Bourke Ulick J. Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language
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170
INDEPENDENT
WORDS,
Language may
be
conceived as a
production
;
but it can-
not
be conceived as
a
substance that could
produce
itself.
The
science
of
language
has
nothing
to
do with
mere
theories,
whether
conceivable
or
not. It
collects
facts,
and its
only
object
is
to
account for these
facts as
far
as
possible.
It takes
each
termination
by
itself,
establishes
its most
primitive
form
by
means
of
comparison,
and
then
treats that
primitive syllable
as
it
would treat
any
other
part
of
language,
as
something
which was
originally
in-
tended to
convey
a
meaning."
THIRDLY
Scholars
skilled
in a
knowledge
of
compara-
tive
grammar
know
that
grammatical
terminations were
originally
independent
words,
and had a
special purpose
and
meaning.
A
knowledge
of
comparative
grammar
removes
every
difficulty
on
the
question
of
early gramma-
tical forms.
Max Miiller
forecasts,
in a
very
lucid
style,
and
in
a
way
quite
attractive,
a view
of
a
possible
future
language
fully
developed,
in
ages
to
come,
in
its new concrete
forms,
and
by
means
of
this
imaginary
tableau,
shows his
readers
how
the
present
literary
and
living
European
tongues
have be
jn efFormated
from
the
Aryan,
and
how the inflec-
tions
of
the verbs
and
case-endings
of
the
nouns Lave
sprung
from
independent
words,
having
a
meaning
and a
purpose.
The
passage
is
well
worth
being
reproduced
in
these
pages.
"Let us
begin
with
modern
formations,
because
we
have
here
more
day-light
for
watching
the
intricate and
some-
times
wayward
movements
of
languages
;
or,
better,
still,
let us
begin
with
an
imaginary
case,
or with what
may
be
called
the
language
of
the
future,
in
order to
see
quite
clearly
how what
we should
call
grammatical
forms
may
arise.
Let us
suppose
that
the
slaves
in
America
were to
rise
against
their
masters,
and
after
gaining
some
victo-
A
PABALLEL.
171
ries,
were
to sail back
in
large
numbers to some
part
of
Central
Africa,
beyond
the
reach, of their white enemies
or
friends
;
let
us
suppose
these men
availing
themselves
of the
lessons
they
had learnt in
their
captivity,
and
gra-
dually working
out
a
civilization of their
own.
It
is
quite
possible
that,
some
centuries
hence,
a
new
Livingstone
might
find
among
the descendants of the
American slaves
a
language,
a
literature,
laws,
and manners
bearing
a
striking
similitude
to
those
of
his
own
country.
What
an
interesting
problem
for
any
future historian and
ethnologist
!
Yet,
there
are
problems
in the
past
history
of
the
world
of
equal
interest,
which
have
been,
and
are
still,
to
be solved
by
the
student of
language.
Now,
I
believe that a
careful examination of the
language
of the
descendants of
those
escaped
slaves
would suffice
to deter-
mine
with
perfect
certainty
their
past history,
even
though
no
documents and no tradition had
preserved
the
story
of
their
captivity
and liberation. At
first,
no
doubt,
the
threads
might
seem
hopelessly entangled.
A
mis-
sionary
might
surprise
the
scholars
of
Europe
by
an
account of a
new
African
language.
He
might
describe
it at
first as
very imperfect
as
a
language,
for
instance,
so
poor
that the
same word had
to
be used to
express
the
most
heterogeneous
ideas.
He
might point
out
how
the
same
sound,
without
any change
of
accent,
meant
true,
a
ceremony,
a
workman,
and
was
used also as a
verb
in
the
serse
of
literary
composition.
All
these,
he
might
say,
are
expressed
in
that
strange
dialect
by
the
sound
raif,
(right,
rite,
wright,
write).
He
might
likewise
observe
that
this
dialect,
as
poor
almost as
Chinese,
had
hardly
any
grammatical
inflections,
and that
it had
no
genders,
except
in
a
few
words,
such as man-of-war and
railway
engine,
which were
both conceived
as feminine
beings,
and
spoken
of
as
slic.
He
might
then mention
an even
172
"
YESR
"
AND
"
YESM."
more
extraordinary
feature,
namely,
that
although,
this
language
had
no terminations
for the
masculine
and
femi-
nine
genders
of
nouns,
it
employed
a masculine
and femi-
nine
termination
after
the
affirmative
particle,
according
as
it was
addressed
to
a
lady
or
gentleman.
Their affir-
mative
particle
being
the same
as
the
English
yes,
they
added
a final
"
r
"
to
it,
if
addressed
to a
man,
and a final
"m,"
if addressed
to a
lady
;
that is
to
say,
instead
of
simply
saying
yes,
these descendants
of
the
escaped
Ame-
rican
slaves
said
yesr
to a
man,
and
yesm
to a
lady.
"
Absurd
as
this
may
sound,
I
can
assure
you
that
the
descriptions
which
are
given
of
the
dialects
of
savage
tribes,
as
explained
for the
first
time
by
travellers
or
missionaries,
are even
more
extraordinary.
But
let
us
consider
now
what
the student
of
language
would
have
to
do,
if such
forms
as
yes'r
and
yes'm
were
for
the
first
time
brought
under
his notice.
He would
first have
to trace
them
back,
historically,
as
far as
possible,
to their
more
original
types,
and
if he discovered
their connection
with
yes
sir,
and
yes
ma'rn,
he would
point
out how
such
con-
tractions
were
likely
to
spring
up
in
a
vulgar
dialect.
After
having
traced back
the
yesr
and
yesm,
of
the
free
African
negroes
to
the idiom of
their
former
American
masters,
the
etymologist
would
next
inquire
how such
phrases
as
yes
sir and
yes
madam
came
to
be
used on
the
American
continent.
Finding
nothing
analogous
in
the
dialects of
the
aboriginal
inhabitants
of
America,
he
would be
led
by
a mere
comparison
of
words,
to
the
languages
of
Europe,
and
here
again,
first
to the
language
of
England.
Even
if no historical
documents
had
been
preserved,
the documents
of
language
would show
that
the
white
master,
whose
language
the
ancestors of
the
free
Africans
adopted during
their
servitude,
came
origin-
ally
from
England
;
and within
certain
limits
it
would
INFERENCE. 173
even
be
possible
to
fix the time when
the
English language
was
first
transplanted
to
America.
That
language
must
have
passed,
at
least,
the
age
of
Chaucer
before
it
migrated
to
the
New
World
;
for,
Chaucer
has
two affirmative
par-
ticles
yea
and
yes
;
and
he
distinguishes
between
the
two.
He
uses
yes
only
in answer
to
negative
questions.
For
instance,
in answer
to
docs
lie
not
yo
?
he would
say yes.
In
all other
cases
Chaucer
uses
yea.
To a
question,
does
he
go
?
he would
say
yea.
He observes
the same
distinc-
tion
between
710 and
nay,
the former
being
used
as
the
negative,
the latter
after
all
other
questions.
This
distinction
became
obsolete
soon
after Sir
Thomas
More,
and
it
must
have become
obsolete before
phrases
such as
yes
sir
and
yes
madam,
could
have
assumed their stereo-
typed
character.
"
But there is
still
more historical information to be
gained
from
the
phrases.
The
word
yes,
is
Anglo-
Saxon,
the same
as
the
German
ja,
and it
therefore
reveals
the fact
that the
white
master of
the American
slaves
who
crossed
the
Atlantic
after the
time
of
Chaucer,
had
crossed
the Channel
at a
still
earlier
period,
after
leaving
the continental
fatherland of the
Angles
and
Saxons.
The
words
Sir
and
Madam,
tell
us
still
more.
They
are Norman
words,
and
they
could
only
have
been
imposed
on
the
Anglo
Saxons of
Britain
by
Norman
conquerors.
They
tell us more than
this.
For
these
Normans
or
North-men
spoke
originally
a
Teutonic
dialect,
closely
allied to
Anglo-Saxon,
and in
that
dialect
words
such as Sir
and
Madam
could
never
have
sprung
up.
We
may
conclude,
iherefore
that,
previous
to
the
Norman
conquest,
the Teutonic
North-men must
have
made
a
sufficiently
long stay
in
one of
the
Roman
pro-
vinces
to
forget
their
own
and
adopt
the
language
of the
Roman Provincials.
174
IN
M,
R,
T,
FINAL
"
We
may
now trace
back
the
Norman
Madam to
the
French
Madame,
and
we
recognise
in
this
a
corruption
of
the
Latin
Meadomina,
my
mistress.
Domino, was
changed
into
Domna,
Donna,
and
Dame
;
and
the
same
word
Dame
was
also
used
as
a
masculine in the
sense
of
Lord,
as
a
corruption
of
Domino,
Dow
no,
and
Donno.
The
temporal
lord
ruling
a? ecclesiastical
seigneur
under the
bishops,was
called
a
Yidame,
as the
Vidame
of
Chartres.
The
French
interjection
Dame ! has no
connection with
a similar
ex-
clamation
in
English,
but it
simply
means,
Lord !
Dame-
Dieu
in old French is Lord
God. A derivation
of
Domina
Mistress,
was
Dominicetta,
which
became
dcmoisdle and
damsel.
The
masculine
dame
for
Domine,
Lord,
was after-
wards
replaced by
the Latin
'senior,
a translation of
the
German
elder.
This
word elder
was
a
title
of
honour,
and we
have
it
still
both in
aWenman,
and
in
what is
originally
the
same,
the
English
earl,
the Norse
jarl,
a
comparative analogous
to the
Anglo-Saxon
ealdor.
"
This
title, senior,
meaning
originally
older,
was but
rarely
applied
to
ladies as
a title of
honour.
Senior,
was
changed
into
seigneur,
seigneur
into
sciur,
and sieur
soon
dwindled
down to
sir.
"
Thus
we
see
how
in
two
short
phrases,
as
yesr
and
yesm
long
chapters
of
history might
be read.
If a
general
destruction
of
books,
such
as
took
place
in
China under
the
Emperor
Thsin-chi-ho-ang-ti (213,
B.C.),
should
sweep
away
all historical
documents,
language,
even
in
its
most
depraved
state,
would
preserve
the secrets
of
the
past,
and
woul(
I
tell future
generations
of
the home and
migra-
tions
of their
ancestors
from the
East
to
the
West-
Indies.
It is
well
worthy
of
the student's
attention to
note
the
words
in
the last
paragraph,
that
in
two short
phrases,
yesr
and
yesm,
long
chapters
of
history
miyht
be read. In
ARE FOUXD
LONQ CHAPTERS
OF
HISTORY.
175
point
of fact
long
chapters
of
history
are
read in
the
monuments found
in
words
continuously
furnished
by
the
science
of
comparative
philology.
Irish
supplies
a
large
share.
Whitley
Stokes, M.D.,
edited
in
1860
for
the
Irish
Archaeological
and
Celtic
Society
a
work
styled
Irish
Glosses a
mediceval tract
of Latin
declension
M.S.,
copied
in
the
year
1500,
but
written
many years
anterior
to that
date.
In the
preface
to that
work,
the
learned
editor
asks
the
question.
"
Some
persons
may
ask
why
should
the Irish
Archaeolo-
gical
Society
expend
its funds
in
publishing
a document
which
merely
illustrates
the
Irish
language
?
Let
such
persons
try
to
understand
that
every
contribution
to a
more accurate
knowledge
of the
Irish
language
is
ulti-
mately
a
contribution
to
Irish
history.
Moreover,
imme-
diate results
of
high
historical
importance
may
be
obtained
by
comparison
of
the words
and
forms
of the
Irish with
those
of
the other
Indo-European
languages.
Chronicles
may
lie,
and often
do
;
laws
may
be
the
work of
a
despot
;
romances
may represent
the
manners
and
morals
of
their
readers
or hearers
;
but
the evidence
given
by
words
and
forms
is conclusive
evidence of
the
habi-
tat,
the intellectual
attainments,
the social condition
of
the
Aryan
family
before
the Keltic sisters
journeyed
to
the West
;
evidence
of
the
period
evidence of
the
relative
connection
between
the Kelts and other
Aryan
races
after
the
separation."
Comparative
philology
is
a
pillar
tower of
lig
ht
on
the
highway
of ancient
history.
It is like
photogra
phyj
nay,
it
is a
stereoscope
of
past
and
forgotten
events. Under
its
view the
hidden
periods
of
the
past
are
flung
out in
the
fulness
of
their
reality,
and
in the
light
which
clothed
their
forms
in
the
days
of
their
actual existence.
(176)
,
CHAPTER
YIII.
Stating
the
position
: what
has been
proved.
Certainty
of
a Primaeval
Tongue.
Irish-Gaelic of
Eastern
Origin
:
European
Languages
Sisters
of the
same
family.
Before
the
dispersion
from
the cradle land
in
Persia
and
Armenia,
the
Aryan
tongue
became
divided
into Low-
Aryan,
or
the
primitive
speech
;
and
High-Aryan,
or the
secondary
speech.
Proofs.
(12)
Latin,
Gaelic,
Sanscrit,
Umbrian,
present
a certain
sameness
of
primitive phonetic
power,
which
points
to
one
primaeval type, namely,
Low-
Aryan.
Greek,
British,
or
Welsh,
Zend,
and
Oscan,
present
certain
features of
secondary
phonetic
power
which
point
out
to the
philosophic
enquirer
that
they
must
have
sprung
from some
early
affected
source,
namely,
High
Aryan.
Proofs.
This
is the
Author's
opinion
;
it is
now,
for
the first
time,
put
forth.
(13)
Another new
view.
That Irish-Gaelic
in
its
plastic
power
and
phonetic
fecundity possesses,
like
the
parent
Aryan
tongue,
not
only
the
virtual,
but
the
formal
germinal
developements
of
dialectic
variety.
Proofs.
(14)
Of
all
the
daughter
languages
from
the
Aryan,
Irish-Gaelic
comes
nearest
in
this
respect
to the
primitive
mother
tongue.
(15)
Slurring
over
consonants.
(16)
The
vowel
sound
in certain
cognate
radical
words
is
long
in
Irish-
Gaelic.
In sister
tongues
the
lingual-dental
letter
"
n" is inserted
to fix
the
quantity.
The
Author's
view.
(17)
In
facility
of
forming
words
to
express
new
ideas
;
in its
capability
of
producing
compounds,
Irish-Gaelic
ranks
in
the
highest place.
The
proofs
presented
in
the
preceding
chapters,
and
the
learned
views
and
grave
opinions
of
those
scholars
who
at
the
present
day
are
most
distinguished
for
their
know-
ledge
of
languages,
and
for
their
acquaintance
with
the
HOW
TO
HE-CONSTRUCT
A
LOST LANGUAGE.
177
science
of
comparative philology,
cannot
fail to
imbue
the
mind of
the reader
with
the
certainty,
that
there
had
been
a
primaeval
tongue
now known
by
the
name
Aryan
;
and
that all
the
languages
of
Europe
and
those of India
and
Persia
have,
like
branches
from a
parent
plant,
sprouted
forth from
that
venerable
tree of
pre-historic
speech.
"
That there was
such
a
period,"
when
the
Aryan
lan-
guage
flourished,
"
we can
doubt as
little as
we can
doubt
the
real existence
of fern forests
previous
to
the
formation
of our coal fields." These
are
the words
of one of
Eng-
land's
greatest
linguistic
scholars,
F. Max
Miiller,
M.A.,
Professor
of
Comparative Philology
at
Oxford. And
he
adds :
"
We
can do even
more.
Suppose
we
had
no
rem-
nant of Latin
;
suppose
the
very
existence of
Eome
and
of Latin were
unknown
to
us,
we
might
still
prove,
on
the evidence of
the six Romance
dialects,
that
there
must
have been
a time when these dialects formed
the
language
of
a
small
settlement
;
nay, by collecting
the
words
which
all these
dialects share
in
common,
we
might,
to
a
certain
extent,
reconstruct
the
original
language,
and
draw a
sketch of the state
of civilization
as
reflected
by
these
common
words."
Again
:
"
In
this
manner
the
whole
or
nearly
the
whole
grammatical
framework
of
the
Aryan
or
Indo-European languages
has
been
traced
back
to
original
independent
words. This
process
is
what
is
called
com-
parative
grammar,
or a scientific
analysis
of
all
the
formal
elements of a
language preceded
by
a
comparison
of
all
the
varieties,
which one
and the same
form
has
assumed
in
the
numerous
dialects
of
the
Aryan
family.
After
the
grammatical
terminations
of
all these
languages
have
been
traced
back to
their most
primitive
forms,
it
is
possible
to
determine
their
original
meaning."
Pages
271,
272,
273,
Tlie
Science
of Lanyitacje,
vol.
I.,
Longmans,
Green
&
Co.,
London,
1873.
178
THEEE
GBEAT
FACTS
ESTABLISHED.
The
science
of
comparative
philology
has
clearly
and
firmly
established
three
great
facts
;
(1)
that,
as
Pictet
well
observes,
there
had
been
spoken
in
Armenia
and
Per-
sia,
above two thousand
years
before the
Christian
era,
"
at a
period
anterior to
every
historic
development,"
a
primaeval
language
admirable
for its
richness,
its
vigour,
its
harmony,
and
the
perfection
of its
forms
j
a
language
which was
likely
to
foreshadow
in
its
own
features,
na-
turally
and without
effort,
not
only
all the
impressions
affecting
it,
its nice
shades of form
and
thought,
but
also
its
tendency upwards
towards
a
sphere
higher
still;
a
language
full
of
images,
clear and
seen at a
glance
;
a
language
bearing
in
its
infant
state all
the
future wealth
which was
to
be
developed by
a
magnificent,
practical
expansion
in
the
region
of
poetry
the
most
elevated,
as
well
as
of
thought
the
most
profound.
This
is
the
lan-
guage,
at
first
oue and the
same
stock,
that
served
as the
common
medium
of
inter-communication
among
the
peo-
ple
of
this
primitive
race,
as
long
as
they
did not
extend
beyond
the
limits of their
own
country.
(2)
That
new
forms of
that
language
had
been
wafted,
at the
very
earliest
period,
southward
across the
Ganges,
and
west-
ward
by
the
Ister,
the
Rhine,
the
Rhone,
the
Tagus,
the
Severn,
and the
Shannon.
(3)
That the
Keltic
tongue,
of
which
Irish-
Gaelic is the
living leading
dialect,
had
been
borne
by
the
very
earliest
emigrants
to
the
north of
Italy
and onward
to
Iberia or
Spain,
and to
the
south
or
west
of
Gaul,
and
to
Eire,
where
the
vanguard
of
emigrants
had
been forced
by
the onward
march of
those
myriad
migrations
that
followed.
"
The
Kelts
seem to have been
the first
of
the
Aryans
to
arrive
in
Europe
;
but the
pressure
of
subsequent
mi-
grations, particularly
of
Teutonic
tribes,
has
driven
them
towards
the
western
parts."
Tlic Science
of
Languages.
MIGRATION
WESTWARD.
179
One
must bear
in
mind,
however,
that
emigrants
in
the
remote
past
acted
rationally
and
naturally
in their
march,
much
in
the same
way
as
emigrants
act at
the
present
day.
The
people
of a
province
or of a
district do
not
go
all at
once
en
masse,
as
it is
said,
to a
country.
When
na-
tives
of
Ireland
or
of
Scotland
emigrate
now-a-days
to
America,
they
do not all
go
in one
year,
nor
do
they
all
go
to
the
same
special
spot.
So
it
was in
the
days
when
emigrants
came
from
Asia
to
Europe.
It
is
equally
true that
those
who
have
lived
in
the
same
district,
country,
province,
in the old
home,
in
the
new home
love
to dwell
together.
Inhabitants
from the
west
of
Ireland
cling
to each other
when
they
go
across
the Atlantic
and seek
for
themselves
a
home
in
the
lands
of
free
America.
As
a
rule,
too,
those
that
are
weakest are
forced
to the
west
;
it
is
also
true
that
the latest
comers,
if
few,
are
forced
to seek
the
farthest-off
lands.
All
this,
which
is
true
at
the
present day,
had
been
equally
true
in
the
days
of
early
Keltic
migrations
to
Europe.
The
circumstances
differ
;
but
the code
of
principles
that
have
guided
man-
kind
in
their
acts,
adventures,
and
pursuits
in
life have
never
changed.
Again,
the
words of
Max
Midler
on
this
point
are
apt.
He connects what
happened
four
thousand
years
ago
with
that which
is
going
on
before
our
eyes
at
present,
and
hesitates
not to
put
the
emigration
of
the
Aryan
from
his Lmd
of Iran to
his new
home
in
Eirin,
and
the
emigration
of
the Irishman
to
his
new
home in
America,
on
a
par
in the same sentence.
"
The
pressure
of
subsequent migrations,'
particularly
of
Teutonic
tribes,
has driven
the
Kelts
towards the
westernmost
parts,
and
latterly from
Ireland
across
the
Atlantic."
The
early migration
from
the
cradle-land
of
the
human
race
took
its
rise
long
before
Thare,
the
father
of
Abra-