Sub-Semitic in appearance, and conterminous with the Semitic area, the Armenian has much in common with the tribes with which he is so often and so naturally associated, the Dioscurian Georgians; and it is through the Armenian that the transition from the Mongolidæ to the Atlantidæ is most likely to be recognized.
2.
IBERIANS.
Native Name.—Euscaldunac.
Localities.—The provinces of Biscay and Navarre, in Spain; the department of the Basses Pyrenees in France. Conterminous with the French and Spanish.
Compared with the Spanish and Portuguese of the Peninsula, and (to a certain extent) with the French of France, the Basque language has the same relation as the Welsh has to the English. It is the remains of the ancient language of the whole country.
Considering its mountain locality and its position at the north-western extremity of the country, on the one hand, and the undeniably recent origin of the present Spanish and Portuguese, on the other, this is no more than is expected à priori.
Further proof, however, has been supplied by the researches of ethnographical philologists, most especially by those of W. Humboldt. In an elaborate essay, first published in Vater's Appendix to the Mithridates, that writer analyzes the names of the ancient Spanish rivers, mountains, and tribes, and shows that, whenever they have a meaning at all, that meaning is to be found in the Basque.
He shows more, viz. that not only Spain and Portugal, but that the Aquitanian province of Southern Gaul was Basque as well; in other words, that the present language of Bilbao and Navarre was extended southwards, and that of Les Basses Pyrenees northwards. Thus far the views of Humboldt have been generally received.
The extension of the Basque to Sardinia and Corsica, to Sicily and part of Italy, is more problematic. Nevertheless, it has been suggested; and, in the way of colonization, although not as an aboriginal language, it is probable.