The English Language Part 29

"There is every reason to believe, that the Belgic tribes in Caledonia, described by Ptolemy, were Picts. For as the Belgae, Picts, and Saxons seem to have had a common origin, it is not worth while to differ about names.

These frequently arise from causes so trivial, that their origin becomes totally inscrutable to succeeding ages. The Angles, although only one tribe, have accidentally given their name to the country which they invaded, and to all the descendants of the Saxons and Belgae, who were by far more numerous.

"It is universally admitted, that there is a certain national character, of an external kind, which distinguishes one people from another. This is often so strong that those who have travelled through various countries, or have accurately marked the diversities of this character, will scarcely be deceived even as to a straggling individual. Tacitus long ago remarked the striking resemblance between the Germans and Caledonians. Every stranger, at this day, observes the great difference and complexion between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. No intelligent person in England is in danger of confounding the Welsh with the posterity of the Saxons. Now, if the Lowland Scots be not a Gothic race, but in fact the descendants of the ancient British, they must be supposed to retain some national resemblance of the Welsh. But will any impartial observer venture to a.s.sert, that in feature, complexion, or form, there is any such similarity as to induce the slightest apprehension that they have been originally the same people?"[31]

It is doubtful, however, whether Caesar meant to say more than that over above certain differences which distinguished the Belgae from the other inhabitants of the common country _Gallia_, there was an intermixture of Germans.

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The import of a possibly Germanic origin for the Belgae gives us the import of a possibly Germanic origin for--

-- 193. _The Caledonians._--A speculative sentence of Tacitus indicates the chance of the Caledonians being Germanic:--"_Britanniam qui mortales initio coluerint, indigenae an advecti, ut inter barbaros, parum compertum. Habitus corporum varii: atque ex eo argumenta: namque rutilae Caledoniam habitantium comae, magni artus, Germanicam originem adseverant._"--Agricola, xi.

The continuation of the pa.s.sage quoted in -- 193 has induced the notion that there have been in Britain Spanish, Iberic, or Basque tribes:--"_Silurum colorati vultus, et torti plerumque crines, et posita contra Hispania, Iberos veteres trajecisse, easque sedes occupa.s.se fidem faciunt._"--Agricola, xi.

As this, although an opinion connected with the history of the languages of Great Britain, is not an opinion connected with the history of the English language, it is a question for the Celtic, rather than the Gothic, philologist. The same applies to the points noticed in ---- 136-138.

Nevertheless they are necessary for the purposes of minute philological a.n.a.lysis.

-- 194. As early as the year A.D. 1676, an opinion was advanced by[32]

Aylett Sammes, in a work ent.i.tled Britannia Antiqua Ill.u.s.trata, that the first colonisers of Ireland were the merchants of Tyre and Sidon. In confirmation of this opinion the existence of several Eastern customs in Ireland was adduced by subsequent antiquarians. Further marks of an Eastern origin of the Irish were soon found in the Gaelic dialect of that country.

Finally, the matter (in the eyes at least of the national writers) was satisfactorily settled by the famous discovery, attributed to General Vallancey, of the true meaning of the Carthaginian lines in Plautus.

In the Little Carthaginian (Poenulus) of the Latin comic writer Plautus, a portion of the dialogue is carried on in the language of Carthage.

That the Punic language of Carthage should closely {136} resemble that of the mother-city Tyre, which was Phoenician; and that the Phoenician of Tyre should be allied to the language of Palestine and Syria, was soon remarked by the cla.s.sical commentators of the time. Joseph Scaliger a.s.serted that the Punic of the Poenulus _differed but little from pure Hebrew_--"_Ab Hebraismi puritate parum abesse._"

Emendated and interpreted by Bochart, the first ten lines of a speech in Act v. s. 1. stand thus:--

1. N' yth alionim valionuth sicorath j.i.s.macon sith 2. Chy-mlachai jythmu mitslia mittebariim ischi 3. Liphorcaneth yth beni ith jad adi ubinuthai 4. Birua rob syllohom alonim ubymisyrtohom 5. Bythrym moth ymoth othi helech Antidamarchon 6. Ys sideli: brim tyfel yth chili schontem liphul 7. Uth bin imys dibur thim nocuth nu' Agorastocles 8. Ythem aneti hy chyr saely choc, sith naso.

9. Binni id chi lu hilli gubylim lasibil thym 10. Body aly thera ynn' yss' immoncon lu sim--

_The Same, in Hebrew Characters._

[Hebrew: N' 'T 'LYWNYM W'LYWNWT SHKWRT YSMKWN Z'T:] .1 [Hebrew: KY MLKY NTMW: MTSLYCH MDBRYHM 'SQY:] .2 [Hebrew: LPWRQNT 'T BNY 'T YD 'DY WBNWTY:] .3 [Hebrew: BRWCH RB SHLHM 'LYWNYM WBMSHWRTHM:] .4 [Hebrew: BT'RM MWT CHNWT 'WTY HLK 'NTYDMRKWN:] .5 [Hebrew: 'YSH SHYD'LY: BRM T'PL 'T CHYLY SHKYNTM L'PL:] .6 [Hebrew: 'T BN 'MYTS DBWR TM NQWT' NWH 'GWRST'WQLYS:] .7 [Hebrew: CHWTM CHNWTY HW' KYWR SH'LY CHWQ Z'T NWSH':] .8 [Hebrew: BYNY 'D KY LW H'LH GBWLYM LSHBT TM:] .9 [Hebrew: BW' DY 'LY TR' 'N': HNW 'SH'L 'M MNKR LW 'M] .01

Six lines following these were determined to be _Liby_-Phoenician, or the language of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Carthage, mixed with Punic. These, it was stated, had the same meaning with the ten lines in Carthaginian.

The following lines of Plautus have, by all commentators, {137} been viewed in the same light, _viz._ as the Latin version of the speech of the Carthaginian.

1. Deos deasque veneror, qui hanc urbem colunt, 2. Ut, quod de mea re huc veni, rite venerim.

3. Measque hic ut gnatas, et mei fratris filium 4. Reperire me siritis: Di, vostram fidem!

5. Quae mihi surruptae sunt, et fratris filium: 6. Sed hic mihi antehac hospes Antidamas fuit.

7. Eum fecisse aiunt, sibi quod faciendum fuit.

8. Ejus filium hic esse praedicant Agorastoclem: 9. Deum hospitalem et tesseram mec.u.m fero: 10. In hisce habitare monstratum est regionibus.

11. Hos percunctabor, qui huc egrediuntur foras.

Guided by the metrical _paraphrase_ of the original author, Bochart laid before the scholars of his time a Latin version, of which the following is an English translation:--

_Close Translation of Bochart's Latin Version._

1. I ask the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses that preside over this city, 2. That my plans may be fulfilled.--May my business prosper under their guidance!

3. The release of my son and my daughters from the hands of a robber.

4. May the G.o.ds grant this, through the mighty spirit that is in them and by their providence!

5. Before his death, Antidamarchus used to sojourn with me.

6. A man intimate with me: but he has joined the ranks of those whose dwelling is in darkness (the dead).

7. There is a general report that his son has here taken his abode; _viz._ Agorastocles.

8. The token (tally) of my claim to hospitality is a carven tablet, the sculpture whereof is my G.o.d. This I carry.

9. A witness has informed me that he lives in this neighbourhood.

10. Somebody comes this way through the gate: behold him: I'll ask him whether he knows the name.

To professed cla.s.sics and to professed orientalists, the version of Bochart has, _on the whole_, appeared satisfactory. Divisions of opinion there have been, it is true, even amongst those who received it; but merely upon matters of detail. Some have held that the Punic is Syriac rather than Hebraic, whilst others have called in to its interpretation the Arabic, {138} the Maltese, or the Chaldee; all (be it observed) languages akin to the Hebrew. Those who look further than this for their affinities, Gesenius[33] dismisses in the following cavalier and cursory manner:--"_Ne eorum somnia memorem, qui e Vasconum et Hiberniae linguis huic causae succurri posse opinati sunt; de quibus copiosius referre piget._"

The remark of Gesenius concerning the pretended affinities between the Punic and Hibernian arose from the discovery attributed to General Vallancey; _viz._ that the speech in Plautus was Irish Gaelic, and consequently that the Irish was Carthaginian, and _vice versa_. The word _attributed_ is used because the true originator of the hypothesis was not Vallancey, but O'Neachtan.

_The Gaelic Version._

1. N 'iath all o nimh uath lonnaithe socruidshe me comsith 2. Chimi lach chuinigh! muini is toil, miocht beiridh iar mo scith 3. Liomhtha can ati bi mitche ad eadan beannaithe 4. Bior nar ob siladh umhal: o nimh! ibhim a frotha!

5. Beith liom! mo thime noctaithe; neil ach tan ti daisic mac coinme 6. Is i de leabhraim tafach leith, chi lis con teampluibh ulla 7. Uch bin nim i is de beart inn a ccomhnuithe Agorastocles!

8. Itche mana ith a chithirsi; leicceath sith nosa!

9. Buaine na iad cheile ile: gabh liom an la so bithim'!

10. Bo dileachtach nionath n' isle, mon cothoil us im.

_In English._

1. Omnipotent much-dreaded Deity of this country! a.s.suage my troubled mind!

2. Thou! the support of feeble captives! being now exhausted with fatigue, of thy free will guide to my children!

3. O let my prayers be perfectly acceptable in thy sight!

4. An inexhaustible fountain to the humble: O Deity! let me drink of its streams!

5. Forsake me not! my earnest desire is now disclosed, which is only that of recovering my daughters.

6. This was my fervent prayer, lamenting their misfortunes in thy sacred temples.

7. O bounteous Deity! it is reported here dwelleth Agorastocles.

{139} 8. Should my request appear just, let here my disquietudes cease.

9. Let them be no longer concealed; O that I may this day find my daughters!

10. They will be fatherless, and preys to the worst of men, unless it be thy pleasure that I should find them.

From the quotations already given, the general reader may see that both the text and the translation of Plautus are least violated in the reading and rendering of Bochart, a reading and rendering which no _Gothic_ or _Semitic_ scholar has ever set aside.

-- 195. _The hypothesis of an aboriginal Finnic population in Britain and elsewhere._--A Celtic population of Britain preceded the Germanic. Are there any reasons for believing that any older population preceded the Celtic?

The reasoning upon this point is preeminently that of the Scandinavian (_i.e._ Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian) school of philology and ethnology.

Arndt, I believe, was the first who argued that if the so-called Indo-European nations were as closely connected with each other as they are generally considered, their separation from the common stock must have been subsequent to the occupation of Europe by some portion or other of the human species--in other words, that this earlier population must have been spread over those areas of which the Indo-Europeans took possession only at a later period.

That the divisions of such an earlier population were, _at least_, as closely connected with each other as the different members of the so-called Indo-European cla.s.s, was a reasonable opinion. It was even reasonable to suppose that they were _more_ closely connected; since the date of their diffusion must have been nearer the time of the original dispersion of mankind.

If so, all Europe (the British Isles included) might have had as its aborigines a family older than the oldest members of the Indo-European stock; a family of which every member may now be extinct, or a family of which remains may still survive.

Where are such remains to be sought? In two sorts of localities-- {140}