146 Mr. planta’s Account of 
the Gallic Romance. A learned Benedictine 0 ) firft ftarts 
the conjecture, and then maintains it againft the attacks of 
an anonymous writer, that the vulgar Latin became 
the univerfal language of Gaul immediately after C/E- 
s ar’s conqueft, and that its corruption, with very little 
mixture of the original language of the country, gra- 
dually produced the Romance towards the eighth cen- 
tury. bonamyW, on the other hand, is of opinion, that 
foon after that conqueft, a corruption of vulgar Latin by 
the Celtic formed the Romance, which he takes to be 
the language always meant by authors when they lpeak 
of the Lingua Roman a ufed in Gaul. The author of the 
Celtic Dictionary tells us, that the Romance is derived 
from the Latin , the Celtic , which he more frequently 
calls Gallic, and the Teutonic', in admitting of which 
latter he deviates from moll: other authors H, who deny 
that the Teutonic had any fliare in the compolition of 
the Romance, iince the Franks found it already efta- 
blifhed when they entered Gaul, and were long before 
they could prevail upon their new lubjeCts to adopt any 
part of their own mother tongue, which however ap- 
pears to have been afterwards inftrumental in the for- 
mation of the modern French. DUCLOsr/-;, guided, I 
imagine, by du cange^, whofe opinion appears to be 
(l) rivet, Hilt. Litt. de la France, torn. vii. p. i. et feq. 
(m) Mem. deslnfcrip. tom. xxiv. p. 594. 
(n) bullet, Mem. de la Langue Celtiquc, tom. i. p. 23. 
(0) Mem. dcs Infcrip. tom. xxiv. p. 603. 
(p) Ibid. tom. xv. p. 575. et feq. 
(q) Praef. GIolF. n. xiii. 
2 
the 
