592
AN GAOḊAL.
PROF. ROEHRIG on the IRISH
LANGUAGE.
(Continued from page 570.)
Also in German we find that in many instances,
the broad and slender vowels (to which belongs the
"Umlaut" a, o, u, besides e and i) serve to mark an
antagonism, such as between unity and multitude,
hence Singular and Plural ;— and as certainty and
uncertainty, hence Indicative and Subjunctive; or
as activity and passivity. They also are used to
mark differences of size or degree hence, diminutives
and comparatives of adjectives, and other in¬
stances of different aspects or views of the same i¬
dea, such as appear in the derivation of one word
from another, of adjectives from nouns, of nouns
from adjectives, of verbs from nouns or adjectives,
etc. Even in English, we have such couplets as to
raise and to rise, to set and to sit, to lay and to lie,
etc., where the difference of vowel or diphthong,
though of the same class, seems, nevertheless, to
imply an original vowel-antagonism. Even antag¬
onistic in form as well as in meaning, are found in
German; as for instance, stimm(e) voice, sound,
and stumm, which alludes to absence of voice,
muteness, etc. A somewhat similar relation may
possibly lie at the foundation of such words as the
German denken and danken, English to think and
thank; the German waschen (to wash), and wis¬
chen (to wipe dry), : the English doom, and deem,
gloom gleam, etc., perhaps between German Ha(h)n
= Han (cock) and the English hen, German Henne,
the pronouns in Swedish and Danish han (he) and
henne (her) etc. In fact, to whatever language or
group of languages we may direct our attention,
we almost always meet with some significant traces
of this dualism or polarity, or whatever it may be
termed. Thus, in the languages of the Woloff ne¬
groes; — of which Dart and Baron Rogers publish¬
ed a dictionary and a grammar, — we meet, for in¬
stance, with the verbs ouba and oubi one meaning
to lock the other to unlock. In Japanese we have
expressions like the following, viz.; koshiki, ex¬
pensive, dear, geshiki (g, the slender sound, as i
were, of k) cheap. In like manner, in the language
of the Sioux Indians, we find hapan and hepan, the
the one designating the second son, the other the
second, daughter; also kon (this), kin (that) seem
to come in some respects, under this head. In an¬
other of our American Indian tongues, the Ojibue
or Chippewa, we find, among others, okom (these),
ikim (those); oom (this), um (that); onom (these
things) inem (those things). Also in Greenlandic
Esquimaux, we have, for instance, arnak (mother)
ernek (the offspring, the son), etc. A similar conn¬
ection may possibly exist between the root of the
very names that designate the Celtic nation, viz:
Kel (in Keltai) and gal (Galli, Galatai), — k and g
being interchangeable in languages: as the
rule in olden time expresses it — "litetae e¬
jusdem organi facillime permutantur," These
correlative roots served, perhaps, once to denote
two different original branches of the great Celtic
family.
Another such double form seems to be traceable
in the Irish brath and breth, both meaning judge¬
ment, but with this difference, that the latter is
judgment in its ordinary acceptation, while the
former is taken in the sense of "the last judgment"
in resurrection day, hence go brath for ever, liter¬
ally until the judgment day, i.e., to the end of
the world. All these peculiar phenomena of corr¬
esponding dual forms of word-couplets, are in their
analysis, reducible to a fixed principle which still
prevails to some extent, in the languages of Upper
Asia, and which, we have some reason to believe
once formed an essential part of many other tongues,
We might perhaps, as we have already said, not im¬
properly recognize in that antagonism something of
polar opposition, some law of polarity. If in the
primitive formation of human speech, this great
law of polarity bore actual sway, it will follow that
the farther we go back in our linguistic researches
the more abundant and clear will become the traces
of its effects. After languages have, so to speak
come into frequent collision, after they have, in
consequence, become more or less disintegrated,
and in reforming, have assumed a heterogeneous
character, we can, of course expect to find, but
few and faint evidences of this primitive phenome¬
non. If at the present day, we meet with words
corresponding to each other by the law of polarity
it is not, thereby, necessarily implied that such
words were in cases originally so related. It is how¬
ever, this very tendency to polarity in the human
mind, which may lead it spontaneously and instinct¬
ively to evolve words in polar couplets again and
again at any time. In fact the universality of this
law of polarity is perceptible everywhere, extends
to so many branches of positive knowledge, is at
the basis of electric science, and applies seemingly,
to all inorganic nature, nay farther, controls the
realm of life, gains its crowning effloresence in the
distinction of sex, and asserts its dominion over the
operations of mind itself, whence we find it incor¬
porated into all the metaphysical theories: The
latent operation of the same law in the evolution of
language cannot be denied.
We often hear it said that a thorough and accur¬
ate knowledge of the Irish language can be acquir¬
ed only by a long continued, patient and persever¬
ing study. But this is more or less true in regard
to everything else we think worth the trouble of
acquiring, - any other language, any science, art or
even purely mechanical pursuit. And is not the
preservation of a mother-tongue a language so ex¬
quisitely beautiful, harmonious, regular, consis¬
tent philosophically constructed and every way ad¬
mirably constituted as the venerable Irish language
