[236] Pott’s formula for the morphological classification of languages was that they are “isolating,” “agglutinative,” and “inflectional.” Professor Müller and Baron Bunsen have shown that these divisions nearly correspond with three stages of political development—“Family,” “Nomad,” and “State.”
[237] Encycl. Brit. Art. Language. (Dr. Latham.)
[238] “On l’a désignée par les noms de famille Indo-Germanique ou Indo-Européenne, lesquels ne sont ni logiques ni harmonieux, car ils n’expriment qu’imparfaitement le sens qui leur est attribué, et leur longueur démesurée en rend l’emploi fort peu commode.”—Pictet’s Origines Indo-Eur. p. 28. They have, however, the advantage of explaining themselves.
[239] Burnouf, Commentaire sur le Yaçna, p. xciii. See also Bunsen’s Outlines, i. 281.
[240] These traces are most ably pointed out in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1851, quoted in an interesting note by Prof. Max Müller, Survey of Languages, p. 28, 2nd ed. See, too, Pictet, pp. 27-34, who connects the root ar with the words Erin, Elam, Ariovistus, Arminius, oriri, &c. If this be a right derivation of Erin, the fact is important, as showing that some memory of the old name was preserved in the extreme West as well as in the East.
[241] By a writer in the Saturday Review for Nov. 19, 1859.
[242] P. 49.
[243] For a graphic sketch of early Arian life as deduced from the records of language, see Weber’s Indische Skizzen, pp. 9, 10; Pictet’s Origines Indo-Européennes; Müller’s Ess. on Comp. Mythology.
[244] Müller, p. 28 sqq.
[245] Except some popular modern divines.