Barbarus, et turpes calcabit mollior aras.

Tu vero, æternæ quoniam hinc Brittannia famæ
Duxisti auguria, et tantos læto ubere fructus,
Ergo fove proprii victricia Regna Profundi.
Exoriare aliquis, qui Numine fretus amico,
Exploret tractus alios, cultuque ferocem
Molliat, et sociæ præpandat lumina vitæ.
Sic, dum sæcla novas referunt volventia lauros,
Largaque securos in plent commercia portus,
Sic etiam, priscum imperium, antiquosque triumphos
Anglia, rite coles: sceptroque insignis avito,
Jura dabis, liquidoque potens dominaberis orbi.

J. E. RATHBONE.

Coll. Nov. Soc. 1798.

LETTERS ON THE ANCIENT BRITISH LANGUAGE OF CORNWALL.

No. III. [Continued from No. XXXVII. p. 112.]
LETTER VI.

ENGLISH, FRENCH, &c.

I CLOSED my last letter with a long list of Cornish words, and endeavoured to prove that that language is, in great part, sprung from the same origin as the Latin; and I was the more convinced of it, because the terms which designate common and simple objects, for which the natives must have had names long before the arrival of the Romans, are the most disguised, and that too with such a rude and unclassical corruption, that they leave no doubt of their Celtic antiquity. I have also shown that the second class of words is the next in point of number, consisting of terms which were probably introduced by the Romans; but which, from their pure Latinity, caunot be ascribed to a later period; while very few indeed seem to belong to those ages, when that language had been materially corrupted. From all these circumstances, it follows again, that all the elements of the Cornish must have already existed, when the Romans evacuated Britain, and that the epoch, when Arthur is said to have florished, may be regarded as that in which the Cornish tongue had acquired its highest degree of purity.

The Cornish differs from the languages of mere Roman descent, so that it cannot be supposed that the Latin, with which it abounds, was acquired from the conquerors of Britain. It is too rude and too anomalous in its disguises to admit of such a supposition; while on the contrary it retains deeply imprinted the marks of its Celtic origin, which the Latin has lost during its progress towards improvement. How different is the Latin found' in Cornish, from what it is in Italian and Spanish! These latter tongues are in fact nothing but the Latin which was spoken in those countries, which, after having been corrupted, has since been smoothed into a grammatical form. If the Cornish was a Latin descendant, why should it not also have preserved something of a classical appearance, like the other modern languages? but since it has not, and yet so many of its primitives have the same meaning as the like in Latin, it is obvious, that it is not derived from it; but from some origin, which has been common to both,—and this is the Celtic.

As to the Saxon, French, and words of other languages, which occasionally occur in it, many of them were not borrowed till many centuries after, and seem to have increased as the purity of the Cornish tongue decayed; though in some cases it is doubtful, whether those nations did not rather take them from a Celtic dialect, than the latter from them.

It is also possible that some of the Cornish words found in the modern languages, were originally Celtic, and continued in use, notwithstanding the ascendancy of Latin on the Continent; but were never naturalised in that language. The continental provinces necessarily retained something of the tongue of their ancestors, which was nearly allied to, if not the same as, that of Britain. This is therefore another reason, why so many French and English words seem to be related to the Cornish. To begin with Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It cannot be imagined that much connexion has ever existed between the Cornish dialect and the languages now spoken in those countries. I have however discovered a few words, which may be referred to each, though I confess that the resemblance may in some cases have been entirely accidental. Some of these also are originally Latin, and have no other claim to our attention, than that, disguised as they now are, they bear a nearer resemblance to words in those three languages, than they do to their common original.. They are the following:

It is singular that some Cornish words take a as a prefix, as in agris, I believe; agowsys, I say; asgarn, a bone, &c.; and that the same thing should also be observable in Portuguese. Thus it is in afear, to make ugly; afontarse, to dare; afugentar, to put to fight; almofoda, a cushion; alambre, amber, &c. It is the Arabic article al, which has not only been retained before the derivatives from that language, but also prefixed to words, which have been adopted from the Latin.

When we consider the long duration of the sway of the Saxons and the Normans in Britain, it is natural to inquire, whether any traces of their speech can be discovered in the aboriginal language. On examining the Cornish vocabulary, it is evident that it contains several French and English words; I understand by this, such terms as are now common to them and the Cornish, I will not inquire how many of these may be of a Saxon, Teutonic, or Latin origin, as it is more than probable, that they have been borrowed from these, and not from the Cornish; which, since the formation of the languages of its powerful neighbours, adopted from them several terms for which it had no names. All such words therefore became a constituent part of the Cornish, though of a foreign origin, and were gradually introduced into it in the course of ages, and subsequently to the Saxon and Norman conquests.

It is well known that none of the ancient conquerors of Britain adopted any of its languages, which they were accustomed to consider as dissonant, unpolished and barbarous. The conquered nation must be possessed of an interesting, if not superior literature, as the Greeks were, before it can attract the conquerors to its

study. On the contrary, it was the policy of the Romans to diffuse civilisation and their literature, to the disuse of the languages, customs and prejudices of the natives. And they succeeded in it so completely, that though their empire has been extinguished nearly fourteen centuries in the West, yet their laws still govern, and corruptions of Latin still form the basis of several of the modern languages of the Continent. During the Roman sovereignty, the British tongues became confined within more narrow limits; and it was during that period, that those Latin words were incorporated with the Corhish, and which I have given in my second list. It was thus that the Roman power had a tendency to corrupt the aboriginal speech of the conquered countries.

The Saxons also had as little inclination to cultivate the native dialects, as the Romans. A mutual animosity long subsisted between them and the Britons; and when afterwards the former had yielded to civilisation, and the mild genius of Christianity, and the horrors of war had ceased, they had already a language of their own; or else their learned men preferred to cultivate theology in Latin, to the investigation of the dialect and the fables of a rude and illiterate people. It was thus that little or no Cornish was borrowed by the Saxons.

The same cause also operated with the Normans. They endeavoured to effect a total subversion of all English establishments: having seized on the government, and usurped a great part of the property of the kingdom, they introduced their own institutions, and by the encouragement given to the French language, it seemed as if they wished to forbid the vanquished to think and express in the words of their ancestors, that though they were then subjugated, yet that like them they had once been free. In such conquerors as these, it was not to be expected that the extent of the Cornish should be increased.

But the Cornish people, insulated on a narrow peninsula, were necessarily obliged to mix with their conquerors; and as it is not to be supposed that they would feel any particular anxiety for the preservation of their language, they adopted from convenience and choice, some of those words, which I have selected from the vocabulary.

Some of the following are Saxon derivatives, as Angus, anguish ; Grontys, a grant; Gurch, a wreck; and yet, a gate; others are remotely 'Latin, but too much disguised to be admitted as immediate derivatives, such as, Chastys, to chastize; Falsney, falsehood; Spong, a spunge; Tshappal, a chapel; Tshofar, a chafingdish, &c. A few real Cornish words have also become English, as Aval, an apple; Aban, above; and Lode, a metallic vein. On the other hand some seem to have been very lately adopted from

the English, and when the Cornish tongue was already verging to its extinction. Such are the terms Pokkys miniz, the small-pox; and Tybacco, tobacco.

There are much fewer French than English words in Cornish; a striking circumstance, as it confirms what historians have recorded concerning the failure of the Normans in substituting their language for that of Britain. These may also be divided into classes, like those which are of English derivation. Thus we have first, Dawns, une danse; Clof, clopiner; Parleth, un parloir; and secondly, Dilvar, deliver; Feur, une foire; Fya, fuir: Jugye, juger; Parhemmin, parchemin; and lastly we have, Gravior, un graveur; and Panez, un panais.

For the sake of perspicuity, I add lists of most of the English and French words which have occurred to me in Cornish ; observing, however, that in my examination of the latter with so many languages, many primitives through their disguise may have escaped me, whilst I have purposely omitted a few, whose derivation appeared doubtful, or too remote to establish any thing like a common origin.

D.

P. S. The following words, which are now used in the English language, are also found in Cornish.

The p and are convertible, as rep, super, over, and in Italian sovra

and sopra. [Aval is also German. Ed.]