|
DALGARNO,
a surname originally derived from the lands of Dalgarnock in
Dumfries-shire. The old family of Dalgarno of that ilk, however, were in
Aberdeenshire. The name is now corrupted into Dalgairns.
It may be
remarked that the prefix Dal is not, or at least not often, as
generally stated, from the Saxon dahl or dale, but is more
frequently a corruption of the Norman del or de la, as
Dalmellington, De la mouline-ton, of the town of the mill.
Dalgarnock may therefore imply Del-garnock, or de la garneoca, of
the large enclosure or defence for cattle, – garne in old French
signifying a defence.
DALGARNO, GEORGE,
a learned and original writer, was born in Old Aberdeen about 1626, and
appears to have studied at Marischal college in New Aberdeen. In 1657 he
went to Oxford, where, according to Anthony à Wood, he taught a private
grammar school with good success, for about thirty years. He died of a
fever August 28, 1687, and was buried, says the same author, “in the north
body of the church of St. Mary Magdalen.” He seems to have been one of the
first who conceived the idea of forming a universal language. His plan is
developed in a work, entitled ‘Ars Signorum, Vulgo Character Universalis
et Lingua Philosophica,’ London, 1661, 8vo, from which, says Mr. Dugald
Stewart, it appear indisputable that he was the precursor of Bishop
Wilkins in his speculations concerning “a real character and a
philosophical language.” Dalgarno was also the author of ‘Didascalocophus,
or the Deaf and Dumb Man’s Tutor,’ printed in a small volume at Oxford in
1680, the design of which he states to be, to bring the way of teaching a
deaf man to read and write, as nearly as possible to that of teaching
young ones to speak and understand their mother tongue. In his ‘Account of
a Boy born Blind and Deaf,’ in the seventh volume of the Transactions of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Mr. Stewart speaks very highly of this
publication. |
