Chapter 21

For the special literature of cellulose treated from the general point of view of this article, the reader may consult the following works by C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan:Cellulose(1895, 2nd ed. 1903),Researches on Cellulose, i. (1901),Researches on Cellulose, ii. (1906).

(C. F. C.)

1C.F. Cross and E.J. Bevan,Jour. Chem. Soc., 1895, 67, p. 449; C.R. Darling,Jour. Faraday Soc.1904; A. Campbell,Trans. Roy. Soc.1906.

CELSIUS, ANDERS(1701-1744), Swedish astronomer, was born at Upsala on the 27th of November 1701. He occupied the chair of astronomy in the university of his native town from 1730 to 1744, but travelled during 1732 and some subsequent years in Germany, Italy and France. At Nuremberg he published in 1733 a collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis made by himself and others 1716-1732. In Paris he advocated the measurement of an arc of the meridian in Lapland, and took part, in 1736, in the expedition organized for the purpose by the French Academy. Six years later he described the centigrade thermometer in a paper read before the Swedish Academy of Sciences (seeThermometry). His death occurred at Upsala on the 25th of April 1744. He wrote:Nova Methodus distantiam solis a terra determinandi(1730);De observationibus pro figura telluris determinanda(1738); besides many less important works.

See W. Ostwald’sKlassiker der exacten Wissenschaften, No. 57 (Leipzig, 1904), where Celsius’s memoir on the thermometric scale is given in German with critical and biographical notes (p. 132); Marie,Histoire des sciences, viii. 30; Poggendorff sBiog.-literarisches Handwörterbuch.

CELSUS(c.a.d.178), a 2nd-century opponent of Christianity, known to us mainly through the reputation of his literary work,The True Word(orAccount;ἀληθὴς λόγος), published by Origen in 248, seventy years after its composition. In that year, though the Church was under no direct threat of attack, owingto the inertia of the emperor Philip the Arabian, the atmosphere was full of conflict. The empire was celebrating the l000th anniversary of its birth, and imperial aspirations and ideas were naturally prominent. Over against the state and the worship of the Caesar stood as usual the Christian ideal of a rule and a citizenship not of this world, to which a thousand years were but as a day. A supernatural pride was blended with a natural anxiety, and it was at this juncture that Origen brought to light again a book written in the days of Marcus Aurelius, which but for the great Alexandrian might have been lost for ever. Sometimes quoting, sometimes paraphrasing, sometimes merely referring, he reproduces and replies to all Celsus’s arguments. His work shows many signs of haste, but he more than compensates for this by the way in which he thus preserves a singularly interesting memorial of the 2nd century. When we remember that only about one-tenth of theTrue Wordis really lost and that about three-quarters of what we have is verbatim text, it would be ungracious to carp at the method.

Celsus opens the way for his own attack by rehearsing the taunts levelled at the Christians by the Jews. Jesus was born in adultery and nurtured on the wisdom of Egypt. His assertion of divine dignity is disproved by his poverty and his miserableThe argumentend. Christians have no standing in the Old Testament prophecies, and their talk of a resurrection that was only revealed to some of their own adherents is foolishness. Celsus indeed says that the Jews are almost as ridiculous as the foes they attack; the latter said the saviour from Heaven had come, the former still looked for his coming. However, the Jews have the advantage of being an ancient nation with an ancient faith. The idea of an Incarnation of God is absurd; why should the human race think itself so superior to bees, ants and elephants as to be put in this unique relation to its maker? And why should God choose to come to men as a Jew? The Christian idea of a special providence is nonsense, an insult to the deity. Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dunghill, croaking and squeaking, “For our sakes was the world created.” It is much more reasonable to believe that each part of the world has its own special deity; prophets and supernatural messengers had forsooth appeared in more places than one. Besides being bad philosophy based on fictitious history, Christianity is not respectable. Celsus does not indeed repeat the Thyestean charges so frequently brought against Christians by their calumniators, but he says the Christian teachers who are mainly weavers and cobblers have no power over men of education. The qualifications for conversion are ignorance and childish timidity. Like all quacks they gather a crowd of slaves, children, women and idlers. “I speak bitterly about this,” says Celsus, “because I feel bitterly. When we are invited to the Mysteries the masters use another tone. They say, ‘Come to us ye who are of clean hands and pure speech, ye who are unstained by crime, who have a good conscience towards God, who have done justly and lived uprightly.’ The Jews say, ‘Come to us ye who are sinners, ye who are fools or children, ye who are miserable, and ye shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven.’ The rogue, the thief, the burglar, the poisoner, the spoiler of temples and tombs, these are their proselytes. Jesus, they say, was sent to save sinners; was he not sent to help those who have kept themselves free from sin? They pretend that God will save the unjust man if he repents and humbles himself. The just man who has held steady from the cradle in the ways of virtue He will not look upon.” He pours scorn upon the exorcists—who were clearly in league with the demons themselves—and upon the excesses of the itinerant and undisciplined “prophets” who roam through cities and camps and commit to everlasting fire cities and lands and their inhabitants. Above all Christians are disloyal, and every church is an illicit collegium, an insinuation deadly at any time, but especially so under Marcus Aurelius. Why cannot Christians attach themselves to the great philosophic and political authorities of the world? A properly understood worship of gods and demons is quite compatible with a purified monotheism, and they might as well give up the mad idea of winning the authorities over to their faith, or of hoping to attain anything like universal agreement on divine things.

Celsus and Porphyry (q.v.) are the two early literary opponents of Christianity who have most claim to consideration, and it is worth noticing that, while they agree alike in high aims, in skilful address and in devoted toil, theirThe philosophy of Celsusreligious standpoints are widely dissimilar. Porphyry is above all a pure philosopher, but also a man of deep religious feeling, whose quest and goal are the knowledge of God; Celsus, the friend of Lucian, though sometimes called Epicurean and sometimes Platonist, is not a professed philosopher at all, but a man of the world, really at heart an agnostic, like Caecilius in Minucius Felix (q.v.), whose religion is nothing more or less than the Empire. He is keen, positive, logical, combining with curious dashes of scepticism many genuine moral convictions and a good knowledge of the various national religions and mythologies whose relative value he is able to appreciate. “His manner of thought is under the overpowering influence of the eclectic Platonism of the time, and not of the doctrine of the Epicurean school. He is a man of the world, of philosophic culture, who accepts much of the influential Platonism of the time but has absorbed little of its positive religious sentiment. In his antipathy to Christianity, which appears to him barbaric and superstitious, he gives himself up to the scepticism and satire of a man of the world through which he comes in contact with Epicurean tendencies.” He quotes approvingly from theTimaeusof Plato: “It is a hard thing to find out the Maker and Father of this universe, and after having found him it is impossible to make him known to all.” Philosophy can at best impart to the fit some notion of him which the elect soul must itself develop. The Christian on the contrary maintained that God is known to us as far as need be in Christ, and He is accessible to all. Another sharp antithesis was the problem of evil. Celsus made evil constant in amount as being the correlative of matter. Hence his scorn of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body held then in a very crude form, and his ridicule of any attempt to raise the vulgar masses from their degradation. The real root of the difficulty to Platonist as to Gnostic was his sharp antithesis of form as good and matter as evil.

Opinion at one time inclined to the view that theTrue Wordwas written in Rome, but the evidence (wholly internal) points much more decisively to an Egyptian, and in particular an Alexandrian origin. Not only do the many intimatePlace and date.references to Egyptian history and customs support this position, but it is clear that the Jews of Celsus are not Western or Roman Jews, but belong to the Orient, and especially to that circle of Judaism which had received and assimilated the idea of the Logos.

The date also is clearly defined. Besides the general indication that the Empire was passing through a military crisis, which points to the long struggle waged by Marcus Aurelius against the Marcomanni and other Germanic tribes, there is a reference (Contra Celsum, viii. 69) to the rescript of that emperor impressing on governors and magistrates the duty of keeping a strict watch on extravagances in religion. This edict dates from 176-177, and inaugurated the persecution which lasted from that time till the death of Marcus Aurelius in 180. During these years Commodus was associated with Marcus in the imperium, and Celsus has a reference to this joint rule (viii. 71).

Celsus shows himself familiar with the story of Jewish origins. Any pagan who wished to understand and criticize Christianity intimately had to begin by learning from the Jews, and this accounts for the opening chapters of his argument.Value in the history of Christianity.He has a good knowledge of Genesis and Exodus, refers to the stories of Jonah, Daniel (vii. 53) and Enoch (v. 52), but does not make much use of the Prophets or the Psalter. As regards the New Testament his position is closely in agreement with that reflected in the contemporaryActs of the Martyrs of Scili. He speaks of a Christian collection of writings, and knew and used the gospels, but was influenced less by the fourth than by the Synoptics. There is more evidence of Pauline ideas than of Pauline letters.

The gnostic sects and their writings were well known to him (viii. 15 and vi. 25), and so was the work of Marcion. There are indications, too, of an acquaintance with Justin Martyr and the Sibylline literature (vii. 53, op. v. 61). “He is perfectly aware of the internal differences between Christians, and he is familiar with the various stages of development in the history of their religion. These are cleverly employed in order to heighten the impression of its instability. He plays off the sects against the Catholic Church, the primitive age against the present, Christ against the apostles, the various revisions of the Bible against the trustworthiness of the text and so forth, though he admits that everything was not really so bad at first as it is at present.”

TheTrue Wordhad very little influence either on the mutualrelations of Church and State, or on classical literature. Echoes of it are found in Tertullian and in Minucius Felix, and then it lay forgotten until Origen gave it new life. A good deal of the neo-Platonic polemic naturally went back to Celsus, and both the ideas and phrases of theTrue Wordare found in Porphyry and Julian, though the closing of the New Testament canon in the meantime somewhat changed the method of attack for these writers.

Of more importance than these matters is the light which the book sheds on the strength of the Church about the year 180. It is of course easy to see that Celsus had no apprehension of the spiritual needs even of his own day which it was the Christian purpose to satisfy, that he could not grasp anything of the new life enjoyed by the poor in spirit, and that he underrated the significance of the Church, regarding it simply as one of a number of warring sections (mostly Gnostic), and so seeing only a mark of weakness. And yet, there is all through an undercurrent which runs hard against his surface verdicts, and here and there comes to expression. He is bound to admit that Christianity has been stated reasonably; against the moral teaching of Jesus he can only bring the lame charge of plagiarism, and with the Christian assertion that the Logos is the Son of God he completely accords. Most suggestive, however, is his closing appeal to the Christians. “Come,” he says, “don’t hold aloof from the common regime. Take your place by the emperor’s side. Don’t claim for yourselves another empire, or any special position.” It is an overture for peace. “If all were to follow your example and abstain from politics, the affairs of the world would fall into the hands of wild and lawless barbarians” (viii. 68). Forced to admit that Christians are notinfructuosi in negotiis, he wants them to be good citizens, to retain their own belief but conform to the state religion. It is an earnest and striking appeal on behalf of the Empire, which was clearly in great danger, and it shows the terms offered to the Church, as well as the strength of the Church at the time. Numerically, Christians may have formed perhaps a tenth of the population,i.e.in Alexandria there would be fifty or sixty thousand, but their power in a community was out of all proportion to their mere numbers.

Literature.—Th. Keim,Celsus’ Wahres Wort(1873); Pélagaud,Étude sur Celse(1878); K.J. Neumann’s edition inScriptores Graeci qui Christianam impugnaverunt religionem, and article in Hauck-Herzog’sRealencyk. fur prot. Theol., where a very full bibliography is given. See also W. Moeller,Hist, of the Chr. Church, i. 169 ff.; A. Harnack,Expansion of Christianity, ii. 129 ff.; J.A. Froude,Short Studies, iv.

CELT,orKelt, the generic name of an ancient people, the bulk of whom inhabited the central and western parts of Europe. (For the sense of a primitive stone tool, see the separate article, later.) Much confusion has arisen from the inaccurate use of the terms “Celt” and “Celtic.” It is the practice to speak of the dark-complexioned people of France, Great Britain and Ireland as “black Celts,” although the ancient writers never applied the term “Celt” to any dark-complexioned person. To them great stature, fair hair, and blue or grey eyes were the characteristics of the Celt. The philologists have added to the confusion by classing as “Celtic” the speeches of the dark-complexioned races of the west of Scotland and the west of Ireland. But, though usage has made it convenient in this work to employ the term, “Celtic” cannot be properly applied to what is really “Gaelic.”

The ancient writers regarded as homogeneous all the fair-haired peoples dwelling north of the Alps, the Greeks terming them allKeltoi. Physically they fall into two loosely-divided groups, which shade off into each other. The first of these is restricted to north-western Europe, having its chief seat in Scandinavia. It is distinguished by a long head, a long face, a narrow aquiline nose, blue eyes, very light hair and great stature. Those are the peoples usually termed Teutonic by modern writers. The other group is marked by a round head, a broad face, a nose often rather broad and heavy, hazel-grey eyes, light chestnut hair; they are thick-set and of medium height. This race is often termed “Celtic” or “Alpine” from the fact of its occurrence all along the great mountain chain from south-west France, in Savoy, in Switzerland, the Po valley and Tirol, as well as in Auvergne, Brittany, Normandy, Burgundy, the Ardennes and the Vosges. It thus stands midway not only geographically but also in physical features between the “Teutonic” type of Scandinavian and the so-called “Mediterranean race” with its long head, long face, its rather broad nose, dark brown or black hair, dark eyes, and slender form of medium height. The “Alpine race” is commonly supposed to be Mongoloid in origin and to have come from Asia, the home of round-skulled races. But it is far more probable that they are the same in origin as the dark race south of them and the tall fair race north of them, and that the broadness of their skulls is simply due to their having been long domiciled in mountainous regions. Thus the “Celtic” ox (Bos longifrons), from remote ages the common type in the Alpine regions, is characterized by the height of its forehead above the orbits, by its highly-developed occipital region, and its small horns. Not only do animals change their physical characteristics in new environment, but modern peoples when settled in new surroundings for even one or two centuries,e.g.the American of New England and the Boer of South Africa, prove that man is no less readily affected by his surroundings.

The northern race has ever kept pressing down on the broad-skulled, brown-complexioned men of the Alps, and intermixing with them, and at times has swept right over the great mountain chain into the tempting regions of the south, producing such races as the Celto-Ligyes, Celtiberians, Celtillyrians, Celto-Thracians and Celto-Scythians. In its turn the Alpine race has pressed down upon their darker and less warlike kindred of the south, either driven down before the tall sons of the north or swelling the hosts of the latter as they swept down south.

As the natives of the southern peninsula came into contact with these mixed people, who though differing in the shape of the skull nevertheless varied little from each other in speech and colour of their hair and eyes, the ancient writers termed them all “Keltoi.” But as the most dreaded of these Celtic tribes came down from the shores of the Baltic and Northern Ocean, the ancients applied the name Celt to those peoples who are spoken of as Teutonic in modern parlance. The Teutons, whose name is generic for Germans, appear in history along with the Cimbri, universally held to be Celts, but coming from the same region as the Guttones (Goths) by the shores of the Baltic and North Sea. Again, the Germani themselves first appear in the Celtic host destroyed by Marcellus at Clastidium in 225b.c.All the true Celtae or Galatae in France had come across the Rhine; the Belgic tribes in northern France were Cimbri, who also had crossed the Rhine: in Caesar’s day the Germans were still constantly crossing that river, and so-called Gauls who lived near the Germans,e.g.the Treveri, closely resembled the latter in their habits, while in later times were to come Goths and Franks from beyond the great river. It is then not strange that the Gallic name for a henchman (ambactus) is the same as the Gothic (ambahts).

The earliest invaders, under the name of Celtae, had occupied all central Gaul, doubtless mixing with the aboriginal Ligurians and Iberians, who, however, maintained themselves respectively in the later Provence and in Aquitania. The Celts had firmly established themselves by the 7th centuryb.c.and we know not how long before, the Bituriges (whose name survives in Berri) being the dominant tribe. In the Alps and the Danube valley some of the Celts had dwelt from the Stone Age; there they had developed the working of copper, discovered bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), and the art of smelting iron (seeHallstatt). The Umbrians, who were part of the Alpine Celts, had been pressing down into Italy from the Bronze Age, though checked completely by the rise of the Etruscan power in the 10th centuryb.c.The invention of iron weapons made the Celts henceforth irresistible. One of the earliest movements after this discovery was probably that of the Achaeans of Homer, who about 1450b.c.invaded Greece (seeAchaeans), bringing with them the use of iron and brooches, the practice of cremating the dead, and the style of ornament known as Geometric. Later the Cimmerians (seeScythiaandCimmerii) passed down from theCimbric Chersonese, doubtless following the amber routes, and then turned east along the Danube, some of their tribes,e.g.the Treres, settling in Thrace, and crossing into Asia; others settled in southern Russia, leaving their name in the Crimea; then when hard pressed by the Scythians most of them passed round the east end of the Euxine into Asia Minor, probably being the people known as Gimirri on Assyrian monuments, and ravaged that region, the relics of the race finally settling at Sinope.

At the beginning of the 6th centuryb.c.the Celts of France had grown very powerful under the Biturigian king Ambigatus. They appear to have spread southwards into Spain, occupying most of that country as far south as Gades (Cadiz), some tribes,e.g.Turdentani and Turduli, forming permanent settlements and being still powerful there in Roman times; and in northern central Spain, from the mixture of Celts with the native Iberians, the population henceforward was called Celtiberian. About this time also took place a great invasion of Italy; Segovisus and Bellovisus, the nephews of Ambigatus, led armies through Switzerland, and over the Brenner, and by the Maritime Alps, respectively (Livy V. 34). The tribes who sent some of their numbers to invade Italy and settle there were the Bituriges, Arverni, Senones, Aedui, Ambarri, Carnuti and Aulerci.

Certain material remains found in north Italy,e.g.at Sesto Calende, may belong to this invasion. The next great wave of Celts recorded was that which swept down on north Italy shortly before 400b.c.These invaders broke up in a few years the Etruscan power, and even occupied Rome herself after the disaster on the Allia (390b.c.). Bought off by gold they withdrew from Rome, but they continued to hold a great part of northern Italy, extending as far south as Sena Gallica (Sinigaglia), and henceforward they were a standing source of danger to Rome, especially in the Samnite Wars, until at last they were either subdued or expelled,e.g.the Boii from the plains of the Po. At the same time as the invasion of Italy they had made fresh descents into the Danube valley and the upper Balkan, and perhaps may have pushed into southern Russia, but at this time they never made their way into Greece, though the Athenian ladies copied the style of hair and dress of the Cimbrian women. About 280b.c.the Celts gathered a great host at the head of the Adriatic, and accompanied by the Illyrian tribe of Autariatae, they overthrew the Macedonians, overran Thessaly, and invaded Phocis in order to sack Delphi, but they were finally repulsed, chiefly by the efforts of the Aetolians (279b.c.). The remnant of those who returned from Greece joined that part of their army which had remained in Thrace, and marched for the Hellespont. Here some of their number settled near Byzantium, having conquered the native Thracians, and made Tyle their capital. The Byzantines had to pay them a yearly tribute of 80 talents, until on the death of the Gallic king Cavarus (some time after 220b.c.) they were annihilated by the Thracians. The main body of the Gauls who had marched to the Hellespont crossed it under the leadership of Leonnorius and Lutarius. Straightway they overran the greater part of Asia Minor, and laid under tribute all west of Taurus, even the Seleucid kings. At last Attila, king of Pergamum, defeated them in a series of battles commemorated on the Pergamene sculptures, and henceforth they were confined to a strip of land in the interior of Asia Minor, the Galatia of history. Their three tribes—Trocmi, Tolistobogians and Tectosages—submitted to Rome (189b.c.), but they remained autonomous till the death of their king Amyntas, when Augustus erected Galatia into a province. Their descendants were probably the “foolish Galatians” to whom St Paul wrote (seeGalatia).

Ancient writers spoke of all these Gauls as Cimbri, and identified them with the Cimmerians of earlier date, who in Homeric times dwelt on the ocean next to the Laestrygones, in a region of wintry gloom, but where the sun set not in summer. Nor was it only towards the south and the Hellespont that the Celtic tide ever set. They passed eastward to the Danube mouth and into southern Russia, as far as the Sea of Azov, mingling with the Scythians, as is proved by the name Celto-scyths. Mithradates VI. of Pontus seems to have negotiated with them to gain their aid against Rome, and Bituitus, a Gallic mercenary, was with him at his death.

The Celts had continually moved westwards also. The Belgae, who were Cimbric in origin, had spread across the Rhine and given their name to all northern France and Belgium (Gallia Belgica). Many of these tribes sent colonies over into south-eastern Britain, where they had been masters for some two centuries when Caesar invaded the island (seeBritain). But there is evidence that from the Bronze Age there had been settlers in northern Britain who were broad-skulled and cremated their dead, a practice which had arisen in south Germany in the early Bronze Age or still earlier. It is not unlikely that, as tradition states, there were incursions of Celts from central Gaul into Ireland during the general Celtic unrest in the 6th centuryb.c.It is certain that at a later period invaders from the continent, bringing with them the later Iron Age culture, commonly called La Tène, which had succeeded that of Hallstatt, had settled in Ireland. Not only are relics of La Tène culture found in Ireland, but the oldest Irish epics celebrate tall, fair-haired, grey-eyed heroes, armed and clad in Gallic fashion, who had come from the continent. The Celts in Italy, in the Balkan, in France and in Britain, overspread the Indo-European peoples, who differed from themselves but slightly in speech. The Celts represented Indo-Europeanqbyp, whilst the Greeks, Illyrians, Thracians, Ligurians, and aborigines of France, Britain and Ireland represented it byk,corqu. The Umbrian-Sabellian tribes had the same phonetic peculiarity as the Celts. Thus Gallicpetor(petor-ritum, “four-wheeler”), Umbrianpetur, Homericπίσυρες, Boeotian (Achaean)πέτταρες, Welshpedwar; but Gaeliccethir, Lat.quatuor. The Celts are thus clearly distinguished from the Gaelic-speaking dark race of Britain and Ireland, and in spite of usage it must be understood that it is strictly misleading to apply the term Celtic to the latter language.

See also Ridgeway,Early Age of Greece, vol. i., andOldest Irish Epic; Ripley,The Races of Europe; Sergi,The Mediterranean Race.

(W. Ri.)

Celtic Languages

Introduction.—The Celtic languages form one group of the Indo-European family of languages. As might be expected from their geographical distribution, they hold a position between the Italic and Teutonic groups. They are distinguished from these and other branches of the family by certain well-marked characteristics, the most notable of which are the loss of initial and inter-vocalicp, cf. Ir.athairwith Lat.pater; Ir.lān, “full,” Welshllawn, Bretonleun, with Lat.plenus; Gaulishare-, “beside,” Ir.ar. Welsh, Bretonar, with Gr.περί,παρά; and the change of I. E.ētoī, cf. Ir.fīr, “true,” Welshgwir, Bretongwir, Lat.verus. We may further mention that the I. E. labialized velargvis represented byb,e.g.Ir.bo, “cow,” Welshbuwch, Gr.βοῦς, Sanskr.gāus; Ir.ben, “woman,” Gr.γυνή, whilst the medial aspiratesbh,dh,ghresult in simple voiced stops. I. E. sonantrandlbecomeri,li. Other distinctive features of the modern dialects are not found in Gaulish, partly owing to the character of the monuments. Such are the -ss- preterite and the fusion of simple prepositions with pronominal elements,e.g.Ir.fri-umm, “against me,” Welshwrth-yf, Bretonouz-inn. The initial mutations which are so characteristic of the living languages did not arise until after the Romans had left Britain. The Celtic languages betray a surprising affinity with the Italic dialects. Indeed, these two groups seem to stand in a much closer relationship to one another than any other pair. As features common to both Celtic and Italic we may mention: (i) the gen. sing, ending-īof masc. and neut. stems ino; (2) verbal nouns in-tion; (3) theb-future; (4) the passive formation in-r.

The various Celtic dialects may be divided as follows:—(1) Gaulish; (2) Goidelic, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx; (3) Brythonic, including Welsh, Breton and Cornish. Gaulish and Brythonic, like Oscan and Umbrian among the Italic dialects, change the I. E. labialized velar gutturalqvtop, whilst the Goidelic dialects retain theqvwhich later gives up the labialelement and becomesk,e.g.Gaulishpetor-, “four,” Ir.cethir, Welshpetguar, Bretonpevar, Lat.quattuor; Ir.cia, “who,” Welshpwy, Lat.quis; Gaulishepo-, “horse,” Welsheb-ol, Bretoneb-eul, Ir.ech, Lat.equus. Several attempts have been made to prove the existence of Celtic dialects withqvon the continent. Forms containingpoccur in the Coligny calendar, discovered in 1897, by the side of others withqv, a state of affairs not yet satisfactorily accounted for. The Rom tablets, discovered in 1898, have not been interpreted as yet, butpforms are found on them exclusively. In an excursus we shall deal with the language of the Picts.

No comprehensive handbook of the Celtic languages on the lines of Gröber’sGrundriss der romanischen Philologieor Paul’sGrundriss der germanischen Philologiewas available in 1909. The reader may refer to Windisch’s article “Keltische Sprachen” in Ersch und Gruber’sAllgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, and V. Tourneur,Esquisse d’une histoire des études celtiques(Liége, 1905; vol. ii. with full bibliography). Also H. Zimmer, “Die kelt. Litteraturen” inDie Kultur d. Gegenwart, T. i. Abh. xi. I, Berlin and Leipzig, 1909. The materials for the study of the older forms of the languages are to be found in Zeuss’sGrammatica Celticaas revised by Ebel. A comparative grammar of the Celtic dialects has been prepared by H. Pedersen (Göttingen, 1908). See also Whitley Stokes and A. Bezzenberger,Wortschatz der keltischen Spracheinheit(Göttingen, 1894).

I. Gaulish.—Celtic place-names are found as far east as the Dniester and Dobrudja, and as far north as Westphalia. The language of the Galatians in Asia Minor must have stood in a very close relation to Gaulish. Indeed few traces of dialectical differences are to be observed in continental Celtic. Unfortunately no literary monuments written in the ancient speech of Gaul have come down to us, though Caesar makes mention of religious poems orally transmitted by the Druids, and we also hear ofbardiandvates. But a large number of personal and place-names have been preserved. The classical writers have, moreover, recorded a certain number of Gaulish words which can generally be identified without difficulty by comparing them with words still living in the modern dialects,e.g.pempedula, “cinquefoil,” cf. Welshpump, “five,” anddeilen, “leaf”;ambactus, Welshamaeth;petorritum, “four-wheeled chariot,” cf. Welshpedwar, “four,” and Ir.roth, “wheel,” orrith, “course.” We have further between thirty and forty inscriptions (three in north Italy) which we may without hesitation ascribe to the Gauls. These inscriptions are written in either N. Etruscan or Greek or Latin characters. We are thus in a position to reconstruct much of the old system of declension, which resembles Latin very closely on the one hand, and on the other represents the forms which are postulated by the O. Ir. paradigms. Hence Gaulish is particularly valuable as preserving the final vowels which have disappeared in early Irish and Welsh. The few verb-forms which occur in the remains of Gaulish are quite obscure and have not hitherto admitted of a satisfactory explanation. The statements of ancient authors with regard to the Belgae are conflicting, but there cannot be much doubt that the language of the latter was substantially the same as Gaulish. Caesar observes that there was little difference between the speech of the Gauls and the Britons in his day, and we may regard Gaulish as closely akin to the ancestor of the Brythonic dialects. It is difficult to say when Gaulish finally became extinct. It disappeared very rapidly in the south of France, but lingered on, possibly till the 6th century, in the northern districts, and it seems unnecessary to discredit Jerome’s statement that the speech of the Galatians in Asia Minor bore a strong resemblance to the language he had heard spoken in the neighbourhood of Trier. There is no evidence that Breton has been influenced by continental Celtic. The number of Gaulish words which have come down in the Romance languages is remarkably small, and though at first sight the sound-changes of French and Welsh seem to bear a strong likeness to one another, any influence of Gaulish pronunciation on French is largely discounted when we find the same changes occurring in other dialects where there is little or no question of Celtic influence.

The proper names occurring in classical writers, on inscriptions and coins, have been collected by A. Holder in his monumentalAltceltischer Sprachschatz(Leipzig, 1896-1908). The inscriptions have been most recently treated by J. Rhys in theProceedings of the British Academy, vol. ii. See also a paper in this volume entitled “Celtae and Galli” by the same author for the text of the Coligny and Rom inscriptions. The value of Gaulish for grammatical purposes is set forth by Whitley Stokes in a paper on “Celtic Declension” in theProceedings of the London Philological Society(1885-1886). For the extent over which Gaulish was spoken, its relation to Latin and its influence on Romance, see E. Windisch’s article on “Keltische Sprache” in the section “Die vorromanischen Volkssprachen” in Gröber’sGrundriss der romanischen Philologie², vol. i. pp. 373 ff. Cf. further the introduction to J. Loth’sChrestomathie bretonne(Paris, 1890); G. Dottin,Manuel pour servir à I’étude des antiquités celtiques(Paris, 1906); R. Thurneysen,Keltoromanisches(Halle, 1884).

II. Goidelic and Brythonic.—When the monuments of the Celtic dialects of the British Islands begin to appear, we find a wide divergence between the two groups. We can only mention some of the more important cases here. The Brythonic dialects have gone very much farther in giving up inflectional endings than Goidelic. In Irish all final syllables in general disappear except long vowels followed bysorrandu<ōpreceded byi. But these reservations do not hold good for Brythonic. Thus, whilst O. Irish possesses five cases the Brythonic dialects have only one, and they have further lost the neuter gender and the dual number in substantives. In phonology there are also very striking differences, apart from the treatment of the labialized velarqvalready mentioned. The sonantnappears in Brythonic asan, whereas in Goidelic the nasal disappears beforek,twith compensatory lengthening of the vowel,e.g.I. E.*kmtom, Ir.cét, “hundred,” W.cant, Bret.kant; Prim. Celt.*jovṇko-,O. Ir.óac, Mod. Ir.óg, “young,” W.ieuanc, Bret,iaouank.t,kstanding after a vowel and precedingl,n(and alsorifkprecede) disappear in Goidelic with compensatory lengthening of the vowel,e.g.Prim. Celt.*stātlā-,Ir.sál, “heel,” W.sawdl; Prim. Celt.*petno-,Ir.én, “bird,” O. W.etn, Mod. W.edn.Similarlyb,d,gdisappear in Goidelic when standing after a vowel and precedingl,r,nwith compensatory lengthening of the vowel, but in Welsh they produce a vowel forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel,e.g.Prim. Celt.*neblo-,Ir.nél, “cloud,” W.niwl; Prim. Celt.*ogno-,cf. Lat.agnus, Ir.uan, “lamb,” from*ōn,W.oen; Prim. Celt.*vegno-,cf. Ger.Wagen, Ir.fén, “wagon,” O. W.guein, Mod. W.gwain. The Goidelic dialects have preserved the vowels of accented syllables on the whole better than Brythonic. Thus Brythonic has changed Prim. Celt,ā(= I. E.ā,ō) toō(W.aw, Bret.eu); and Prim. Celt.ūtoī,e.g.Ir.bráthir, “brother,” W.brawd, Bret.breur; Gaulishdūnum, Ir.dún, “fort,” W.din. Already in Gaulish the I. E. diphthongs show a tendency to become simple long vowels and the latter are treated differently by Goidelic and Brythonic. In early times I. E.eu, ouboth becameōand I. E.eigaveē. In Goidelicō,ē, in accented syllables were diphthongized in the early part of the 8th century toua,iaif the next syllable did not contain the vowelseori, whereas in Brythonicōgaveü(writtenu) andēbecame in W.ui(wy), and in Bret.oe(oue),e.g.GaulishTeuto-,Toutius, Ir.tuath, “people,” W., Bret.tud; BrythonicLēto-cētum,Ir.tuath, “grey,” W.llwyd, Bret,loued. Similarly in loan-words, Ir.céir,fial, W.cwyr, O. Corn.guil, from Lat.cēra,vēlum. Further I. E.ai,oiare preserved in Irish asai(ae),oi(oe), Mod. Ir.ao, but in Welsh I. E.aigave eitheraioroe, whilstoichanged toü(writtenu), Ir.toeb, “side,” W., Bret.tu; I. E.*oinos,Ir.óen, “one,” W., Bret.un; Prim. Celt.*saitlo-,cf. Lat.saeculum, W.hoedl, “age,” Bret.hoal. In Goidelic accentedechanges toibeforei, uin the following syllable, cf. Ir.fid, “wood,” gen. sing,fedo, O. H. G.witu, andichanges toebeforeaorounder similar conditions. In like mannerubecomesobeforeaoro, whilstochanges toubeforei,u, cf. Ir.muir, “sea,” Prim. Celt.*mori,gen. sing.mora. Of Brythonic finals which disappear,ā,ī, (ō),jalone influence preceding vowels, whilst ani(y) which received the stress in O. W. was also able to modify vowels which went before it. In Goidelic the combinationssqv,svappear respectively assc,s(medially,f), but in Brythonic they both givechw; Prim. Celt.*sqvetlon, Ir.scél, “story,” W.chwedl; Prim. Celt.*svesor, Ir.siur, “sister,” butmo fiur, “my sister” (whence Scottishpiutharby false de-aspiration), W.chwaer, Bret.c’hoar. InBrythonic initialsbecomeshin the 7th century, but this is unknown in Goidelic,e.g.Ir.salann, “salt,” W.halen, Cornishhaloin, Bret,holenn; Lat.sé-men,Ir.sil, “seed,” W.hil. Initialvgivesfin Goidelic in the course of the 7th century, whereas in Brythonic it appears asgu, gw,cf. Lat.vérus, Ir.fir, W., Bret.gwir. We may also mention that in Goidelic initialjand medialvdisappear,e.g.GaulishJovincillus, W.ieuanc, “young,” Bret,iouank, Ir.óac, óc; W.bywyd, “food,” Ir.biad. Post-consonanticjin Brythonic sometimes gives-id(Mod. W.-ydd, Mod. Bret,-ez),e.g.Gaulishnevio-, novio-, O. Bret,nowid, W.newydd, Bret,nevez, Ir.núe.I.E.-ktand-ptboth appear in Goidelic as-chtbut in Brythonic as-ith, cf. Lat.septem, O. Ir.secht, W.seith, Bret.seiz.

We unfortunately know very little about the position of the stress in ancient Gaulish. According to Meyer-Lübke in place-names the penult was accented if the vowel was long, otherwise the stress lay on the preceding syllable,e.g.Augustodūnum, O. Fr.Ostedun, nowAutun; Cataláunos(Châlons),Trícasses(Fr. Troyes),Bitûriges(Fr. Bourges). In Goidelic the stress, which is strongly expiratory, is always placed on the first syllable except in certain cases in verbs compounded with prepositional prefixes. In Old Welsh and Old Breton, on the other hand, the final syllable,i.e.the primitive penult, received the stress, but in both languages the stress was shifted in the middle period to the penultimate. The Goidelic dialects, like the Slavonic, distinguish between palatalized and nonpalatalized consonants, according as the consonant was originally followed by a front (e, i) or back vowel (a, o, u), a phenomenon which is entirely unknown to Brythonic.

Finally, the two groups differ radically in the matter of initial mutation or, as it is often called, aspiration. These mutations are by no means confined to initial consonants, as precisely the same changes have taken place under similar conditions in the interior of words. The Goidelic changes included under this head probably took place for the most part between the 5th and 7th centuries, whilst in Brythonic the process seems to have begun and continued later. It is easier to fix the date of the changes in Brythonic than in Goidelic, as a number of British names are preserved in lives of saints, and it is possible to draw conclusions from the shape that British place-names assumed in the mouths of the Anglo-Saxons. In Goidelic, we find two mutations, the vocalic and the nasal. Initial mutation only takes place between words which belong together syntactically, and which form one single stress-group, thus between article, numeral, possessive pronoun or preposition, and a following substantive; between a verbal prefix and the verb itself.

1. When the word causing mutation ended in a vowel we get the vocalic mutation, called by Irish grammarians aspiration. The sounds affected are the tenuesk(c),t, p; the mediaeg, d, b; the liquids and nasalsm, n, r, l, s, and Prim. Celt.v(Ir.f, W.gw). At the present day the results of this mutation in Irish and Welsh may be tabulated as follows. Where the sound is at variance with the traditional orthography, the latter is given in brackets. In the case ofn, r, lin Goidelic we get a different variety ofn, r, lsound. In Welsh in the case ofr, l, the absolute initial is a voicelessr, lwrittenrh, ll, which on mutation become voiced and are writtenr, l. In Irishsbecomeshwrittenshand the mutation offis writtenfh, which, however, is now silent. Examples:—Irish,cú, “hound,”do chú, “thy hound”; Welshci, dy gi(do, dyrepresent a Prim. Celt.*tovo); Irishmáthair, “mother,”an mháthair, “the mother,” Welshmam, y fam(the feminine of the article was originally*sentā, sendā).OriginalsoundktpgdbmIrishχ(ch)h(th)f(ph)Ʒ(gh)Ʒ(dh)v,w(bh)v,w(mh)Welshgdbnilð(dd)v(f)v(f)2. When the word causing mutation originally ended in a nasal, we get the nasal mutation called by Irish grammarians eclipse. The sounds affected arek(c),t, p; g, d, b; Prim. Celt.v(Ir.f, W.gw). In mod. Irish and mod. Welsh the results are tabulated below. Irishfbecomeswwrittenbh, whilst W.gwgivesngw. Examples:—Irishbliadhna, “year,”seacht m-bliadhna, “seven years,” cf. Latinseptem, Welshblynedd, saith mlynedd; Irishtir, “country,”i d-tir,“in a country,” Welshtref, “town,”yn nhref, “in a town,” cf. Latinin.Original SoundktpgdbIrishgdbngnmWelshnghnhmhngnm3. In Welshk(c),t, pundergo a further change when the word causing mutation originally ended ins. There is nothing corresponding to this consonantal mutation in Goidelic. In this casek(c),t, pbecome the spirantsχ(ch),th, f(ph),e.g. lad, “father,”ei thad, “her father,”eirepresents a primitive*esiās.In the interior of words in Brythonic,cc, pp, ttgive the same result as initialk, t, pby this mutation.

2. When the word causing mutation originally ended in a nasal, we get the nasal mutation called by Irish grammarians eclipse. The sounds affected arek(c),t, p; g, d, b; Prim. Celt.v(Ir.f, W.gw). In mod. Irish and mod. Welsh the results are tabulated below. Irishfbecomeswwrittenbh, whilst W.gwgivesngw. Examples:—Irishbliadhna, “year,”seacht m-bliadhna, “seven years,” cf. Latinseptem, Welshblynedd, saith mlynedd; Irishtir, “country,”i d-tir,“in a country,” Welshtref, “town,”yn nhref, “in a town,” cf. Latinin.

3. In Welshk(c),t, pundergo a further change when the word causing mutation originally ended ins. There is nothing corresponding to this consonantal mutation in Goidelic. In this casek(c),t, pbecome the spirantsχ(ch),th, f(ph),e.g. lad, “father,”ei thad, “her father,”eirepresents a primitive*esiās.In the interior of words in Brythonic,cc, pp, ttgive the same result as initialk, t, pby this mutation.

The relation in which the other Celtic dialects stand to this system will be mentioned below in dealing with the various languages. It will be noted from what has been said above that, with the exception of the different treatment of the labialized velarqv, and the nasal sonantṇ, the features which differentiate the Brythonic from the Goidelic dialects first appear for the most part after the Romans had left Britain. At the beginning of the Christian era the difference between the two groups can only have been very slight. And Strachan has shown recently that Old Irish and Old Welsh agree in a very striking manner in the use of the verbal particleroand in other syntactical peculiarities connected with the verb.

(i.)Goidelic.—The term Goidelic is used to embrace the Celtic dialects of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. In each case the national name for the speech isGaelic(Ir.Gaedhlig, ScottishGaidhlig, ManxGailck), from Ir. ScottishGaodhal, Gaedheal, Mid. Ir.Góedel, W.Gwyddel, “a Gael, inhabitant of Ireland or Scotland.” Old Irish may be regarded as the ancestor of Scottish and Manx Gaelic, as the forms of these dialects can be traced back to Old Irish, and there are practically no monuments of Scottish and Manx in the oldest period. Scottish and Irish may be regarded as standing to one another in much the same relation as broad Scottish and southern English. The divergences of Scottish and Manx from Irish will be mentioned below. The language of the Ogam inscriptions is the oldest form of Goidelic with which we are acquainted. Some 300 inscriptions have up to the present been discovered in this alphabet, the majority of them hailing from the south-west of Ireland (Kerry and Cork). In Scotland 22 are known, whilst in England and Wales about 30 have turned up. Most of the latter are in South Wales, but odd ones have been found in North Wales, Devon and Cornwall, and one has occurred as far east as Hampshire. The Isle of Man also possesses two. The letters in the oldest inscriptions are formed by strokes or notches scored on either side of the edge of an upright stone. Thus we obtain the following alphabet:—

Back to Index Next