hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2019-07-27

■ #3743. Celt の指示対象の歴史的変化 [celtic][etymology][ethnic_group]

　「#760. Celt の発音」 ([2011-05-27-1]) で，この重要な民族名の発音と語史について略述した．この名前が指してきたのは誰のことなのか，結局ケルト人とは何者なのかという問題に迫るために，OED より (1) 歴史的な指示対象と，(2) 18世紀以降の現代的な指示対象とを比べてみよう．

　(1) 英語での初例は1607年と近代に入ってからだが，古典語ではガリア人や大陸に分布している彼らの仲間たちを指す名前として普通に用いられていた．古代では，ブリトン人を指すのに用いられたことはない点に注意が必要である．

1. Historical. Applied to the ancient peoples of Western Europe, called by the Greeks Κελτοί, Κέλτοι, and by the Romans Celtae.
   The Κελτοί of the Greeks, also called Γαλάται, Galatae, appear to have been the Gauls and their (continental) kin as a whole; by Cæsar the name Celtae was restricted to the people of middle Gaul (Gallia Celtica), but most other Roman writers used it of all the Galli or Gauls, including the peoples in Spain and Upper Italy believed to be of the same language and race; the ancients apparently never extended the name to the Britons.

　(2) 1703年にフランスの歴史家 P. Y. Pezron が Antiquité de la nation et de la langue des Celtes （『古代ケルト民族・言語史』）を出して以来，ブリトン人を含めたケルト系諸言語の話し手全体を指す用法が発達した．

 2. A general name applied in modern times to peoples speaking languages akin to those of the ancient Galli, including the Bretons in France, the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Manx, and Gaelic of the British Isles.
   This modern use began in French, and in reference to the language and people of Brittany, as the presumed representatives of the ancient Gauls: with the recognition of linguistic affinities it was extended to the Cornish and Welsh, and so to the Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic. Celtic adj. has thus become a name for one of the great branches of the Aryan family of languages . . . ; and the name Celt has come to be applied to any one who speaks (or is descended from those who spoke) any Celtic language. But it is not certain that these constitute one race ethnologically; it is generally held that they represent at least two 'races', markedly differing in physical characteristics. Popular notions, however, associate 'race' with language, and it is common to speak of the 'Celts' and 'Celtic race' as an ethnological unity having certain supposed physical and moral characteristics, especially as distinguished from 'Saxon' or 'Teuton'.

　Celt の指示対象は，このように18世紀以降の「ケルトの復興」を経て変化してきたが，Celt の究極の語源は何かといえば，ラテン語 celsus "high" に関連するともいわれるが不詳である．周辺の関連語 Gallia, Gallic, Gaul, Galatian, Goidel, Wales, Welsh は互いにつながっているようだが，Celt はまた別らしい．
　なお，この語の語頭子音について，先の記事で OED では /sɛlt, kɛlt/ の順で挙げられていると述べたが，OED Online の最新版で確認したところ /kɛlt, sɛlt/ となっていたことを述べておく．

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