INTRODUCTION.

It is now no longer a matter of dispute, that at no very distant period, the several dialects of the Celtic tongue, known by the name of the Cornish, Waldensian, Basque, Bas Bretagne, Welsh, Manks, Gaelic, and Irish, had all one origin. The first two of these at the present day have become extinct, but the others are spoken even now by some millions of the hardiest men in Europe. The Gaelic, or more properly the Scotch Gaelic, of whose literature the present Work professes to be a history, is without doubt derived from the Irish Gaelic --and we are confident any unprejudiced person who examines at all into the history of the two languages, will admit, that not more than 350 years ago, they must have been not only the same language but identically the same dialect: as, however, it is not our intention to enter at present upon this keenly disputed point, we prefer giving a short sketch of the different dialects as they exist at the present day, including also the two that have ceased to

be.

We, however, for the sake of those who may wish to extend their inquiries farther, recommend the perusal of the following list of works which treat on the subject.

Le Long et Fontette Bibliotheque historique de France, Vol. I. page 219 to 248.

J. Perrionius de Gallicae linguae originae. 8vo. Paris, 1555.

J. J. Pontani Itinerarium Galliae Narbonensis cum ejusdem Glossario prisco Gallico. 12mo. Leidin, 1606. G. J. Vossius de vitiis sermonis et glossematis Latinae Linguae, Cap. II.

W. Camden Britannia, page 12 to 15.

F. Besold, de natura populorum, 1632, page 120 to 128. S. Bochart de Veterum Gallorum idiomete Judico de Ant. Gosselini historia veterum Gallorum. 12mo. Caen 1638.

S. Bocharti Opera, Vol. I. p. 1288.

Alteserra in rerum Aquitan libris 1648. 4to. page 127 to 163.

G. C. Kirchmaieri disp. de veterum Celtarum Celia, Oelia et Zytho ad Florian. 4to. Wittemburg, 1695.

G. C. Kirchmaieri Parallelismus et convenientia XII. linguarum ex matrice Sytho-Celtia. 4to. Wittemburg, 1697.

B. Bieler von den Celten und der Celtischen Sprache, in Lilienthals Preuss Zehent. Vol. III. page 571 to 576. W. Baxter Glossarium Antiquitatum Britannicarum. 8vo. Lond. 1733.

I. Astrue Memoires pour l'Histoire naturelle de la Province de Languedoc. 4to. Paris, 1737.

Quatre Lettres sur la Question, si les anciens Gaulois parloient Grec, which appeared in the Mercure de France for August 1737, August 1739, April, 1740.

G. Wernsdorf de Republica Galatarum, Nürnberg, 1743, 4to. page 326 to 338.

J. P. Süssmild Reflexions sur la convenance de la langue Celtique avec celle de l'Orient. In the Memoires de l' Academie de Berlin for 1745, page 188.

Memoire sur l'introduction de la langue Latine dans les Gaules sous la domination des Romains, par M. Bon

amey, in the Memoires de l'Academie des Belles Lettres, Vol. XXIV, page 582.

Sur la langue vulgaire de la Gaule depuis César jusqu'au regne de Philippe Auguste par M. l'Eveque de la Ravaliere, in the Memoire de l'Academies des Belles Lettres, Vol. XXIII, page 244.

Memoires sur la langue Celtique par J. B. Bullet. 3 vols. folio. Besausson, 1754.

J. G. G. Dunkel Specimen Lexici Graeco-Celtici. In the Symbolis litter. Bremens, Vol. II. page 489.

Dissertation sur la langue des Celtes ou Gaulois par M. Barbazan. 12mo. Lausanne, 1760.

S. Bardetti, della lingua de' primi Abitatori dell' Italia. 4to. Modena, 1772.

Celtische Alterthumer zur Erläuterung der altesten Geschichte Helvetiens. 8vo. Bern, 1783.

Grant on the Descent of the Gael. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1814. Anderson's Sketches of the Native Irish. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1830.

An Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language being a collation of the Irish with the Punic language. 8vo. Dublin, 1772;

The Chinese and Japanese languages collated with the Irish. 8vo. Dublin, 1782.

Ledgwick's Antiquities of Ireland. 8vo. Dublin, 1790. Beauford's Druidism revived, or a dissertation on the Character and modes of Writing used by the Ancient Irish. 8vo. Dublin, 1781.

Murray's History of European Languages. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1823.

THE CORNISH.

This dialect which has sometimes been denominated the Lloegrian, is supposed to have been originally spoken by a warlike people, who once dwelt on the banks of the

Loire, and had fled to Britain on being invaded by some of the Teutonic tribes.

During the 15th and early part of the 16th century it was almost the only language in use in Cornwall, but from 1560 to 1602 it declined very rapidly. In 1610 it was principally spoken only in the western part of that county. In 1640, however, Jackson, vicar of Pheoke, found such a strong and growing attachment to the language among his parishioners, that he was constrained to administer divine service in Cornish, as they were resolved to understand no other. About 1701 the language again suffered another relapse, and was confined to a few small villages.

In 1707 the places where the language still continued to exist, were, the parishes. of St. Just, St. Paul, Burrian, Sunnin, St. Lavan, St. Krad, Morva, Maddern, Sunner, Tervednok, St. Ives, Lelant, Leigian, Gylval, and along the coast from the Land's end to St. Keverns, near the Lizard Point; but in a great many of these places the better classes did not understand it, and very few of even those who spoke it were ignorant of the English.

In 1740, Capt. Barrington picked up at Mountbay, a seaman who spoke Cornish, and who, it was said, was intelligible on the coast of Bretagne. The language, however, perished a few years ago in the person of a female who had lived to a very advanced age.

It is a language that possesses scarcely any literature, and of course has been very little studied by philologists. Lhuyd says at the commencement of his Cornish Grammar, "There being nothing printed in the Cornish Language, and not above three or four books that we know of, extant in Writing, I presume the introducing of the General Alphabet, inserted page the second, so far as it is used in the Cornish pronunciation, can be of no inconveniency at present, and may prove useful hereafter."

The characters that were anciently employed by those very

few writers who used the Cornish Language, appear to have been the same as used in the other parts of Britain, changing invariably with the changed character of the times, so much so, that in modern days it has always been written in the Roman Character.

In Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica there is a Cornish Grammar given, and likewise directions for reading the old manuscripts; it extends over 28 folio pages, viz., from pp. 225 to 253. Attached to this Cornish Grammar there is a Welsh preface of three folio pages, to which we would especially direct the philologist interested in the Cornish Language. Lhuyd promises in this preface, page 222, to give a Cornish vocabulary, which, however, in page 253, he excuses himself from doing, on account of the increased size of his volume, but, at the same time, says that he had one past him for six years, which he would give in his next volume. This "next volume" never appeared. Connected with the language are besides the following works.

W. Borlase on the Antiquities of Cornwall with a Vocabulary, Oxford, 1754, folio, and London, 1769, folio.

W. Borlase on the Natural History of Cornwall. folio. Oxford, 1758.

W. Price Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica, containing a Cornish Grammar and Vocabulary. 4to. Sherborne, 1790.

D. Barrington on the expiration of the Cornish Language in the Archaeologia Britannica. Vol. 3, page 279. Vol. 5, page 81.

THE WALDENSIAN.

The Waldensian dialect of the Celtic was spoken by that celebrated race of men, well known by the name of the Waldenses. Almost the only record we now have

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