Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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Sitlon^ the scat of his first born, nvIr'hcc his piogciiy had
spread themselves along- the Phaniician coast, and Eastwards,
to the banks ot" Jordan, beiore the time of Abraham. The
Western Syria and Arabia \vei€ also inhabited in ver}' early
times. These eonntries contahied tribes whieh had been
distinél, from the age when the families had first divided ; yet
the languages which were spoken in them had a great degree
of alHuity will) each other. Thev were in fact, only dialects
of υικ' language, and that one could have been no other than
that oi" the great patriarchs, who were still living when Abra-
liam settled amongst the Canaanilcs. Neither of these primi-
tive nations eouhl have borrowed the rudiments of its
vernacular dialect iVom anollicr nation, whieh had settled at
a distance. What diey possessed in common nuist have
been derived frum the parent stock, and carried wiiîi the first
jamilies into their respective settlements.
4. The names of those heati? of families amongst the
iSoachidie, whieh divided the kingdoms of the earth, or
rather the gentile names of those trihes whieh were established
ilnring the second century after the deluge, are either terms
of the Hebrew language or of ceitain kindred dialects. \ei
they were the names by which the several nations di>tin-
guishcd themselves, for they are generally recognized by the.
old geographers. The scverul nations then originally carried
Avith t;heui dialecls, not greatly diilering irom the Hebrew.
5. Hence it undeniably follows, that the fundamental
principle^i and general eiiaracter of the patriarchal language
of Noah must be preserved in the Hebrew langiuige, and hi
tliose dialects \yhich are connected with il.
6. The Hebrew was the language ol" an acVive, enter-
prising peo})le. During the nine centuries which intervened