LANG 
•ns and exaft antiquary, an acquaintance with the origi¬ 
nal language, if it can be attained, is likely to prove 
highly conducive to the illuftration of other fubjefls which 
fall under his notice ; yet how many are there who take 
pleafure in archaeological inquiries, and have neither the 
leifure nor the means for fuch an acquifition ? they are 
therefore indebted to thofe who endeavour, as in the work 
before us, to facilitate their progrefs. 
It ieems to be allowed, and with great reafon, among 
thofe who have moll clofely inveftigated the point, that 
the Hebrew is the general lource whence other languages 
have originated ; the Phenician (or Canaanitilh) was no 
doubt connefled with it, or rather formed on it. From 
the Phenician, as this writer, together with others, re¬ 
marks, the Greeks, and afterward the Latins, compofed 
their letters; and from the Greek and old Latin tongues, 
our author fuppofes the ancient and true Cornilh is moltly 
derived. But here we are inclined to alk, why he (hould 
apply to then), when there is a probability at lead, that, 
anterior to the Greeks and Romans, the Phenicians vilited 
Britain, and particularly the coafts of Cornwall ? If, 
about the time of the Trojan war, they firft difcovered 
t-hefe fliores, as he apprehends, and traded for the tin 
which they produced, it is natural to conclude that their 
language would in fome degree be communicated ; and 
this indeed the doctor afterward appears to acknowledge, 
when, treating more generally on the Britifh Ille, he adds, 
“ The language at that time fpoken in other parts of this 
ifland, having travelled acrofs a vail continent, was com¬ 
pounded and impure, and therefore we may boldly infer, 
that the fuperior purity of the ancient Cornifh is chiefly 
to be afcribed to its genuine introdudlion from the fliores 
of Greece and Sidon.” Though Greece is here united 
with Sidon, it fliould feem likely that the intercourfe with 
the latter was prior to that of the former ; but this is a 
point which we leave to be determined by thofe who can 
afford it more attention. 
It is well known, that, when our Britifh anceftors were 
compelled to retire before their hoftile intruders, numbers 
of them eroded over to France; the province of Bretagne, 
in particular, feems to have received its name from that 
circumftance, which alone would be fuflicient, we appre¬ 
hend, to account for fome colloquial refemblance; although 
we are not unwilling to allow- that it might, in a degree, 
have had a higher original. The low French, and the 
Cornilh, in Bas Bretagne, Dr. Pryce remarks, appear al- 
moft one and the fame dialeft: “ If I had not been other- 
wife (he adds) well apprifed of this fact, yet my opinion 
would have been confirmed by what I have heard from a 
very old man now living at Moulhole near Penzance, who 
is, I believe, at this time, the only perfon capable of hold¬ 
ing half an hour’s converlation on common fubjefls in the 
Cornilh tongue. He tells me, that above threefcore years 
ago, being at Morlaix, on-board a fmuggling cutter, and 
the only time he was ever there, he was ordered on-lhore 
with another man to buy fome greens; and, not knowing 
a word of French, as he thought, he was much furprifed 
to find, that he underftood part of the converfation of 
fome boys at play in the ftreet; and, on farther inquiry, 
he found that he could make known all his wants in Cor- 
nilh, and be better^ underftood than he could be at home 
when he ufed that dialect; I am well fatisfied of the fafl, 
as he is quite an illiterate man, and could have neither 
the temptation nor the ingenuity to invent a (lory fo ufe- 
lefs to himfelf.” 
The old Britifli language, after the fuccefs of the Sax¬ 
ons, became unintelligible and ufelefs in the body of this 
ifland, whence it was driven to the borders, fuch as Scot¬ 
land, Wales, and Cornwall; where, we are told, it Hill 
maintains a regard and footing among the refpeftive inha¬ 
bitants, in the drefs of different dialefls. However this 
may be, it is a faft that the Welfti alone have manifefted 
this veneration to the purpofe of preferving it among the 
natives; many thoufands of them, it is here obferved, 
and we believe with jultice, fcarcely knowing how to make 
t Vox.. XII. No. 222. 
U A G E. 197 
themfelves underftood in the Saxon or Englifli. It is no 
new remark, that numbers of our Welfti neighbours liave 
carried their enthufiafm in this re Ip eft to a great height 
indeed ; which fome among them, we are weil informed, 
Hill maintain ; fo that “ they hold all other fp.ee ch in the 
utmoft contempt, preferring their own predilection with 
the moll ftubborn perverfenefs, and ihunning in the moll 
contumacious manner every fort of interlocution and 
communion with any other tongue, till overcome by the 
preffure of their neceflities, and the unavoidable intercourfe 
of mankind in trade and bufmel's.” Dr. Pryce laments 
that the inhabitants of Cornwall had not poftefled Inch a 
degree of this pertinacity as might have prevented the 
ancient dialed from becoming.altogether obfolete, if not 
totally dead, as he fears is now the cafe. For, he conti¬ 
nues, “Such has been the inattention of our anceftors, 
and the depredations of time, that our primitive fpeech 
was nearly annihilated before the art of printing could per¬ 
petuate the memory of it to pofterity. So habitually in¬ 
attentive were they, that many years after the difeovery 
of this-art they never adverted to the prefervation of the 
manuferipts in their language, fo that the only manufeript 
extant was that found in the Cotton Library, now about 
800 years old,-.from which time no other manufeript appears ■ 
till about the fifteenth century, when we meet with one, 
which exhibits three ordinalia or interludes taken from 
Holy Writ, the originals of which, with two or three more, 
are in the Bodleian Library.”' 
Yet we are told by Mr. Warner, (Tour through Corn¬ 
wall, 1809,) that fo late as the time of Henry VIII. it 
was the univerfal dialed of the county; and Dr. John 
Moreman, vicar of Menhynnet towards the conclufion of 
that reign, was the firft who taught his parifhioners the 
Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments, in the 
Englifli tongue. It is a curious exception to that general, 
rule of the attachment manifefted by nations or provinces- 
to their vernacular language, that the Cornifh,-at the Re¬ 
formation, requefted to have the Liturgy in Englilh, rather 
than in their mother-tongue. The requeft was complied 
with, and the fervice in rnoft places performed thence¬ 
forth in Englifli. A few parifhes, however, patriotically- 
preferred their native dialed-; and, in 1640, Mr. William- 
Jackfon, vicar of Pheoke, found himfelf-under the necef- 
fity of adminiftering the facrament in Cornilh, as his pa- 
rilhioners underftood no other language. From this pe¬ 
riod its limits were gradually circumfcribed, as its trade 
and intercourfe with England increafed ; fothat a century 
fince it was only to be found, as a vehicle of converfa¬ 
tion, amongft the inhabitants of Paul’s and St. Juft, in the 
weftern extremity of the county. Mr. Ray, in his Itine¬ 
raries, p. 281, tells us, “ that Mr. Dickan Gwyn was 
confuiered as the only perfon who could then write in the 
Cornilh language, and who lived in one of the moft weft¬ 
ern parilhes, called St. Juft, where there were few but what 
could fpeak Enghlh, whilft few of the children alfo could 
fpeak Cornilh ; fo that the language would foon be entirely 
loft.” Mr. Daines Barrington made a journey into Corn¬ 
wall, in fearch of its remains, in 1768, but could find only 
one perfon, Dolly Pentreath, an old fiftier.woman, at 
Moui'ehole, who fpoke Cornilh. She died in January 1778, 
at Moufehole, aged 102. It is evident, from more recent 
refearches, that his inquiries were not fo fuccefsful as they 
might have been, had he poffeffed more knowledge than 
he did of the fubjeft that engaged his attention; but their 
refult may alfo convince us that forty yeais ago the fa¬ 
culty of fpeaking the language was exceedingly limited. 
“Notwithftanding our moft afliduous inquiries, (fays Mr. 
Warner,) we were unable to difeover any one who lpoka 
it at prefent; though, from Whitaker’s account, we had 
no doubt that it Hill lurked in fome hole or corner, arrived 
to the laft fluttering pulfe of its exillence, and doomed 
probably to give up the glioft, without being again brought 
forward into public notice.” 
The Masks language is merely a dialefl of the Gaelic, 
or that ufed in the Highlands of Scotland, with a com- 
g E mixture 
