( xl )
Cimbro-Gothic: It is also sometimes termed Old Icelandic, because many of the best writers in it came from Iceland, and because the Cimbric has been more perfectly preserved in that island than in any other settlement. To the old original mother tongue of all the Gothic Dialects, it has been usual (after Verstegan[1]) to give the name of Teutonic, not so much from the Teutones or Teutoni, who inhabited the Danish islands, and were brethren to the Cimbri, as from its being the ancient Tuytsh, the language of Tuisto[2], and his votaries; the great Father and Deity of the German Tribes.
To conclude this subject; whoever would trace the several Teutonic Languages up to their source, and proceed upon sure and solid principles in inquiries of this kind, need only have recourse to that great and admirable work, LINGUARUM Vett. Septentrionalium THESAURUS Grammatico-Criticus et Archæologicus Autore GEORGIO HICKES. S. T. P. Oxon. 1705. 2 Vols. folio.
Of the Celtic Specimens.
AS the strong resemblance of the several Gothic Specimens to each other, so their radical dissimilitude to those of Celtic origin, must appear decisive of the great question discussed in the foregoing Preface. Had these two Languages ever had any pretensions to be considered as congenial, the further ther we traced them back, the stronger would be the resemblance between them; but the most ancient Specimens appear as utterly dissimilar, as the most
- ↑ Restitution of decayed Intelligence. 4to. passim. See also Speneri Notit. Antiq. Germ. L. 4. p. 104.
- ↑ Celebrant Carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos. sc. Germanos, memoria et annalium genus est) Tuistonem Deum, Terrâ editum, et filium Mannum originem gentis, conditoresque. Tacit. de Mor. German. This Mannus is evidently Man, the offspring of Tuisto, the supreme Deity.
