LANG 
Of the CELTIC LANGUAGE. 
la treating of the origin of the Latin tongue; we ob- 
ferved that a great part of it is derived from the Celtic. 
We ihall now endeavour to give fome account of the bri- 
gin and extent of that ancient language; ftill leaving the 
minutiae to grammars, as we have done with refpeCt to the 
other dialeCts which have fallen under our conliderafion. 
Our candid readers, it is hoped, will remember, that we 
are afting in the character of philologers, not in that ot 
grammarians. 
The defeendants of Japhet, having peopled the weftern 
parts of Alia, at length entered Europe. Some broke into 
that quarter of theglobe by the north, others found means 
'to crofs the Danube near its mouth. Their polterity gra¬ 
dually afeended towards tire fource of that river; after¬ 
wards they advanced to the banks of the Rhine, which 
they palled, and thence fpread themfelves as far as the 
Alps and the Pyrenees. Thefe people, in all probability, 
were compofed of different families ; all, however, fpoke 
the fame language; their manners and cuftoms bore a near 
refemblance; there was no variety among them but that 
difference which climate always introduces. Accord¬ 
ingly they were all known, in the more early times, by 
the general name of Cello-Jcytka. In procefs of time, be¬ 
coming exceedingly numerous, they were divided into 
feveral nations, which were distinguished by different 
names and territorial appellations. Thofe who inhabited 
that large country bounded by the ocean, the Mediterra¬ 
nean, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, were deno¬ 
minated Gauls or Celts. Thefe people multiplied fo prodi- 
gioufly in the fpace of a few centuries, that the fertile re¬ 
gions which they then occupied could not afford them 
the means of Subsistence. Some of them now paffed over 
into Britain; others croffed the Pyrenees, and formed fet- 
tlements in the northern parts of Spain. Even the formi¬ 
dable barriers of the Alps could not impede the progrefs of 
the Gauls; they made their way into Italy, and colonized 
thofe parts which lie at the foot of the mountains; whence 
they extended themfelves towards the centre of that rich 
country. By this time the Greeks had landed on the 
eaftern coalt of Italy, and founded numerous colonies in 
thofe parts. The two nations, vying as it were with each 
other in populoufnefs, and always planting colonies in the 
courfe of their progrefs, at length rencountered about the 
middle of the country. • This central region was at that 
time called Laiium. Here the two nations formed one fo- 
ciety, which was called the Latin people. The languages of 
the two nations were blended together; and hence, ac¬ 
cording to fome, the Latin is a mixture of Greek and 
Celtic. 
As the Gauls were a brave and numerous people, they 
certainly maintained themfelves in their pristine poffef- 
fions, uninvaded, unconquered; till their civil animofities 
and domeftic quarrels expofed them as a prey to thofe 
very Romans whom they had fo often defeated, and fome- 
times driven to the brink of deftruftion. They were not 
a people addicted' to commerce ; and, upon the whole, 
confidering their fituation both in their primary feats and 
afterwards in Italy, they had little temptation or oppor¬ 
tunity to mingle with foreigners. Their language, there¬ 
fore, mull have remained unmixed with foreign idioms. 
Such as it was when they fettled in Gaul, fuch it mult 
have continued till the Roman conquelis. If therefore 
there is one primitive language now exilting, it muft be 
found in the remains of the Celtic. It is not, then, fur- 
priiing, that fome very learned men, upon dilcovering the 
coincidence of very great numbers of words in fome of 
the Greek dialects with other words in the Celtic, have 
been inclined to eltablifh a Itridt affinity between thofe 
languages. The ancient Pelafgic and the Celtic at lead 
mult have nearly refembled each other, admitting a dia¬ 
lectical difference only, and that diferimination which cli¬ 
mate and a long period of time muft always produce. 
Some have thought that the Gauls loft the ufe of their 
native language foon after their country was conquered 
U A G E. 395 
by the Romans; but Monfieur Bullet, in bis Memoires de 
la Langue Celtique, has proved, almoft to .a demonftration, 
that the vulgar among thofe people continued to fpeak it 
feveral centuries after that period. When a great and po¬ 
pulous nation has for many ages employed a vernacular 
tongue, nothing can ever make them entirely relinquiffi 
the Ufe of it, and adopt unmixed that of their conquerors. 
Many learned men, among whom is the lexcographer 
above-mentioned, have ffiown that all the local names in 
the north of Italy are actually of Celtic extraction. Thefe 
names generally point out or deferibe fome circuit! fiances 
relating to the nature of their fituation; fuch as expofure, 
eminence, lownefs, moiftnefs, drynefs, coldnefs, heat, & c. 
This is a very charaCterftic feature of an original lan¬ 
guage; and in the Celtic it is fo prominent, that the Erie 
names of places all over Scotland are, even to this day, 
“peculiarly diftinguilhed by this quality. 
Gaelic, or Erse, is the name of that dialed of the an¬ 
cient Celtic language which is fpoken in the Highlands 
of Scotland. According to the opinion of antiquarians, 
the Celtic, at the time of the Roman invafion, was uni- 
verfally fpoken all over the welt of Europe. Though it 
is divided into a variety of dialeCts, yet they all bear the 
cleared: internal proofs of their being defeended from one 
common origin. The molt remarkable dialefts of the 
Celtic ftill in existence, are the Gaelic, the Welch, the 
Manks, the Irifti, and the Cornifh, the laft of which ap¬ 
pears to be nearly loft. To this lift may julily be added 
the dialed which is fpoken by the natives of the province 
•of Bretagne in France. The Gaelic, which, from a variety 
of caufes, is preferved in a confiderable degree of its ori¬ 
ginal purity, is bold, expreffive, and copious. It derives 
noaffiftance from the languages either of Greece or Rome, 
from which it differs in its ftrudure and formation. Hav¬ 
ing its affixes and prefixes, it greatly refembles the Hebrew, 
particularly in the inflexions of its nouns and verbs. Like 
the modern French, it only knows two genders, the mafeu- 
line and feminine. If ever the Gaelic pofleffed an alphabet 
peculiar to itfelf, no traces whatever of it now remain. 
Nor can it boaft of any original literary produdion, un- 
lefs the poems of Offian be allowed to form an exception. 
We have faid that the molt genuine remains of the 
Gaelic tongue to be found in the Highlands of Scotland; 
and the reafon is obvious. The Scottiih Highlanders are 
the unmixed unconquered polterity of the ancient Bri¬ 
tons, into whofe barren domains the Romans never pene¬ 
trated; not, we imagine, becaufe they were notable, fince 
they fubdued both North and South Wales, equally inac- 
ceflible, but becaufe they found no feenes there either to fire 
their ambition or allure their avarice. Amidil all the re¬ 
volutions that from time to time ftiook and convulfed Al¬ 
bion, thofe mountainous regions were left to their primi¬ 
tive lords, who, like their Southern progenitors, holpita- 
ble in the extreme, did not, however, fuft’er Strangers to 
refide long among them. Their language, accordingly, 
remained unmixed, and continues Co even unto this day, 
efpeciallyinthe molt remote parts and unfrequented islands. 
Of late the Scriptures and other religious books have 
been very correCtly tranflated into Gaelic, from which the 
inhabitants of the Highlands derive confiderable advan¬ 
tages. Notwithftanding every difeouragement and oppo¬ 
sition on the part of the Highland proprietors, who con¬ 
sider, perhaps not without reafon, the existence of the 
Gaelic as operating againlt the general improvement of 
that part of the kingdom, it is fo far from being on the 
decline, that k has actually, within the laft century, in 
many places, encroached on the English. Such as wmuld 
wifn to arrive at accuracy in topographical knowledge, 
would do well to Study Gaelic, as more than two thirds 
of the names of places in the united kingdom are evidently 
of Celtic extraction. A few years ago a chapel was opened 
in London, where divine worship is performed in Gaelic 
according to the forms of the church of Scotland. 
The Irish language appears to differ considerably 
from the original Celtic. Some very ingenious effays 
however 
