The most durable means of preserving individual records of written speech. They are termed, variously, “incised,” “impressed,” “lapidary,” “monumental,” “numismatic,” “painted.” The famous Rosetta and Carpentras stones, and the decree of Canopus from Egypt, and the Behistun rock inscriptions, are examples of bilingual records, that serve, by means of comparison, to facilitate decipherment. The Assyrian cuneiform writing and the Egyptian hieroglyphs have thus been explained, and the Chinese have in use extensive libraries of stone inscriptions at the present day. See Gesenius: “Scripturæ Linguæque Phœniciæ Monumenta,” 2 vols., Leipsig, 1837.
Intibuca.
American: one of the four native languages of Honduras.
Ionic or Ionian.
A sub-dialect of classical Greek; the original Ionians are said to have been Pelasgoi. It was largely cultivated in Asia Minor, and is the dialect of Homer and Herodotus. For some time before the rise of the Attic school, circa B.C. 400, it was the established language of prose literature. See Portus: “Dict.: Ionicum-Græc.-Lat.” London, 1825.
Iowa.
American: a dialect of Dacota or Sioux. Iowa, a State admitted in 1846, is derived from the Pahoja, or “Grey-snow,” Indians, who now reside N. of the R. Des-Moines. Schoolcraft: “History ... of the I. Tribes,” Philadelphia, vol. iv., p. 307.
Iquito.
American: a dialect of Carib.
Iranic or Iranian.