ON ETHNOLOGY. 
301 
On the Importance of the Study of the Celtic Language as exhibited by 
the Modern Celtic Dialects still extant. Ihj Dr. Charles Meyer. 
The subject on which I have ventured to address this meeting, is one which 
appears to me particularly well-adapted for the purposes of the British 
A^ociatiori, as it deserves attention in a national as well as a general 2 )oiut of 
view, being connected not less with the special liistory of this country, both 
political and intellectual, than with the universal lusloiy of Inuuan civilization 
and intellect. 1 shall endeavour to point out the high importance, both histo¬ 
rical and philological, of the study of the Celtic language, as exhibited by the 
modern Celtic dialects sdll extant, and shall lay before my hearers some ot 
the new facts and views pertaining partly to general history, partly to the 
history of human language in particular, which, I believe, 1 have, in the 
course of my study of the Celtic laiiguage and literature, succeeded in dis- 
ooveriog. 
Modern Kurope possesses two great dialects or languages, each compos^ 
of three separate idioms, which exhibit w hat we may call the inwhrn Celtic. 
The word Celtic I use as a generic name for all the ditferent idioim and 
dialects, evidently united amongst themselves by a systematic family-likeness 
of grammatical features, once spoken by the different nations and tribes, 
which in the Greek and Latin records of ancient history are usua.lly desig¬ 
nated under the general uamcof KeXroi (KeXror) and Celtie*. and still spoken 
by their descendants. Tin: two great dialects of modern Celtic may be seen, 
each with its three subdivisions, only one of which is actually extinct, on the 
following table:— 
1. The Gallic or British, comprehending— 
a. The Cymric or Welsh. 
h. The Cornish (extinct). 
c. The Armorican or dialect of Brittany (Bas Breton). 
2. The Gaelic (Gadhelic) or Erse, comprehending— 
a. The Fenic or Irish. 
h. The Highland Scottish (Gaelic). 
c. The Manxf. 
It appears from this table, that five of the modern Celtic dialects, and 
four of those still extant, belong to this country, while the sixth, the Armo¬ 
rican or the dialect of Brittany, belongs to a district which, although situated 
in a foreign country, yet is British by its population, since it was in the 
fourth and fifth century of our era entirely colonized by British settles, 
and named by them after their motherland, the latter becoming henceforth 
* beken’s Geography, vol. ii, p. 186. . , . . pwpmi 
t This table is on the whole the same as that given by Dr. Prichard m hw 
Or^n ^ the CeUie Nation: I have only aclde.l the names Game and Fmtc, botn oi 
which are of too frequent occurrence, and of too significative import in 
wcord* (particularly the lh»li). not to find a place in a pedigree of the Celtic, as 
rtymolo^ of the two principal words of this pedigree, I derive the wwd « 
llrub: Gaodhal. Gaoidhal. Caeaiiil) from an old Celtic root gieydh sequt, . 
jmjrf (with the regular clisngo of jne into/) in the Irish 
^Aan eomitatuM, ctietUela -.feadha patranui^ efiw—so as to 8"® orong,,. 
Gadhet, Gael the signilicalion faUwer, with reference eithCT to the 
/fd practices of the wliolc tribe, or to their habit of living m ®^“***'P*;. .u.* 
OaU (Ca«M, Gaul), although it U used bv the Iriah writers in dnixt oppwriion to tna 
of Gori. so much os to hive acquired riie general signlflcatiou joi, 
laduitd to conaidet as another more mutilated form of the same word, a contraetjon 
namely of Gwuthel or Gieodhol. («£. the name of S. Vodoalut.) 
