The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-06-25


his turn as baby-tendcr, and lend his shoulders to
the one next in line-Selected
THE IRISH LANGUAGE AND ITS ORIGIN
We are glad to republish the following com
muncation to the New Haven Register, inasmuch
the Mr.. Emo, to whom it refers, has written
dry articles for these pages in times past, says the
Boston Blot. With those articles, signed by him
and representing his views on matters of Ian
guage, we had no fault to find until he quoted from
one of them in another paper and credited the quo
taiton to <'the Boston Pilot" thus conveying the
false idea that the matter quoted was editorial
expression of the Pilot instead of his personal
view 1t is needless to say what value any impair
tial reader must place upon such an authority as
that.
Editor of The Register:
Sir-May [ ask of you space to correct mis-
leading statement which appeared in your issue of
Sunday, May Is, under the caption "The Irish Ian
guage' and having appended thereto the signature
of J. t. Emo?
have not the honor of j. H. Enos acquaint-
ance, but regret exceedingly that it was not pos
sible for him to attend the lecture on the Origin
and Language of the Gaelic Race" /. e., the Irish
which was given in New Haven on the night of
May 6. Had he done So Mr.. Emo would have
ceived information that would have corrected his
erroneous impression and been the means of plac-
ing him on the track to the fountain head.
Judging from his subject, believe him to be
do him the Justice of admitting in advance that he
has probably labored we'll with the materials at his
service but has failed because like many other anti
quarians and phlogoists, he has taken effects for
causes.
As Pope remarked "a little learning is dan
gerous thing" In tracing out the source of Ian
guage have to drink deep. It is thing to
make assertion, quite. another, in some cases,
to prove it. There is much between the statement
and the satisfactory Q. E. D.
Passing over the first paragraph, dictionary
repetition, let me leave this: There are six primal
tongues in Europe-Irish, Finlandish, Hungarian,
Welsh Bscayan, Albanic, ranging in age in this
order.
The classification is not mine, but that of San
son, learned French photographer Marcel, an
other, and Laius, without prejudice, writing
for the sake of conveying truth and enlightenment.
"The nearest relative of the Irish are the Scotch
Gaelic and the Manx of the Isle of Man" The
Scotch are direct descendants from the Irish as
the ManX, and the further statement of the relation
of the. Cornwall is to be explained by the fact that
the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, who came there
i'll 1900 3. G. from Egypt, the descendants of Par
tholan, when conquered by the Milesians went part
into Connaught and part into Cornwall and Devon,
becoming extinct only III 1894.
The extreme variation of the sounds and in
Elections were brought about by successive develop
ments, just as we see how the English of today is
different from that of the time of Caucer whom
cannot read without dictionary.
As for the table of numerals and their RELATIVELY,
that is little consequence The correlation of all
languages is admitted 1t is in that derivation that
the question rises Mr.. Emo makes mistake i'll
taking his unit of comparison from the Anglo
Saxon. He ought to have selected the oldest and
then traced down, but no matter | see that he
follows the Century Dictionary in its derivations of
the numerals and ] am sorry that he did not find
a better authority for | have found the Century
Dictionary in its references to the Irish race its
antiquity and belongings, TO be sngularly deficient
iii research. Example: Speaking of the language,
it says, at is an adaptation of the Latin" [ can
not see how language that existed thousands
years before Rene was founded, ever with all re-
pudation of greater antiquity (Which it has) can
be an adaptation Is Greek an adaptation! Is
Egyptian! Is Hebrew? They are all so similar to
the Irish that many words are exactly alike.
All derived languages are progressive and con
tain words and letters than the one whence
they came Polygot English has 26 letters; its
cousin-general, German %; Latin has %, Irish has
but 16, and Greek and Hebrew and Irish have fur
nished TO mcderns the wealth that gives us
score of synonyms for the thought that in Irish
would have but one expression. That is the chara-
actertistic of original languages every word means
exactly the thing wanted
Dates we cannot reject. They tell us that
Greece was before Rome which had its hypothetical
founding in 156 B. ca Now, to apply Mr. Eno's
curou system to his own logical discontinue: Ten
is deka in Greek. deem in Latin deich in Irish If
Mr.. Emo understands how to pronounce Irish he
will that the Greek and the Irish are practically
the same, and the Latin different; ergo the Irish
is not derived from the tongue which is different.
1t is related to that which is similar
Mr.. Emo is not required to accept my deductions
any more than | do his. There is always authority
for anything that is existent 1t is not hypothesis
theory but fact in this case
Consider from time to time what passions are
most predominant in your soul and having dis
nrrc1r,d tInrn s11cll