CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [5] |
| Works Consulted | [10] |
| The Value of Local Names | [11] |
| The Composition of Local Names | [13] |
| DIVISION I.—DESCRIPTIVE ELEMENT. | |
| (A) Names of Tribes, Individuals, Families, and Gods | [14] |
| (a) Tribes | [14] |
| (b) Families | [15] |
| (c) Individuals | [17] |
| (d) Gods | [18] |
| (B) Names of Animals | [19] |
| (C) Names of Trees, Plants, &c. | [27] |
| (D) Names of Minerals | [32] |
| (E) Names of Qualities | [33] |
| DIVISION II.—GENERAL ELEMENT. | |
| (A) Names of Rivers, Lakes, &c. | [35] |
| (B) Names of Mountains, Hills, &c. | [47] |
| (C) Names of Valleys, Plains, Woods, &c. | [53] |
| (D) Names of Habitations | [59] |
INTRODUCTION.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF LANGUAGES.
“Languages,” says the author of “The Cosmos,” “compared with each other, and considered as objects of the natural history of the human mind, being divided into families according to the analogy of their internal structure, have become a rich source of historical knowledge. Products of the mental powers, they lead us back, by the fundamental characters of their organisation, to an obscure and otherwise unknown distance. The comparative study of languages shows how races, or nations, now separated by wide regions, are related to each other, and have proceeded from a common seat; it discloses the directions and paths of ancient migrations; in tracing out epochs of development, it recognises in the more or less altered characters of the language, in the permanency of certain forms, or the already advanced departure from them, which portion of the race has preserved a language nearest to that of their former common dwelling-place.”
The coincidences between the languages of the globe have been made the subject of careful study by eminent scholars, who have established Comparative Philology upon the footing of a new science.
It has been found that mere verbal comparisons are utterly worthless in determining either the formation of groups of languages or their relations to one another. The dictionary of a nation may be borrowed, for words are soon lost and easily replaced; but the grammar of a language—that is to say, its syntax, conjugations, and declensions, the formation of new words from certain primitive forms, and those relational words which perform a similar function, as pronouns, numerals, and particles—is as constant and invariable as the nation itself. Grammatical analysis and comparison is therefore the only true method for the classification of languages according to their radical affinity; mere superficial resemblances of words prove nothing, nor have they any value unless tested and confirmed by arguments drawn from grammatical structure.