Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 354, April 1845Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 354, April 1845
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Taking the same liberty of arbitrary division, any one of moderate
ingenuity might turn these inscriptions into a jargon just as readable in
any language of the world. Divide any sentence of any articulate language
into syllables, and apply these alleged Irish words used by Betham as
their equivalents, and you may make it an equally authentic record of a
voyage to Ireland or to the moon, or a recipe for the toothache, or any
thing else you please, with the greatest facility.
Curious reader, tell us, pray, which is the more readable jargon--this,
"God to knowledge agreeable it is quick and water lonely star indeed
the to it in day the month this in knowledge with is from the sea
very solitary being water with the water the voyage always the coast
steering being throughout moon to knowledge in water God indeed the
water to danger this the in knowledge with with altogether to night
the man from current the being water the to cause knowledge steering
water by Ocean the north."
Or this?
"Was which security day and night inform Phoenician from night
means in defence by skill throughout the means being also water means
voyage from the means as indeed the voyage in it far away people
water of the sea in gentle inward it is by wisdom day and night in it
is gentle indeed the sea by science which by night in the will be to
will be means of the star it far away Phoenician far away steering
night and day and then to whence is in the ocean night sailing
happy."
We believe most of our readers will incline to say that the one is about
as insane gibberish as the other; or if they discover a distinction, will
give the palm of a less degree of incoherency to the first. The first is
our own; the second is Betham's--being his literal version of the first
three sentences of the second table, and in no material respect different
from his version of any other three sentences of any of the rest of the
series.[8] The other is our own literal version, on the same principle, of
a sentence of his own, marked in italics in the following extracts, in
which he defends his arbitrary division of the Etruscan text into
monosyllables, though the punctuation of the original plainly divides it
into many-syllabled words.
In defence of this unjustifiable corruption of the original, he alleges
these excuses--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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