Author : James Kennedy
Release : 2014-01
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 180/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK

Book Synopsis Essays Ethnological and Linguistic by : James Kennedy

Download or read book Essays Ethnological and Linguistic written by James Kennedy. This book was released on 2014-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excerpt from the beginning of the PREFACE: THE following Papers, most of which were read before the Ethnological Society, were intended to form an introductory volume to two larger works, the one on the origin and character of the Basque language and people, the other relative to the knowledge of America possessed by the Ancients. With the exception of the Essays on the ancient languages of France and Spain, on the lost Tribes of Israel, and the first notice respecting the American Indians, which have already been published, these Papers were not prepared by the author for publication, and this circumstance will explain the repetitions which will occasionally be met with. They have been printed from the original M. S. without alteration, as I considered it more advisable to do so than to make any verbal changes in the text. A further paper would have been written respecting the progress of the Celts through Europe, in which their passage westward was intended to be traced from the names of localities in which the word "gal" in its varying forms occurs, and from the remains of Celtic customs and usages still to be found in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as from linguistic affinities. No Notes however came into my possession from which an abstract could be given of this intended Essay, or of the work on the Basques. I have given a short sketch of what I believe my father intended to have written about America, but as the few pages which he has left contained only a general introduction, recapitulating what has been already stated in some of the Papers in this volume on the subject of ancient civilization and its origin, and the early chronology of the world, I was unable to make much use of them; nor are they in their present state of sufficient value to be given as a fragment. In writing this sketch I made use of some references and notes which I found, but I must take the whole responsibility of the statements and arguments contained in it. There were two points which my father intended to put forward, but which I have been unable to bring to any satisfactory issue, and I will therefore simply state them; they were 1st, That Tyrhena was formed from Tyre in the same way that Carthagena was formed from Carthage, and showed that there was a Tyrian as well as a Lydian settlement in Etruria; other evidence was to have been brought to bear on this theory. And 2nd, That an affinity can be traced between the former inhabitants of Central America, and the Phoenicians, from the name of the most powerful tribe of the former, the Itzas. The Hebrew names of Sidon and Tyre are Tzidon and Tzor and in the names of other places in Palestine the same combination of Tz occurs. This must almost necessarily have had an initial vowel; arguments would have been employed to show that this was in all probability an I, and names of places on the Mediterranean would have been quoted in support of this view. In Yucatan the most influential tribe was the Itza, and the names of the more important towns were formed with compounds of that word thus Chichen-Itza, Itzamal or Uxmal, Itzal or Sisal &c.; and this circumstance would have been adduced as an additional mark by which to trace the establishments of the Phoenicians beyond the limits of their own country. With regard to the Essays contained in this Volume, the only point in the Paper on the Ancient Languages of France and Spain which calls for particular attention as being opposed to generally received opinions is the theory that the Aquitani and the Iberi were the same people, and are now represented by the Gael.