The pedigree of the English people : an argument, historical and scientific, on the formation and growth of the nation, tracing race-admixture in Britain from the earliest times, with especial reference to the incorporation of the Celtic aborigines / by Thomas Nicholas.

  • Nicholas, Thomas, 1820-1879.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pedigree of the English people : an argument, historical and scientific, on the formation and growth of the nation, tracing race-admixture in Britain from the earliest times, with especial reference to the incorporation of the Celtic aborigines / by Thomas Nicholas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fewer differences of speech as a barrier to intercourse, than would be presented now if Cymry from Wales and Bretons from Finisterre tried to colonize a new region in concert. With this view agrees the opinion of the accomplished Frenchman, M. Emile Souvestre, who, with reference to Csesar’s “ trois grands peuples,” says :—“ ]\Iais il est clair que ces trois nations, qui avaient une meme origine, les memes institutions politiques, la meme religion, parlaient, a peu de chose pres, la mhjte langue ; et quand Cesar dit: * Hi omnes lingua^ mstitiitis^ legibus, inter sc differunt’ il faut traduire ici le mot lingua par dialcctei' And he then adds with much force, that if this is not so, then the language used elswhere by Caesar, with respect to the German king Ariovistus, is incomprehensible: “ Sans cela, ce que dit le meme Cesar serait incomprehensible, lorsqu’il assure, sans distinguer entre les Beiges, les Celtes, et les y'lijuilaines, qu’Arioviste, roi des Germains, avait appris la langue gau- loise par un long commerce avec ce peuple. Que signifierait la langue gauloise s’il ne s’agissait d’une langue parlee dans toutes les Gaules ? Much can be said in favour of the view that the “ Belgae” and the “ Galli ” of Caesar stood in about the same relation to each other as the Cymry and the Gaels of to-day, both as to blood and language. Put into tabular form, they would stand thus :— The Ancient Galli f Representatives of the true The Modern Gaels, or Gwyddyls ( “ Celtae. ” The Ancient “ Belgaj ” f Mixed, but cognate to the The Modern Cymry ^ true “ Celts. ” Caesar may have meant by Belgae, Galli, and Aquitani, the peoples otherwise called Flemings, Gauls proper [i.e., Celts), and Basques; or (otherwise named) Cimbri, Celtae,