The history of the Celtic language. Wherein it is shown to be based upon natural principles, and, elementarily considered, contemporaneous with the infancey of the human family ... / By L. Maclean.

  • Maclean, L. (Lachlan), Fellow of the Ossianic Society.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The history of the Celtic language. Wherein it is shown to be based upon natural principles, and, elementarily considered, contemporaneous with the infancey of the human family ... / By L. Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    they had among them, from the most remote antiquity, an order of Literati named Druids, to whom the Greeks and Romans ascribe a degree of 'philosophical celebrity inferior to none of the sages of antiquity. (i Nothing has perplexed philologists so much as the affinity, or, as it is more commonly called, the intermixture of lan¬ guages. The fact is, the primary language of Asia, or in other words, the language of Babel, is the ground-work of the whole ; and all of them retain stronger or fainter marks of affinity in proportion as they are primary, intermediate, or jnore remote branches of this primary root. “ Of all the phenomena of language, the most remarkable is the affinity of the Celtic and Sanscrit—two languages which cannot possibly have come in contact for more than three thousand years, and must, therefore, owe their similarity to the radical tincture of the primary language of Asia. ee That the Celtic is a dialect of the primary language of Asia, has received the sanction of that celebrated philologist, the late Professor Murray, in his prospectus to the Philosophy of Language. That the Celts were the aborigines of Europe and their language the aboriginal one, even Pinkerton himself is obliged to admit. “ It is a point on all hands conceded, that neither colonies nor conquerors can annihilate the aboriginal language of a country. So true is this, that even at the present day, the Celtic names, still existing over the greater part of Europe, and even in Asia itself, afford sufficient data whereby to determine the prevalence of the Celtic language, the wide extent of their ancient territories, and their progress from east to west. “ The Roman language unquestionably derives its affinity to the Sanscrit, through the medium of the Celtic; and to any one who pays minute attention to the subject, it will appear self-evident that the Doric dialect of the Greek, founded on the Celtic, laid the foundation of the language of