in the other parts of Europe, the original word has been either unknown, or forgotten, and a more easy appellation substituted, merely expressive of the country where it is produced.

Dr. Borlase informs us,' that it is one of "the most material singularities of this tongue, that the substantive is placed generally before the adjective." This is also the case in Hebrew; for a few Biblical exceptions cannot affect a general rule. Thus □ 12

NO! A wise son maketh a glad father. Prov. xv. 14.

The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh נָכוֹן יְבַקֶשׁ דַּעַת

knowledge. Prov. xv. 14. The principle is even carried so far, that when the adjective precedes, the auxiliary, he was, is understood, and to be construed after the noun. Thus,

The word of the Lord is right. Psalm xxiii. 4. In the Cornish the pronouns are incorporated with the verb. They are also suffixed to Hebrew verbs, as in 1, he blessed him, from;

, he placed him, from ; and in, he covered them, from

If these coincidences were supported by many other affinities, they would add to the argument for some ancient Hebrew connexion; but insulated as they are, I apprehend that they are purely accidental.

We must not confound chronology because the Jews enjoyed for a long time the farm of the tin mines. Their affairs, were the most prosperous in Cornwall, from the reign of King John, till their expulsion by Edward I.; and the ruins of their establishments are still known by the names of Jews' houses. This was at a period, when that unhappy people could not have any influence on the language of the country. I am not acquainted with any historical record, that fixes the era of their first settlement in Cornwall; but it must have been long subsequent to the loss of their national tongue; and it may be conjectured, that it might have been soon after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; or it might have been as late as the earlier Plantagenets. The presumption

' Natural History of Cornwall, p. 314.

for the former period, is derived from the well-known cruel treatment which they experienced from the Romans, who then worked the tin mines, and by whom such a labor was considered as one of the severest punishments that could be inflicted on criminals and worthless slaves. The town of Marazion, (or as it is literally rendered, Market Jew,) would seem to prove that the settlement of that people was of long continuance. The argument for the latter supposition is drawn from the absence of historical documents respecting the Jews, in Cornwall, till the reign of John. If, therefore, we refer their arrival to either era, it will be evident, that the Jews could have had no influence on the Cornish, as the Hebrew itself had ceased to be a living tongue many centuries before, and soon after their return from Babylon.

I shall conclude these remarks with a list of the few Hebrew and Cornish words which appear to me to have any resemblance. Amenen, • • • • Butter,............ from ND Butter.

T

חֶמְאָה from.

.He groaned אָנק

The above list, imperfect as it is, is the best that I have been able to collect from my Cornish documents.

LETTER IV.

GREEK.

D.

As we leave the Oriental languages, and approach the classical era, the examination of Cornish with Greek offers itself as less complicated and uncertain. Cornish, as might be expected, contains more Greek than Hebrew words, and on carefully looking over the Vocabulary, I have discovered an insignificant number indeed, when taken from such a collection, and which could never have had any direct influence upon that tongue.

The European languages have so many affinities, and the similarity of their phraseology is so frequent, that they seem to have had but one common origin; and thus confirm the Mosaic account, concerning the posterity of Japheth, that "by these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families in their nations;" (Gen. x. 5.) or (as it is generally understood), the several divisions of Europe. All these retain more or less of Hebrew and Greek; and that too in words and expressions interwoven in the speech of the vulgar, and which appear to have been coeval with the respective languages; for I do not include any of those terms of art, which have been intro

'This is probably a corruption of Sagitta. Archery does not appear to be a Celtic art. If we trace all the Celtic names of these implements, we shall find them Roman. Ed.

duced at subsequent periods, to designate more accurately th technical forms of art, religion, or science. But because th Cornish contains a little Greek, in common with the other Euro pean languages, it is neither reasonable nor philological, to suppose that it is particularly allied to it, or that it shares in its elegance and copiousness. Even modern English, perhaps, contains a larger number of Greek words than the Cornish; it possesses much of a Grecian cast, and that too in words, which, it is evident, were never introduced for scientific purposes. The affinity of English to Latin is considerable, as might be anticipated. It is well known, how much Greek there is in the latter, however it may be altered and disguised in form and meaning. But Latin is derived from the Celtic, and is an intermediate link which unites it and its derivative idioms to the Greek language. I cannot account for so many Greek words in our English, on any other ground, than that of this common origin; and it is rather to this, than to the Grecian trade from Marseilles, that I attribute the Greek, which is intermixed in the Cornish vocabularies.

It cannot be denied, that during the long intercourse of the Greeks with the coasts of Cornwall, the natives might have be

The following words, allowing for their disguises, corruptions, and endings, come from the Greek:

come acquainted with their language, and adopted terms from it, either for objects to which they had already given names, or for such as had hitherto been unknown, and were then introduced for the first time. As their voyages were subsequent to those of the Phenicians, it naturally follows that more of those Greek words should have been retained in use, or rather, that the comparative recency of that period has been the means that fewer have been forgotten, or become obsolete. I will even allow it to be probable, that a great deal of Greek, which might have once been incorporated with the Cornish, has in the lapse of ages unavoidably been lost; but I can go no farther, unless I wished to imitate that ingenuity, which establishes a Greek town of Heraclea on Hartland Point, and would make that headland to be the pillars which terminated the discoveries of the Phocæan navigators.

The following passage, from Dr. Pryce, deserves some animadversion :

"As from the Hebrews to the Phenicians, so from the Phenicians to the Greeks, came letters and arts. And accordingly from the Phenician character, the Greeks appear to have composed their letters, and the Latins progressively from the Greeks. So likewise our ancient and true Cornish appears to be mostly derived from the Greek and old Latin tongues, as it partakes much of their cadence and softness, with less of the guttural harshness peculiar to the Hebrew and Chaldee. This is the more easily accounted for, as the Phenicians about the time of the Trojan war, first discovered the Scilly Islands and the western shores of Cornwall; with the natives of which they traded for tin, and sold it to the Greeks." Nothing is so calculated to mislead, as the bold assertions of an able man, which are therefore implicitly believed, and his errors continually repeated. As to his first position, we have already examined how little there is of a Phenician or Hebrew mixture in the Cornish. Those languages, however, are not so generally understood in a Cornishman, to be jealous of the honors of his county, and to have a disposition to believe the exaggerated

1 Preface, p. 1.