A Handbook of the English LanguageLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
A Handbook of the English Language
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
English language -- Grammar; English language -- History
b. A manuscript in the Colbertine library contains a list of Pictish kings
from the fifth century downwards. These names are more Welsh than Gaelic.
_Taran_ = _thunder_ in Welsh. _Uven_ is the Welsh _Owen_. The first
syllable in _Talorg_ ( = _forehead_) is the _tal_ in _Talhaiarn_ = _iron
forehead_, _Taliessin_ = _splendid forehead_, Welsh names. _Wrgust_ is
nearer to the Welsh _Gwrgust_ than to the Irish _Fergus_. Finally, _Drust_,
_Drostan_, _Wrad_, _Necton_, closely resemble the Welsh _Trwst_, _Trwstan_,
_Gwriad_, _Nwython_. _Cineod_ and _Domhnall_ (_Kenneth_ and _Donnell_) are
the only true Erse forms in the list.
c. The only Pictish common name extant is the well-known compound _pen
val_, which is, in the oldest MS. of Beda, _peann fahel_. This means _caput
valli_, and is the name for the eastern termination of the Vallum of
Antoninus. Herein _pen_ is unequivocally Welsh, meaning _head_. It is an
impossible form in Gaelic. _Fal_, on the other hand, is apparently Gaelic,
the Welsh for a _rampart_ being _gwall_. _Fal_, however, occurs in Welsh
also, and means _inclosure_.
The evidence just indicated is rendered nearly conclusive by an
interpolation, apparently of the twelfth century, of the Durham MS. of
Nennius, whereby it is stated that the spot in question was called in
Gaelic _Cenail_. Now Cenail is the modern name _Kinneil_, and it is also a
Gaelic translation of the Pict _pen val_, since _cean_ is the Gaelic for
_head_, and _fhail_ for _rampart_ or _wall_. If the older form were Gaelic,
the substitution, or translation, would have been superfluous.
d. The name of the _Ochil Hills_ in Perthshire is better explained from the
Pict _uchel_ = _high_, than from the Gaelic _uasal_.
e. Bryneich, the British form of the province Bernicia, is better explained
by the Welsh _bryn_ = _ridge_ (_hilly country_), than by any word in
Gaelic.--Garnett, in "Transactions of Philological Society."
* * * * *
CHAPTER VII.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN, AND THE LANGUAGES OF THE CLASSICAL STOCK.
§ 64. The languages of Greece and Rome belong to one and the same stock.
The Greek and its dialects, both ancient and modern, constitute the Greek
of the Classical stock.
The Latin in all its dialects, the old Italian languages allied to it, and
the modern tongues derived from the Roman, constitute the Latin branch of
the Classical stock.
Now, although the Greek dialects are of only secondary importance in the
illustration of the history of the English language, the Latin elements
require a special consideration.
This is because the Norman French, introduced into England by the battle of
Hastings, is a language derived from the Roman, and consequently a language
of the Latin branch of the Classical stock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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