ERSE

The name given by the English and Scots to the dialect nf Celtic spoken by the inhabitants of the Highlands of word Scotland.Irish. The The people term 'is speaking evidently theanotherErse form tongue of call the anai*j«mselvestheir languageGael (written,Gaelig.but The not pronounced,inhabitants of Gaid heal),the low country of Scotland, it is remarkable enough, they call Gall, a term which they occasionally apply also to any stranger. England in the Erse language is called Sanson, meaning Saxony, and the people and language Sa onach; the litter being often called Beurla, which means speech in general, and In this case " the language" par excellence. The Irish are called by the Scots Highlanders Gael, like themselves, with the distinction of belonging to Erin, or Ireland. For the Welsh and their country there appear to be no names known to the Erse language. The Erse or Gaelic has been a erted to be one of the dialects of that Celtic or Gaulish language which is once supposed lo have pervaded nearly the whole western portion of Europe, including France, Spain, and Britain. For such an hypothesis, however, there is no good evidence; and all l'v is wholly opposed to the supposition that a people so rade, so divined, and so scattered as the inhabitants of Europe were 2000 years ago, should have had a common language. The great probability, on the contrary, is that in such times there were in Europe, as there are now in America, in Hindu stan, and in the great group of the Oriental Archipelago, many languages; a few so closely connectedaslo amount only to dialects of each other, but the greater number either differing wholly, or agreeing only in a few words, — communicated po ibly through the medium of religion, or adopted for convenience by the rest from one tribe or nation, which through good fortune or favourable position had obtained the start in civilization. The language* supposed to be of the Celtic stock, and of which ■ '• sufficient evidence either by remains or as living tongues, are the Welsh, the Bas Breton or Armor i can. the Irish, the Erse or Gaelic, the Manks or language of the Isle ' tn, the Cornish, and the Basque or language of the provinces of the same name in Spain. An examination of pears to prove the truth of the theory we have now suggested. The Welsh and Armor i can are but dialects me language, and the same observation holds true of the Irish and Erse. These languages agree respectively wiih each other, not only in grammatical structure, but in that numerous cla of words which constitutes the groundwork of every language: viz. prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions,with such verbs, adjectives, and nouns as are of most frequent and familiar use. The Irish and Erse so nearly resemble each other, that after a short familiarity with the pronunciation, the Irish and Scots Highlanders have no difficulty in understanding each other; and the same is said to be the case with the Welsh and Bas Breton. On the other hand, the languages of the two latter are wholly unintelligible to the first, and vice vers a. The Manks is but a dialect of the Irish or Erse, and the now extinct Cornish was unquestionably a dialect of the Welsh. Aa to tlio Basque, long supposed to be a Celtic tongue, a careful examination of it by the late Baron William Humboldt showed not only that it horo no resemblance to the Welsh, the Irish, or their dialects, but that it had nothing in common with any known language, ancient or modern. Re-m-rting the causes which produced a similarity between the languages of Wales and Hiiianv we po e some historical evidence. In the fourth and fifth centuries the Welsh, or people speaking the Welsh language in Britain, emigrated in great numbers lo the opposite shore of the of the Continent,northern driven part of from the i heir island.own'eountryTheir number by the was tribes so considerable that they acquired a superiority over the native population of the part of Gaul where they settled, and succeeded ultimately in imposing on it their own name and language. A similar emigration from Ireland, although we have no historical record of it, probably propagated the name and language of the Irish, with their manners, customs, and traditions, over the poor and mountainous portion of Scotland which is now the site of the Gaelic or Erse.■agnate, It does not nece arily follow, in this case, that the Highlands of Scotland were without inhabitants when the Irish colonists or conquerors planted themselves there. A primitive race of inhabitants no doubt previously existed, whose name and language were lost in the strength and mulriti'de of the invaders that occupied their country, as happened in America as the result of a British invasion, and in Britain itself as the result of a Saxon one. It may perhaps be said, in this instance, that the emigration is as likely to have taken place from the Highlands of Scotland to Ireland, as from Ireland to the Highlands: but the an- 419 [s. 433]