[16] Indeed a good reason may be given for the apparent difference in the several branches of the old Celtic. In this language, words are declined by changing the initial letters, or by prefixing an article with an apostrophe. By these means, words are so altered, that a superficial observer may confound the radical letters, with those which are added for the sake of expressing different relations. Thus the British word _pen_ signifies, a head; _pen gûr_, a man's head; _i ben_, his head; _i phen_, her head; _y'm mhen_, my head. This by the way is no contemptible evidence that the British was derived from the Phenician or Hebrew, in the latter of which, words are declined by prefixes, as well as suffixes. For the difference between the Irish and British, Lluyd assigns other reasons. The ancestors of the Irish and Highland Scots, who were called Guydelians, might have been the original Celts, who first inhabited Britain; and the Cymri or Welsh, another race, or a branch of the Celtic Cimbri, might, either by colonization or conquest, take possession of Britain, and introduce a very different dialect of the same radical language. The Irish language might be somewhat changed by Cantabrian words, imported by the Scots from Spain; and the Cymraeg or British might suffer considerable changes during 400 years subjection to the Romans. See Pref. to Mallet's North. Antiq. page 42. [17] "Erat autem illa Anglo-Saxonum lingua antiquæ Teutonicæ propago, (nisi antiquæ Gothicæ seu Geticæ potius dixeris, unde forsan ipsa Teutonica duxerit originem) ut et Francica illa in Galliam advecta, et hodierna Germanica, Belgica, Danica, Suevica, Borussica, aliæque affines linguæ."----WALLIS. [18] Mallet's North. Antiq. [19] "~Alloi de Persai eisi hoide, Panthelaioi, Derousiaioi, Germanioi~."----Herodotus in Clio. ed. 1570, page 34. [20] 1362. [21] In this act of Edward III. there is an express reservation in favor of particular law-phrases or technical terms, which, by long use, had acquired peculiar force and propriety, and whose place could not be well supplied by English words or phrases. Hence the number of French words still used in law proceedings. [22] We have the testimony of Robert, Earl of Gloucester (who wrote under Henry III. and Edward I.) to this purpose. Page 364. "Vor bote a man couth French, me tolth of hym well lute, Ac lowe men holdeth to Englyss and to her kunde speeche yute." For but a man knoweth French, men told of him well little, and lowe men holdeth to English and to their native tongue.---- That is, unless a man could speak French he was little esteemed. [23] 1731.