek words, may lead us to admit that many words 

 may have come from the Keltic into the classic languages through 

 the suppression of the sound of b h, which, in fact, in modern 

 Keltic is often quiescent, as in Hebrew. 



(6) If jubere and many other words essential to the Latin 

 language are purely Keltic, if Oscan titles of offices are Keltic, 

 surely the influence of the Kelts on the early destinies of Italy 

 deserves larger consideration at the hands of our Roman historians 

 than it has received. 



