Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland].

  • Cleland, John, 1709-1789.
Date:
1768
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specimen of an etimological vocabulary, or, essay, by means of the analitic method, to retrieve the antient Celtic / By the author of a pamphlet entitled, The way to things by words, and to words by things [i.e. J. Cleland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ADVERTISEMENT. AF T E Pt my publilliing that much too crude effay, On the Way to Things hy WoPx.dS^ and to Words by Things, I imagined my- felf acquitted of any farther inducement to trouble the pubjic with my ideas on this branch of philo¬ logy. Not even the approbation it was fo fortu¬ nate to meet with from feveral of the firfl; rank id literature, an approbation much beyond my hopes, or my pretentions, could tempt me to re-enter this career. In my dilEdence of ever being able to carry this literary undertaking into effectual execu¬ tion, fo as to fatisfy the public or myfelf, I had renounced all thought of proceeding farther in it* Some time afterwards there appeared in the Journal des S^avans, two advertifements of a dif- covery of the primitive univerfal language. This pretention indeed differed from mine in two material points. The firfl, in that the author fliles it univerfal: whereas I dare not aver that the Celtic^ at leafl fo far as I can difcover of it, and at the point from which I take my departure, was univerfally the elementary or mother-tongue. It was demonftrably fo of the Greek, of the Latin, of mofl, if not ail the lan¬ guages of Europe, of part of Africa, of the two Tartaries; and how much further the roots might ftioot into more Southern regions, I do not pretend « to afcertain. But in this title of univerfal^ it is plain that the Celtic is included.