Lectures on the Science of Language

by F. Max Müller

Footnotes

[1.]See Jessen, Was heisst Botanik? 1861.[2.]Kuhn's Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung, b. ix. s. 104.[3.]Horne Tooke, p. 27, note.[4.]See Curtius, Griechische Etymologie, s. 297.[5.]Ideler, Handbuch der Chronologie, b. i. s. 241, 242.[6.]As early as the times of Anaximenes of the Ionic, and Alcmæon of the Pythagorean, schools, the stars had been divided into travelling (ἄστρα πλανώμενα or πλανητά), and non-travelling stars (ἀπλανεῖς ἀστέρες, or ἀπλανῆ ἄστρα). Aristotle first used ἄστρα ἐνδεδεμένα, or fixed stars. (See Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. iii. p. 28.) Πόλος, the pivot, hinge, or the pole of the heaven.[7.]Bunsen's Egypt, vol. iv. p. 108.[8.]According to a writer in “Notes and Queries” (2d Series, vol. x. p. 500,) astrology is not so entirely extinct as we suppose. “One of our principal writers,” he states, “one of our leading barristers, and several members of the various antiquarian societies, are practised astrologers at this hour. But no one cares to let his studies be known, so great is the prejudice that confounds an art requiring the highest education with the jargon of the gypsy fortune-teller.”[9.]“Man has two faculties, or two passive powers, the existence of which is generally acknowledged; 1, the faculty of receiving the different impressions caused by external objects, physical sensibility; and 2, the faculty of preserving the impressions caused by these objects, called memory, or weakened sensation. These faculties, the productive causes of thought, we have in common with beasts.... Everything is reducible to feeling.”—Helvetius.[10.]“The generative organs being those which are most remotely related to the habits and food of an animal, I have always regarded as affording very clear indications of its true affinities.”—Owen, as quoted by Darwin, Origin of Species, p. 414.[11.]Die Pflanze und ihr Leben, von M. T. Schleiden. Leipzig, 1858.[12.]Sir J. Stoddart, Glossology, p. 22.[13.]Dr. Whewell classes the science of language as one of the palaitiological sciences; but he makes a distinction between palaitiological sciences treating of material things, for instance, geology, and others respecting the products which result from man's imaginative and social endowments, for instance, comparative philology. He excludes the latter from the circle of the physical sciences, properly so called, but he adds: “We began our inquiry with the trust that any sound views which we should be able to obtain respecting the nature of truth in the physical sciences, and the mode of discovering it, must also tend to throw light upon the nature and prospects of knowledge of all other kinds;—must be useful to us in moral, political, and philological researches. We stated this as a confident anticipation; and the evidence of the justice of our belief already begins to appear. We have seen that biology leads us to psychology, if we choose to follow the path; and thus the passage from the material to the immaterial has already unfolded itself at one point; and we now perceive that there are several large provinces of speculation which concern subjects belonging to man's immaterial nature, and which are governed by the same laws as sciences altogether physical. It is not our business to dwell on the prospects which our philosophy thus opens to our contemplation; but we may allow ourselves, in this last stage of our pilgrimage among the foundations of the physical sciences, to be cheered and animated by the ray that thus beams upon us, however dimly, from a higher and brighter region.”—Indications of the Creator, p. 146.[14.]Gen. ii. 19.[15.]St. Basil was accused by Eunomius of denying Divine Providence, because he would not admit that God had created the names of all things, but ascribed the invention of language to the faculties which God had implanted in man. St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia (331-396), defended St. Basil. “Though God has given to human nature its faculties,” he writes, “it does not follow that therefore He produces all the actions which we perform. He has given us the faculty of building a house and doing any other work; but we surely are the builders, and not He. In the same manner our faculty of speaking is the work of Him who has so framed our nature; but the invention of words for naming each object is the work of our mind.” See Ladevi-Roche, De l'Origine du Langage: Bordeaux, 1860, p. 14. Also, Horne Tooke, Diversions of Purley, p. 19.[16.]D. Stewart, Works, vol. iii. p. 27.[17.]History of Inductive Sciences, vol. iii. p. 531.[18.]Names ending in ic, are names of classes as distinct from the names of single languages.[19.]Lectures on the English Language, by G. P. Marsh: New York, 1860, p. 263 and 630. These lectures embody the result of much careful research, and are full of valuable observations.[20.]Marsh, p. 532, note.[21.]Marsh, p. 589.[22.]Sir J. Stoddart, Glossology, p. 60.[23.]Trench, English Past and Present, p. 114; Marsh, p. 397.[24.]As several of my reviewers have found fault with the monk for using the genitive neutri, instead of neutrius, I beg to refer to Priscianus, 1. vi. c. i. and c. vii. The expression generis neutrius, though frequently used by modern editors, has no authority, I believe, in ancient Latin.[25.]Castelvetro, in Horne Tooke, p. 629, note.[26.]Bopp, Comparative Grammar, § 320. Schleicher, Deutsche Sprache, s. 233.[27.]Foucaux, Grammaire Tibetaine, p. 27, and Preface, p. x.[28.]Fuchs, Romanische Sprachen, s. 355.[29.]Quint., v. 10, 52. Bonâ mente factum, ideo palam; malâ, ideo ex insidiis.[30.]Sanskrit s = Persian h; therefore svasar = hvahar. This becomes chohar, chor, and cho. Zend, qaņha, acc. qaņharem, Persian, kháher. Bopp, Comp. Gram. § 35.[31.]Schleicher, Beiträge, b. ii. s. 392: dci = dŭgti; gen. dcere = dŭgtere.[32.]Hui = hodie, Ital. oggi and oggidi; jour = diurnum, from dies.[33.]See M. M.'s Letter to Chevalier Bunsen, On the Turanian Languages, p. 67.[34.]See Marsh, p. 678; Sir John Stoddart's Glossology, s. 31.[35.]Glossology, p. 33.[36.]Ibid., p. 29.[37.]Nea Pandora, 1859, Nos. 227, 229. Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung, x. s. 190.[38.]Grimm, Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache, p. 668: Marsh, p. 379.[39.]“Some people, who may have been taught to consider the Dorset dialect as having originated from corruption of the written English, may not be prepared to hear that it is not only a separate offspring from the Anglo-Saxon tongue, but purer, and in some cases richer, than the dialect which is chosen as the national speech.”—Barnes, Poems in Dorset Dialect, Preface, p. xiv.[40.]Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache, s. 833.[41.]Pliny, vi. 5; Hervas, Catalogo, i. 118.[42.]Pliny depends on Timosthenes, whom Strabo declares untrustworthy (ii. p. 93, ed. Casaub.) Strabo himself says of Dioscurias, συνέρχεσθαι ἐς αὐτὴν ἐβδομήκοντα, οἱ δὲ καὶ τριακόσια ἔθνη φασίν οἴς οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων υέλει (x. p. 498). The last words refer probably to Timosthenes.[43.]Du Ponceau, p. 110.[44.]S. F. Waldeck, Lettre à M. Jomard des environs de Palenqué, Amérique Centrale. (“Il ne pouvait se servir, en 1833, d'un vocabulaire composé avec beaucoup de soin dix ans auparavant.”)[45.]Catalogo, i. 393.[46.]Turanian Languages, p. 114.[47.]Ibid., p. 233.[48.]Turanian Languages, p. 30.[49.]Quintilian, ix. 4. “Nam neque Lucilium putant uti eadem (s) ultima, cum dicit Serenu fuit, et Dignu loco. Quin etiam Cicero in Oratore plures antiquorum tradit sic locutos.” In some phrases the final s was omitted in conversation; e.g. abin for abisne, viden for videsne, opu'st for opus est, conabere for conaberis.[50.]Marsh, Lectures, pp. 133, 368.[51.]“There are fewer local peculiarities of form and articulation in our vast extent of territory (U. S.), than on the comparatively narrow soil of Great Britain.”—Marsh, p. 667.[52.]Marsh, Lectures, pp. 181, 590.[53.]The Gothic forms sijum, sijuth, are not organic. They are either derived by false analogy from the third person plural sind, or a new base sij was derived from the subjunctive sijau, Sanskrit syâm.[54.]Some excellent statistics on the exact proportion of Saxon and Latin in various English writers, are to be found in Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, p. 120, seq. and 181, seq.[55.]“En este estado, que es el primer paso que las naciones dan para mudar de lengua, estaba quarenta años ha la araucana en las islas de Chiloue (como he oido á los jesuitas sus misioneros), en donde los araucanos apénas proferian palabra que no fuese española; mas la proferian con el artificio y órden de su lengua nativa, llamada araucana.”—Hervas, Catalogo, t. i. p. 16. “Este artificio ha sido en mi observacion el principal medio de que me he valido para conocer la afinidad ó diferencia de las lenguas conocidas, y reducirlas á determinadas classes.”—Ibid., p. 23.[56.]Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, i. 32. The following verses are pronounced by Vâch, the goddess of speech, in the 125th hymn of the 10th book of the Rig-Veda: “Even I myself say this (what is) welcome to Gods and to men: ‘Whom I love, him I make strong, him I make a Brahman, him a great prophet, him I make wise. For Rudra (the god of thunder) I bend the bow, to slay the enemy, the hater of the Brahmans. For the people I make war; I pervade heaven and earth. I bear the father on the summit of this world; my origin is in the water in the sea; from thence I go forth among all beings, and touch this heaven with my height. I myself breathe forth like the wind, embracing all beings; above this heaven, beyond this earth, such am I in greatness.’ ” See also Atharva-Veda, iv. 30; xix. 9, 3. Muir, Sanskrit Texts, part iii. pp. 108, 150.[57.]Sir John Stoddart, Glossology, p. 276.[58.]The Turks applied the Polish name Niemiec to the Austrians. As early as Constantinus Porphyrogeneta, cap. 30, Νεμέτζιοι was used for the German race of the Bavarians. (Pott, Indo-Germ. Sp. s. 44. Leo, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Sprachforschung, b. ii. s. 258.) Russian, njemez'; Slovenian, nĕmec; Bulgarian, némec; Polish, niemiec; Lusatian, njemc, mean German. Russian, njemo, indistinct; njemyi, dumb; Slovenian, nĕm, dumb; Bulgarian, nêm, dumb; Polish, njemy, dumb; Lusatian, njemy, dumb.[59.]Leo, Zeitschrift für Vergl. Sprachf. b. ii. s. 252.[60.]Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 141.[61.]This shows how difficult it would be to admit that any influence was exercised by Indian on Greek philosophers. Pyrrhon, if we may believe Alexander Polyhistor, seems indeed to have accompanied Alexander on his expedition to India, and one feels tempted to connect the scepticism of Pyrrhon with the system of Buddhist philosophy then current in India. But the ignorance of the language on both sides must have been an insurmountable barrier between the Greek and the Indian thinkers. (Fragmenta Histor. Græc., ed. Müller, t. iii. p. 243, b.; Lasson, Indische Alterthumskande, b. iii. s. 380.)[62.]On the supposed travels of Greek philosophers to India, see Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, b. iii. s. 379; Brandis, Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, b. i. s. 425. The opinion of D. Stewart and Niebuhr that the Indian philosophers borrowed from the Greeks, and that of Görres and others that the Greeks borrowed from the Brahmans, are examined in my Essay on Indian Logic, in Thomson's Laws of Thought.[63.]See Niebuhr, Vorlesungen über Alte Geschichte, b. i. s. 17.[64.]The translation of Mago's work on agriculture belongs to a later time. There is no proof that Mago, who wrote twenty-eight books on agriculture in the Punic language, lived, as Humboldt supposes (Cosmos, vol. ii. p. 184), 500 b. c. Varro de R. R. i. 1, says: “Hos nobilitate Mago Carthaginiensis præteriit Pœnica lingua, quod res dispersas comprehendit libris xxix., quos Cassius Dionysius Uticensis vertit libris xx., Græca lingua, ac Sextilio prætori misit: in quæ volumina de Græcis libris eorum quos dixi adjecit non pauca, et de Magonis dempsit instar librorum viii. Hosce ipsos utiliter ad vi. libros redegit Diophanes in Bithynia, et misit Dejotaro regi.” This Cassius Dionysius Uticencis lived about 40 b. c. The translation into Latin was made at the command of the Senate, shortly after the third Punic war.[65.]Ptolemæus Philadelphus (287-246 b. c.), on the recommendation of his chief librarian (Demetrius Philaretes), is said to have sent a Jew of the name of Aristeas, to Jerusalem, to ask the high priest for a MS. of the Bible, and for seventy interpreters. Others maintain that the Hellenistic Jews who lived at Alexandria, and who had almost forgotten their native language, had this translation made for their own benefit. Certain it is, that about the beginning of the third century b. c. (285), we find the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek.[66.]Plin. xxx. 2. “Sine dubio illa orta in Perside a Zoroastre, ut inter auctores convenit. Sed unus hic fuerit, an postea et alius, non satis constat. Eudoxus qui inter sapientiæ sectas clarissimam utilissimamque eam intelligi voluit, Zoroastrem hunc sex millibus annorum ante Platonis mortem fuisse prodidit. Sic et Aristoteles. Hermippus qui de tota ea arte diligentissime scripsit, et vicies centum millia versuum a Zoroastre condita, indicibus quoque voluminum ejus positis explanavit, præceptorem a quo institutum disceret, tradidit Azonacem, ipsum vero quinque millibus annorum ante Trojanum bellum fuisse.”—“Diogenes Laertius Aristotelem auctorem facit libri τὸ Μαγικόν. Suidas librum cognovit, dubitat vero a quo scriptus sit.” See Bunsen's Egypten, Va, 101.[67.]M. M.'s History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 163.[68.]ἄρθρον προτασσόμενον, ἄρθρον ὑποτασσόμενον.[69.]Suidas, s. v. Διονύσιος. Διονύσιος Ἀλεξανδρεός, Θρᾷξ δὲ ἀπὸ πατρὸς τούνομα κληθεὶς, Ἀριστάρχου μαθητὴς, γραμματικὸς ὁς ἐσοφίστευσεν ἐν Ῥώμη ἐπὶ Πομπηιοῦ τοῦ Μεγάλου.[70.]Quintilian, i. 1, 12.[71.]See Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, b. i. s. 197. “The Latin alphabet is the same as the modern alphabet of Sicily; the Etruscan is the same as the old Attic alphabet. Epistola, letter, charta, paper, and stilus, are words borrowed from Greek.”—Mommsen, b. i. s. 184.[72.]Mommsen, Römische Geschichte, b. i. s. 186. Statera, the balance, the Greek στατήρ; machina, an engine, μηχανή; númus, a silver coin, νόμος, the Sicilian νοῦμμος; groma, measuring-rod, the Greek γνώμων or γνῶμα: clathri, a trellis, a grate, the Greek κλῆθρα, the native Italian word for lock being claustra.[73.]Gubernare, to steer, from κυβεονᾶν; anchora, anchor, from ἀγκῦρα; prora, the forepart, from πρῶρα. Navis, remus, velum, &c., are common Aryan words, not borrowed by the Romans from the Greeks, and show that the Italians were acquainted with navigation before the discovery of Italy by the Phocæans.[74.]Mommsen, i. 154.[75.]Ibid. i. 408.[76.]Mommsen, i. 165.[77.]Sibylla, or sibulla, is a diminutive of an Italian sabus or sabius, wise; a word which, though not found in classical writers, must have existed in the Italian dialects. The French sage presupposes an Italian sabius, for it cannot be derived either from sapiens or from sapius.—Diez, Lexicon Etymologicum, p. 300. Sapius has been preserved in nesapius, foolish. Sibulla therefore meant a wise old woman.[78.]Mommsen, i. 256.[79.]Ibid. i. 425, 444.[80.]Ibid. i. 857.[81.]Mommsen, i. 902.[82.]Mommsen, i. 892.[83.]Ibid. i. 843, 194.[84.]Ibid. i. 911.[85.]Mommsen, ii. 407.[86.]Mommsen, ii. 410.[87.]Ibid. ii. 408.[88.]Ibid. ii. 437, note; ii. 430.[89.]Zeno died 263; Epicurus died 270; Arcesilaus died 241; Carneades died 129.[90.]Mommsen, ii. 417, 418.[91.]Ibid. i. 845.[92.]Ibid. ii. 415, 417.[93.]Mommsen, ii. 413, 426, 445, 457. Lucius Ælius Stilo wrote a work on etymology, and an index to Plautus.—Lersch, Die Sprachphilosophie der Alten, ii. 111.[94.]Lersch, ii. 113, 114, 143.[95.]Lersch, iii. 144.[96.]Mommsen, iii. 557. 48 b. c.[97.]Lersch, ii. 25. Περὶ σημαινόντων, or περὶ φώνης; and περὶ σημαινομένον, or περὶ πραγμάτων.[98.]Beiträge zur Geschichte der Grammatik, von Dr. K. E. A. Schmidt. Halle, 1859. Uber den Begriff der γενικὴ πτῶσις, s. 320.[99.]In the Tibetan languages the rule is, “Adjectives are formed from substantives by the addition of the genitive sign,” which might be inverted into, “The genitive is formed from the nominative by the addition of the adjective sign.” For instance, shing, wood; shing gi, of wood, or wooden: ser, gold; ser-gyi, of gold, or golden: mi, man; mi-yi, of man, or human. The same in Garo, where the sign of the genitive is ni, we have; mánde-ní jak, the hand of man, or the human hand; ambal-ní ketháli, a wooden knife, or a knife of wood. In Hindustání the genitive is so clearly an adjective, that it actually takes the marks of gender according to the words to which it refers. But how is it in Sanskrit and Greek? In Sanskrit we may form adjectives by the addition of tya. (Turanian Languages, p. 41, seq.; Essay on Bengálí, p. 333.) For instance, dakshiņâ, south; dakshiņâ-tya, southern. This tya is clearly a demonstrative pronoun, the same as the Sanskrit syas, syâ, tyad, this or that. Tya is a pronominal base, and therefore such adjectives as dakshiņâ-tya, southern, or âp-tya, aquatic, from âp, water, must have been conceived originally as “water-there,” or “south-there.” Followed by the terminations of the nominative singular, which was again an original pronoun, âptyas would mean âp-tya-s, i.e., water-there-he. Now, it makes little difference whether I say an aquatic bird or a bird of the water. In Sanskrit the genitive of water would be, if we take udaka, udaka-sya. This sya is the same pronominal base as the adjective termination tya, only that the former takes no sign for the gender, like the adjective. The genitive udakasya is therefore the same as an adjective without gender. Now let us look to Greek. We there form adjectives by σιος, which is the same as the Sanskrit tya or sya. For instance, from δῆμος, people, the Greeks formed δημόσιος, belonging to the people. Here ος, α, ον, mark the gender. Leave the gender out, and you get δημοσιο. Now, there is a rule in Greek that an ς between two vowels, in grammatical terminations, is elided. Thus the genitive of γένος is not γένεσος, but γένεος, or γένους; hence δημόσιο would necessarily become δήμοιο. And what is δήμοιο but the regular Homeric genitive of δῆμος, which in later Greek was replaced by δήμου? Thus we see that the same principles which governed the formation of adjectives and genitives in Tibetan, in Garo, and Hindustání, were at work in the primitive stages of Sanskrit and Greek; and we perceive how accurately the real power of the genitive was determined by the ancient Greek grammarians, who called it the general or predicative case, whereas the Romans spoiled the term by wrongly translating it into genitivus.[100.]See M. M.'s History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 158.[101.]

The following and some other notes were kindly sent to me by the first Chinese scholar in Europe, M. Stanislas Julien, Membre de l'Institut.

The Chinese do not decline their substantives, but they indicate the cases distinctly—

A. By means of particles.
B. By means of position.

1. The nominative or the subject of a sentence is always placed at the beginning.

2. The genitive may be marked—

(a) By the particle tchi placed between the two nouns, of which the first is in the genitive, the second in the nominative. Example, jin tchi kiun (hominum princeps, literally, man, sign of the genitive, prince.)

(b) By position, placing the word which is in the genitive first, and the word which is in the nominative second. Ex. koue (kingdom) jin (man) i.e., a man of the kingdom.

3. The dative may be expressed—

(a) By the preposition yu, to. Ex. sse (to give) yen (money) yu (to) jin (man).

(b) By position, placing first the verb, then the word which stands in the dative, lastly, the word which stands in the accusative. Ex. yu (to give) jin (to a man) pe (white) yu (jade), hoang (yellow) kin (metal), i.e., gold.

4. The accusative is either left without any mark, for instance, pao (to protect) min (the people), or it is preceded by certain words which had originally a more tangible meaning, but gradually dwindled away into mere signs of the accusative. [These were first discovered and correctly explained by M. Stanislas Julien in his Vindiciæ Philologicæ in Linguam Sinicam, Paris, 1830.] The particles most frequently used for this purpose by modern writers are pa and tsiang, to grasp, to take. Ex. pa (taking) tchoung-jin (crowd of men) t'eou (secretly) k'an (he looked) i.e., he looked secretly at the crowd of men (hominum turbam furtim aspiciebat). In the more ancient Chinese (Kouwen) the words used for the same purpose are i (to employ, etc.), iu, iu, hou. Ex. i (employing) jin (mankind) t'sun (he preserves) sin (in the heart), i.e., humanitatem conservat corde. I (taking) tchi (right) wêï (to make) k'iŏ (crooked), i.e., rectum facere curvum. Pao (to protect) hou (sign of accus.) min (the people).

5. The ablative is expressed—

(a) By means of prepositions, such as thsong, yeou, tsen, hou. Ex. thsong (ex) thien (cœlo) laï (venire); te (obtinere) hou (ab) thien (cœlo).

(b) By means of position, so that the word in the ablative is placed before the verb. Ex. thien (heaven) hiang-tchi (descended, tchi being the relative particle or sign of the genitive) tsaï (calamities), i.e., the calamities which Heaven sends to men.

6. The instrumental is expressed—

(a) By the preposition yu, with. Ex. yu (with) kien (the sword) cha (to kill) jin (a man).

(b) By position, the substantive which stands in the instrumental case being placed before the verb, which is followed again by the noun in the accusative. Ex. i (by hanging) cha (he killed) tchi (him).

7. The locative may be expressed by simply placing the noun before the verb. Ex. si (in the East or East) yeou (there is) suo-tou-po (a sthúpa); or by prepositions as described in the text.

The adjective is always placed before the substantive to which it belongs. Ex. meï jin, a beautiful woman.

The adverb is generally followed by a particle which produces the same effect as e in bene, or ter in celeriter. Ex. cho-jen, in silence, silently; ngeou-jen, perchance; kiu-jen, with fear.

Sometimes an adjective becomes an adverb through position. Ex. chen, good; but chen ko, to sing well.

“Goddspell onn Ennglissh nemmnedd iss
God word, annd god tiþennde,
God errnde,” &c.—Ormulum, pref. 157.

“And beode þer godes godd-spel.”—Layamon, iii. 182, v. 29, 507.

Herodotus (vii. 94, 509) gives Pelasgi as the old name of the Æolians and of the Ionians in the Peloponnesus and the islands. Nevertheless he argues (i. 57), from the dialect spoken in his time by the Pelasgi of the towns of Kreston, Plakia, and Skylake, that the old Pelasgi spoke a barbarous tongue (βάρβαρον τὴν γλῶσσαν ἱέντες). He has, therefore, to admit that the Attic race, being originally Pelasgic, unlearnt its language (τὸ Ἀττικὸν ἔθνος ἐὸν Πελασγικόν, ἅμα τῇ μεταβόλη τῇ ἐς Ἕλληνας, καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν μετέμαθε). See Diefenbach, Origines Europææ, p. 59. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 17) avoids this difficulty by declaring the Pelasgi to have been from the beginning a Hellenic race. This however, is merely his own theory. The Karians are called βαρβαρόφωνοι by Homer (II. v. 867); but Strabo (xiv. 662) takes particular care to show that they are not therefore to be considered as βάρβαροι. He distinguishes between βαρβαροφωνεῖν, i.e., κακῶς ἑλληνίζειν, and Καριστὶ λαλαεῖν, καρίζειν καὶ βαρβαρίζειν. But the same Strabo says that the Karians were formerly called Λέλεγεs (xii. p. 572); and these, together with Pelasgians and Kaukones, are reckoned by him (vii. p. 321) as the earlier barbarous inhabitants of Hellas. Again he (vii. p. 321), as well as Aristotle and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (i. 17), considers the Locrians as descendants of the Leleges, though they would hardly call the Locrians barbarians.

The Macedonians are mentioned by Strabo (x. p. 460) together with “the other Hellenes.” Demosthenes speaks of Alexander as a barbarian; Isokrates as a Heraclide. To judge from a few extant words, Macedonian might have been a Greek dialect. (Diefenbach, Orig. Europ. p. 62.) Justine (vii. 1) says of the Macedonians, “Populus Pelasgi, regio Pæonia dicebatur.” There was a tradition that the country occupied by the Macedonians belonged formerly to Thracians or Pierians (Thuc. ii. 99; Strabo, vii. p. 321); part of it to Thessalians (ibid.).

The Thracians are called by Herodotus (v. 3) the greatest people after the Indians. They are distinguished by Strabo from Illyrians (Diefenbach, p. 65), from Celts (ibid.), and from Scythians (Thuc. ii. 96). What we know of their language rests on a statement of Strabo (vii. 303, 305), that the Thracians spoke the same language as the Getæ, and the Getæ the same as the Dacians. We possess fragments of Dacian speech in the botanical names collected by Dioskorides, and these, as interpreted by Grimm, are clearly Aryan, though not Greek. The Dacians are called barbarians by Strabo, together with Illyrians and Epirotes. (Strabo, vii. p. 321.)

The Illyrians were barbarians in the eyes of the Greeks. They are now considered as an independent branch of the Aryan family. Herodotus refers the Veneti to the Illyrians (i. 196); and the Veneti, according to Polybius (ii. 17), who knew them, spoke a language different from that of the Celts. He adds that they were an old race, and in their manner and dress like the Celts. Hence many writers have mistaken them for Celts, neglecting the criterion of language, on which Polybius lays such proper stress. The Illyrians were a widely extended race; the Pannonians, the Dalmatians, and the Dardanians (from whom the Dardanelles were called), are all spoken of as Illyrians. (Diefenbach, Origines Europææ, pp. 74, 75.) It is lost labor to try to extract anything positive from the statements of the Greeks and Romans on the race and the language of their barbarian neighbors.

These are the last words in Kepler's “Harmony of the World,” “Thou who by the light of nature hast kindled in us the longing after the light of Thy grace, in order to raise us to the light of Thy glory, thanks to Thee, Creator and Lord, that Thou lettest me rejoice in Thy works. Lo, I have done the work of my life with that power of intellect which Thou hast given. I have recorded to men the glory of Thy works, as far as my mind could comprehend their infinite majesty. My senses were awake to search as far as I could, with purity and faithfulness. If I, a worm before thine eyes, and born in the bonds of sin, have brought forth anything that is unworthy of Thy counsels, inspire me with Thy spirit, that I may correct it. If, by the wonderful beauty of Thy works, I have been led into boldness, if I have sought my own honor among men as I advanced in the work which was destined to Thine honor, pardon me in kindness and charity, and by Thy grace grant that my teaching may be to Thy glory, and the welfare of all men. Praise ye the Lord, ye heavenly Harmonies, and ye that understand the new harmonies, praise the Lord. Praise God, O my soul, as long as I live. From Him, through Him, and in Him is all, the material as well as the spiritual—all that we know and all that we know not yet—for there is much to do that is yet undone.”

These words are all the more remarkable, because written by a man who was persecuted by theologians as a heretic, but who nevertheless was not ashamed to profess himself a Christian.

I end with an extract from one of the most distinguished of living naturalists:—“The antiquarian recognizes at once the workings of intelligence in the remains of an ancient civilization. He may fail to ascertain their age correctly, he may remain doubtful as to the order in which they were successively constructed, but the character of the whole tells him they are works of art, and that men like himself originated these relics of by-gone ages. So shall the intelligent naturalist read at once in the pictures which nature presents to him, the works of a higher Intelligence; he shall recognize in the minute perforated cells of the coniferæ, which differ so wonderfully from those of other plants, the hieroglyphics of a peculiar age; in their needle-like leaves, the escutcheon of a peculiar dynasty; in their repeated appearance under most diversified circumstances, a thoughtful and thought-eliciting adaptation. He beholds, indeed, the works of a being thinking like himself, but he feels, at the same time, that he stands as much below the Supreme Intelligence, in wisdom, power, and goodness, as the works of art are inferior to the wonders of nature. Let naturalists look at the world under such impressions, and evidence will pour in upon us that all creatures are expressions of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love, and adore unseen.”

Hervas (Catalogo, i. 37) mentions the following works, published during the sixteenth century, bearing on the science of language:—“Introductio in Chaldaicam Linguam, Siriacam, atque Armenicam, et decem alias Linguas,” a Theseo Ambrosio. Papiæ, 1539, 4to. “De Ratione communi omnium Linguarum et Litterarum Commentarius,” a Theodoro Bibliandro. Tiguri, 1548, 4to. It contains the Lord's Prayer in fourteen languages. Bibliander derives Welsh and Cornish from Greek, Greek having been carried there from Marseilles, through France. He states that Armenian differs little from Chaldee, and cites Postel, who derived the Turks from the Armenians, because Turkish was spoken in Armenia. He treats the Persians as descendants of Shem, and connects their language with Syriac and Hebrew. Servian and Georgian are, according to him, dialects of Greek.

Other works on language published during the sixteenth century are:—“Perion. Dialogorum de Linguæ Gallicæ origine ejusque cum Græca cognatione, libri quatuor.” Parisiis, 1554. He says that as French is not mentioned among the seventy-two languages which sprang from the Tower of Babel, it must be derived from Greek. He quotes Cæsar (de Bello Gallico, vi. 14) to prove that the Druids spoke Greek, and then derives from it the modern French language!

The works of Henri Estienne (1528-1598) stand on a much sounder basis. He has been unjustly accused of having derived French from Greek. See his “Traicté de la Conformité du Langage français avec le grec;” about 1566. It contains chiefly syntactical and grammatical remarks, and its object is to show that modes of expression in Greek, which sound anomalous and difficult, can be rendered easy by a comparison of analogous expressions in French.

The Lord's Prayer was published in 1548 in fourteen languages, by Bibliander; in 1591 in twenty-six languages, by Roccha (“Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana,” a fratre Angelo Roccha: Romæ, 1591, 4to.); in 1592 in forty languages, by Megiserus (“Specimen XL. Linguarum et Dialectorum ab Hieronymo Megisero à diversis auctoribus collectarum quibus Oratio Dominica est expressa:” Francofurti, 1592); in 1593, in fifty languages, by the same author (“Oratio Dominica L. diversis linguis,” cura H. Megiseri: Francofurti, 1593, 8vo.).

At the beginning of the seventeenth century was published “Trésor de l'Histoire des Langues de cet Univers,” par Claude Duret; seconde edition: Iverdon, 1619, 4to. Hervas says that Duret repeats the mistakes of Postel, Bibliander, and other writers of the sixteenth century.

Before Duret came Estienne Guichard, “l'Harmonie Etymologique des Langues Hebraique, Chaldaique, Syriaque—Greque—Latine, Françoise, Italienne, Espagnole—Allemande, Flamende, Anglaise, &c.:” Paris, 1606.

Hervas only knows the second edition, Paris, 1618, and thinks the first was published in 1608. The title of his book shows that Guichard distinguished between four classes of languages, which we should now call the Semitic, the Hellenic, Italic, and Teutonic: he derives, however, Greek from Hebrew.

I. I. Scaliger, in his “Diatriba de Europæorum Linguis” (Opuscula varia: Parisiis, 1610), p. 119, distinguishes eleven classes: Latin, Greek, Teutonic, Slavonic, Epirotic or Albanian, Tartaric, Hungarian, Finnic, Irish, British in Wales and Brittany, and Bask or Cantabrian.

Hermathena Joannis Goropii Becani: Antuerpiæ, 1580. Origines Antverpianæ, 1569. André Kempe, in his work on the language of Paradise, maintains that God spoke to Adam in Swedish, Adam answered in Danish, and the serpent spoke to Eve in French.

Chardin relates that the Persians believe three languages to have been spoken in Paradise; Arabic by the serpent, Persian by Adam and Eve, and Turkish by Gabriel.

J. B. Erro, in his “El mundo primitivo,” Madrid, 1814, claims Bask as the language spoken by Adam.

A curious discussion took place about two hundred years ago in the Metropolitan Chapter of Pampeluna. The decision, as entered in the minutes of the chapter, is as follows:—1. Was Bask the primitive language of mankind? The learned members confess that, in spite of their strong conviction on the subject, they dare not give an affirmative answer. 2. Was Bask the only language spoken by Adam and Eve in Paradise? On this point the chapter declares that no doubt can exist in their minds, and that “it is impossible to bring forward any serious or rational objection.” See Hennequin, “Essai sur l'Analogie des Langues,” Bordeaux, 1838. p. 60.

Catalogo, i. 30. “Verá que la lengua llamada malaya, la qual se habla en la península de Malaca, es matriz de inumerables dialectos de naciones isleñas, que desde dicha península se extienden por mas de doscientos grados de longitud en los mares oriental y pacífico.”

Ibid. ii. 10. “De esta península de Malaca han salido enjambres de pobladores de las islas del mar Indiano y Pacífico, en las que, aunque parece haber otra nacion, que es de negros, la malaya es generalmente la mas dominante y extendida. La lengua malaya se habla en dicha península, continente del Asia, en las islas Maldivas, en la de Madagascar (perteneciente al Africa), en las de Sonda, en las Molucas, en las Filipinas, en las del archipiélago de San Lázaro, y en muchísimas del mar del Sur desde dicho archipiélago hasta islas, que por su poca distancia de América se creian pobladas por americanos. La isla de Madagascar se pone á 60 grados de longitud, y á los 268 se pone la isla de Pasqua ó de Davis, en la que se habla otro dialecto malayo; por lo que la extension de los dialectos malayos es de 208 grados de longitud.”

Auxentius thus speaks of Ulfilas, (Waitz, p. 19:) “Et [ita prædic]-ante et per Cristum cum dilectione Deo Patri gratias agente, hæc et his similia exsequente, quadraginta annis in episcopatu gloriose florens, apostolica gratia Græcam et Latinam et Goticam linguam sine intermissione in una et sola eclesia Cristi predicavit.... Qui et ipsis tribus linguis plures tractatus et multas interpretationes volentibus ad utilitatem et ad ædificationem, sibi ad æternam memoriam et mercedem post se dereliquid. Quem condigne laudare non sufficio et penitus tacere non audeo; cui plus omnium ego sum debitor, quantum et amplius in me laboravit, qui me a prima etate mea a parentibus meis discipulum suscepit et sacras litteras docuit et veritatem manifestavit et per misericordiam Dei et gratiam Cristi et carnaliter et spiritaliter ut filium suum in fide educavit.

“Hic Dei providentia et Cristi misericordia propter multorum salutem in gente Gothorum de lectore triginta annorum episkopus est ordinatus, ut non solum esset heres Dei et coheres Cristi, sed et in hoc per gratiam Cristi imitator Cristi et sanctorum ejus, ut quemadmodum sanctus David triginta annorum rex et profeta est constitutus, ut regeret et doceret populum Dei et filios Hisdrael, ita et iste beatus tamquam profeta est manifestatus et sacerdos Cristi ordinatus, ut regeret et corrigeret et doceret et ædificaret gentem Gothorum; quod et Deo volente et Cristo aucsiliante per ministerium ipsius admirabiliter est adinpletum, et sicuti Josef in Ægypto triginta annorum est manifes[tatus et] quemadmodum Dominus et Deus noster Jhesus Cristus Filius Dei triginta annorum secundum carnem constitutus et baptizatus, cœpit evangelium predicare et animas hominum pascere: ita et iste sanctus, ipsius Cristi dispositione et ordinatione, et in fame et penuria predicationis indifferenter agentem ipsam gentem Gothorum secundum evangelicam et apostolicam et profeticam regulam emendavit et vibere [Deo] docuit, et Cristianos, vere Cristianos esse, manifestavit et multiplicavit.

“Ubi et ex invidia et operatione inimici thunc ab inreligioso et sacrilego indice Gothorum tyrannico terrore in varbarico Cristianorum persecutio est excitata, ut Satanas, qui male facere cupiebat, nolens faceret bene, ut quos desiderabat prevaricatores facere et desertores, Cristo opitulante et propugnante, fierent martyres et confessores, ut persecutor confunderetur, et qui persecutionem patiebantur, coronarentur, ut hic, qui temtabat vincere, victus erubesceret, et qui temtabantur, victores gauderent. Ubi et post multorum servorum et ancillarum Cristi gloriosum martyrium, imminente vehementer ipsa persecutione, conpletis septem annis tantummodo in episkopatum, supradictus sanctissimus vir beatus Ulfila cum grandi populo confessorum de varbarico pulsus, in solo Romanie a thu[n]c beate memorie Constantio principe honorifice est susceptus, ut sicuti Deus per Moysem de potentia et violentia Faraonis et Egyptorum po[pulum s]uum l[iberav]it [et Rubrum] Mare transire fecit et sibi servire providit, ita et per sepe dictum Deus confessores sancti Filii sui unigeniti de varbarico liberavit et per Danubium transire fecit, et in montibus secundum sanctorum imitationem sibi servire de[crevit] ..... eo populo in solo Romaniæ, ubi sine illis septem annis, triginta et tribus annis veritatem predicavit, ut et in hoc quorum sanctorum imitator erat [similis esset], quod quadraginta annorum spatium et tempus ut multos ..... re et .... a[nn]orum ..... e vita.” .. “Qu c[um] precepto imperiali, conpletis quadraginta annis, ad Constantinopolitanam urbem ad disputationem ..... contra p ... ie ... p. t. stas perrexit, et eundo in .... nn .. ne. p ... ecias sibi ax ..... to docerent et contestarent[ur] .... abat, et inge . e .... supradictam [ci]vitatem, recogitato ei im .... de statu concilii, ne arguerentur miseris miserabiliores, proprio judicio damnati et perpetuo supplicio plectendi, statim cœpit infirmari; qua in infirmitate susceptus est ad similitudine Elisei prophete. Considerare modo oportet meritum viri, qui ad hoc duce Domino obit Constantinopolim, immo vero Cristianopolim, ut sanctus et immaculatus sacerdos Cristi a sanctis et consacerdotibus, a dignis dignus digne [per] tantum multitudinem Cristianorum pro meritis [suis] mire et gloriose honoraretur.”

“Unde et cum sancto Hulfila ceterisque consortibus ad alium comitatum Constantinopolim venissent, ibique etiam et imperatores adissent, adque eis promissum fuisset conci[li]um, ut sanctus Aux[en]tius exposuit, [a]gnita promiss[io]ne prefati pr[e]positi heretic omnibus viribu institerunt u[t] lex daretur, qu[æ] concilium pro[hi]beret, sed nec p[ri]vatim in domo [nec] in publico, vel i[n] quolibet loco diputatio de fide haberetur, sic[ut] textus indicat [le]gis, etc.”

The people whom we call Wallachians, call themselves Romàni, and their language Romània.

This Romance language is spoken in Wallachia and Moldavia, and in parts of Hungary, Transylvania, and Bessarabia. On the right bank of the Danube it occupies some parts of the old Thracia, Macedonia, and even Thessaly.

It is divided by the Danube into two branches: the Northern or Daco-romanic, and the Southern or Macedo-romanic. The former is less mixed, and has received a certain literary culture; the latter has borrowed a larger number of Albanian and Greek words, and has never been fixed grammatically.

The modern Wallachian is the daughter of the language spoken in the Roman province of Dacia.

The original inhabitants of Dacia were called Thracians, and their language Illyrian. We have hardly any remains of the ancient Illyrian language to enable us to form an opinion as to its relationship with Greek or any other family of speech.

219 b. c., the Romans conquered Illyria; 30 b. c., they took Moesia; and 107 a. d., the Emperor Trajan made Dacia a Roman province. At that time the Thracian population had been displaced by the advance of Sarmatian tribes, particularly the Yazyges. Roman colonists introduced the Latin language; and Dacia was maintained as a colony up to 272, when the Emperor Aurelian had to cede it to the Goths. Part of the Roman inhabitants then emigrated and settled south of the Danube.

In 489 the Slavonic tribes began their advance into Mœsia and Thracia. They were settled in Mœsia by 678, and eighty years later a province was founded in Macedonia, under the name of Slavinia.

Berosus, as preserved in the Armenian translation of Eusebius, mentions a Median dynasty of Babylon, beginning with a king Zoroaster, long before Ninus; his date would be 2234 b. c.

Xanthus, the Lydian (470 b. c.), as quoted by Diogenes Laertius, places Zoroaster, the prophet, 600 before the Trojan war (1800 b. c.).

Aristotle and Eudoxus, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxx. 1), placed Zoroaster 6000 before Plato; Hermippus 5000 before the Trojan war (Diog. Laert. proœm.).

Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxx. 2) places Zoroaster several thousand years before Moses the Judæan, who founded another kind of Mageia.

Though I state these views on the authority of M. Pictet, I think it right to add the following note which an eminent Irish scholar has had the kindness to send me:—“The ordinary name of Ireland, in the oldest Irish MSS., is (h)ériu, gen. (h)érenn, dat. (h)érinn. The initial h, is often omitted. Before etymologizing on the word, we must try to fix its Old Celtic form. Of the ancient names of Ireland which are found in Greek and Latin writers, the only one which hériu can formally represent is Hiberio. The abl. sing. of this form—Hiberione—is found in the Book of Armagh, a Latin MS. of the early part of the ninth century. From the same MS. we also learn that a name of the Irish people was Hyberionaces, which is obviously a derivative from the stem of Hiberio. Now if we remember that the Old Irish scribes often prefixed h to words beginning with a vowel (e.g. h-abunde, h-arundo, h-erimus, h-ostium), and that they also often wrote b for the v consonant (e.g. bobes, fribulas, corbus, fabonius); if, moreover, we observe that the Welsh and Breton names for Ireland—Ywerddon, Iverdon—point to an Old Celtic name beginning with iver—, we shall have little difficulty in giving Hiberio a correctly latinized form, viz. Iverio. This in Old Celtic would be Iveriu, gen. Iverionos. So the Old Celtic form of Fronto was Frontû, as we see from the Gaulish inscription at Vieux Poitiers. As v when flanked by vowels is always lost in Irish, Iveriû would become ieriu, and then, the first two vowels running together, ériu. As regards the double n in the oblique cases of ériu, the genitive érenn (e.g.) is to Iverionos as the Old Irish anmann ‘names’ is to the Skr. nâmâni, Lat. nomina. The doubling of the n may perhaps be due to the Old Celtic accent. What then is the etymology of Iveriû? I venture to think that it may (like the Lat. Aver-nus, Gr. Ἄφορ-νος) be connected with the Skr. avara, ‘posterior,’ ‘western.’ So the Irish des, Welsh deheu, ‘right,’ ‘south,’ is the Skr. dakshina, ‘dexter,’ and the Irish áir (in an-áir), if it stand for páir, ‘east,’ is the Skr. pûrva, ‘anterior.’

“M. Pictet regards Ptolemy's Ἰουερνια (Ivernia) as coming nearest to the Old Celtic form of the name in question. He further sees in the first syllable what he calls the Irish ibh, ‘land,’ ‘tribe of people,’ and he thinks that this ibh may be connected not only with the Vedic ibha, ‘family,’ but with the Old High German eiba, ‘a district.’ But, first, according to the Irish phonetic laws, ibha would have appeared as eb in Old, eabh in Modern-Irish. Secondly, the ei in eiba is a diphthong = Gothic ái, Irish ói, óe, Skr. ê. Consequently ibh and ibha cannot be identified with eiba. Thirdly, there is no such word as ibh in the nom. sing., although it is to be found in O'Reilly's dictionary, along with his explanation of the intensive prefix er—, as ‘noble,’ and many other blunders and forgeries. The form ibh is, no doubt, producible, but it is a very modern dative plural of úa, ‘a descendant.’ Irish districts were often called by the names of the occupying clans. These clans were often called ‘descendants (huí, hí, í) of such an one.’ Hence the blunder of the Irish lexicographer.”—W. S.

Benfey, Grammatik, § 147:—

Roots of the 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 classes: 226
Roots of the 1, 4, 6, 10 classes: 1480
Total: 1706, including 143 of the 10th class.

If two words are placed like jin ta, the first may form the predicate of the second, the second being used as a substantive. Thus jin ta might mean the greatness of man, but in this case it is more usual to say jin tci ta.

“Another instance, chen, virtue; Ex. jin tchi chen, the virtue of man; chen, virtuous; Ex. chen jin, the virtuous man; chen, to approve; Ex. chen tchi, to find it good; chen, well; Ex. chen ko, to sing well.”—Stanislas Julien.

M. Stanislas Julien remarks that the numerous compounds which occur in Chinese prove the wide-spread influence of the principle of agglutination in that language. The fact is, that in Chinese every sound has numerous meanings; and in order to avoid ambiguity, one word is frequently followed by another which agrees with it in that particular meaning which is intended by the speaker. Thus:—

chi-youen (beginning-origin) signifies beginning.
ken-youen (root-origin) signifies beginning.
youen-chin (origin-beginning) signifies beginning.
meï-miai (beautiful-remarkable) signifies beautiful.
meï-li (beautiful-elegant) signifies beautiful.
chen-youen (charming-lovely) signifies beautiful.
yong-i (easy-facile) signifies easily.
tsong-yong (to obey, easy) signifies easily.

In order to express “to boast,” the Chinese say king-koua, king-fu, &c., both words having one and the same meaning.

This peculiar system of juxta-position, however, cannot be considered as agglutination in the strict sense of the word.

“Here the lines converge as they recede into the geological ages, and point to conclusions which, upon Darwin's theory, are inevitable, but hardly welcome. The very first step backward makes the negro and the Hottentot our blood-relations; not that reason or Scripture objects to that, though pride may.” Asa Gray, “Natural Selection not inconsistent with Natural Theology,” 1861, p. 5.

“One good effect is already manifest, its enabling the advocates of the hypothesis of a multiplicity of human species to perceive the double insecurity of their ground. When the races of men are admitted to be of one species, the corollary, that they are of one origin, may be expected to follow. Those who allow them to be of one species must admit an actual diversification into strongly marked and persistent varieties; while those, on the other hand, who recognize several or numerous human species, will hardly be able to maintain that such species were primordial and supernatural in the ordinary sense of the word.” Asa Gray, Nat. Sel. p. 54.

In Chinese the number of imitative sounds is very considerable. They are mostly written phonetically, and followed by the determinative sign “mouth.” We give a few, together with the corresponding sounds in Mandshu. The difference between the two will show how differently the same sounds strike different ears, and how differently they are rendered into articulate language:—

The cock crows kiao kiao in Chinese, dchor dchor in Mandshu.
The wild goose cries kao kao in Chinese, kôr kor in Mandshu.
The wind and rain sound siao siao in Chinese, chor chor in Mandshu.
Waggons sound lin lin in Chinese, koungour koungour in Mandshu.
Dogs coupled together sound ling-ling in Chinese, kalang kalang in Mandshu.
Chains coupled together sound tsiang-tsiang in Chinese, kiling kiling in Mandshu.
Bells coupled together sound tsiang-tsiang in Chinese, tang tang in Mandshu.
Drums coupled together sound ḱan ḱan in Chinese, tung tung in Mandshu.

The following list of Chinese interjections may be of interest:—

hu, to express surprise.
fu, the same.
tsai, to express admiration and approbation.
i, to express distress.
tsie, vocative particle.
tsie tsie, exhortative particle.
ài, to express contempt.
ŭ-hu, to express pain.
shin-ĭ, ah, indeed.
pŭ sin, alas!
ngo, stop!

In many cases interjections were originally words, just as the French hélas is derived from lassus, tired, miserable. Diez, Lexicon Etymologicum, s. v. lasso.

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