A geographical extension, however, is not necessary to create an interest in the Basque language. Its antiquity is that of the oldest tongues of Europe. Before Rome, before Greece, before Tyre or Carthage had been attracted by the mineral wealth of the far west, the mother-tongue of the Basque was spoken on the Douro, the Tagus, the Ebro, and the Guadalquiver. Afterwards it was the language of those who defended Numantia and Saguntum; of those who dealt with the Greeks at Emporiæ, and of those who bought and sold with the Phœnicians at Gades and Tartessus. The Lusitani, the Turdetani, the indomitable Cantabri, were Euskaldunac. It is better, however, when speaking of the Basque in its oldest form to call it Iberic or Iberian.
That the general ethnological relations of the Basque are undetermined is denoted by the place it takes in the present volume. The principle, however, which is most likely to determine it deserves to be noticed. It arises out of a bold conception of (I believe) Arndt's, adopted in its fullest extent by Rask, and, serving, at the present moment, as one of the best methods which honourably characterize the Scandinavian school of ethnology.
Just as, in geology, the great primary strata underlie the more recent super-imposed formations, so does an older and more primitive population represent the original occupancy of Europe and Asia, previous to the extension of newer, and (so to say) secondary—the Indo-Germans.
And just as, in geology, the secondary and tertiary strata are not so continuous but that the primary formations may, at intervals, show themselves through them, so also do fragments of the primary population still exist—discontinuous, indeed, but still capable of being recognized.
With such a view—the earliest European population was once comparatively homogeneous, from Lapland to Grenada, from Tornea to Gibraltar. But it has been overlaid and displaced; the only remnants extant being the Finns and Lapplanders, protected by their arctic climate, the Basques by their Pyrenæan fastnesses, and, perhaps the nation next in order of notice.
The Euskaldune is only one of the isolated languages of Europe. There is another—the Albanian.
The notion that the Albanian is a mere mixture of Greek and Turkish, has long been superseded by the conviction that, although mixed, it is essentially a separate substantive language. The doctrine, also, that it is of recent introduction into Europe has been similarly abandoned. There is every reason for believing that, as Thunmann suggested, it was, at dawn of history, spoken in the countries where it is spoken at the present moment.
If so, it is easily identified with either the ancient Illyrian, or the ancient Epirote; and, as it is by no means certain that these two languages were essentially different, it is possible that the Albanian may represent both. Hence, it would certainly be spoken by a portion of the soldiers of Pyrrhus, and, most probably, by the whole army of Teuta and Gentius. At present, however, it is enough to insist upon its independent character as a separate substantive language.