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 XJniversity of Berlin. 
 
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Cornell University Library 
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The original of tliis book is in 
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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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SUGGESTIONS 
 
 THE ASSISTANCE OF OFFICERS 
 
 LEAENING THE LANGUAGES 
 
 SEAT OF WAR IN THE EAST. 
 
 BY 
 
 MAX MULLEE, MA. 
 
 TAYLOBIAIt FBOFESeOB OF MODEBH EUBOPSAIT LANOTIAaES AT OZVOIIS ,' 
 TELLOW OF THE BOYAL ACADEMY AT MUNICH. 
 
 WITH * 
 
 AN ETHNOLOGICAL MAP, 
 
 Dbawn by AuairsTTrg Petebmaiw, 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS, 
 
 PATERNOSTER BOW. 
 1854 
 
^<;» 
 
 
 •%ca^ 
 
 i ! 
 
 V%0 
 
 /CO 
 
 :c;vr^ ? \ 
 
 ' 
 
 
 _ _ j^ 
 
 ^^^^^ 
 
 PEIKTED BY HABEISOlf AND SONS, 
 LOHCOH OAZETTIS OITICE, BT. UABTIH'B LANE, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TO SIR CHAELES TREVELYAN, K.C.B. 
 
 Mr Dear SiBj 
 
 Conscious as I feel of the many 
 defects of this Essay on the languages of the. seat of 
 war, I wish to plead no other excuse for its publication 
 than the kind encouragement you gave the writer, and 
 the hope held out to him that others would make, 
 allowance for the circumstances in which it was written. 
 These pages were commenced in answer to a com- 
 munication from yourself; but they have expanded- 
 into what is too long to be called a letter, and too 
 short and superficial to deserve the name of a book. 
 Indeed, had you not given me leave to print your 
 letter, I should not know how to defend myself against 
 the charges of precipitancy and presumption. This, 
 which gave the first impulse to my undertaking, will 
 serve as the best introduction; 'and, at the same time,, 
 will explain the objects which I have kept in view^ 
 
 " My Dear Sir, " %Oth March, 1854. 
 
 '' I have informed all our young Commissariat 
 Officers under orders for the East that, besides per- 
 fecting themselves in French and Italian, they will be 
 
 h 
 
IV 
 
 expected to learn at least one Eastern language, so 
 that there may be among them men who will be able 
 to communicate freely with the inhabitants of each 
 province in their own language ; and I have supplied 
 them, as far as I have been able, with elementary 
 books in these languages, and, with your help, with a 
 few brief instructions to give the first direction to their 
 efforts. 
 
 "But something more than this ought to be attempted. 
 We cannot tell how far and how long this remarkable 
 intervention of the Western nations in Eastern affairs 
 may lead us ; and I know, from my Indian experience, 
 that a knowledge of the native languages is an indis- 
 pensable preliminary to understanding and taking an 
 interest in native races, as well as to acquiring their 
 good-will and gaining influence over them. Without 
 it, officers charged with important public affairs, feeling 
 themselves at the mercy of a class of interpreters whose 
 moral character is often of a very questionable kind, 
 live in a state of chronic irritation with the natives, 
 which is extremely adverse both to the satisfactory 
 transaction of business, and to the still more important 
 object of giving to the people of the country a just 
 impression of the character and intentions of our 
 nation. 
 
 " It is, therefore, extremely desirable that the atten- 
 tion of all our young officers who are, or are likely to 
 be, employed in the East, not only in the'. Commis- 
 sariat, but also in the military and naval sources, should 
 be directed to the study of the languages^ which are 
 spoken in the northern division of the Turkish empire, 
 and the adjoining provinces of Russia, 
 
 " If you agree with me in this, you will at once feel 
 tjiat there is a call upon you to help in this good work. 
 
What I would suggest is, that you should prepare a 
 treatise showing 
 
 " 1st. "What are the languages spoken in that part 
 of the world, giving a general idea of their territorial 
 limits, and of the classes of people by whom they are 
 spoken: 
 
 " 2ndly. The family to which they belong, and their 
 general character and structure, and the alphabets by 
 which they are expressed; and 
 
 " 3rdly. The best elementary and other books in the 
 respective languages, and where they are to be pro- 
 cured as far as you are aware. 
 
 " I find some Interesting notices in your article In 
 the 'Edinburgh' on Comparative Philology, of the 
 differences between ancient and modern Greek. An 
 expansion or even a reprint of these would be an 
 obvious aid to our young men fresh from school or 
 college who would be disposed to apply themselves to 
 the study of modern Greek. 
 
 " The Russian language should be included in your 
 sketch ; and you should show, as far as you are able, 
 what is the extent and nature of the diiference between 
 it and the Bulgarian, Servian, and other neighbouring 
 Slavonian dialects. 
 
 " You will, no doubt, be able to tell us what is the 
 language of the Tatar population of the Crimea, and of 
 the leading tribes of the Circassians, including that of 
 the redoubtable Shdmil. 
 
 " I have only two further suggestions to make — 
 
 " 1st. That whatever you do should be done quickly. 
 Every part of this great effort, including this important 
 literary adjunct, is under war pressure ; and 
 
 " 2ndly. That you should tell us at once what you 
 
 §2 
 
VI 
 
 mow; know, leaving the rest to be perfected hereafter as 
 you have opportunity. 
 
 " You might conclude the Treatise with an admis- 
 sion of the incompleteness of the sketch, and an 
 invitation to those who will have an opportunity of 
 investigating the different languages on the spot to 
 communicate the result of their researches to you for 
 the purpose of enriching a second edition of the 
 Treatise. " Yours sincerely, 
 
 '' C. E. Teevelyan. 
 
 " To Professor Max MiiUer." 
 
 To this I need add here but a few remarks. It will 
 be seen that on many of the languages spoken on the 
 seat of war our information is very scanty, and that 
 some of the most important problems of ^Comparative 
 Philology, in connection with these languages, must 
 wait for their solution until new and trustworthy mate- 
 rials have been collected to illustrate the grammar of 
 the dialects spoken along the Black and the Caspian 
 Seas. Here, then, is a field open where an officer 
 with taste and talent for languages, may do great 
 service, and employ his leisure hours in a manner that 
 will be of practical use to himself, while advancing also 
 the science of ethnology. Some of the greatest disco- 
 veries', in Comparative Philology have been made by 
 Enghsh offiicers; and the names of Sir A. Burnes, 
 Colonel Rawlinson, and many others, show that these 
 scientific pursuits are not incompatible with a con- 
 scientious discharge of the highest political and military 
 functions.. If attended by a native servant, a Circas- 
 sian, an Albanian, or a Kurd, the officer should endea- 
 vour to master his language. He might ask him first 
 
Til 
 
 for a number of words, afterwards for the paradigms 
 of declension and conjugation, and attempt to write 
 them down. It is by no means an easy task to collect 
 the grammar and dictionary of a language from the 
 mouth of a native. Yet it has not unfrequently been 
 effected, and he who would make himself the author 
 of the first Circassian or Kurdian grammar would leave 
 his name on a monument even more lasting, perhaps, 
 than military achievements. 
 
 In writing down an Oriental language by ear, it 
 will be essential, however, that a certain system should 
 be observed in representing foreign sounds by Roman 
 letters. Eastern dialects contain certain sounds that 
 have in English no corresponding letters. These must 
 receive alphabetical expression. Again, in English 
 the same sound is frequently written in two different 
 modes, as in ravine, been ; boat and note ; date and 
 gait; while many vowels and consonants have more 
 than one power, as in ravine and pine ; date and hat ; 
 through and cough. 
 
 Now, without some agreement that, in transcribing 
 foreign languages, every letter shall always represent 
 but one sound, it will be impossible to say what power, 
 for instance, an i might have when used in a list of 
 foreign words. A traveller again, who would allow 
 himself to express the sound of i, as heard in ravine, 
 promiscuously by i, ee, ea, or y, would soon find himself 
 unable to pronounce the words thus written down from 
 oral communication. 
 
 This inconvenience has been long felt, and chiefly 
 by missionaries, to whom the reduction to writing of 
 the languages spoken by savage tribes has been 
 always an essential duty. An English missionary 
 would be inclined, if he heard the sound of i (as in 
 
Vlll 
 
 .ravine), to express it by ee ; a French missionary by I ; 
 and translations of the Bible, printed according to the 
 English and French systems of spelling, would take 
 an appearance so different that a nation who had learned 
 to read, the one would not be able to understand th« 
 other. 
 
 Many attempts have been made to remedy this 
 defect, and to settle a uniform system of- expressing the 
 pronunciation of foreign dialects. All that is required 
 is to fix on certain letters to express sounds which do 
 not exist in English, and to restrict all other letters to 
 but one phonetical value. This may seem a compa- 
 ratively easy task, yet uniformity is so diflScult to attain 
 between different nations, societies, or individuals, that 
 the realization of a common alphabet is still far distant. 
 I give here an abstract of an alphabet, lately the 
 subject of several conferences in London, which the 
 chief Societies have since resolved to submit to not less 
 than five hundred of their missionaries, who will test 
 it in the course of the next few years, and then report 
 on its merits and defects. For a complete account of 
 this " Missionary Alphabet" I refer readers to Chevalier 
 Bunsen's work on the Philosophy of Language. 
 
 MISSIONARY ALPHABET. 
 
 A has always the sound oi 
 
 a as in psalm, (long or short Italian a) 
 
 B 
 
 b „ 
 
 bed 
 
 o 
 
 a » 
 
 dock 
 
 E 
 
 a „ 
 
 date, (long or short Italian e) 
 
 F 
 
 f ,, 
 
 fat 
 
 G 
 
 g " 
 
 gate 
 
 H 
 
 H ,, 
 
 hand 
 
 I 
 
 i „ 
 
 ravine, (long or short Italian i) 
 
 K 
 
 k „ 
 
 kite 
 
 i-l 
 
 1 „ 
 
 let 
 
 M 
 
 m „ 
 
 man 
 
 N 
 
 n „ 
 
 not 
 
p 
 
 t1 
 
 pan 
 
 r 
 
 tl 
 
 run 
 
 8 
 
 JJ 
 
 sun 
 
 t 
 
 » 
 
 tan 
 
 U 
 
 » 
 
 fool (long or short Italian u) 
 
 V 
 
 tl 
 
 veil 
 
 W 
 
 It 
 
 will 
 
 y 
 
 tl 
 
 yet 
 
 z 
 
 tl 
 
 zeal 
 
 O has always the sound of o aa in note (long or short Italiad 
 R ,, 
 
 T 
 U 
 V 
 
 w 
 
 Y 
 Z 
 
 DIACRITICAL CONSONANTS. 
 
 G (ItaliCj or underlined, or marked with any other 
 
 diacritical sign) has always the sound of g as in gin 
 
 K (Italic, or underlined)- ,, ch „ church 
 
 Ng or n- „ n ,, sing 
 
 Ny or fi „ n „ Espaiia 
 
 H (Italic, or underlined) „ ch „ loch 
 
 S (Italic, or underlined) „ sh „ she 
 
 Z (Italic, or underlined) „ s ,, pleasure 
 
 Th „ th „ thin 
 
 Dh „ th ,, the 
 
 'H „ the Arabic c, 
 
 "H „ the Arabic c 
 
 DIACRITICAL VOWELS. 
 
 (or 8, 8) has always the sound of a, e, i, o, u as in beggar, robber, 
 
 bird, work, but 
 Ai „ 
 
 Au „ 
 
 Oi 
 Ou 
 
 6 
 
 u » 
 
 Short vowels require no mark. 
 
 Long vowels should be italics, underlined, or i. 
 
 The syllable which has the accent should be marked ; as " bSggar." 
 
 It may be remarked that most of the gram- 
 mars and dictionaries recommended in this Essay, as 
 likely to afford assistance to the student of languages, 
 
 i 
 
 II 
 
 ire 
 
 ou 
 
 II 
 
 proud 
 
 oi 
 
 It 
 
 voice 
 
 ou 
 
 II 
 
 bought (law)l 
 
 a 
 
 tl 
 
 Vater (German) 
 
 
 
 )» 
 
 Konig (German), 
 pen in French 
 
 U 
 
 M 
 
 Giite (German), 
 une in French 
 
are written by Germans, Frenchmen, Danes, or Rus- 
 sians. This is not owing to any national predilections 
 on my part. On the contrary, I believe that where 
 grammars written by Englishmen can be procured, 
 they will generally be found the most useful and prac- 
 tical. But their number with the number of Oriental 
 scholars in this country is at present comparatively 
 small. 
 
 It is undoubtedly high time that something should be 
 done to encourage the study of Oriental languages in 
 England. At the very outset of this war, it has been 
 felt how much this branch of studies — in emergencies 
 like the present so requisite — has been neglected in the 
 system of our education. 
 
 A man-of-war is built in less time than an 
 Oriental scholar can be launched ready to converse 
 with natives, and capable of procuring supplies, ga- 
 thering information, translating proclamations, writing 
 circulars, carrying on parleys, assisting at confe- 
 rences, and, finally, of wording the conditions of a 
 treaty of peace. In all other countries which have any 
 political, commercial, or religious connections with the 
 East, provision has been made by government or other 
 wise to encourage young men to devote themselves to 
 this branch of studies. Russia has always been the 
 most liberal patron of Oriental Philology. In the 
 Academy of Petersburg there is a fauteuil for every 
 branch of Oriental literature ; and there are schools in 
 that city, at Kasan and elsewhere, where the chief 
 languages of the East are taught. Scientific expe- 
 ditions are sent out to different parts of the world, 
 travellers supported and encouraged, and their works, 
 grammars or dictionaries, printed at the expense of 
 Government, This no doubt is done in the interest 
 
XX 
 
 of science, but at the same time other interests are 
 served. If Philology owes much to Russia, ever since 
 the days of the Empress Catherina, Russia knows that 
 she owes something to her linguists for her diplomatic 
 successes, and this more especially in the East. 
 
 Other countries also, less immediately connected with 
 the East, find it expedient to encourage Oriental 
 learning. The French Academy has always counted 
 among its members the chief representatives of every 
 department of Oriental Philology ; and for more 
 practical purposes, the Gpvernment has founded a 
 school, " L'ecole pour les langues Orientales vivantes," 
 where Hindustani, Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, 
 and Turkish are taught by the most eminent professors. 
 At Vienna there is an Oriental seminary ; and the 
 Imperial Press possesses the richest collection of 
 Oriental types in the world. More Oriental works are 
 brought out there than at any other press in Europe, 
 and, as the Government makes no profit, the expense 
 of printing is about one fourth of what it is in England. 
 Denmark sends regular scientific missions to the East, 
 with a view to encourage the study of Oriental lan- 
 guages ; while Prussia finds it expedient to give similar 
 encouragement to young Oriental scholars employed 
 afterwards with advantage, as consuls and interpreters 
 in her service. 
 
 In England alone, where the most vital interests of 
 the country are involved in a free intercourse with the 
 East, hardly anything is done to foster Oriental studies. 
 The College of Halleybury, hitherto most liberally 
 supported by the East India Company, is the one 
 exception. Many eminent men and several distin- 
 guished scholars have passed through this college; 
 and even greater results may be expected for the 
 
xu 
 
 future. There are two changes, sanctioned by 
 Parliament, with regard to this institution, which 
 promise to make it a real seminary of Oriental 
 learning. Firstly, Admission to Haileybury will no 
 longer depend on an acquaintance with the Directors 
 of the East India Company ; but on an acquaintance 
 with the subjects best calculated to benefit a man in the 
 discharge of his duties in India. The examiners may 
 henceforth select the best boys from any schools in 
 England for education at Haileybury. Secondly, — 
 Haileybury will no longer have, the monopoly of the 
 Indian service, a man may acquire a knowledge of 
 Oriental subjects wherever he pleases, and if he does 
 well at the final examination, he has as much right to 
 an appointment as a man who has spent two years at 
 Haileybury. This will free the College of the tram- 
 mels of protection, and give it the healthy stimulus of 
 an open competition, |while it still allows it a fair start 
 in a fair race.* 
 
 It is felt, however, particularly at the present 
 moment, that the country requires a larger supply of 
 men than can be accommodated at Haileybury ; and 
 those possessing a thorough knowledge not only of 
 Sanskrit, Hindustani, and Telugu, but of Persian, 
 Arabic, Turkish, Armenian, and even Chinese. But 
 
 * As the Act to provide for the Government of India is not quite 
 distinctly worded on this point, I subjoin Lord Granville's speech with 
 which he carried his important clause in the House of Lords, August the 
 8th, 1853. " Earl Granville said, the noble Lord's (Lord Monteagle's) 
 objection seemed to be that under the Bill any clever scamp would be 
 enabled by cramming to pass the requisite examination. He thought, 
 however, it would be perfectly disgraceful to the College, if in nineteen 
 cases out of twenty, the students there were not able to beat out of the 
 field a person who had not had the advantage of a special education like 
 that given there. The stimulus applied in this way to the College would, 
 he anticipated, be very beneficial." 
 
 " Times," August the 9th, 1853. 
 
XIU 
 
 it is unnecessary to found academies, schools, seminaries, 
 or imperial printing offices, in order to encourage the 
 study of Oriental languages in this country. All that 
 is required is to remove the disabilities under which 
 Oriental scholars have hitherto laboured. I refer 
 to the two Universities, Oxford in particular,, For 
 here a classical scholar, a student of modern history 
 and law, a mathematician, and a lover of physical 
 science, may gain honours, exhibitions, fellowships, and 
 preferment. Why not a student of Oriental languages? 
 If a man, after passing his Moderations, Is now allowed 
 to devote his last year at College to more special 
 subjects — the classics, astronomy, geology, or French 
 history, and can thus obtain his degree and the 
 highest honours, why should the Schools be closed to 
 one who has made Hebrew, or Arabic, or Sanskrit, or 
 Persian, the subjects of special study ? A know- 
 ledge of these languages will be useful to the clergy- 
 man whether at home or abroad. A knowledge of 
 Sanskrit — the basis of Comparative Philology — will be 
 an advantage to the classical scholar, and even a judge 
 who is sent to India will not find occasion for regret 
 if he has read the laws of Manu in the original language, 
 and acclimatized his mind to that Intellectual atmo- 
 sphere in which he is henceforth to live and to act. 
 But even from a merely educational point of view, a 
 knowledge of Oriental languages is not less beneficial 
 to the mind than French history or than botany. A new 
 language is the key to a new literature, to a new 
 system of thought, to a new world of feeling. It 
 widens our views of the powers and destinies of the 
 human race, and allows us an insight into the govern- 
 ment of the world universal, not inferior to any branch 
 
XIV 
 
 of classical, mathematical, or physical studies in lessons 
 of morality, of history, and of religion. 
 
 The foundation of a new School of Languages 
 (excluding Greek and Latin) at the University would, 
 it is my belief, be a sufficient impulse to this branch of 
 studies. We have large endowments of Oriental Pro- 
 fessorships, and their numbers might easily be increased. 
 If a few exhibitions were added ; if honours could be 
 gained in Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, or Persian; if 
 fellowships were awarded to distinguished linguists, and 
 travelling fellowships founded for those who, desire to 
 gain a practical knowledge of Oriental languages ; 
 if Oxford men were enabled to compete for Indian 
 appointments — fellowships, which, after twenty years 
 of useful activity, yield a pension of a thousand a year — 
 if some consular and diplomatic appointments in the 
 East were given to the University ; and if the Press 
 would procure Oriental types sufficient, and affiard the 
 opportunity of publishing works in all chief Eastern 
 languages — these changes effected, and I believe we 
 should soon see England take in Oriental Philology 
 the lead to which she is at present indifferent. 
 
 These are suggestions thrown out in a very hurried 
 manner ; but I may be permitted the hope they will 
 be taken up by men conversant with the resources 
 and requirements of the University, and careful for 
 the interests of the country at large. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Max MIJlleb. 
 
 Sir Robert Taylor's Institution, Oxford, 
 May 16, 1854. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Variety of Languages spoken in the Seat of War » . 1 
 
 Difficulty of acquiring Foreign Languages generally exagge- 
 rated ..... 1 
 Coincidences between different Languages . , 3 
 Comparative study of Languages and its practical advantages 4 
 The different degrees of relationship between Languages, and 
 
 the means of determining them . . .6 
 
 Grammar, the only decisive evidence of relationship between 
 
 Besemblanoe of the grammatical outlines of cognate Lan- 
 guages . . , . . ,10 
 Three systems of grammar and three Families of Languages, 
 
 Semitic, Arian, Turanian ... 10 
 
 Pronouns, Numerals, and Particles, as means of determining 
 
 the relationship of languages ,. , ,12 
 
 Practical results on the study of cognate Languages , 14 
 
 Meaning of words restored by Comparative Philology . 16 
 
 (Etymology of Pagan, Companion, Peasant, Savage, 
 Villain, lufentry. Pioneer, Cavahry, Artillery^ Inge- 
 nieur. Sapper, Miner, Cannon, Soldier, Musket, Cor- 
 poral, Captain, General, Colonel, Lieutenant, Serjeant, 
 Brevet, Brief, Guards^ Forage, Marshal.) 
 Meaning of grammatical forms restored by Comparative Phi- 
 Mogy .... . . 20 
 
 Practical advantages to be derived from grammatical com- 
 parisons . . . , ,21 
 On the formation of Particles in modern Languages , 22 
 Cbssificatiou of Languages . ^ , ,23 
 I. Semitic,Familt , ... 23 
 Its- three branches, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic . 23 
 Additional Languages, belonging to the Semitic Family , 24 
 
 1. Babylonian and Assyrian , 
 
 2. Egyptian and Coptic , , 
 
 3. Berber Dialects in Africa 
 
 4. Aramaic, including Syriac and Chaldaic 
 
 5. Hebrew . . - 
 
 6. Arabic, including the Himyaritio, Ethiopic, 
 haric .... 
 
 Characteristic features of the Semitic Family 
 
 and Am- 
 
 24 
 25 
 25 
 26 
 26 
 
 26 
 27 
 
XVI 
 
 II. Arian Family . . . • 
 
 Language of India, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, and Modem 
 Dialects . . • _ 
 
 Language of the Siah-posh, and of the Gipsies 
 
 Languages of Media and Persia, Zend, Cuneifoitn Inscrip- 
 tions, Pehlevi, Pazend, and Modem Dialects 
 
 Language of the Afghans . 
 
 Language of the People of Bokhara . 
 
 Language of the Kurds . 
 
 Language of Armenia 
 
 Language of the Os or Iron in the Caucasus 
 
 Language of the Celts . . 
 
 Language of Greece . 
 
 Languafb of Italy . . > 
 
 Modem Bomauce Languages 
 
 Wallachjan, its two dialects, Daco-Romanio and Macedo- 
 Romanic ; its early history . 
 
 Ten-itorial limits of the Northern WaUachian 
 
 Territorial limits of the Southern WaUachian, spoken by the 
 Massarets, the Great Wallachians, and Bovians 
 
 The WaUachian Grammar 
 
 The Wallachian Alphabet . 
 
 The Cyrillic Alphabet , , 
 
 Modern Greek . . . 
 
 Albanian .... 
 
 Territorial limits of Albanian and Modern Greek 
 
 Teutonic Languages .... 
 
 Low German Branch, comprising Gothic, Saxon, Anglo-Saxon 
 
 High German Branch .... 
 
 Scandinavian Branch . 
 
 Windic Languages .... 
 
 The Lettic Branch, comprising the Lithuanian, Old Pmssian. 
 and Lettish 
 
 The Slavonic Branch, comprising the South-Eastern and 
 Western Dialects .... 
 
 Relation of the South-Eastern and Western Slavonic Lan- 
 guages ... 
 
 Area occupied by Slavonic Languages 
 
 South-Easterp Branch , 
 
 Territorial limits of Russian . 
 
 1. I^anguage of the Grea,t-Russiaiis 
 
 2. Langijage of the Little-Russians 
 
 3. l^anguage qf the White-Russians 
 Territorial limits of Bulgariau 
 Territorial limits of lUyrian 
 Frontier between Servian and lUyrian (Slovenian and 
 
 Kfoatian) 
 
 Kroatian, Sloveniap, Servian, , 
 
 Western^ Branch , , 
 
 PoUsh , ■ 
 
 Bohemian ^ . 
 
 Slovakiau . 
 
 Windian or Lusati^n 
 Statistical Ta'bles ^hewing the distribution of the Slavonic 
 
 PAGE 
 
 28 
 
 70 
 
XVI 
 
 races, according to the language, religion, and the states to 
 
 which they belong 
 Political position of the Great-Russians . 
 
 Genealogical Table of the Arian Family- 
 Ill. Turanian Family 
 Character of Turanian or Nomad Languages 
 Morphological Coincidenoesjof Turanian Languages '. 
 The system of Agglutination, characteristic of Turanian Lan- 
 
 Integrity of Turanian roots 
 
 Divergence of Turanian dialects 
 
 Turanian Languages approaching to'an Arian type 
 
 Tungusic Branch . 
 
 Mongolic Branch 
 
 Origin of the name Tataric 
 
 The Mongolic Conquests 
 
 Mongolic Dialects 
 
 Turkic or Tataric Branch 
 
 Turkish or Osmanli '. 
 
 Ancient Seats of Turkic Tribes 
 
 Turkmans or Kisilba* 
 
 Usbeks 
 
 Nogais, Bazianes, and Kumiiks 
 
 Baskirs . . 
 
 Tatars of Siberia . , 
 
 Yakuts . . 
 
 Kirgis . . 
 
 Tuito of Asia Minor and Europe 
 
 Bise of the Osmanlis 
 
 The Turkish Language . 
 
 Turkish Conjugation 
 
 Finnic Branch 
 
 Four Divisions of the Finnic Branch, ifudic, Bulgario. 
 Permic, and Ugric . 
 
 The JTudic Class , 
 
 ^ The Finns 
 
 The Esthonians . 
 
 The Livonians 
 
 The Laplanders , 
 
 The Bulgaric Class 
 
 The Permic Class • 
 
 The Ug;ric Class 
 
 Ascending Scale of ^the Tungusic, Mengolic, Turkic, an 
 
 ^ Finnic Branches .... 
 
 The Northern and Southern Divisions of the Turanian 
 Family ..... 
 
 Genealogical Table of the Turanian Family, Northern Divi- 
 sion ... . . t 
 
 Scattered Languages of the Turanian Family 
 
 Caucasian Languages . . , 
 
 Georgic Branch, comprising Georgian, Mingrelian, Suarian, 
 Lazian 
 
 Aboriginal Langnages , . . 
 
 70 
 
 72 
 74 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 78 
 
 79 
 80 
 81 
 83 
 84 
 84 
 85 
 86 
 87 
 88 
 88 
 89 
 90 
 90 
 91 
 91 
 92 
 92 
 92 
 93 
 94 
 96 
 97 
 102 
 
 104 
 104 
 104 
 106 
 106 
 106 
 106 
 107 
 107 
 
 110 
 
 110 
 
 111 
 112 
 113 
 
 113 
 116 
 
XVIU 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Lesghic Branch, comprising Avarian, Kasikumiikian, 
 
 Akuskian and Kuriau . . . .116 
 
 Mits^eghic Branch, comprising the Galgai, Karabulak, 
 
 and ^efcentsi . . . . 118 
 
 X^erkessio Branch, comprising JTerkessians and Abas- 
 
 sians .. . . • .119 
 
 Historical recollections connected with the Languages of the 
 Seat ofWar, List of Grammars, Dictionaries, Dialogues 121 
 
 Collective names of branches, and classes of langnages have, as far as 
 possible, been formed in ie, as Georgic, Teutonic. AdjictSves in 
 ian are mostly restricted to single langnages and dialects, as 
 Georgian, Ossetian, etc. 
 
LANGUAGES 
 
 OF Tan 
 
 SEAT OF WAE IN THE EAST. 
 
 The languages spoken in the countries which the Variety of 
 English army may occupy in the course of the present languages 
 
 ~ , __, ,,'^ , . spoken in 
 
 war, are very numerous. Some, such as Wallachian, theseatof 
 Bulgarian, Servian, Albanian, Circassian, and Georgian, ■^*''- 
 are but little known ; and as inducement has been hither- 
 to wanting to study these semi-barbarous dialects, there 
 are but few grammars and vocabularies from which 
 an English officer might acquire a knowledge of them. 
 Of others, as Russian, Modern Greek, and Turkish, 
 grammars, written in English, may indeed be procured : 
 but there are probably not many officers who will have 
 in matter of fact, studied even these more attainable 
 languages before their departure for the Levant. The 
 necessity, however, of being able to converse with the 
 people in the East, will soon be felt ; and although inter- 
 preters, ready to offer their services for any transactions, 
 political or commercial, will not be wanting, yet it is 
 hardly necessary to say, with the experience of so many 
 foreign campaigns before us, how much an officer's dis- 
 charge of his duties will benefit by a knowledge of the 
 languages of the people among whom he and his soldiers 
 are, perhaps for years, to be quartered, and on whose 
 good will and ready co-operation so much of the success 
 of an expeditionary army must always depend. 
 
 The difficulty of acquiring a foreign tongue is gene- Difficulty of 
 
 rally much exaggerated. At school we spend indeed J"l'^'"ng 
 
 • 1 • r. 1 J T 1- 1 foreign Ian- 
 
 many years m learnmg Greek ana liatin, and even so guages. 
 
simple a language as French is not acquired by children 
 without many tedious lessons from governesses or French 
 masters. But it should be borne in mind that in learn- 
 ing Greek and Latin as boys, we are learning more 
 than a new language; we are acquiring an entirely 
 novel system of thought. The mind has to receive a 
 grammatical training, and to be broken, so to say, to 
 modes of thought and speech unknown to us from our 
 own language. At school we have to learn Grammar at 
 large before we can learn Latin grammar, or rather we 
 learn both together, and therefore have naturally to spend 
 more time on the two classical languages than on those 
 which we study later in life. If we once have learned 
 that the cases which we express by means of articles and 
 prepositions, " the man, of the man, to the man, the 
 man," may be expressed by a change of terminations, 
 " homo, hominis, homini, hominem ;" that the persons 
 of the verb which we express by pronouns, " we love, 
 you love, they love," may be indicated by final, syllables, 
 such as " amamus, amatis, amant ;" we have gained 
 knowledge which will prove useful to us in acquiring 
 other languages, such as Greek, Sanskrit, Kussian, or 
 Persian ; a kind of frame-work, in fact, serviceable for 
 all languages we may have to learn hereafter. It does 
 not take so much time to impress on our memory the 
 mere terminations of the ablative, or the gerund, in 
 Latin, as to learn first what is meant by an ablative 
 or a gerund. Our slow progress in - French, again, is 
 owing, possibly, to the manner in which we are taught ; 
 generally by persons who possess no real knowledge of 
 the language, though they may speak it fluently and cor- 
 rectly. What can be easier than to explain why the 
 masculine possessive pronoun "his" in "his mother," 
 should beconie a feminine in French, " sa mere." And 
 yet the vast majority of governesses stumble on this point 
 as much as a schoolmaster who tries to explain to his boys 
 the construction of the accusative cum infinitivo in Latin, 
 or the singular of the verb after a plural neuter in Greek. 
 And, further, it is mostly in French that we make our 
 
first practical attempt at expressing our thoftghtjl itt A 
 foreign tongue. We have to learn to walk on stilts, and, 
 as in every thing else, " ce n'est que le premier pas 
 qui coute/' But, while we study other languages, we 
 acquire a general aptitude for casting our thoiights into 
 foreign moulds of speech, and the task hecomes easier at 
 every step we make. 
 
 After having travelled long in foreign countries, 
 we readily find our Way wherever we go, and what 
 Machiavelli says of a general who knows one country 
 Well, applies with equal force to a student of languages : 
 " Mediante la cognizione e pratica di quelli siti con 
 facility comprende ogni altro sito, che di nUovo 
 gli sia necessario di speculare ; perche i poggi, le Valli, 
 e' piani, e' fiumi, e' paduli che sono, verbigraisia, in 
 Toscana, hanno con quelli delle altre provincie certa 
 similitudine, tale che dalla cognizione del sito di una 
 provincia, si puo facilraente venire alia Cognizione delle 
 altre." 
 
 How soon do we find ourselves at home in Italian 
 and Spanish if we know Latin and French ! Dutch, 
 again, hardly ofiers any difficulties to one who knows 
 English and German. Very soon we discover that 
 after all no grammar contains much more than para- 
 digms of declension and conjugation; and that, these 
 once mastered, it is possible to go oH, with the help 
 of a dictionary, and to spell out short sentences, and 
 easy books. Everything else is matter Of practice, and 
 partly of talent ; for it is true, that in fipite of every 
 effort, some people find it as impossible to imitate a 
 language as to reproduce a melody. 
 
 There is another fact which every one must have Coinci- 
 noticed in studying foreign languages. In some the t^gg„ ^iffe- 
 grammatical forms which we have to learn by heart »™t lan- 
 differ but slightly, and the words also frequently re- 
 semble those of other dialects. Here is a list of the 
 conjugation of the verb "to sing" in Latin, Spanish, 
 Portuguese, Italian, Wallachian, and French :— 
 
 b2 , 
 
Compara. 
 tive study 
 of Ian- , 
 guages. ' 
 
 LATIN. 
 
 SPANISH. 
 
 POETUQUESB. 
 
 ITALIAN. 
 
 WALLACEIAN. 
 
 FRENCH. 
 
 Canto, I sing 
 
 canto 
 
 canto 
 
 canto 
 
 cantu 
 
 ohante 
 
 Cantas, thousingest 
 
 cantaa 
 
 cantaa 
 
 canti 
 
 canti 
 
 chantes 
 
 Cantat, he sings 
 
 canta 
 
 canta 
 
 canta 
 
 canta 
 
 chante 
 
 Cantamus, we sing 
 
 cantdmos 
 
 cantdmos 
 
 cautiamo 
 
 cautamn 
 
 chantous 
 
 Cantatis, you sing 
 
 cautais 
 
 cantais 
 
 cantate 
 
 cantati 
 
 chantcz 
 
 Cantant, they sing 
 
 cantan] 
 
 cauiao 
 
 cflatano 
 
 canta 
 
 chantent 
 
 We find nearly the same coincidences if we compare 
 English, German, and Dutch : 
 
 I live, Ich lebe, Ik lev. 
 
 Thou livest, Du lebest, Gy levt. 
 
 He lives, Er lebt, Hy levt. 
 
 We live, Wir leben, Wy leven. 
 
 You live, Ihr lebet, Gyl levt. 
 
 They live, Sie leben, Sy leven. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that a knowledge of any one of 
 these languages will materially assist us in learning the 
 others. A German finds less difiiculty in learning 
 English or Dutch, than French or Italian, because many 
 words in English and Dutch remind him at once of 
 the corresponding forms in his own language; and, as 
 we always remember most easily, if we are able to com- 
 bine what we wish to know with what we know already, 
 it follows that we shall advance more quickly in any 
 given language if we are able, by comparison, to con- 
 nect its forms and words with those of other idioms 
 with which we are familiar. And any special study will 
 be fitly preceded by an mvestigation of this relation 
 between all: teaching us to take each language in natural 
 sequence, in place of a confused pursuit of dialects that 
 have little or nothing in common. 
 
 The coincidences between languages by which even 
 the most indifferent linguist must be struck, have been 
 made the subject of careful study, and a new science has 
 sprung up under the name of Comparative Philology 
 in which it has been found possible to arrange nearly 
 
all the languages of the world into classes or families, 
 and to determine, by means of their coincidences, the 
 more or less distant degree of their relationship. Ana- 
 logies have been established between the most remote, 
 and laws have been deduced which regulate the partial 
 changes of words in their passage from one language 
 into another. Now, if it is easier to remember words 
 which are nearly alike, such as filius, son, Italian 
 figlio, French fils, Wallachian fiul, it is of course a 
 still greater aid if we know what changes a Latin word 
 will undergo before it passes into Itulian or Wallachian. 
 To take the same word filius ; we should perhaps 
 hardly recognise it at once in its Spanish garb, hijo. 
 But Comparative Philologists prove it to be a law 
 that- every Latin f at the beginning of words is 
 changed into h. Thus facies, face, is Spanish haz; 
 facere, to do, is hacer ; folium, leaf, is hoja ; forma, form, 
 is horma ; fabulari, to speak, hablar. Hence we know, 
 once for all, that words beginning with h in Spanish 
 may generally be referred to Latin or Italian words, if we 
 substitute f for h.- 
 
 Another general rule of practical use to remember, 
 is, that Latin ct becomes in Italian tt, and in Walla- 
 chian pt or ft. We might, perhaps, guess ourselves that 
 Italian fatto, petto, otto, ootto, are the Latin words factus, 
 pectus, octo, and coctus. But Wallachian doftor for 
 doctor, copt for coctus, cooked ; lapte for lac, milk ; pept 
 for pectus, breast; asteptare for expectare, to expect, 
 will be more easily understood and remembered, if we 
 know that, with very few exceptions, Latin ct becomes 
 \Vallachian pt. 
 
 That 1 may in the course ' of time be corrupted into 
 r, we know in our own language, from the way in 
 which we pronounce " colonel." But while with us this 
 is the exception, it is a rule in Wallachian. In this lan- 
 guage a Latin 1, between two vowels, is changed either 
 into r, or into i, pronounced like the semi- vowel y. 
 This once known, we have no difiiculty in recognizing, 
 poporu (populus), people ; mora (mola), a mill ; firu 
 
6 
 
 (filum), thread ; ceriu (coelum), heaven 5 scark (scala) 
 steps. Or again, fiiiu, for filius, son; muiiere, for mulier, 
 woman ; gaiina, for gallina, hen. 
 
 Another useful rule is the change of qu into p, if 
 followed by a. This tells us at once the meaning of 
 apk, water ; epa, a mare ; patru, four, and so forth. 
 
 Such examples may suffice for the present to show 
 
 what kind of practical assistance yve are likely to derive 
 
 from a comparative study of languages. 
 
 Degrees of The relationship between languages may be either direct 
 
 relationship ^j, lateral, i.e., languages may either stand to one another 
 
 different in the relation of mother and daughter, or of sister and 
 
 languages, gig^ep. Italian is the daughter of Latin and sister to 
 
 Spanish. The relationship becomes more complicated 
 
 if two languages which descend from one common 
 
 parent give rise each to new dialects. Latin, for 
 
 instance, and Sanskrit, are sister-languages : Italian, 
 
 therefore, we might call niece of Sanskrit, and first 
 
 cousin to Hindustani. 
 
 Means of ' Now, in Order to determine the exact relationship ot 
 
 determin- languages we may compare either their dictionaries or 
 
 lationship their grammars. Let us consider each method by itself. If 
 
 of Ian- we had to determine the relationship of English with 
 
 any other dialect of Europe or Asia, and if we trusted 
 
 entirely to a similarity of words, we should find that 
 
 English shares some words in common with Welsh, 
 
 others with German, others with French and Latin. 
 
 The history of England gives a sufiicient explanation of 
 
 this, for we know that the ancient Britons were Celts, 
 
 that they were driven back by the Saxons, a Teutonic 
 
 race ; and that these again were conquered by the 
 
 Normans, who, although originally Northmen, and 
 
 therefore spea,king a Teutonic dialect, had adopted the 
 
 French language before they invaded England. 
 
 It is perfectly intelligible, therefore, that the language 
 now spoken on British soil should be composed, so far as 
 the dictionary goes, of these different elements, Celtic, 
 T«?utonic, and French; but if we were asked whether 
 the present English is a Celtic, Teutonic, or Romanee 
 
language, or whether it be a language mixed up of 
 these three elements, on the evidence of the dictionary 
 alone, we should find it impossible to give a decisive 
 answer. 
 
 The life and soul of a language, thai which constitutes Grammar, 
 its substantial individuality, and distinguishes it from all t^^e only 
 others, is its grammar. Every language is at liberty to denre^o/re- 
 admit into its dictionary large numbers of foreign words, lationsWp 
 to such an extent that they may even acquire a numerical languages. 
 majority* There is, in fact, no language on earth which has 
 not adopted some words from neighbouring tribes or 
 foreign nations. But few nations have admitted into their 
 grammar the terminations of other dialects-. In English 
 we may form whole sentences consisting entirely of 
 either Saxon or Latin words. If we say, " Avarice 
 produces misery," every word is taken from Latin, 
 yet the one letter s, "in praduoe«," suffices to stamp 
 the language in which it forms tlie exponent of the 
 third person singular, as Teutonic, and not Romance. 
 Again, the Turkish language is so entirely overgrown 
 with Persian and Arabic words, that a real Turk from 
 the country understands but little of the idiom of Con- 
 stantinople, the so-called Osmanli; still all its gram- 
 matical elements are purely Tataric. " In a Turkish 
 newspaper," to quote Professor Sohott, in his Essay on 
 the Tatarie Languages, " the host of alien words is far 
 superior in number to the genuine Turks. And yet how 
 peculiar and truly Tataric this wonderful concatenation 
 of sentences and intertwining of words ! A sentence runs 
 on in long periods through several folio columns, like 
 a majestic stream — a true image of the Turkish Empire 
 itself : the governing nation in a minority as compared 
 with the conquered inhabitants, but still, through a long 
 period of time, vindicating its rights with equal terror 
 everywhere. The Turkish terminations and suffixes 
 are like the small vassals, depending on the powerful 
 and high-sounding gerunds ; and these again govern and 
 bold together the larger members of a period, like so 
 many Pashas." Turkish, therefore, is a Tatario kn- 
 
8 
 
 guage, altogether distinct in grammatical character from 
 Persian and Arabic, as English is a German dialect, 
 and neither Celtic nor French. The Anglo-Saxon was 
 planted on the British soil after Celtic had been rooted 
 out ; it grew up (if, for clearness sake, we may be allowed 
 the comparison) like a wild fruit-tree, and the sprigs of 
 the more refined Norman and Latin were grafted on it. 
 But the original sap remained : — the grammar, giving 
 life and vigour to all its words, native or foreign, i^ 
 still pure Saxon, and through it alone we are able to 
 determine, and that with certainty, the relationship be- 
 tween English and any other language in Europe or Asia. 
 When we have to deal with ancient languages, this 
 fact is of great importance. In settling the original rela- 
 tionship of modern languages, we may generally avail 
 ourselves of the records of history, and we should be able 
 to prove, even without consulting dictionary or gram- 
 mar, that the English could not have derived its original 
 stock of words, still less its grammatical forms, from 
 Latin or Hebrew. But in the ancient world we have 
 no such assistance. Neither Greek nor Latin authors can 
 tell us anything about the relationship between these 
 two languages, because the time when they formed them- 
 selves into separate dialects lies many centuries before 
 Homer and before the foundation of Rome. What Latin 
 writers assert on their own language and on its descent 
 from Greek is more apt to mislead than to guide us. 
 They only know the existence of a great similarity 
 between Greek and Latin ; and as in their literature, in 
 their arts, laws, and traditions, they were conscious of 
 having borrowed from the ancient treasures of Greece, 
 they inclined to trace their language also to the same 
 source. And if a language flows necessarily from the same 
 source whence a nation received the first elements of civi- 
 lization, we should be compelled to derive German from 
 Latin, and Russian from German. Facts, however, dis- 
 prove this principle. So far from being derived from 
 Greek, Latin has been demonsti-ated by comparative 
 philology to be more primitive and original than 
 
9 
 
 Greek in many points of its grammar, in ita phonetic 
 system, and in the derivation of words. Latin there- 
 fore could not have been derived from Greek, nor, on the 
 other hand, can Greek be considered as the daughter of 
 Latin, but both stand to one another in the relation 
 of sisters : like- French and Italian, like German and 
 English. 
 
 If in the case of Greek and Latin, history gives no aid 
 in settling their relationship, it does not oppose the ver- 
 dict of Comparative Philology, according to which these 
 two languages are to be treated as sister dialects, But 
 nothing could be more in the teeth of historical tradition 
 than the relationship between the languages of India 
 and that of Italy, now established as firmly as that between 
 French and Italian. Here, as elsewhere, the evidence of 
 languages is indeed irrefragable ; but here, as elsewhere, 
 we must call on the assistance of grammatical compari- 
 sons to make the proof complete, and to silence objections. 
 If Sanskrit agreed with Greek and Latin in words only, 
 we might suppose that these had found their way into 
 Sanskrit through Alexander's expedition, or thuough still 
 earlier migrations, or commercial transactions between 
 the Greeks of Asia-Minor, the Persians, and Indians. It 
 would be difficult to understand how words of daily 
 occurrence, names expressing the simplest relations of a 
 primitive society, should have been imported ready-made 
 from Greece into India: yet we could not deny the 
 physical possibility of the supposition : and there have 
 been, nay there still are, men who believe that the 
 Hindus took such words as matai-, mother, pitar, 
 father, duhitar, daughter, from the Greek fi'qTTjp, Trarijp, 
 6vydTr]p. But no sceptic in linguistic matters could 
 go so far as to deny a natural and ante-historical rela- 
 tionship between languages which agree in their gram- 
 matical terminations to so great an extent as Greek and 
 Sanskrit^ If we say in Sanskrit, 
 
 pitfi(r) dadati matre duhitaram, 
 and in Greek, 
 
 •Trarrip St'Seort firjrpl 6vyaTepa{v), 
 
10 
 
 Resem- 
 blance of 
 the gram- 
 matical 
 outlines of 
 cognate 
 languages. 
 
 Three sys- 
 tems of 
 grammar 
 Semitic, 
 Arian, 
 Turanian. 
 
 a sentence where not only the roots, but the deriva- 
 tive suffixes, the terminations of noun and verb, the 
 construction, nay even the accent, agree, w^e find ade- 
 quate proof, to any one who is capable of appreciating 
 philological arguments, that Greek and Sanskrit are 
 cognate languages, sprung from one common source, like 
 Greek and Latin, like Italian and Spanish. 
 
 It has, therefore, been a rule in Comparative Philology, 
 to determine the connection of languages, principally, 
 if not entirely, by means of granamatical comparisons, 
 and to use verbal coincidences merely as indications 
 which should be tested and confirmed by arguments 
 derived from the grammar. 
 
 Few people are aware how closely the grammars of 
 cognate languages resemble one another, when the 
 peculiar element that made each, in the course of 
 time, an individual language, is abstracted. It has 
 been found possible, simply on grammatical evidence, 
 to determine the relationship of nearly all the lan- 
 guages of the world, ancient and modern; and if we 
 exclude, for the present, the dialects of America and 
 Africa, and the Chinese which is distinguished by the 
 absence of all we are accustomed to call grammar, we 
 shall find that in the whole kingdom of speech there are 
 but three grammatical families to which every known 
 dialect can be referred. These have been named the 
 Semitic, Arian, and Turanian. The general prin- 
 ciples of these three systems of grammar once mastered, 
 we may comprehend the grammatical forms and devices 
 of all the languages of the civilized world. 
 
 These three systems, however, are perfectly distinct, 
 and it is impossible to derive the grammatical forms of 
 the one from those of the other, though we cannot deny 
 that in their radical elements the three families of human 
 speech may have had a common source. If we are 
 surprised at the minuteness with which languages 
 of the same family, though separated by centuries and 
 by continents intervening, have preserved their gram- 
 matical features, our surprise is yet increased when we 
 
11 
 
 find other languages, perhaps less distant geographically 
 or historically, but belonging to, different families, differ- 
 ing completely in the application of their grammatical 
 
 means. 
 
 Two languages can hardly be 'more distant than the 
 ancient Sanskrit, spoken in India about 1000 b.c, and 
 the Lithuanian spoken in Prussia at the- present day. 
 But a Lithuanian peasant, even at the present day, could 
 almost understand a Sanskrit verb, and that one in both 
 languages of the utmost freq^uency. He says : — 
 
 esmi, I am, 
 essi, thou art, 
 esti, he is. 
 
 esmi, we are, 
 esti, you are, 
 (esti, they are.) 
 
 If we compare this with the corresponding forms in 
 Sanskrit, Greek, and Old Slavonic, we shall be surprised 
 at the strength displayed by the grammatical memory of 
 nations. 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 Old Slavonic 
 
 asmi, 
 
 idfii, 
 
 yesmS, 
 
 asi, 
 
 iaai. 
 
 yesi, 
 
 asti. 
 
 iari, 
 
 yes«i 
 
 '?mas. 
 
 , ia/i'sv. 
 
 yesmtj. 
 
 'stha, 
 
 iuTe, 
 
 yeste. 
 
 sauti, 
 
 IvTt, 
 
 sSmtB. 
 
 But on other points also we find that these four lan- 
 guages, Sanskrit, Greek, Lithuanian, and Old Slavonic, do 
 not differ more among themselves than Spanish, French, 
 and Italian, and like these, therefore, they must be con- 
 sidered as standing to one another in the relation of sisters. 
 It is extraordinary that neither Greeks nor Romans should 
 ever have been struck by the similarity of their own 
 language with that of the barbarians. Learned Greeks 
 of Constantinople must have had frequent intercourse 
 with the Goths, particularly at the time when the latter 
 adopted Christianity : — yet neither seems to have been 
 ever struck by coiflcidences, frequent as the following :-~ 
 
n 
 
 Gothic. Greek. 
 
 Bteiga, I mount, enlxio, I mount, 
 
 steigis, thou mountest, OTeix^is, thou mountest, 
 
 steigif , he mounts, artlxa, he mounts, 
 Eteigos, we two mount, 
 
 Eteigats, you two mount, eriixtTov, you two mount, 
 
 Eteigam, we mount, CTtixoniv, we mount, 
 
 steigi-J, you mount, UTiixtTi, you mount, 
 
 steigand, they mount, BTiixovai {aTiixovTi), they mount. 
 
 The Homans again, who since the time of Tacitus 
 regarded the Teutonic tribes evidently with a feeling of 
 fear and respect, never seem to have thought it possible 
 that their own language and that of Herman could have 
 anything in common. And yet, words of such frequent 
 occurrence as auxiliary verbs were identical in Latin and 
 in Gothic. 
 
 LATIN, 
 
 GOTHIC. 
 
 habeo, I have, 
 
 haba. 
 
 habes, thou hast, 
 
 habais. 
 
 habet, he has, 
 
 habai*, 
 
 habemus, we have, 
 
 habam, 
 
 habetis, you have. 
 
 habai*, 
 
 habent, they have. 
 
 habant. 
 
 Pronouns, There are some classes of words which civilized 
 
 and'^arf ' l^'^g'i^g^s retain with almost the same tenacity as their 
 cies, as grammatical forms. These are the pronouns, and 
 determini numerals, and particles. We , can accustom 
 the relation- ourselves to foreign words for most things. We may 
 tllll^'"" ^P®^'^ °^°^^ "fusil," our " sabretash," our " ohapeau"; 
 but the very last words which we should think of borrow- 
 ing from a foreign nation are pronouns, particles, and 
 numerals. Thus, after the Norman conquest, the 
 English language admitted French words largely 
 among its substantives, adjectives, and verbs ; but 
 no single pronoun or numeral. " Trespass'^ was 
 used instead of "sin," "country" instead of "land," 
 " count" instead of " earl." But no one ever went so far 
 as to speak of the "Dix Commandments," or "deux pieces 
 ^e veal." The numerals remained the same, and the 
 
13 
 
 Normans had to learn them from their Saxon subjects 
 and pronounce them as best they might. Again, no 
 Saxon could ever be induced to speak of himself as " je,' 
 or of himself, his wife, and children, as " nous.'^ He 
 might be brought to say I pay and we pay, (from the 
 French "payer,'' and this again from the Latin "pacare," 
 to pacify or satisfy one's creditors) ; but he would not 
 stoop to " Je pay'' and " nous pay," as little as he 
 would use the terminations of French nouns and verbs. 
 Hence the numerals are generally a very safe criterion of 
 an original relationship between languages, and the sub- 
 joined list will show that the difference between the 
 numerals in Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, and Old 
 Slavonic, is not much greater than between the numerals 
 of French, Italian, Spanish, and Wallachian, though we 
 know that these modern Romance dialects have not been 
 separated from their common parent, Latin, for more 
 than a thousand years, while, long before Romulus and 
 Homer, the languages of Greece and Italy were distinct 
 dialects, cut off as completely from the languages of 
 India and Persia as they are at present. 
 
 NUMERALS. 
 
 z^Tia. 
 
 SPAKISH. 
 
 POETOGUESI;. 
 
 IIALIAM. 
 
 WALIAOHIAH. 
 
 xhench. 
 
 1 Unna 
 
 uno 
 
 hum 
 
 lino 
 
 unu 
 
 Utt 
 
 2 Sno 
 
 d03 
 
 .dois 
 
 due 
 
 doi 
 
 deux 
 
 3 Tres 
 
 tres 
 
 tres- 
 
 tr^ 
 
 trei 
 
 trois 
 
 4 Quatuor 
 
 quatro 
 
 quatro 
 
 quattro 
 
 patra 
 
 quatre 
 
 5 Quiuque 
 
 cinco 
 
 cinco 
 
 cinque 
 
 quinqu^ 
 
 cinq 
 
 6 Sex 
 
 sei9 
 
 seis 
 
 sei 
 
 E&e 
 
 six 
 
 7 Septem 
 
 siete 
 
 sete 
 
 • setie 
 
 s^pte 
 
 sept 
 
 8 Ooto 
 
 OCliO 
 
 oito 
 
 otto 
 
 optu 
 
 huit 
 
 9 Novem 
 
 nueve 
 
 nove 
 
 novo 
 
 nove 
 
 neui 
 
 10 Decern 
 
 diez 
 
 dez 
 
 dieci 
 
 deee 
 
 dir 
 
u 
 
 lahw. 
 
 SAHSEBIT. 
 
 FEBSIAN. 
 
 OLD 
 
 SLAVONIC. 
 
 AHGtO-SAXOH, 
 
 WBLSH. 
 
 a Uaiu 
 
 eka 
 
 yek 
 
 yedino 
 
 to 
 
 nu 
 
 Z Bao 
 
 dvau 
 
 dn 
 
 dova 
 
 tvegen 
 
 dau 
 
 3 Trea 
 
 tri 
 
 sa 
 
 tri 
 
 *ri 
 
 tri 
 
 i Quatuor 
 
 fatvar 
 
 iehlii 
 
 ietoiriye 
 
 feover 
 
 pedwar 
 
 5 Quinqus 
 
 pan^an 
 
 pen^ 
 
 painte 
 
 fi£ 
 
 pump 
 
 6 Sex 
 
 Bhasli 
 
 SM 
 
 jeste 
 
 six 
 
 chvech 
 
 7 Septem 
 
 saptan 
 
 heft 
 
 sedms 
 
 seofon 
 
 saith 
 
 8 Octo 
 
 ashman 
 
 hc^t 
 
 odme 
 
 eahta 
 
 wyth 
 
 9 Novem 
 
 navan 
 
 nuh 
 
 devamte 
 
 nlgon 
 
 Jiaw 
 
 10 Decem 
 
 daian 
 
 deb 
 
 desantte 
 
 tyn 
 
 des 
 
 Practical ^7 ^ comparison of these lists we learn two 
 
 results on things : first, that the Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, 
 o/cognate WallacMan, and French numerals are all derived 
 languages, direct from Latin, and not one from the other. 
 No single set of numerals, except the Latin itself, 
 would account for the various corruptions which the 
 numerals of each of the modern dialects exhibit. It 
 would be impossible to derive Wallachian " optu" from 
 Portuguese "oito," or French "huit'^ from Italian "otto," 
 and Spanish "ocho"; but each of these forms can be 
 explained if we take the Latin " octo" as the original type 
 which, in the progress of phonetic corruption, was modi- 
 fied according to general and well-known phonetic rules 
 in each of the modern Latin dialects. Hence, even if we 
 had no knowledge that there ever was such a language as 
 Latin, and that, after the downfal of the Roman Empire, 
 it was broken up in many modern provincial dialects, 
 we should be able to say, upon the evidence of the 
 modern Romance idioms alone, that there had existed a 
 language towards which all these dialects point and con- 
 verge, and from which they must, in common, have 
 descended. The certainty with which Owen, from a 
 few individual bones, re-creates a lost species, furnishes 
 here a parallel to the results of comparative philology, so 
 exact as to be worthy notice. And many similar might 
 
15 
 
 be traced ; for, reversing the historical course of language, 
 unity is the progressive lesson and discovery of science. 
 
 Secondly, from this comparison we learn that in 
 the andent languages also, as Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, 
 Slavonic, Anglo-Saxon, and Welsh, it is impossible to 
 derive the numerals of the one from those of the other. 
 Even the Sanskrit numerals are not preserved in a state 
 sufficiently primitive to allow us the supposition that 
 from them those of the other ancient languages were 
 derived, as the Romance from Latin, or the English 
 from Anglo-Saxon. We are forced, on the contrary, 
 to admit the prior existence of a language from which 
 these ancient dialects branched off, as in later times 
 the Romance dialects from Latin ; although history 
 has not preserved even the name of this primitive 
 form of speech, still less its source or its original 
 abode. We cannot derive Latin from Greek, nor 
 Greek from Sanskrit, for this simple reason, that on 
 several points Latin is more primitive than Greek, 
 and Greek more primitive than Sanskrit, The Latin 
 " sex," for instance, has preserved the original s, which 
 in Greek has been reduced to a spiritus asper ; it would 
 be impossible, therefore, to take the Latin sex as a 
 corruption of ef . In other cases, however, Greek has 
 preserved a more original form than even Sanskrit. For 
 if the original form of ten was dak, the « has been 
 preserved in Greek Se/ea, while in Sanskrit it has been 
 softened down to the sibilant s in da^an. 
 
 It is by indications of this kind that the exact rela- 
 tions of cognate languages must be determined, and 
 a distinction established between lineal and lateral 
 descent. We can draw from this some practical conclu- 
 sions. Though we may compare languages which 
 stand to one another in the, relation of sisters, such as 
 Greek and Latin, French and Italian, Russian and 
 Bulgarian, we should never try to explain the forina 
 and words on the Que by derivation from the other. We 
 must not explain otto as a corrruption of h-uit, or vice 
 versa, but derive each, according to rulea affecting the 
 
16 
 
 peculiar phonetic systems of French and Italian, from 
 their common source, the Latin " octo." If we attempted 
 to deduce rules respecting the change of words between 
 secondary languages, such as French and Italian, we 
 could do so only on the supposition that both dialects 
 proceeded pari passu in their phonetic alteration, which 
 may happen in isolated cases, but never as a rule. 
 
 It follows again, from what has been stated before, 
 that all grammatical forms, in secondary or derivative 
 languages, can be explained arid understood in their most 
 original power and meaning, if we know the primary 
 language from which they are derived. As grammatical 
 forms are not imported, like words, ready made, from 
 one language into another, no terminations for noun or 
 verb can exist in Italian and Wallachian, which, after 
 a careful analysis, are not reducible to Latin elements, 
 so that in Latin we have the key to Spanish, Portuguese, 
 French, Italian, and Wallachian ; as in Sanskrit we have 
 the key to Hindustani, Bengali, Mahratti, Guzerati, 
 Asamese, Kashmirian, Khasiya, and all dialects de- 
 scended from Sanskrit. An oflScer who goes out to 
 India with a knowledge of Sanskrit knows more of 
 Hindustani than a cadet who has learned Hindustani in 
 this country, but is ignorant of Sanskrit. Many rules 
 in Hindustani grammar which seem irrational, and are 
 therefore difficult to remember, become clear and intel- 
 ligible if we know what gave rise to them ia Sanskrit. 
 In the same manner any one who desires to learn tho 
 modern Romance languages, Italian, Spanish, and French, 
 will find that he actually has to spend less time if he 
 learns Latin first, than if he had studied each of these 
 modern dialects separately, and without this pre-know- 
 ledge of their common parent. 
 Meaning Besides these practical advantages, consequent on 
 
 restored' by ^ Comparative study of languages, few men, per- 
 compara- haps, wiU be insensible to the pleasure we derive 
 tw^ pKilo- ^Yien able to watch, in the course of our studies, the 
 gradual growth of a language. The history of words is 
 the reflection of the history of the human mind, and 
 
17 
 
 many expressions which we use in a merely conventional 
 sense are firll of historical recollections if we can but 
 trace them back to their original form and meaning. 
 When we speak of pagans, we hardly remember that 
 paganus was originally the same as peasant, and that 
 it took the sense of heathen during times when the great 
 cities of the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, while 
 the villagers, poor and uninstructed, clung fast to their 
 ancient faith and customs. Still less do we feel 
 that, speaking 'of companions, we call them, in fact, 
 co-pagans; yet companion (the French compagnon), 
 is a corruption of com-paganus, one who belongs to 
 the same pagus or village, — a neighbour where neigh- 
 bours are scanty. Savage- again is a name originally 
 apphed to people who could not be brought to live in 
 towns or villages, but roamed wild in forests : hence 
 called silvatics, Wallachian silbatio, Italian selvag- 
 gio and salvaggio, French sauvage. Villain, 
 originally the name of a villager (villaneus), received its 
 present meaning under the influence of mediseval pre- 
 judices. Infantry is derived from infans, a child not 
 yet able to speak. Infans afterwards took the sense of 
 boy or servant ; and, as during the middle ages servants 
 went a-foot, while the knights went to battle on horse- 
 back, infanteria became the name of foot , soldiers. 
 Whether these foot soldiers marched before or behind 
 their lieges is not clear. Still it would seem that those 
 who had to clear the way, and to look out for the enemy, 
 were men on foot, for they were called pioneers, which 
 is again derived from the French pion, the Italian 
 pedone: — our footpad of the days of highwayinse- 
 curity. 
 
 Cavalry again is a name which has risen in 
 dignity, for though caballus was probably applied 
 rather to a cart-horse than to a charger, cabal- 
 larius soon became in the Middle Ages the title 
 not only of a horseman, but of a chevalier. Artil- 
 lery did not derive its name from its art : ars, like 
 machina, the Greek /«.i?%av)7, was used in the sense 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 of an engine or engines of war ; and hence the name of 
 artillery Nor are the French Ingenieurs called so 
 from their ingenuity, but because ingenium also was 
 employed in the sense of an engine ;'and hence inge- 
 niarius, an engineer. Sappers and miners derive 
 their names from the work they have to do. 
 Zappa in Italian means an axe: mina a mme ; 
 whence minerals. Hence the expression that the 
 foundations of an empire are undermined or sapped. 
 Cannon would seem the most harmless instrument 
 if we took its own word for it. It is derived from 
 canna, a cane, a hollow tube; but all that a thin 
 cane and a twenty-pounder have now in common is 
 that both answer the purpose of inflicting deserved 
 chastisement. That soldier and the French sou, a 
 halfpenny, should be derived from the same word may 
 appear startling ; still every step can be traced by which 
 these two words came to their present meaning. Solidus 
 (sc. nummus) was originally at Rome the name of a 
 solid gold coin, but it afterwards took the sense of coin 
 in general, and soldo was used in Italian instead of pay. 
 Hence soldare to pay, and soldato, a soldier, a man 
 who receives pay — a name which might well have been 
 formed in Italy during the Middle Ages, where war was 
 carried on entirely by means of mercenary troops. The 
 same word soldo, coin and pay, was again abbreviated 
 into sol in Proven9al; and as the French frequently 
 change ol into ou (as le col, Lat. collum, and le cou, 
 neck or a collar), sol was degraded to sou, no longer 
 a solid gold coin as at Rome, but the smallest copper 
 Coin at Paris. 
 
 Musket, French mousquct, Italian moschetto, 
 was a word used long before the invention of fire-arms. 
 It was the name of a sparrow-hawk, a bird serving the 
 same purpose then which muskets did in later times. 
 This hawk was probably called muscatus from its 
 sprinkled plumage, mouchete meaning spotted, from 
 mouche, musca, a fly, a spot. Another species of 
 hawk being called tertiolus, another kind of fire-arm, a 
 
19 
 
 small pistol, was called in Italian terceruolo, in €rerman 
 terzerol. 
 
 The corporal, unconnected with corporal punish- 
 ment, should be called caporal or caporale, as in 
 French and Italian. The Italian caporale is derived 
 from capo (caput), the chef or chief of the regiment. 
 From the same source comes captain, Italian capi- 
 tano ; and we have it under two forms, captain and 
 chieftain being the same word. 
 
 A general was so called from being the general 
 commander, and having the general or highest orders to 
 give in battle. A colonel had to command one column 
 of soldiers. A lieutenant was the locum tenens of 
 a superior officer, and in Italian he is simply called 
 il tenente. Sergeant is the corruption of servant, 
 the V being interchangeable with ge, as in William and 
 Guillaume. 
 
 It is known that the French language, though 
 derived exclusively from Latin in its grammar, has a 
 dictionary mixed considerably with German words. 
 The Franks, who learned to speak a Romance language, 
 retained many of their former Frankish expressions, 
 as the Normans retained not a few Norman words 
 in England after they had adopted the Saxon speech. 
 Many of these originally German, but afterwards Frenchi- 
 fied words, were re-imported into England by means of 
 the Norman Conquest; and as English was originally 
 a German dialect, it happened frequently that the same 
 word which the English language possessed in a pure 
 German form, was again introduced under a Norman 
 disguise. Thus brevet is the English brief; the 
 former coming through a Norman, the latter through a 
 German channel, both derived from the Latin " breve," 
 an abstract, a short note. Guardian is warden; the 
 guards are war4s; forage is derived from fodder, 
 the Gothic fodr; from which Italian fodero, French 
 feurre and fourrage, and then again the English 
 forage. Marshal, now the highest ofiicer in an army, 
 was no doubt taken from the French marechal. But 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 the French took this word from German, where in the 
 old dialect marah-scalc meant a farrier, from marah 
 (a mare) and scale (servant). 
 
 Every one of these words has a long tale to tell, if we 
 had time here to listen to it. How they wandered from 
 one country to another; how they changed in form 
 and meaning, according to the times in which they lived 
 and grew up ; how they withered and were forgotten, 
 and then sprang again into existence ; how they were 
 misunderstood and harshly treated ; how sometimes thdy 
 rose to high honours, because no one knew their humble 
 birth, and sometimes were degraded in spite of noble 
 descent — all this they are willing to tell, but we must 
 leave their revelations and confessions for more peaceful 
 times. 
 The mean- Less interesting at first sight, but more important for 
 grammati- determining the exact degree of relationship between 
 cal forms languages, and for comprehending their gradual growth 
 compara- ^ ^^^ ramifications, is the comparison of grammatical 
 tive forms. We shall only take one well-known instance. 
 
 philology, rpj^g Italian Future cantero, I shall sing, is evidently 
 not taken from Latin: nor could the French je 
 chanter a i, the Spanish can tare, the Portuguese can- 
 tarei, be derived from the Latin cantabo. There is, 
 however, an old Italian form canter-aggio, I shall sing; 
 the termination of which (aggio) is known as a vulgar 
 form of the verb lo ho, I have. That the auxiliary verb 
 could be used for the formation of the Future, we learn 
 from the Sardinian, where appu, I have, is put before 
 the verb to form the same tense; appu essi, has essi, 
 hat essi, I shall, thou wilt, he will be. It becomes, 
 therefore, probable that cantero also was originally 
 cantar ho, I have to sing, I shall sing; and that the 
 Spanish cantare, the Portuguese cantarei, as well as 
 the French je chant erai, were meant to express the 
 sameasj'ai a chanter, I have to -sing. The original 
 Latin Future was lost probably because, with the corrupt 
 pronunciation of the later Latin, it was not easy to dis- 
 tinguish between the Imperfect cantabam and the 
 
2] 
 
 Future cantabo, and hence a new periphrastic form 
 took its place. The decisive proof of the correctness 
 of this view we receive from the Provencal language, 
 which, as the eldest sister of the Romance family, throws 
 frequently considerable light on the early history of the 
 other dialects. In Proven9al the auxiliary verb " to 
 have" is at times separated from the infinitive. We 
 find dir vos ai instead of je vous dir-ai ; dir vos 
 em instead of nous vous dir-ons, expressions which 
 leave no doubt as to the origin of all the Romance 
 Futures. 
 
 That these linguistic discoveries can be turned to Practical 
 practical use is clear. When we know, for instance, that ^f L^^f^ 
 the last portion of the Future is an abbreviation of the matical 
 verb " to have ; " we know also that the terminations of <"""?"'" 
 
 ' ^ sons, 
 
 the Future in all Romance dialects must be and are 
 . exactly the same as those of the Present of the auxiliary 
 verb "habere." 
 
 
 
 FRENCH. 
 
 
 j'ai, 
 
 je chanter-ai 
 
 nous avons 
 
 nous cbauter-ons. 
 
 tu as, 
 
 tu chanter-as 
 
 vous avez 
 
 vous chanter-ez. 
 
 ila. 
 
 il chanter-a 
 
 lis ont 
 
 ITALIAN. 
 
 ils chanter-ont. 
 
 lo ho, 
 
 lo canter-d 
 
 noi abbiamo 
 
 noi canter-emo. 
 
 tu hai, 
 
 tu canter-ai 
 
 voi avete 
 
 voi canter-ete. 
 
 egli ha, 
 
 egli canter-a eglino hannc 
 
 1 eglino canter-anno. 
 
 
 
 SPANISH. 
 
 
 Yohe, 
 
 Yo cantar-e 
 
 nosotros hemos 
 
 nosotros cantar-emos. 
 
 ta has, 
 
 tu cantai'-as 
 
 vosotros habeis 
 
 vosotros cantar-eis. 
 
 ^Iha, 
 
 il can tar- a 
 
 ellos hau 
 
 ellos cantar-an. 
 
 As Wallachian was separated from Latin before the 
 time when this new formation of the Future became 
 fixed, we find that it has indeed, like its sisters, been 
 unable to preserve the Latin Future in bo, but has 
 replaced it in a different manner by using the auxiliary 
 verb I will, instead of " I have to," or " I shall." The 
 Wallachian Future is, Jo voiu cantd, tu vei canta, el va 
 canta, noi vomu, voiveti, eli voru canta. 
 
22 
 
 Particles. Words generally the most difficult to understand in 
 
 their grammatical formation are particles, conjunctions, 
 and adverbs. As they are used in almost every sen- 
 tence they have generally suffered most from phonetic 
 corruption. They are difiicult to remember in a new 
 language, because they seem to have no meaning in them- 
 selves, but resemble mere sounds, -with a conventional 
 sense attached to them. Here, again, comparative 
 philology offers practical aid, disclosing the ingenious, 
 but frequently strange and startling, manner in which 
 these words have been formed. We thus learn to 
 take an interest in them, and remember them with 
 greater facility. This applies both to ancient and 
 modern languages ; only that the ancient particles are 
 more difficult to decipher, because they are remnants 
 of a state of language which we know only by means of 
 induction. It could be shown that the Latin tunc is 
 an old accusative of a demonstrative pronoun, and 
 originally the same as the English then, taken in a 
 temporal sense. But granting this, we find that only in 
 Wallachian has this ancient adverb been preserved, and 
 even there a preposition has been added, to make its 
 meaning more apparent. The Wallachian atunci would 
 be ad tuncce in Latin, while the old Spanish estonze 
 points to Latin extuncce. But in French and Itatlian 
 an entirely new word has been introduced, to express 
 with greater significance the meaning of then. This 
 is the Italian allora, the French alors, both of which 
 pre-suppose the Latin ad illam horam, at that hour. 
 The same word hora may be recognized in the Spanish 
 esora, ipsa hora, at that very hour, and in the the 
 French and Italian encore and encora, i. e., hanc 
 horam, at this hour. The French desormais, hence- 
 forth, took this meaning, because it is really the Latin 
 de ipsa hora magis, from this hour, while the corre- 
 sponding Spanish, de hoy mas is an abreviation and 
 corruption of de hodie magis, from to-day. In this 
 manner words, the most formal, and as it were, imma- 
 terial, take again body and soul, and impress themselves 
 
23 
 
 moro firmly on our memory. They re-assume the 
 character of such particles as " notwithstanding,' " how- 
 ever/' " because," in English, or conciosiacosache 
 (because), ndndimeno (nevertheless), in Italian, where 
 the original meaning is not yet obscured, and the com- 
 ponent parts are still visible. 
 
 A comparison of these words is useful again, for 
 determining the genealogy of dialects, because they dis- 
 close the resources from which modern dialects recruited 
 their dictionary. Words of this compound nature are 
 seldom transferred from one language into another : 
 they may be used, therefore, with almost as great advan- 
 tage as pronouns and numerals, to determine the historical 
 ramifications of the different families of speech. 
 
 After having as rapidly as possible explained the ciassifica- 
 ehief means by which the original relationship of Ian- ''°" °^ 
 
 , , .1 1 1 ■ n ^ languages. 
 
 guages may be deternimed, and even tile points hxed at 
 which certain dialects branched ofF from their common 
 stem, we shall now proceed to give the general results 
 thathUve been obtained by these philological researches; 
 and in setting forth the outlines of a classification 
 for the principal languages of Asia and Europe, we 
 shall endeavour to show what place each of the dialects, 
 now scattered along the Danube, the Black and Caspian 
 Seas, and the Caucasus, ought to occupy in this general 
 scheme. 
 
 Languages in general may be divided into three 
 families: the Semitic, the Arian, and the Turanian. 
 
 The Semitic nations appeal- first on the stage of Semitic 
 history, and their languages may be examined first : '*™'y- 
 though being of less importance for our more immediate 
 purposes, they need not be described with the same 
 completeness as the Arian and Turanian dialects. 
 
 The Semitic family has hitherto been divided into Aramaic, 
 three branches, the Aramaic, the Hebrew, and the ^^'^™'^' 
 Arabic. The Arabic, exhibiting the most developed, 
 and at the same time, the most primitive type of the 
 Semitic system of grammar, was taken as the basis, from 
 
24. 
 
 which one branch of dialects spread towards the novth, 
 occupyinf; the countries between the Mediterranean, 
 Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia, while a second 
 branch took a southerly direction, and struck roots on 
 African soiL 
 
 But besides the Hebrews, the Phceuiciaus, Carthagi- 
 nians, Syrians, and Arabs, it will be necessary to com- 
 prehend within the same family, the Babylonians and 
 Assyrians on one side, and the Egyptians, together with 
 several African tribes, on the other. Rawlinson's dis- 
 coveries in Babylonia and Assyria leave no doubt as-io 
 the Semitic characters of the idiom engraved on the 
 bricks of Nebuchadnezzar; and Champollion and Bunsen's 
 researches have fairly established the Semitic origin of 
 the language of the hieroglyphics. Yet it will be 
 possible to retain the tripartite division of the lan- 
 guage of Shem, as stated above, because Babylonian 
 and Egyptian, though clearly marked with a Semitic 
 stamp, represent two scions of the Semitic stem which 
 branched off at a period of history so early, or rather so 
 long before the beginning of all history, that they may be 
 considered as independent colonies rather than as con- 
 stituent pai'ts of the Kingdom of Shem. The same 
 applies to Semitic tribes in the north of Africa, the 
 number and extent of which is almost dailyincreased by 
 the researches of African travellers and missionaries. 
 Babylonian The Babylonian and Assyrian inscriptions are likely 
 riau ^^*^' to throw much light on the early history of languages, 
 bscHuse an ancient literature entombed for many centu- 
 ries, is tLsre rising again in all its fulness, and must 
 discloid, if properly deciphered, the exact image of 
 their ancient dialects, fixed by contemporaneous evidence. 
 There are not only names of kings and dates of battles, 
 but, according to Rawlinson, the debris of a royal 
 library. " On the clay tablets," he writes in April 1853, 
 " which we have found at Nineveh, and which are now to 
 be counted by thousands, there are explanatory treatises 
 on almost every subject under the sun ; the art of writing, 
 grammars and dictionaries, notation, weights and mea- 
 
25 
 
 sures, divisions of time, chronology, astronomy, geography, 
 history, mythology, geology, botanj% &c. In faot, we 
 have now at our disposal a perfect cyclopaedia of Assy- 
 rian science, and shall probably be able to trace all Greek 
 knowledge to its source." This promises, indeed, a rich 
 harvest for the linguist and the historian, but as yet all 
 that can be said with confidence is that the language of 
 the ancient Babylonian, and the later Assyrian king- 
 doms, bears a greater resemblance in its words and some 
 of its grammatical forms to the Semitic than to the 
 Arian or Turanian types. 
 
 The same may be said of the ancient Egyptian and Egyptian, 
 its later representative, the Coptic. Both lean in their 
 grammatical systems towards the Semitic, but they are 
 sufficiently distinct, historically and grammatically, to 
 constitute a separate branch, the Chamitio. After 
 the l7th century, the Coptic became a dead language. 
 At present the Copts in Egypt are reckoned only as a 
 sixteenth part of the population in the valley of the Nile, 
 the rest being made up of Arabs established there since 
 the conquest of Omar. Coptic colonies are mentioned 
 near the frontiers of Tunis and Tripoli, on the mountains 
 Mathmathah and Nawayl, and in the interior of Africa, 
 in the province of Ghiiber, in the midst of the area now 
 occupied by the Tuarik dialects. 
 
 A third lateral branch of the Semitic stem, though Berber 
 more closely connected with it than the two former, are ^'*'^'''^' 
 the Berber dialects, spoken in many varieties all over the 
 northern coast of Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic 
 Ocean ; in fact, the speech of the people in Marooco, 
 Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Fez, wherever it has not been 
 supplanted by the language of the conquering Arabs. 
 The Semitic character of these widely-scattered dialects 
 was proved by Francis Newman ; and the Haussa also 
 is now considered as Semitic. Much light on the rami- 
 fication of this Semitic family in the north-west of 
 Africa may be expe(fted from Richardson's expedition, or 
 rather from Dr. Barth, its only survivor, now at 
 Timbuktu. How far the original area of this half- 
 
26 
 
 Semitic stratum of language in Africa may have to be 
 extended, it is impossible to say : but traces of Semitic 
 grammar have already been discovered in the Galla 
 language on the north-eastern coast of Africa. If we 
 treat these three branches, the Egyptian, Babylonian, 
 and Berber, as ccfgnate descendants of Shem, we may still 
 distinguish them from his three agnate descendants: 
 the Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic. 
 Aramaic. The Aramaic occupies the north, including Syria, 
 
 Mesopotamia, and part of Babylonia. It is divided into 
 two dialects, the Syriao and Chaldaic. It was re- 
 duced by Macedonian and Greek con4uests, atld after a 
 revival in the 4th and 6th centuries, nearly absorbed 
 by the language of the Islam. It still lives among 
 some tribes near Damaskus, and in Kurdistan among 
 the Nestorians or so-called Chaldeans. 
 Hebrew. The Hebrew is the language of Palestine, vchere it 
 
 was spoken from the days of Moses to tbe times of 
 Nehemiah and the Maccabees. The language of the 
 Phoenicians and Carthaginians belongs to the same 
 branch. Iii the progress of history, the Hebrew was 
 first encroached upon by Aramaic dialects, and at last 
 swept away by Arabic, which since the conquest of 
 Palestine and Syria in the year 636, has monopolised 
 nearly the whole area formerly occupied by Aramaic and 
 Hebrew dialects. 
 Arabic. The original seat of this last and most powerful 
 
 branch of the Semitic family, the Arabic, was the 
 Arabian peninsula. Here it is fetill spoken by a compact 
 mass of aboriginal inhabitants, and the ancient inscrip- 
 tions (Himyaritic) attest there its early presence. In 
 ancient times it sent one colony into Africa, where, south 
 of Egypt and Nubia, on the coast opposite Yemen, an 
 ancient Semitic dialect has maintained itself up to the 
 present daj'. This is the Ethiopic or Abissinian 
 language, or, as it is called by the people themselves, 
 the Gees language. No longer spoken in its purity by 
 the people of Habesh, it is still 4)reserved in their sacred 
 writings, translations of the Bible and similar works. The 
 
27 
 
 modern language of Habesh is Amharlc, in which 
 the purity of the Semitic idiom has suffered from mixture 
 with African elements. 
 
 The great conquests of the Arabic language over 
 Asia, Africa, and Europe, as the language of the Khalifs 
 and the Koran, are matters of historical notoriety, and 
 need not be entered into at present. Nor is it necessary 
 for our purpose to give a detailed account of the gram- 
 matical characteristics of the Semitic family. The 
 English army will hardly come in contact with Semitic 
 dialects, except on its outward passage at Malta, M'here 
 a corrupt Arabic dialect is spoken, greatly mixed with 
 Italian. It will not have to fight in countries where the 
 inhabitants speak a Semitic dialect, though it may pos- 
 sibly have to charge side by side with Egyptians who 
 speak Arabic. As to the 10,000 Zouaves whom the 
 French promised to send to the seat of war, they will 
 probably turn out Frenchmen Under an Oriental disguise. 
 The real Zouaves belong to the Berber branchy for in 
 Algiers the Berbers are called Shawi, a word which 
 means Nomads, and has been corrupted in Tunis into 
 Suav, French Zouave. 
 
 There is one characteristic feature which may be character- 
 mentioned, as it suffices to distinguish a properly Semitic istic Fea- 
 from an Arian or Turanian language. Every root in |"1^;t°g ^ 
 Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic, must comprise three Family. 
 letters, while the Arian and Turanian roots consist of 
 one or two, seldom of three. Numerous words are 
 derived from the roots simply by changing the vovl^els, 
 and leaving the consonantal skeleton as much as possible 
 intact. Semitic languages' efijoy great liberty in the 
 formation of new words, but they are confined within 
 narrow limits with regard to their position, and 
 a free syntaiCtical arrangement of sentences is hardly 
 known even to the most advanded members of this 
 family. 
 
 The close corinection and common descent of the 
 Semitic languages is further confirmed by the radical 
 or material elements shared by all in common, and 
 
28 
 
 differing sufficiently from the roots and words of the 
 other families to justify the philologist and historian in 
 treating the Semitic as a distinct variety of the language 
 of mankind. Although comparisons have been instituted 
 between the roots of Semitic and Arian languages, still 
 these are of far too general a character to allow us to 
 suppose that the Arian were derived from the Semitic, 
 or the Semitic from the Arian languages. Even the most 
 distant members of the Arian family are in reality but 
 modifications of the same language, while, after all 
 attempts to draw the roots of Arian and Semitic lan- 
 guages more closely together, we cannot say more than 
 that in their roots both have preserved faint traces which 
 point towards a common centre, but which it is impossi- 
 ble to follow further in their converging direction by 
 historical evidence, or even by inductive reasoning. 
 Arian The second family of languages is the Arian, or, as 
 
 family. it used to be Called, the Indo-European. The latter 
 name indicates the geographical extent of this family 
 from India to Europe, the former recalls its historical 
 recollections, Arya being the most ancient name by 
 which the ancestors of this family called themselves.* 
 
 In the later Sanskrit literature, arya means " of a good family," 
 " venerable," " a Lord ; " but it is no longer used as a national name, 
 except as applied to tiie holy land of the Brahmans, which is still called 
 Arya-avarta, the abode of the Aryas. In the Veda, however, Arya 
 occurs very frequently as a name of honour reserved to the higher classes, 
 in opposition to the Dasyus, their enemies. For instance, Rigveda 
 1, 54, 8 : "Know thou the Aryas, O Indra, and they who are Dasyus; 
 punish the lawless and deliver them unto thy servant I Be thou the 
 mighty helper of the worshipper, and I shall praise all these thy deeds at 
 the festivals." And again, 1, 103, 3 : "Bearing the thunderbolt and 
 trustmg m his strength, he strode about rending in pieces the cities of the 
 slaves. Thunderer, thou art wise; hurl thy shaft against the Dasyu ; let 
 the power of the Aryas grow into glory." 
 
 In the later dogmatical literature of the Vedic age, the name of Arya 
 IS distinctly appropriated to the three first castes of the Brahmanic 
 society. Thus we read in the ^atapatha-brdhmaxa : "Aryas are only 
 the Brahmans, Kshatnyas, and Vai^yas, for they are admitted to the 
 sacrifices 1 hey shall not speak with eve,7body, for the Gods did not 
 speak with everybody, but only with the Brahman, the Kshatriya, and 
 
■29 
 
 That the Sanskrit, the ancient language of India, the 
 very existence of which was unknown to Greeks and 
 Romans before Alexander, and the sound of which had 
 never reached a European ear till the close of the 
 last century, that this language should be a scion of the 
 same stem, whose branches overshadow the civilized 
 world of Europe, no one would have ventured to affirm 
 before the rise of Comparative Philology. It was the 
 generally received opinion that if Greek, Latin, and 
 German came from the East, they must be derived from 
 Hebrew — an opinion for which at the present day 
 not a single advocate could be found, while formerly, to 
 disbelieve it would have been tantamount to heresy. 
 No authority could have been strong enough to persuade 
 the Grecian army that their gods and their hero- 
 ancestors were the same as those of King Porus, or to 
 convince the English soldier that the same blood was 
 
 the VaUya. If they should fall into a conversation with a (Sudra, let 
 them say to another man, 'tell this jSiidlra so.' This is the law for an 
 initiated man." 
 
 But while this old name, " Arya," fell into oblivion amongst the 
 Hindus, it was faithfully preserved by the Medians and Persians. In the 
 Zendavesta, the first-created and holy land is called Airyanem vae^o, 
 "the source of the Arians," and this name was in later times transferred 
 to Media, a country too far west to be mentioned in the Zendavesta. 
 Herodotus was told in his Oriental travels, that the Medians originally 
 called themselves "Apioi, and Hellanicus gives Aria as a synonyme of 
 Persia. And now that we can read, thanks to the wonderful discoveries 
 of Kawlinson, Burnouf, and Lassen, th'e same records from which Hero- 
 dotus derived his information, we find Darius calling himself, in the 
 Cuneiform inscriptions, "a Persian, the son of a Persian, an Arian, and 
 ofArian descent." And when, after centuries of foreign invasions and 
 occupation, the Persian Empire rose again to historical importance under 
 the Sassanian sway, we find their kings also calling themselves in the 
 Inscriptions deciphered by De Sacy, "Kings of the Arian and un- Arian 
 races." This is the origin of the modern name of Iran. Again, in the 
 Mountains of the Caucasus, we find, an Arian race, the Os, calling them- 
 selves Iron; Stephanus gives 'Apia as a synonyme of Thrace, and a 
 tribe of Arii was known to Tacitus in the forests of Germany. Here, 
 then, we have the faint echoes of a name which once sounded through the 
 vidleys of the Himalaya ; and it seems but natural that Comparative Philo- 
 logy, which first succeeded in tracing the common origin of all the nations 
 enumerated before, should have selected this old, and venerable title, for 
 their common appellation. — Edinburgh Review, October, 1851. 
 
so 
 
 running in his veins, as in the veins of the dark Beii- 
 galese. And yet there is not an English jury now- 
 a-days, which, after examining the hoary documents of 
 language, would reject the claim of a common descent 
 and a legitimate relationship between Hindu, Greek, 
 and Teuton. Many words still live in India and in 
 England that have witnessed the first separation of 
 the northern and southern Arians, and these are wit- 
 nesses not to be shaken by any cross-examination. The 
 terms for God, for house, for father, mother, son, 
 daughter, for dog and cow, for heart and tears, for axe 
 and tree, identical in all the Indo-European idioms, are 
 like the watch-words of an army. We challenge the 
 seeming stranger, and whether he answer with the lips 
 of a Greek, a German, or an Indian, we recognize him 
 as one of ourselves. Though the historian may shake 
 his head, though the physiologist may doubt, and the 
 poet scorn the idea, all must yield before the facts fur- 
 nished by language. There was a time when the 
 ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Slaves, the 
 Greeks and Italians, the Persians and Hindus, were- 
 living together beneath the same roof, separate from the 
 ancestors of the Semitic and Turanian races. 
 Sanskrit in '^^^ ^^^ branch of this family belongs to India. It 
 India. is represented in ancient times by the Sanskrit, the 
 language of the Vedas, or the sacred writings of the 
 Brahmans. Although this language bears the. most ^ 
 primitive type of the Arian family, still it is impos- 
 sible to consider the Greek, Latin, and German as 
 derived from Sanskrit in the same manner as the 
 Romance dialects are from Latin. All we can say i.s, 
 that Sanskrit is the eldest sister, and that therefore it 
 can, on some points of grammar, reveal to us, as it were, 
 the earliest impressions of the childhood of the Arian 
 family. It stands to the other languages as Proven- 
 9al to French and Italian : — a relation which does not 
 exclude the possibility that occasionally the younger 
 sisters may have preserved their original features more 
 distinctly than Sanskrit or Provenfal. 
 
SI 
 
 Besides the ancient Sanskrit of the Veda we can trace 
 the Indian language through several later periods of its 
 growth. In the Vaidik literature itself we can diistin- 
 guish at least three periods, distinct in thought and 
 style; and we may safely place the time when the 
 Sanskrit of the hymns of the Veda was the spoken, and 
 not as yet the sacred idiom of India, about 1,500 b.c. In 
 the sixth century b.c, at the first rise of Buddhism, the 
 Protestanism of ancient India, the spoken dialects were 
 no longer Sanskrit, but languages standing to it in the 
 same relation as Italian to Latin. 
 
 These dialects are called by a general name, Prakrit, prakrit, 
 If Pali, which has since become in Ceylon the sacred Pali, and 
 language of the Buddhists, was the popular idiom in 
 which Buddha preached to the people, it must be referred 
 to this class of languages ; and the public inscriptions 
 of the time of Asoka, i.e., in the third century b.c, 
 clearly exhibit the same character, that of derived or 
 secondary dialects, if compared with the more primitive 
 Sanskrit. Yet Sanskrit continued for a long time after 
 tlie literary and sacred language of India; and in 
 the present day the Brahmans are able to write and to 
 speak it ' with the same facility as monks in the 
 middle ages wrote and spoke Latin. We have the most 
 elaborate Sanskrit grammars of the fourth century b.c, 
 and the two great epic poems, the Mahabharata and 
 Ramayawa, and the so-called Laws of Manu, date pro- 
 bably in their present form from the same time. Another 
 period of Sanskrit literature is generally considered as con- 
 temporaneous with the Augustan age of Rome, but the 
 language in which the poems of Kalidasa, the chief poet 
 of that time, are written, is of so artificial a structure, 
 that it is impossible to believe this to have been at any 
 time the spoken language of India. We find, in fact, 
 that the same Kalid^s, when he represents scenes from 
 real life, as in his plays, is obliged to let his heroines and 
 inferior characters speak in the soft and melodious 
 Prakrit idioms, while he reserves the more dignified 
 and learned Sanskrit for Kings and Brahmans. A 
 
similar mixture of Latin and modern dialects is found 
 in soriie of tbe plays of the middle ages. After Kali- 
 dasa' there have been several revivals of Sanskrit litera- 
 ture at the courts of different princes, and up to our own 
 times Sanskrit is read and vs'ritten by the learned. 
 But, since the days of Pamini, in the fourth cen- 
 tury, B.C., it shows no longer signs of either growth or 
 decay. It has ceased to live, and though it exists still 
 like a mummy dressed in its own classical robes, Jts vital 
 powers are gone. Sanskrit now lives only in its offspring ; 
 the numerous spoken dialects of India, Hindustani, 
 Mahratti, Bengali, Guzerati, Singhalese, &c., all pre- 
 serving, in the system of their grammar, the living 
 traces of their common parent. 
 Biah-posh Whether the Siah-posh dialect, spoken by the 
 
 and Gipsy- j^^firs in the north-eastern parts of the Hindukush, has 
 preserved a closer similarity to Sanskrit than Bengali 
 and Hindustani, is difficult to determine, till we gain more 
 ample information on this language, first discovered by 
 Sir A. Burnes. We should not omit, however, in this 
 place, the language of the Gipsies, which, though most 
 degraded in its grammar and with a dictionary stolen 
 from all the dialects of Asia and Europe, is clearly 
 an exile from Hindostdn. 
 T The second branch of the Arian family is the Persian, 
 
 Jjanguages .... 
 
 of Media which may equally be followed in its historical growth 
 and Persia. ^^^ decay through different periods of literature. The 
 language of the Zendavesta, the sacred remnants of 
 the Zoroastrian religion; the inscriptions of Cyrus, 
 Darius, and Xerxes; the Pehlevi of the Sassanian 
 dynasty (226 a.d.), mixed with Semitic elements, but 
 purely Arian in its grammar; the Pazend, or national 
 Persian, freed of its foreign admixtures, the grand epic 
 poem of Firdusi (1000 a.d.), and the motley idiom now 
 spoken in Persia, exhibit a complete biography of the 
 Iranian language, the half-brother of Sanskrit. 
 
 There are some scions of the Arian stock which 
 struck root in the soil of Asia, before the Arians reached 
 the shores of Europe ; but they are of far less interest 
 
33 
 
 for comparative philology, because they do hot exhibit 
 by their literature, what is most instructive, the gradual 
 progress of a growing language. These are : 
 
 1. The Afghan, or language of the Patans, the Afghan 
 inhabitants of Kabul. It beloHgs by its grammar to ^*"S*«e«' 
 the Persian braneh. The Afghans call thetnSelves 
 Pushtun, in the plural Pusht^neh, which according 
 
 to Klaproth was pronounced Pu^taneh, and corrupted 
 into Patau. The BeluA also, the conquerors of Sind, 
 the southern neighbours of the Afghans, Speak a dia- 
 lect closely allied to the Persian* 
 
 2. The language of the people of Bokhara^ a modem Language 
 Persian dialect, spoken originally by the Tajiks, north °' Bokhara, 
 of Balkh, but to be met with in many parts of Asia, 
 
 owing to the migratory habits of the people, well known 
 as the travelling merchants of Central Asia. 
 
 3. The language of the Kurds, likewise of Iranian Language 
 character, but strongly mixed with Semitic words, and °^ "*« 
 without any literary cultivation. It is difficult to fix "' ^' 
 the frontiers of this language. They are given as between 
 
 36° 30'— 39° BO' N. L. and 59°— 66° E.L., which would 
 include the country N.Wi of the Armenian plateau and 
 S.E. of the Zagros mountains. They are divided into 
 two classes, the Assireta, or Sipah, and the Guran or 
 Rayah; the latter cultivate the soil and are of lower 
 rank, the former are the nobility ftnd live on chase and 
 pillage. The Yezidis near Mossul are Kurds. Kurds 
 are scattered in Armenia, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, 
 Persia, and Turkestan. 
 
 4. The Armenian language, decidedly Arian in Language 
 its grammar, but differing both from the Indian and °^ Armenia. 
 Iranian type. The ancient Armenian is now a dead 
 language, and the spoken dialect has suffered greatly 
 from Turkish influences. It has a rich literature, but this 
 only dates from the fourth century a.c. The Armenians 
 are known as merchants in Asia and Europe, and have 
 establishments at St. Petersburg, Vienna, Venice, Con- 
 stantinople, Kairo, Bombay, Calcutta, Madtas, Singa- 
 pore, and elsewhere. . 
 
S4 
 
 Ossetian,or 0. Another Arian language, the Ossetian barren 
 language of altogether of native literature, has been collected trom 
 the Iron. ^^^ ^ouths of the people on account of jts linguistic 
 importance. It is called Ossetian, from "Osethi," which 
 in Georgian means " the country of the Os;" Os being 
 the name by which these people, who call themselves 
 Iron, are known to their neighbours. The Ossetes occupy 
 the country west of the great military road which 
 crosses the Caucasus from north to south. They extend 
 to the sources of the Rion, and principally inhabit the 
 valley of the Terek. West of the fortress of Vladikaukas, 
 they inhabit a vast plain which in the north is divided 
 from the Kabardah by a line of mountains, called 
 PsheAesh. More northern seats, which they occupied in 
 earlier times, were taken from them by the Mongolians. 
 "While in the North they are called " Os," their more 
 usual name in the South is Dwal or Dwaleth. The 
 Digores and Tagaures belong to them. Russian supre- 
 macy is acknowledged in Ossethi, but little enforced. 
 
 The Ossetic spoken in the centre of Mount Caucasus, 
 and surrounded on all sides by tongues of different origin, 
 stands out, like a block of granite, errant in the midst of 
 sandstone strata, a strayed landmark of the migrations 
 of the Arian tribes. Whether, however, the Ossetic 
 language has been fixed there, since the first movements 
 of the Arians from Asia into Europe, that is before 
 the beginning of all political history, is a point difficult to 
 settle. According to their own traditions, and the 
 accounts of Georgian Nestorians, the ancestors of the 
 Ossetes extended formerly from the Caucasus to the 
 Don, and were driven back into the mountains, in 
 the middle of the 13th century, by Batukhan, the 
 grandson of ^mgis-khdn. Their former presence near 
 the Don (Tanais), however, rests on very doubtful 
 evidence : the name of the Ossilians, a people whom 
 Ptolemy mentions near the mouth of that river, is 
 the chief argument in favour of this view. Klaproth 
 supposes that the first ancestors of this Arian colony 
 on the Don were the Medians, transplanted, according to 
 
So 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, by the Scythians into Sarmatia in the 
 7th century b.o. There is little doubt that the Sarma- 
 tians were a Median colony of the 7th century before 
 Christ, and that the Alanes, Yaxamates, Roxolanes, 
 and Yazyges came all from the same source. After 
 iS'afarik's .investigations, no one can for the future treat 
 the Sarmatians as the ancestors of the Slavonic nations. 
 The question is only vphether the present Ossetes in the 
 Caucasus and the Alanes on the Don are one and the 
 same people. A few words on this point. 
 
 Klaproth endeavours to prove that those Median 
 colonists and the modern Ossetes are the Alanes of 
 the Middle Ages, and that, at the time of Constantinus 
 Porphyrogeneta (948 a.d.), they lived on the northern 
 side of the Caucasus and north of Kasaohia. These 
 Alanes, according to an Italian traveller of the 15th 
 century (Josafa Barbaro), still called themselves As, 
 and a people called As or Yas is frequently mentioned 
 in Russian chronicles together with the Kasoq, i.e. the 
 £erkessians, who were known by the name of Kasach, 
 g, name now monopolized by the Cossacks, the bastard •- 
 descendants of Slavonic, Tataric, and Caucasian tribes. 
 But whatever the time may have been when these As or 
 Os settled in the central regions of the Caucasus, whether 
 in the 7th century b.c. or at a still more remote period, 
 in either case their language is a welcome link between" 
 the Arian dialects of Asia and Europe. 
 
 In Europe the Arian family has sent out five great European 
 branches, the Celtic, Teutonic, Italic, Hellenic and ■'"''^"'• 
 Slavonic. 
 
 The Celts seem to have been the first to arrive in Language 
 Europe, where the pressure of subsequent emigration, 
 particularly of Teutonic tribes, has driven them to- 
 ward the westerntnost parts, and latterly, across the 
 Atlantic. At present the only remaining Celtic dialects 
 are the Cymric and Gadhelic. The Cymric com- 
 prises the Welsh, the Cornish (now extinct), and the 
 Armorican of Britany. The G-adhelio comprises the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 Irish, the Galie of the west coast of Scotland, and the 
 dialect of the Isle-of-Man. Although these Celtic dialects 
 are still spoken, the Celts themselves can no longer be 
 considered an independent nation, like the Germans or 
 Slaves. In former times they also had their political 
 independence, and asserted it successfully against Ger- 
 mans and Romans. Gaul, Belgium, and Britain, were 
 Celtic dominions, and the North of Italy was chiefly 
 inhabited by them. At the time of Herodotus, we find 
 Celts in Spain ; and Switzerland, the Tyrol, and the 
 country south of the Danube, have once been the seats of 
 Celtic tribes. ' But after repeated inroads into the regions 
 of civilization, familiarizing the name of th^eir kings 
 to Latin and Greek writers, they disappear from the 
 east of Europe. A Brennus conquered Rome (390), 
 another Brennus threatened Delphi (280) ; (Brennus is 
 supposed to mean king, Brennin in Welsh). And about 
 the same time a Celtic colony settled in Asia, founding 
 Galatia, where the language spoken at the time of 
 St. Hieronymus was still that of the Gauls. Celtic 
 words may be found in German, Slavonic, and even in 
 Latin, but only as foreign terms, and their number 
 much smaller than commonly supposed. A far larger 
 number of Latin and German words have since found 
 their way into the modern Celtic dialects, and these 
 have frequently-been mistaken by Celtic enthusiasts fojf 
 original words, from which German and Latin might, 
 in their turn, be derived. 
 Hellfenio Much more instructive for an analytical study of the 
 
 Arian languages is Greek. We have here the par- 
 ticular advantage that various co-existent dialects^ Aeolie. 
 and Ionic, Doric and Attic, have happily been preserved 
 to us in their undying literature, and we thus gain 
 a complete insight into the original individuality of 
 the Greek tongue. We know which forms are ancient 
 and genuine, and which of more modern growth ; and 
 when one dialect is deficient or corrupt, another fre- 
 quently supplies the deficiency. A language without 
 dialects is like a stem without branches ; it is by these 
 
87 
 
 alone that we can fully understand the secret working in 
 its life and development. 
 
 In Italy also more than one dialect was spoken Italic 
 before the rise of Rome, but scanty fragments only have ^°g"*ses. 
 been preserved in inscriptions of the Umbrian in the 
 north, and of the Oscan to the south of Rome. The O s c a n 
 language, the language of the Samnitae, had produced a 
 literature before the Romans knew even the art of 
 writing ; and the tables of Iguvio, so successfully deci- 
 phered by Dr. Aufrecht, b6ar witness to a priestly litera- 
 ture among the Umbrians at a very early period. But all 
 was destroyed and absorbed by the power of Rome, and 
 though Oscan was still spoken under the Roman empe- 
 rors, the only dialect of Italy which has preserved life, 
 and rules even now over the greater part of Europe, was 
 the language of Latium or of Rome. 
 
 The Romance languages are amongst the most inte- Eomance 
 resting subjects of Comparative Philology, because we^"^"*^^'" 
 can watch here the gradual decay of the mother-stock, 
 and the formation of the new national dialects under six 
 different phases, theProven9alandFrench,theItalian 
 and Wallachian, the Spanish and Portuguese, not 
 to mention the numerous patois of each. We can see 
 the old forms of the Latin grammar gradually losing 
 their expressive power, and auxiliary words, such as 
 prepositions and articles, coming in to form the now 
 declensions, while the decaying structure, of the con- 
 jugations is propped up by auxiliary verbs. Some of the 
 old forms linger on for a time, and the new periphrastic 
 expressions are at first used with a certain reserve, but at 
 last the whole structure of modern languages is overgrown 
 by them. The old conjunctions and adverbs give way 
 to more distinct expressions and circumlocutions, and 
 these, by a rapid change, coalesce again into new words. 
 It is this period of the decay of Latin and the growth of 
 the Romance dialects, that alone gives an opportunity 
 of gaining an insight into the regenerative process 
 of a language ; teaching us by analogy what process it 
 was that in times beyond the reach of history broke up 
 
38 
 
 the comnion Arian type into various dialects, such as 
 Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Gothic, Celtic and Slavonic. 
 
 Wallachian It will be necessary to give some detail on the Wal- 
 lachian — a language known to few before the beginning 
 of the war, but lately brought into notoriety by the fate 
 of the unfortunate Wallachians, who have had to bear the 
 first shock of the war, between their protectors on either 
 side. 
 
 The people whom we call Wallachians, call them- 
 selves Romani, and their language Romania. 
 
 The Wallachian language is spoken in Wallachia and 
 Moldavia, and in parts of Hungary, Transylvania, and 
 Bessarabia ; and on the right bank of the Danube it 
 occupies some parts of the old Thracia, Macedonia, and 
 even Thessaly. 
 
 It is divided by the Danube into two branches ; the 
 Northern or Daco-romanic, and the Southern or 
 Macedo-romanic. The former is less mixed, and has 
 received a certain literary culture; the latter has borrowed 
 a larger number of Albanian and Greek words, and has 
 never been fixed grammatically. 
 
 The modern Wallachian"is the daughter of the lan- 
 guage spoken in the Roman province of Dacia. 
 
 The original inhabitants of Dacia were called Thra- 
 cians, and their language lUyrian. We have no remains 
 of this language to enable us to form an opinion as to its 
 relationship virith Greek or any other family of speech. 
 
 The frontiers of Dacia (according to Ptolemy) were 
 the Theiss, the Upper Dniester, the Pruth, and the 
 Danube; so that it then comprised part of Gallicia, the 
 Bukovina, Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania, the 
 
 that the Wallachian, as spoken at the present day, has 
 gamed ground in the east, where it now stretches into 
 
 mrrS^r U "' '^'^ ^''''''''■' ^"* ^'''^''^- *he west, 
 
 tl" llftL f^.^r^^' '"^° "•''^"P^ *''^ «°^"tryon 
 the left side of the Theiss, partly by the Slaves, not to 
 
39 
 
 mention considerable Hungarian and German settlements 
 in the interior of Wallaohia. Of the 2,056,000 inha- 
 bitants of Wallaohia, 900,000 are Wallachians, 700,000 
 Hungarians, 250,000 Germans, about 100,000 Slaves, 
 the rest Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and Gipsies. 
 
 219 B.C., the Romans conquered Illyria; 30 b.c. 
 they took Moesia; and 107 a.d., the Emperor Trajan 
 made Dacia a Roman province. At that time the 
 Tbracian population had been displaced by the advance 
 of Sarmatian tribes, particularly the Yazyges. Roman 
 colonists introduced the Latin language ; and Dacia was 
 maintained as a colony up to 272, when the Emperor 
 Aurelian had to cede it to the Goths. Part of the 
 Roman inhabitants then emigrated and settled south of 
 the Danube. 
 
 In the 489 Slavonic tribes began their advance into 
 Moesia and Thracia, They were settled in Moesia 
 by 678, and eighty years later a province was founded 
 in Macedonia, under the name of Slavinia. 
 
 At present the Wallachian language is surrounded on Northern 
 all sides by Slavonic dialects, except in the West, where ^alia- 
 it borders on the Hungarian. According to /Safarik the 
 Wallachian begins in the south near Golubatch, and 
 follows the Danube downwards to its conflux with the 
 Pruth. It- then ascends with the Pruth, and after 
 reaching the Wallachian Faltshi, takes a north-eastern 
 direction, crossing the rivers lalpuch and Kogalnik, in 
 the neighbourhood of which several German colonies are 
 found. Afterwards the frontier line of the Wallachian 
 language recedes once more southward and westward, 
 crosses the Kogalnik again, and meets the Bulgarian 
 near the Jalpuch. Thence the frontier proceeds in a 
 straight line towards Kilia, follows the northern branch 
 of the Danube, Ismail remaining excluded, and reaches 
 the Black Sea, following the southern arm of the Danube, 
 but separated by it from the Tataric dialects, spoken 
 in that part of the Dobrudsha. The Black Sea now 
 forms its frontier as far as the mouth of the Dniester, 
 Akerman being Wallachian, while Ovidiopol on thef 
 
40 
 
 Apposite side is Slavonic, Here also several German 
 colonies are found, as Manheim, Freudenthal, Lust- 
 dorf, and Liebenthal, The Dniester may afterwards be 
 taken as the frontier of the Wallachian tongue, although 
 some plapes on its left bank, such as Malajest, Dubosari^ 
 and Kamenka, speak Wallaohian, while Tiraspol has a 
 Slavonic population. Between Kamenka and Jampol, 
 the frontier leaves the Dniester, turns north-west, enters 
 Gallaoia near Chernowitz, and reaches the Theiss near 
 Hussth in Hungary ; hence directly south to Golubatch on 
 the Papube. The chief places which it touches here, are 
 Hussth (Hungarian), Halmi (Slavonic), Szathmar (Hun- 
 garian), Maiteny and Beltek (German), Bihar and Gross- 
 Wardein (Hungarian), Lippa, Greifenthal, Briickenau 
 (German), Arad and Temesvar (Wallachian), Denta 
 (Slavonic), Weisskirchen and New Moldava (German). 
 It is not always easy to determine which language is 
 spoken in each of these places, particularly as it seems to 
 be the policy of the Greek church to supplant, so far as 
 lies in its power, the non-Slavonic dialects. In some 
 Wallachian villages, as Murgu says, the presence of a 
 few Servians is a suflScient pretext for using the Slavonic 
 language in Wallachian churches. " Nay, I know several 
 Wallachian villages," he writes in ]830, "where the 
 Slavonic language is used in church, though not a single 
 Raitz (i.e., Servian,) lives there ; for instance in the 
 Wallachian frontier-district. No. 13, at Bosovics, La- 
 pusnio, Budaria, and Banya. In other places, where a 
 few Turkish Servians have settled, the Wallachian lan- 
 guage has at once been banished, not only from the 
 church, but from the schools.- In the village of Old 
 Moldova, two-thirds of the inhabitants are Wallachian, 
 and but few Raitz, yet service is performed in Slovenian. 
 In WaUaoho-Pozseszena, where the inhabitants are 
 Wallachian, there is no national-school, and the people 
 are compelled to pay for the Raitz schoolmaster at 
 Raitz-Pozseszena." 
 
 Within the limits of the Wallachian, as described 
 above, there are large districts in which different 
 
41 
 
 languages are spoken. In Transylvania there are 
 three settlements, commonly called " the Sachsenland " 
 (Saxon-country). The language spoken there is Low 
 German, It is divided into three districts : 1, Sachsen- 
 land Proper, with the towns of Hermannstadt, Broos, and 
 SohSsburg ; 2, Burzenland, with its capital Kronstadt ; 
 3, Nosnerland, with Bistritz for its capital. High 
 German is spoken in Lugos, Krasova, and Oravitza. 
 Again there is a large tract of country where the lan- 
 guage is Hungarian. This comprises the towns of 
 Neumark or Maros;, Vasarhely, Karlsburg, and Klausen- 
 burg. Besides this, small Hungarian settlements are 
 scattered near Bucharest and Jassy. Hungarian is 
 spoken in the town of Radautz in Gallicia, and as far 
 as Seret, in Kapnik, Gross-Banya (half-German) ; in 
 Tasnad on the Krasna, in Krasna and Zilah on the 
 same river, in Margitta (half-Slavonic) ; in Elesd, 
 Ujlak, and Koros Banya, in Shoborshin, Deva on the 
 Marcs, and in Hatzeg in the south-west of Transylvania. 
 This northern or Daco-Romanic branch of the Wal- 
 lachian is again divided into dialects, the one spoken in 
 Wallachia, the other in Moldavia. Moldavia is called 
 Karaiflak (Black or Little Wallachia) by the Turks, and 
 the Moldavians sometimes go by the name of Kara- 
 Wallachians. 
 
 • When in 272 the Emperor Aurelian ceded Dacia to Southern 
 the Goths, large numbers of the Roman colonists crossed Walla- 
 
 C 111 ATI 5! 
 
 the Danube, and settled in Moesia and in the Haemus- 
 mountains. These new colonies were called " Dacia 
 Aureliana." These southern Wallachians are called 
 Makedo-Wallachians, or Kutzo- Wallachians (Lame 
 Wallachians), or by another nickname "Zinzars," 
 because they pronounce five "tzintz" instead of "chinch." 
 They are also known as Moeso-Dacians (Motcrto- 
 Sa/te?). 
 
 But although in former times- Wallachian was spoken 
 in the country between the Danube and the Haemus — 
 i. e., within the limits of Thracia — Bulgarian only is 
 
42 
 
 Massarets 
 or Dassa- 
 rets. 
 
 Great 
 
 Walla- 
 
 chians. 
 
 Bovians, 
 
 heard there at present, and, except in the valleys of the 
 Haemus, no traces seem to have remained of the old 
 Wallachian idiom. The pressure of the Turks drove 
 the Wallaohians further South and Westwards; and 
 it is in Albania, Macedonia, and Thessaly that we now 
 meet with clusters of Wallachian colonists. Our infor- 
 mation, however, is not exact as to their number, and 
 while some give half of the inhabitants of Thracia, and 
 two-thirds of the inhabitants of Macedonia as Wal- 
 lachian, Pouqueville states the total number of Wal- 
 laohians in those parts of Greece at 74,470, A census is 
 diiEcult, because of the migratory habits of the people, 
 part travelling with merchandise, part with their flocks, 
 all over the country. 
 
 Pouqueville divides the southern Wallachians into 
 three classes. The northernmost live in the mountains 
 which separate Macedonia from Albania, principally 
 however on the Macedonian side. They are called 
 Massarets or Dassarets, but claim themselves the name 
 of Romounis. They live at San Marina, Avdela, Peri- 
 voli, Voschopolis and Vlacho-Kleisura, and their number 
 is given as 18,500. 
 
 The second class live in the Pindus-mountains which 
 separate Thessaly from Albania, and the country there 
 IS called Great Or Upper Wallachia, (MeyaXrj B\aj(ia, 
 or "Ava BXa^x^ia,) as opposed to Little Wallachia, a name 
 given sometimes to the ancient Aetolia and Akarnania. 
 Their chief seats are East and South-east of Janina, the 
 towns and villages of Mezzovo, Malakassi, Lesinitza, 
 Kalarites, Kalaki, Klinovo, Zagori. Many of them 
 understand and speak Greek, but the women speak 
 Wallachian only. Their number is given by Pouque- 
 ville as 45,000. They call themselves Armeng, and not 
 Rum. 
 
 The third class are the so-called Bovians or Bomaei, 
 who live near the sources of the Evenus or Feidaris, and 
 the Kephissos, near Zeitoun. They are mixed with Alba- 
 nians and Greeks. Their chief places are Nea-Patra, 
 Karpeaitza, Zeitoun and Cossina, but they travel with 
 
43 
 
 their flocks into Aetolia, the villages of Amphissa, and ' 
 Boeotia. 
 
 The grammar of Wallachian is very easy, and any Wallachian 
 one acquainted with Italian and French should master S'^ammar. 
 it in a fortnight. As in the other Romance languages, 
 the Latin terminations of the cases are lost and preposi- 
 tions used instead. It will be seen, however, that the 
 Wallachian, by preserving one oblique case of the article, 
 was able to dispense with prepositions in cases where 
 the other Romance languages have to employ them. 
 We niay render in Wallachian, I have sold the garden 
 to my neighbour, by "Jo am vendut vecinului mieu 
 gradina." In French we should have to employ a pre- 
 position, and say, k mon voisin, while in Wallachian 
 the oblique case of the article, " lui " (the article being 
 always put after the substantive, as in Danish, and not 
 before, as in English) suffices to indicate the dative. If 
 there should be an ambiguity, we may employ a pre- 
 position, but in this case the article is no longer in an 
 oblique case, but in the nominative. For instance, Jo 
 am vendut la vecinul mieu grMina, I have sold the 
 garden to (la) my neighbour. 
 
 Other peculiarities which Wallachian shares in com- 
 mon with the other Romance languages as compared 
 with Latin, are the use of the articles; though here 
 again Wallachian differs from her sisters by placing the 
 article (ille) after and not before the noun. In Latin 
 it was optional to say homo ille or ille homO ; and while 
 Italian, and the other Romance dialects, fixed upon 
 the latter, the Wallachian preferred the former. It is 
 curious that Albanian and Bulgarian, both close neigh- 
 bours of Wallachian, should likewise have adopted this 
 mode of expressing the article ; imitating probably the 
 example set them by Wallachian, which, as a modern 
 Latin dialect, was at liberty, as noticed before, to say 
 either ille homo, " the man," or homo ille, " man the." 
 
 Like the other Romance dialects the Wallachian has 
 lost the neuter ; and in the conjugation, auxiliary verbs 
 have been used to replace several of the ancient Latin 
 
tenses, such as the perfect, the future, and the whole of 
 the passive. The construction of sentences has been sim- 
 plified, and inverted phrases are used with great caution. 
 The pronunciation has been softened, and many deri- 
 vative words have been added to the stores of the Latin 
 dictionary. 
 
 Hence the most difficult part of Wallachian is the dic- 
 tionary, which, though originally derived from Latin, is 
 now so full of Slavonic terms that the labour of acquiring 
 a full knowledge of Wallachian is considerably greater 
 than with Italian or Spanish. Another difficulty arises 
 from the scantiness of books to assist foreigners desirous 
 to study this dialect. There is indeed a very meritorious 
 grammar by Alexi, but it is written in Latin, and 
 rather cumbersome. Another grammar by Blasewics is 
 written in German, and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet to 
 express Wallachian makes it still more inconvenient for 
 the use of officers. A Wallachian dictionary published 
 at Ofen is rather unwieldy; and there is hardly any- 
 thing deserving of the name of literature. The only 
 thing to be done is to learn the grammar, and then en- 
 deavour to pick up the most necessary phrases by ear. 
 There are some vocabularies which may be used to 
 advantage. Italian words will frequently be under- 
 stood, although Slavonic expressions may be more usual. 
 According to a computation by Diez, the letter B in 
 the Ofen dictionary contains only 42 Latin words ; the 
 rest, about 105, are foreign, Servian, Russian, Albanian, 
 Hungarian, and Grerman. 
 Wallachian The alphabet which was used at first in reducing 
 Wallachian to writing was the Cyrillic. The WaUa- 
 chians took it from the Servians, and after adding some 
 more signs, raised the number of their letters to 44. 
 This alphabet is used in printing, of the year 1580. In 
 1677 the first attempt was made to write Wallachian 
 with Roman letters; and after many experiments to 
 settle a uniform alphabet, there are now not less than 
 13 different systems of orthography in use among the 
 Wallaohians. 
 
45 
 
 The most rational system is that used by Alexi, 
 in his Grammatioa Daco-Romana. It is principally 
 founded on etymological considerations, and retains as 
 far as possible the Latin spelling. Where the pronun- 
 ciation has changed; where, for instance, an original o 
 is pronounced as ch, a d as z, a t as ts, accents and hooks 
 are used to indicate this change in order not to sacrifice 
 etymology. The greatest inconvenience is the introduc- 
 tion of these new types^-^an inconvenience which can 
 easily be removed, however, by using the '■' Missionary 
 Alphabet." In this manner the etymology might still 
 be preserved, without the difficulty of accented letters. 
 
 Alexi'a 
 Alphabet. 
 
 Pronunciation. 
 
 Missionary 
 Alphabet. 
 
 1 Aa 
 
 a in far 
 
 a 
 
 2 A a 
 
 & in America 
 
 
 
 3 Bb 
 
 h in bed 
 
 b 
 
 4 Cc 
 
 fo in car 
 
 k 
 
 [oh in church 
 
 k 
 
 5 Cc 
 
 ts iu benefits 
 
 ? 
 
 6 Dd 
 
 din down 
 
 d 
 
 7Dd .. 
 
 . . z ill zeal 
 
 z 
 
 8 Be 
 
 a in date 
 
 e 
 
 9 E e 
 
 e in mother 
 
 
 
 10 E e 
 
 ea in yearn (?) . 
 
 . . . ea 
 
 11 Ee 
 
 e in scene 
 
 i 
 
 12Ff 
 
 f in find 
 
 f 
 
 13 a g 
 
 Jg in go 
 1 j in join 
 
 g 
 
 o 
 
 ff 
 
 14 Hh .. 
 
 ch in loch 
 
 h 
 
 ISli 
 
 iin ravine 
 
 i 
 
 16 ii 
 
 \ in bird 
 
 
 
 I7i 
 
 y in yea 
 
 7 
 
 18^ J j 
 
 s in pleasure 
 
 . . . z 
 
 19^ LI 
 
 Iin low 
 
 1 
 
 20 M m . . 
 
 m in mind 
 
 m 
 
46 
 
 Alexi's 
 Alphabet. 
 
 21 Nn 
 
 Pronunciation. 
 
 n in no 
 
 Missionaiy 
 Alphabet. 
 
 ... n 
 
 22 
 
 inno 
 
 o 
 
 23 6 6 
 
 in work 
 
 
 
 24 6 d 
 
 a in fall 
 
 ... ou 
 
 25 P p 
 
 p era pay 
 
 p 
 
 26 Qu qu . . 
 
 fc in car 
 [ch in church 
 
 k 
 
 27 R r 
 
 r in run 
 
 V 
 
 28 S s 
 
 s in sin 
 
 ... a 
 
 29 Ss 
 
 sh in she 
 
 8 
 
 30 T t 
 
 t «re town 
 
 t 
 
 31 Tt 
 
 ts in benefits 
 
 ? 
 
 32 U u 
 
 u in full 
 
 u 
 
 33 th 
 
 00 in fool 
 
 u 
 
 34 V V 
 
 V «w veil 
 
 ... V 
 
 Although the Roman alphabet is decidedly superior 
 to any other for writing languages - derived from Latin, 
 yet the influence of the Slavonic tribes, by which the 
 Wallachians are surrounded, has been so great as t* 
 induce the Wallachians to prefer the Cyrillic alphabet. 
 It will be necessary, therefore, to give a short account of 
 this, and to show, by means of a comparative table, how 
 the sounds of Wallachian may be and have been rendered 
 in this foreign alphabet, and further, in order to under- 
 stand the system of any Slavonic alphabet now in use, 
 it is necessary to have a clear idea of the Cyrillic, 
 because they all depend on, or are at least influenced 
 by it. 
 The Cyrillic This alphabet was invented by Cyrillus, a Greek 
 Alphabet, monk, who, together with Methodius, was sent from 
 Constantinople to preach the Gospel to the Slaves, in 862, 
 It is chiefly taken from the Greek, but some signs are 
 added to represent sounds peculiar to the Slavonic 
 dialects, and foreign to Greek. New signs not taken 
 from Greek are — 
 
47 
 
 }K for the sound of s in pleasure, or j in French jamais. 
 ni „ „ sh in she. 
 
 Wi „ „ sht, abbreviation of III + T. 
 
 H „ „ ts in benefits. 
 
 ^ „ „ ch in church. 
 
 "L „ 1} o in work. 
 
 b „ 5, 1 in bird. 
 
 'jii\ „ „ on in the French balcon. 
 
 ^ „ „ ea in yea. 
 
 Others are modifications of Greek letters, as— 
 B for b, to distinguish it from B, which represented 
 
 the sound of v. 
 /^ to express the nasal sound of in, as in the French 
 enfin. 
 What produced, however, the greatest inconvenience 
 in this new alphabet was the introduction of a whole 
 class of vowels with the inherent initial y. These 
 are — 
 
 lA for the sound of ya in Yarmouth. 
 K) „ „ yu in yule. 
 
 H „ „ yea. 
 
 \Jt^ „ „ ien in French bien. 
 
 "BS „ „ ion in French nation. 
 
 These compound letters were invented because the 
 Greek alphabet offered no consonant for the simple 
 sound of y. It would have been far better, however, to 
 have added one simple new sign instead of introducing a 
 number of compound vowels. Besides every vowel has not 
 received its own type to represent it when preceded by y. 
 The sound of yi (yee) has no sign of its own, and the 
 simple H must represent both i and yi, even in Old- 
 Slavonic. To the 'B (e) also the double power of S 
 and ye (ay and yea) was assigned. Still greater confu- 
 sion arose where, as in Russian, the pronounciation of 
 these liquid, or as they are called pre-iotized, vowels, 
 changed in the course of time, and became simple again, 
 v^'hile the original orthography remained, so that K in 
 Russian is pronounced not only as ya (in yard), but also 
 like a simple e (in bed). Besides the fl, the E, "B, 
 
48 
 
 and H also vary in Russian between the sounds ye, ye, yi 
 and e, e, i (the vowels pronounced as in Italian). 
 
 The letters T) and b were intended by Cyrillus to 
 express the shortest sounds of u and i. In modern 
 Bulgarian !» has still preserved the sound of u, and it is 
 used for the same purpose in Wallachian. In Russian, 
 however, these two final letters are no longer pronounced 
 as vowels ; yet the letters have been retained in order to 
 indicate the peculiar pronunciation of the preceding, 
 and now final, consonant. Where the final t ceases to 
 be pronounced, the preceding consonant, becoming final, 
 takes a harsh and strong sound as though the letter was 
 double, and a soft or sonant consonant becomes hard or 
 mute. For instance, the masculine termination of i;he 
 nominative singular was originally in all Arian languages 
 an s, preceded by a short vowel, as, os, us. This final 
 s was frequently dropped in modern languages. Thus 
 bonus became in Italian bono; sunus, son, which 
 still exists in Lithuanian, became sunn. Now this 
 short vowel at the end would in Slavonic be written 
 by Tj ; and originally this was intended for pronunciation. 
 But as we .find that, for instance, in French, bonus and 
 bono became bon, so in Russian also the final vowel was 
 BO J longer pronounced, but the sign was retained in 
 writing in" order to indicate that the last consonant was 
 to be pronounced harshly or, in some cases, like a double 
 consonant. Syn, son, therefore, with "L at the end was 
 no longer to be sounded sunu but sunn ; gladu, hunger, 
 where u is written by t, is pronounced glatt. The b, 
 on the contrary, was originally a short i, and as the i 
 exercises in Slavonic a mollifying influence on a pre- 
 ceding consonant, the letter h, where it is no longer 
 pronounced as a vowel, causes the preceding, and now 
 final, consonant to take a mouille or slender sound. 
 Thus the old form esmi, which is still used in Sanskrit 
 and Lithuanian, became in Russian yesmi, where the 
 final i is written by b, but no longer felt as a vowel, except 
 so far as it imparts an expiring vibration to the preceding 
 consonant m. 
 
-49 
 
 The Russians used the Cyrillic alphabet to the 
 time of Peter the Great. This great reformer struck 
 off nine letters of the ancient alphabet as useless, gave 
 the rest a more rounded form, had his new types cast 
 in Holland, and printed the first Russian periodical with 
 them at Moscow in 1704. 
 
 It has been the policy of Russia to support the 
 introduction of her alphabet among the nations which in 
 the course of time she expects to absorb. Still it is a, 
 curious fact that the whole Western branch of the 
 Slavonic family, and some even of the Eastern Slaves 
 (Bulgarians and Illyrians) have preferred the Roman or 
 German alphabet, and have introduced it even where the 
 Cyrillicletters had formerly been used. 
 
 Comparative Table. 
 
 Cyrillic 
 ^plialjet. 
 
 '9> 
 fa 
 
 Pronnneiation. 
 
 GorreBxtbnding 
 tetters 
 in the , 
 . Missionary 
 Mpbihet. 
 
 Old 
 
 Wallachian 
 Alphabet. 
 
 Modem 
 
 Wal-' 
 
 lachian 
 
 Alexi'a 
 WaUachian 
 Alphabet. 
 
 Knssian 
 Alpha- 
 bet. 
 
 1 Aa 
 
 1 
 
 a in far 
 
 a 
 
 Aa 
 
 A 
 
 a 
 
 A a 
 
 2 B6 
 
 , , 
 
 b in bill 
 
 b 
 
 B6 
 
 B 
 
 b 
 
 B6 
 
 3 Bb 
 
 2 
 
 V in veil 
 
 v 
 
 Bb 
 
 B 
 
 V 
 
 Bb 
 
 4 rr 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 g in go 
 dm do 
 
 g 
 d 
 
 rr 
 
 r 
 
 g 
 d 
 
 rr 
 
 4a 
 
 6 Ge 
 
 5 
 
 (a, in date 1 
 ( and yea J 
 
 e or ye 
 
 ee 
 
 E 
 
 e 
 
 Ee 
 
 7 at Hi 
 
 , , 
 
 szM pleasure 
 
 z 
 
 JKat 
 
 5K 
 
 j 
 
 mm 
 
 8 Ss 
 
 6 
 
 z in zeal 
 
 z 
 
 Ss 
 
 3 
 
 
 . . 
 
 9 33 
 
 7 
 
 z in zeal 
 flm ravine j 
 <or, yea ew| 
 I year J 
 i in ravine 
 
 z 
 
 3 3 
 
 3 
 
 4'«"' 
 
 33 
 
 10 Hh 
 
 8 
 
 i or yi 
 
 Mn 
 
 I 
 
 i,^ 
 
 Hh 
 
 H li 
 
 10 
 
 i 
 
 li 
 
 I 
 
 
 li 
 
 12 Kk 
 
 20 
 
 c in cold 
 
 k 
 
 Kk 
 
 K 
 
 c, ch, qu 
 
 Kk 
 
 13 .1 J 
 
 30 
 
 1 in low 
 
 1 
 
 A,i 
 
 A 
 
 1 
 
 Is 
 
 14 Mm 
 
 40 
 
 m in mine 
 
 m 
 
 Mm 
 
 M 
 
 m 
 
 Mm 
 
 15 Hh 
 
 50 
 
 n in no 
 
 n 
 
 Hh 
 
 H 
 
 n 
 
 Hh 
 
 16 Oo 
 
 70 
 
 in no 
 
 
 
 Oo 
 
 
 
 0, 6 
 
 Oo 
 
 17 Hn 
 
 80 
 
 p in pound 
 
 P 
 
 Hn 
 
 n 
 
 P 
 
 Hn 
 
50 
 
 
 ■a 
 
 
 Corresponcling 
 
 
 Modern 
 
 
 Cyi'illic 
 Alphabet. 
 
 ■as 
 
 
 Letters 
 
 Old 
 
 Wal- 
 
 ' Alfixi's. 
 
 Russian 
 
 il 
 
 
 in the 
 
 Wallachian 
 
 lachiai 
 
 L Wallachian 
 
 Alpha- 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 Missionary 
 
 Alphabet. 
 
 Alpha- 
 
 Alphajbet, 
 
 bet 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 Alphabet. 
 
 
 het. 
 
 
 
 18 Pp 
 
 100 
 
 r in row 
 
 r 
 
 Pp 
 
 P 
 
 r 
 
 Pp 
 
 Co 
 
 19 Cc 
 
 200 
 
 s in sin 
 
 s 
 
 Co 
 
 c 
 
 s 
 
 20 Tt 
 
 300 
 
 t in town 
 
 t 
 
 Tt 
 
 T 
 
 t 
 
 
 -{??} 
 
 
 U 2« Ml 
 
 u 
 
 oyoy 
 
 y 
 
 u 
 
 Tt 
 
 22 $ 
 
 500 
 
 f in full 
 
 f 
 
 €> * 
 
 <D 
 
 f 
 
 $ * 
 
 23 Xx 
 
 600 
 
 [chz>loch,'l 
 
 [or h in hand] 
 
 A 
 
 Xx 
 
 X 
 
 h 
 
 Xx 
 
 24 gj 
 
 800 
 
 ot iw note 
 
 
 
 
 OT 
 
 
 
 25 TOim 
 
 
 sht , 
 
 St 
 
 5im 
 
 IS 
 
 St 
 
 m'm 
 
 ^^ 
 
 26 LtH 
 
 900 
 
 ts in fit^ 
 
 ? 
 
 Un 
 
 u 
 
 t c 
 
 27 qq 
 
 
 chew church 
 
 k 
 
 qi 
 
 1 
 
 CI, qui - 
 
 28 ffl m 
 
 
 sh in she 
 
 s 
 
 in m 
 
 m 
 
 s 
 
 nini 
 
 29 T»i 
 
 
 u in but 
 
 6 
 
 T.I 
 
 fc 
 
 >' , , , , 
 a,e,i,o,u 
 
 tl 
 
 30 LI Bi 
 
 
 ui iM build 
 
 61 
 
 (H Bl) 
 
 , , 
 
 
 LIbi 
 
 31 Lb 
 
 
 i in bird 
 fea in bear] 
 
 e 
 
 (bB) 
 
 • • 
 
 
 bB 
 
 32 -B 4 
 
 
 I or yea, or > 
 liaznmaniaj 
 
 e(ai),ye 
 
 ■B* 
 
 % 
 
 ia(^) 
 
 IB* 
 
 33 K)h)' 
 
 
 yu i« yule 
 
 yu 
 
 K)io 
 
 K 
 
 lu 
 
 H)k) 
 
 34: W CO 
 
 
 in no 
 
 
 
 (0 a> 
 
 
 
 
 35 M. 
 
 90 
 
 ya ?■« yard 
 
 ya 
 
 IA.lv 
 
 i 
 
 ia - 
 
 fla 
 
 36 le 
 
 
 yea in yea, 
 
 ye 
 
 , , 
 
 , . 
 
 
 
 3r A 
 
 
 [inzaenfin,! 
 I French/ 
 
 em or ya 
 
 A.A 
 
 A 
 
 . . . 
 
 
 38 }^ 
 
 
 ienmrjenF. 
 
 jem 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 39^ 
 
 
 fon m bal-| 
 . con, F. J 
 
 6m or yu 
 
 iK;?. 
 
 ^ 
 
 u 
 
 
 40 BR 
 
 
 ion in na-1 
 tion, F. J 
 
 jom 
 
 
 . . 
 
 , , 
 
 .. 
 
 41 X 
 
 .60 
 
 ks 
 
 ks 
 
 5 3 
 
 KC 
 
 ks 
 
 
 42 Y H' 
 
 700 
 
 PS 
 
 ps 
 
 -J -s 
 
 nc 
 
 ft, t 
 
 
 43 0e 
 
 9 
 
 th 
 
 th 
 
 00 
 
 T 
 
 0e 
 
 
 
 i in ravine] 
 or V in > 
 
 evangelium J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 44 yy 
 
 iOO 
 
 i 
 
 yy 
 
 B,I 
 
 ij V 
 
 Yr 
 
 45 .. 
 
 46 .. 
 
 •• 
 
 g in gin 
 
 in in enfin (?) 
 
 9 
 
 W y 
 
 V 
 
 gi 
 
 1 
 
 
51 
 
 While Latin, in its ahoient history standing airfidst Modem 
 afone as the language of It^ly^ bursts out in this ^^ast *^'^^''- 
 growth of dialects, Wallachian and Italian, PTOveri<^k} 
 and French, Spanish and Portuguese, the HGllenic 
 languages^ on the contrary, so rich in dialectic forma- 
 tions in ancient tiittes^ have come down to us only in 
 one narrow, stream, as the modern Greek. In Pro- 
 venfal, French, Italian, Wallachiani, Spanish, and 
 Portuguese we have as it were the diaries of several 
 travellers, who all set out on the same jotu^ney^ but, 
 according to their individual tasteS and characters, 
 received different impressions^ and noted down the 
 various events in their passage from place to place in a 
 different style and a different spirit. But in attempting 
 to account for the new graitimatical forms of the Greek 
 language, we look in vain for that kind of collateral 
 evidence which the six parallel dialects of the language 
 of Rome offer in such abundance ; so that if we cannot 
 explain the new modes of expression by a reference to the 
 old common stock (^ Koivij), we are 16ft Without further 
 help. Happily, the changes which the language of Athens 
 suffered in its transition from the old to the modern 
 Greek, are less considerable by far than those expe- 
 rienced 'by the Latin during the vicissitudes of its his- 
 torical and national development.. Most of the new 
 grammatical forms can still be recognised by a classical 
 scholar. The declension of the ancient grammar has 
 been almost entirely preserved. The conjugation, 
 also, hardly contains any new elements., Some forms 
 have gone out of use, as, for instance, the Dative 
 in the declensions, the Dual in declension and conju- 
 gation, the Optative, and also to a great extent the 
 old Infinitive. There are also some few periphrastic 
 tenses which have found their way into the modern 
 Greek; but they are by no means so perplexing as 
 similar forms in the Romance dialects. Any one ac- 
 quainted with the character of secondary formations in 
 language, will understand at once the process by which 
 compound tenses, such as deXisa ypdyjrei I shall write, 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 ^0e\a rfpd^^ei I should write, ex<o rfpdy^ei,, I have 
 written, et;y;a ypdylrei, I had written, have been formed. 
 ©e'Xoj in ancient Greek means I will, and though we 
 do not say I will write, but I shall, yet a foreigner is 
 understood if he uses " will,'" instead of shall. As to 
 e;)(;(u, I have, and 6t%a, I had, these are the same 
 auxiliaries which we find in our own and in most 
 modern languages. 
 
 Albanian. The Albanian language, spoken within the limits 
 
 of the ancient lUyrium in the north and of Epirus 
 in the south, has usually been considered as a Greek 
 dialect, independent, however, in its growth, and sepa- 
 rated, perhaps, in its first outset from the common 
 language of Greece. Its grammatical system has suflPered 
 like that of Latin in its transition to Italian, while the 
 modern Greek has preserved much of its grammatical 
 purity through the influence of a classical literature, 
 never entirely forgotten by the higher ranks of the Greek 
 nation. But besides the changes inherent in the growth 
 of every language, the Albanian has been mutilated 
 by the hands of foreign tribes. As among the Ro- 
 mance dialects, the French exhibits greater traces of 
 corruption than Spanish or Italian, because compelled 
 to submit to greater ill-treatment from the Teutonic 
 tongue of its Frankish step-fathers ; the Albanian also 
 seems to have been exposed to the influence of foreigners 
 and to have been cast successively into Slavonic, 
 Romanic, and Turkish moulds. Not only is its dic- 
 tionary full of Romanic, Slavonic, and Turkish words, 
 but its grammar also shows the traces of a foreign yoke. 
 With Romanic elements the Albanian came in contact 
 through the Wallachian, which, though much defaced 
 in many respects, has maintained some words and forms 
 under a more primitive form than Italian or French. 
 Among the Slavonic dialects, the Bulgarian and Servian 
 exercised a prominent influence over the formation of 
 the Albanian idiom. In the south again, the spoken 
 dialects are full of modern Greek and Turkish words : 
 
53 
 
 and the differences arising frona the intercourse with all 
 these languages in different parts of Albania must be 
 considerable. An Albanian translation of the Bible was 
 understood by the people in Bitoglia, as written in the 
 dialect of Ochvida; while priests at Scutari, who 
 preached in Albanian, understood not more than every 
 third word, declaring the rest to be more Greek than 
 Albanian. We abstain, however, from giving a decided 
 opinion on the origin and growth of this isolated dialect ; 
 because new materials will soon be at hand from which 
 alone a- more correct view may be formed. 
 
 The Albanians call themselves Skipetars, while Territorial 
 the Turks know them by the' name of Arnauts. The'™'*.''^ 
 province of Albania is surrounded on the North by apdModem 
 Montenegro, Bosnia, and Servia ; on the East by Mace- Greek, 
 donia and Thessaly ; on the South by the Kingdom of 
 Greece ; on the West by the Ionic and Adriatic Seas. 
 The limits of these dialects, the Modern Greek, the Alba- 
 nian, the Turkish, Bulgarian and Wallachian, may be 
 stated here according to /Safarik and Griesebaoh, though 
 subject to the correction of those more accurate details, 
 which we may expect from Dr. Hahn's forthcoming 
 work on Albania. 
 
 West of Saloniki the Greek language is no longer 
 heard ; and Bulgarians inhabit the country thence to 
 the frontier mountains of Albania. Greek is spoken 
 very nearly in the same regions where it lived in ancient 
 times, in the peninsula of Epirus and Macedonia, and in 
 the Archipelago, whether on European or Asiatic soil. 
 South of Janina, Greek is spoken in Albania, and its 
 northern frontier proceeds thence across the chain of 
 mountains between Thessalonia and Macedonia. Pou- 
 queville heard Greek spoken along the Pindus. In 
 Anasetitza, he says, they speak Greek; near Kastoria, 
 Bulgarian. From the Olympus range the frontier line 
 of Greek takes in a small portion of the coast as far as 
 Saloniki, then turns towards Seres, and follows the 
 southern branch of Rhodope till it reaches the meridian 
 of Adrianople. All the country south and south-east of 
 Adrianople as far as Marmora and the Straits, is Greek. 
 
54 
 
 The same line which peaehes the ^gsean Sea near 
 Saloniki, forms, with the exception of the Albanian, 
 the southern frontier of the Slavonic languages, which 
 extend northward towards the Danube — the Bulgarian 
 in the east, the Servian in the west. 
 
 The Albanian extends from Janina, or rather, as 
 in the town itself the principal language is Greek, 
 and this very pure, from Conidsha in the valley of the 
 Upper Viosa to the White Drin, somewhat beyond 
 42°. Its eastern frontier is the Pindus, extending in 
 an almost uninterrupted line to 42°. Albanian villages, 
 however, are found on the eastern declivity of the 
 Pindus, and particularly in the north. Albanian here 
 oversteps its natural frontier and encroaches on Bulgarian 
 ground. 
 
 Besides the Albanian, Bulgarian, and Servian, which 
 are the chief languages of Rumelia, Turkish is under^ 
 stood to a certain extent hi almost all the towns and 
 villages north of 4,0°; but it cannot be called the lan- 
 guage of the country. Where, as in Rumelia, different 
 dialects are mingled together, a necessity is felt for 
 some means of communication intelligible to all. In 
 Rumelia this is naturally the language of the conqueror, 
 Turkish, but the knowledge which an Albanian or 
 Bulgarian acquires of this language, seldont goes 
 beyond the number of words and phrases indispensable for 
 commercial transactions and the carrying on of a scanty 
 social intercourse. Villages, purely Turkish are scarce 
 in Epirus and Macedonia ; and in many cases the people 
 have adopted the Mahometan religion, but maintained 
 their national speeeK The great towns are generally 
 divided into quarters^ according to language and religion. 
 In Saloniki there is a considerable Jewish population, 
 and Spanish is spoken there as much as Turkish. In 
 the higher ranks of Greek society, Italian is learat 
 more usually than French. Some Greek merchants who 
 have connections at Vienna, speak German; English 
 is hardly ever studied, and natives conversing i» it 
 are more scarce in Greece than in any other part of 
 Europe. 
 
55 
 
 Besides the Celtic, and the two olaesical langii&ges, Teutonic 
 Greek and Latin, (sometimes comprised under the'*"^*^^*' 
 common title of Pelasgic or Thracian), we have in 
 Europe two other mighty branches, the Teutonic and 
 Slavonic, both belonging to the Arian stemi 
 
 The Teutonic ii divided into three dialects, the 
 Low- German, the High-German, and Sdandi- 
 navian. 
 
 The oldest documents of the Low-German exist in Low- 
 Gothic. The Gothic translation of the New Testaniewfe BraS 
 by Ulphilas belongs to the 4th century. The Saxon, 
 which equally belongs to the Low-German claSSj is 
 r^esented on the! continent by the Old Saxon, formerly 
 spoken in the north of Germany,' the only irtrpotta,ni 
 document of which is the H eljand, a p'oeiSi of the 
 9th century. After the 5th century^ SaxbM waS trans- 
 planted to the British! Isles, and produced a literatuTe 
 of which the eaJliest documents are referted to the 7th 
 century. 
 
 Other langdagfes belonging to the' Low-German clasS 
 are F*iesic, rapidly dying out, but oliee spoken on 
 the Elbe and along the nwthei'n coast of Germany; 
 Dutch, the language of Holland, and Flemish, now 
 nearly absorbed by French in Belgium. Other Low- 
 German dialects (Platt-deutsch) are still spoken in 
 diiferent parts of Germany, but since Luther, Low- 
 German has ceased to be used as a literary language, and 
 it is only in the lower rainks that it rtiaintains its 
 existence. Most of the sailofs' along the coast of the 
 Baltic Sea speak Low-Getman, which is more intelligibfe 
 toi an Englishman than the literary language of Germany. 
 At Hamburg, Liibecfc, On the island of Riigen, and 
 along the Pommeranian coaist, at Dantzig, and as far as 
 Konigsberg, the whole class- with' which the English 
 sailors are likely to mix, speajks a language whiteh a 
 (German educated at Berlin' or Vienna would hardly find 
 easier to understand than* an Englishinan. 
 
 The High -German class coniprises the Old High- High- 
 Getman from the 7th to the 1 1th dentiiipy ; the Middle ^^rman 
 High-German from the 12th century to Luther, and 
 
66 
 
 the New High-German, since Luther, the literary 
 language of Germany. 
 
 The Scandinavian branch is represented in ancient 
 times by the Old Norse, the language of Norway, and 
 (by colonization) of Iceland. In that island the old 
 language has suffered less from alterations than in its 
 original locality, and is spoken to the present day. On 
 the Continent the Old Norse expanded into three different 
 dialects, Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish, of which 
 the first has now become a mere patois, leaving Danish 
 and Swedish the only literary representatives of the 
 Scandinavian tongue. 
 
 No language has sent so many colonies throughout 
 the world as Teutonic. Germans are to be met 
 with in Algiers, on the coast of Guinea, and on the 
 Cape of Good Hope ; German colonies are settled in 
 Australia and New Zealand, in Java and Sumatra, in 
 the interior of Russia, in the Valleys of the Caucasus, in 
 North and South America. But the mightiest branch 
 of the Teutonic stem has been the Anglo-Saxon. It has 
 stretched its boughs from England across the Atlantic 
 to overshadow the new Continent of America. It is 
 the language of civilisation in India, it preaches the 
 gospel on all the coasts of Africa, and Australia is re- 
 ceiving in it her first laws. On all the five Continents it 
 is the language that grows and conquers, the language of 
 the future, the language of the world. Grimm' speaks 
 thus: — "None of the modern languages has through 
 the very loss and decay of all phonetic laws, and 
 through the dropping of nearly all inflections, acquired 
 greater force and vigour than English, and from the 
 fulness of those vague and indefinite sounds, which 
 may be learned, but can never be taught, it has derived " 
 a power of expression such as has never been at 
 the command of any human tongue. Begotten by a 
 surprising union of the two noblest languages of 
 Europe, the one Teutonic, the other Romanic, it received 
 that wonderfully happy temper and thorough breeding, 
 where the Teutonic supplied the material strength, the 
 Romanic the suppleness and freedom of thought. Nay 
 
57 
 
 the English language, which has borne, .not as it were 
 by mere chance, the greatest Poet of modern times, 
 great in his very contrast with ancient classical poetryj 
 — I speak of course of Shakespeare^-this English 
 language may truly be called a world language, and 
 seems, like England herself, but in a still higher degree, 
 destined to rule over all the corners of the earth. In 
 wealth, wisdom, and strict economy, none of the living 
 languages can vie with it." 
 
 We shall now consider the last branch of the Arian Windic 
 family, commonly called Slavonic — a language spoken '*°S"ages. 
 over vast tracts of country, on the confines of Asia and 
 Europe, on the threshold between barbarism and civi- 
 lisation, and as yet without a national literature in any 
 of its numerous branches, though not without-its coun- 
 terfeits of Voltaire and Byron, of Wieland and Gothe: — 
 with powerful resources, and flexible as Greek and 
 Latin; yet all, as it were, without self-respect and 
 self-dependence, always looking abroad . and proudly 
 decking itself with the tinsel of. foreign countries, instead 
 of gathering strength within itself and putting forth 
 without shame the genuine fruits of its own not barren 
 soil. 
 
 It would be better to use Windic as the general 
 name of what is now called the Slavonic branch, 
 Winidae being one of the most ancient and most com- 
 prehensive names by which these tribes were known to 
 the early historians of Europe. We have to distinguish 
 again between the Lettic and the Slavonic divisions, 
 and it would be preferable not to use Slavonic in two 
 different senses. 
 
 I. The Lettic division comprises the Lithua- Lettic 
 nian, the Old Prussian, and the Lettish. The °"'™"' 
 Lithuanian, as we had occasion to point out before, is 
 one of the most interesting languages to the comparative 
 philologist, because, though poor in literature — (for the 
 Lithuanian popular songs are all that can be called na- 
 tional literature) — it has retained to the present day 
 some of the most primitive features of Arian grammar. 
 
58 
 
 It was spoken, according to Mielcke, within the limits of 
 East Prussia, in the districts of Memel, Tilmt, Ragnit, 
 Labiau, and Insterburg; and through the division of 
 Poland, more Lithuanian subjects were added to the 
 kingdom of Prussia, so that the number of Prussians, 
 who speak Lithuanian^ is now stated at 200,000- This 
 number, however, is diminishing steadily^ and in one 
 or two generations Lithuanian will probably have to 
 be counted among the dead languages, like Cornish in 
 England. In Russia, the number of Lithuanians is 
 estimated at 1,282,000. 
 
 The Old Prussian has been an extinct language since 
 the end of the 17th century. Formerly spoken on the 
 Northfint coast, East of the Vistula, it has left no litera* 
 ture behinidy except a translation of a catechism. 
 
 Lettish is the language of Kurland and Livonia, 
 more modern in its grammar than Lithuanian, but stand- 
 ing towards it, not in the relation of daughter to mother, 
 but rather of niece to aunt. 
 
 The entire number of persona who speak Lithuanian 
 and Lettish, in Prussia and Russia, is estimated by iSafarik 
 at 2,000,000. From Memel northwards, the English 
 fleet will hear Lithuanian and Lettish spoken at Liebau, 
 in the Gulf of Riga. On the northern side of the Gulf, 
 the Lettidi is bounded by the Esthonian, a Finnic 
 dialect, which occupies all the rest of the coast as far 
 as Kronstadt and Petersburg. The Lettic as well as 
 the Esthonic population supply a considerable contingent^ 
 to the Russian navy. 
 
 The Slavonic branch is divided again into two great 
 dialects, each represented by a number of national 
 idioms. These are the South-Eastern and Western 
 dialects,, and may be distinguished by certain phonetic 
 peculiarities. 
 
 I. The South-Eastern dialect comprises : 
 
 1. The Russian, divided again into Great- 
 Russian, Little-Russian, and White- 
 Russian. 
 
 2. Bulgarian, represented under itsmost ancient 
 
59 
 
 form in the Eecleaiastical Slavonic, and 
 spoken at present in the province of Bulgaria, 
 the fleat of the war. The Ecclesiastical Slavonic 
 is the language of the translation of the Bible 
 by Cyrillas in the 9th century, existing in MSS. 
 of the eleventh century. It was formerly con- 
 sidered as the root of all Slavonic dialects, 
 but it is really the parent of the! Bulgarian 
 only. This is £iafapik's opinion. Micklosich 
 calls the- Ecclesiastical Slavonic "lingua Pajseo 
 Sloveniea," and Kopitar also considers it as a 
 Carinthian dialect ; but neither of these schoHaifB 
 has brought proofs convincing as those by which 
 18'afarik establishes the close connection between 
 the present Bulgarian and the language of 
 Cyrillus. 
 3. The Illyrian, which is a general name foF 
 the Servian, Kroatian, and Slovenian. 
 The Servian is written either witbRoman or 
 with Cyrillic letters. The former is patronised 
 by the Roman, the latter by the Greek Church. 
 The. Slovenian comprises the Windic, 
 Carniolian, Carinthianj and Styrian 
 idioms. Th^ Kroatianj according to /Sfafarik, 
 should not be reckoned as a separate languagei; 
 the provincial Kroatian being but, a conti- 
 nuation of the Slovenian, while the lan^age: 
 of the Kroats, as spoken on the military fron- 
 tier, is simply Sep?ii*n. 
 
 II. The Western dialect comprises: 
 
 1 Polish. 
 
 2. Bohemian or Tchechian, rf which the 
 Slovakian, spoken, in, Hungary, is but a less 
 dieveloped lemnv^JiJir , 
 
 3. Serbian or Lusatian, as spoken in Upper 
 andi Ijower IjUsaitiEib, 
 
 4. Polabian, an extinct language, formerly 
 spoken on the Elbe. '' • 
 
60 
 
 Relation of Although it is possible to point out characteristic 
 the South- marks by which these two great dialects can be kept 
 separate, still in their grammar and words they differ 
 much less than English and German. People who 
 speak languages belonging to the Western or South- 
 Eastern division, are to a certain extent mutually intelli- 
 gible. A Bohemian, according to iSafarik, understands a 
 Slovak of Hungary, a Slovak understands the Polish, a 
 Pole the language of Lusatia. The same applies to Rus- 
 sians and Illyrians : less to the Bulgarians. But even the 
 Russian and the Pole, though belonging to different divi- 
 sions, have so many words and forms in common that they 
 do not find much more difficulty in conversing together 
 than Italians and Spaniards. Panslavistic writers maintain 
 that the various Slavonic dialects do not differ more 
 widely than the four principal dialects of the ancient 
 Greek — (the Attic, Ionic, Doric, and iEolic). As we 
 go back into antiquity, differences between the Slavonic 
 languages become even less ; yet from the ninth century, 
 when we have the first literary documents, the funda- 
 mental distinction between South-Eastern and Western 
 dialects, is clearly established. A Russian, however, at 
 the present day, can, with some attention, understand 
 the Bulgarian of the ninth century, as fixed in the trans- 
 lation of the Bible, still used in all Russian churches. 
 I shall here give some of these characteristic differences 
 as laid down by /S'afarik. It will be seen that they can 
 be of real importance only for the minutest researches 
 of the philologist, yet as "pieces justificatives" they may 
 find a place here. 
 
 I. In the South-Eastern dialects d and t before 1 are 
 dropped ; they are retained in the Western branch 
 
 Ex. Eccles. Slav, ora-16, a plough; Bohem. 
 ora-dlo. (cf. dpo-rpov, aratrum.) Eccl. Slav, 
 palo fallen, participle of the root pad, to fall, 
 with the termination 16 ; Bohemian padl. 
 
 II. In the South-Eastern dialects d and t are 
 
61 
 
 dropped before n ; they are retained in the Western 
 branch, 
 
 Ex. Russian, BAHyib, Bohemian vadnouti,^ 
 from the root BA4, vad, and nyity nute. 
 
 III. In the South-Eastern dialects an 1 is put before 
 every palatal semi-vowel (y) ; this is not the case in the 
 Western branch (1 epentheticum). 
 
 Ex. Eccl. Slav, zemlya (aeiajbi), earth; Polish 
 ziemia. Eccl. SI. korablye, (Kopa6ji>); PoIt 
 and Boh, korab\ ship. 
 
 Other words by which the difference between an Eastern 
 and Western dialect can be recognized are, according to 
 Dobrowsky, (Bohemian Grammar, iv. and Institutiones, 
 § J), 
 
 1 
 
 SOUTH-EASTERN. 
 
 WESTERN 
 
 ]. 
 
 raz, razum. 
 
 roz, rozum. 
 
 2. 
 
 iz, izdati. 
 
 wy, wydati. 
 
 S. 
 
 4. 
 
 pec, moc, noc. 
 zwiezda. 
 
 pec, moc, noc. 
 hwiezda, gwiazda. 
 
 5. 
 6. 
 
 t, toj. 
 
 Genitive, ago. 
 Dative, omu. 
 
 ten. 
 
 ego, eho. 
 emu. 
 
 7. 
 
 ptika. 
 
 ptak. 
 
 The area at present occupied by the Slavonic race, Area occ«. 
 extends from Asia into Europe, from the Dwina iPs'iaTonlc 
 the East to the frontiers of Germany in the West, from languages, 
 the Sea in the North to the Sea in the South of Europe. 
 Slavonic names of cities and rivers in the interior of 
 Germany, show that these races once were in occupation 
 as far west as the Elbe ; and Slavonic dialects are still 
 spoken, though by small and disconnected tribes, in 
 Lusatia, not far from Berlin and Leipzig. But while 
 the Slavonic race has been repulsed in the West, it has 
 extended itself in the East towards Asia, and is now the 
 language of law and civilization in the North of Asia, 
 whence it stretches over to North America. 
 
62 
 
 : The langaage, politically mast important among the 
 SlaTOiiic races, is the Russian. It is hemmed in on 
 the West by the Polish, Hungarian, and Wallachian 
 languages. In the North and South it reaches as far as 
 the sea, and in the East it encroaches upon Finnic and 
 Tataric races. We shall give the geographical Jiinits 
 of the three Russian dialects, that of the Great- 
 Russians, the Little-Russians, and White-Rus- 
 sians, as determined by &farik, the political distribu- 
 tion b^ing added from a work of Krasinski. 
 ' The Great-Russians inhabit the governments of 
 Moscow, Petersburg, Novgorod, Vologda, Pskov, Tver, 
 Yaroslav, Kostroma, Vladimir, Niani Novgorod, Smo- 
 lensk, Kaluga, Tula, Riazan, Penza, Simbirsk, Orel, 
 Kursk, Voronez, Tambov, Saratov, and the country of 
 the Cossacks of the Don. The greatest part of the govern- 
 ments of Orenburg, Viatka, Perm, and Kasan, is inha- 
 bited by the same population, which daily absorbs more 
 and more the remnants of the Finnic nations, and of 
 the Tatars yet extant in those provinces. A line drawn 
 from Lake Peipus to the mouth of the Don, would 
 very nearly mark the frontier of the Great-Russian 
 towards the Little and White-Russian dialects. Great- 
 Russians are, further, spread over all Siberia, Kam^atka, 
 and the Russian colonies on the north-western coast of 
 America. There are many settlements of the Great- 
 Russians in various parts of ancient Poland, formed 
 under the Polish dominion by the Raskolniks or Russian 
 sectarians, who fled from their country on account of 
 religious persecution. There are a few settlements of the 
 same kind beyond the Danube in the Turkish domi- 
 nions. Their idiom is the literary and official language 
 of Russia. 
 
 The Little Russians or Russines resemble, in their 
 physical and moral qualities other Slavonic nations more 
 than their namesakes. Their language differs from the 
 Muscovite idiom, and forms, in some measure, a transition 
 between that idiom and Polish. Nestor calls them Polanes, 
 which signifies inhabitants of the fields, (Campani), and 
 asserts they are of the same nation as the Lekhs of the 
 
63 
 
 Vistula, i.e. the Poles. Their language is said to be one 
 of the finest Slavonic tongues ; few equalling its power 
 in the expression of tender feelings, and their literature, 
 though limited to popular songs and ballads, replete with 
 poetical beauties. The Russines inhabit the Russian 
 governments of Pultava, Karkov, Chernigov, Kiev, 
 Volhynia, Podolia, and parts of those of Ekaterinoslav, 
 Yonmez, Cherson, Taurida, and Bessarabia, as well as 
 the country of the Cossacks of the Black Sea. In the 
 kingdom of Poland, they occupy parts of the provinces 
 of Lmblin and Padlachia. In Gallioia, or Austrian Po- 
 land, the circles of Leopol, Przemysl, Zloozov, Zolkiev, 
 Tarnopol, Brzezany, Sambor, Sanock, Stryi, Stanislavov, 
 Kolomya, Chorvkot, and in part those of Rzeshov, 
 Novysandesz, and Czernovitz. In Hungary, the greater 
 part of the comitats of Beregh, Unghvar, Ugocza, and 
 Marmarosh, and a small portion of those of Zemplin and 
 Szarosh. It is the dialect of the South of Russia from 
 Gallicia to the Don. The Rusniaks ar Ruthenians in 
 Gallioia, Hungary, and Bukovina speak the Little-Rus- 
 sian dialect : though with some peculiarities. 
 
 The White-Russians occupy the whole of the^*''t5- 
 Russian Governments of Mohilev and Minsk, and the 
 greatest part of those of Witepsk and Grodno, even 
 extending over a part of those of Vilna and Bielostok, 
 Their dialect was formerly the ofiicial language of 
 LitjMjania, and is full of Polish expressions. 
 
 The territory on which Bulgarian is spoken at the Bulgarians 
 present day, lies almost entirely within the Turkish domi- 
 nions ; only a small area to the North of the arms of the 
 Danube being under Russian sovereignty. Eastward 
 the Bulgarian is bounded by the Black Sea ; from the 
 mouth of the southern arm of the Danube this river 
 forms the northern frontier towards the Wallaohians 
 as far as Widdio and Florentin, with the exception 
 of the tract between the towns of Tul^a and Reni, 
 whence the, Bulgarian extends across the river towards 
 Ruis^ia. The frontier is here indicated by the towns of 
 Ismail, Kalpak, FalAi, and thence Southwards^ along 
 the ri^ver Pruth, which here forms the frontier between 
 
64 
 
 Russia and Moldavia, and between the Wallachians and 
 the Bulgarians down to the Danube. From Widdin 
 the frontier extends along the Servian territory as far 
 as Prizren, and ,hence Southward past the towns of 
 Tettovo, Ochrida, Drenovo, Bilista as far as St. Marina; 
 hence the Southern frontier line forms a slight bend 
 round the Gulf of Thessalonica, and thence continues in 
 the direction of the towns of Rupa, Arda, Z'ermenti, 
 Adrianople, Tirnovo, Brodivo, and Vasiliko to the Black 
 Sea again. Thus the Bulgarians occupy the greater part 
 of the ancient Moesia, Thracia, and Macedonia, or the 
 present province of Rumelia. Before the arrival of the 
 Magyars, the Plawzi and PeAenegs, that is during the 
 ascendancy of the Bulgarian kingdom, the Bulgarian 
 language was spoken beyond its present limits in the 
 countries along the Danube, now inhabited by Magyars 
 and Wallachians. It extended from the Danube to the 
 Pruth and Jager, and beyond to the Karpathian 
 mountains and the sources of the Theiss. When these 
 countries lying North of the Danube were inundated 
 by the Magyars and. similar Finnic tribes, the original 
 inhabitants retired below it. The Old Bulgarian, the 
 language of the translation of the Bible by Cyrillus, 
 became the ecclesiastical language of the G-reek-Russian 
 church in Russia, Servia and Rumelia. It holds the 
 same place in Slavonic philology which Gothic occupies 
 in the history of the German idioms. The spoken 
 Bulgarian on the contrary, so far as grammatical forms 
 are concerned, is the most reduced among the Slavonic 
 dialects. 
 Illyrian. Illyrian is used as a general name to comprehend 
 
 the Servian,' Kroatian and Slovenian dialects ; sometimes 
 the Slovenian and Kroatian, as opposed to the Servian. 
 Religious and political agitation has made " Illyrian " 
 the watchword for the Roman Catholic population of 
 these South-Slavonic countries ; " Servian " that of the 
 Greek church ; the former using the Roman, the latter 
 the Cyrillic alphabet. Another party, the Panslavistio, 
 allows no difference between Illyrians and Servians, 
 whether in nationality or in language. These South- 
 
65 
 
 Slavonic dialects £tre spoken West of Bulgaria, occupying 
 the western half of the peninsula to the Adriatic, while 
 the Bulgarian occupies the eastern part towards the 
 Black Sea. 
 
 A rough outline of the whole Illyrian territory would A'^* °<=<">- 
 be formed by a line drawn from- the Adriatic Sea, near lUyrfandU^ 
 the mouth of the Eojana River, to Perserin (Prizren) in ^^o'"- 
 Albania, this line being somewhat inclined towards the 
 North. A line from Perserin to Widdin on the Danuba 
 would separate the Illyrian (here Servian) from the 
 Bulgarian. A line from Widdin to Temesvar would 
 divide the Illyrian from the Wallachian ; and a line 
 from Temesvar to Klagenfurt from Magyar and German 
 neighbours. A line from Klagenfurt back to Trieste 
 would close the circle within which Illyrian dialect^ are 
 to be met with. The Adriatic coast is partly occupied 
 by Italian dialects, which encroach upon the Slavonic 
 in the north, but diminish gradually in breadth as we 
 proceed , southward. 
 
 If a distinction is made between lUyrians and Ser- Frontier be- 
 vians— of little importance however so far as language ^rvUn*^ 
 is concerned — the lUyrians are separated by a line ^^^ }'^« 
 beginning from the town Monastur, at the mouth Qf^y"*"^' 
 the river Lobnitza which falls into the Raab, in the 
 Comitat Eisenburg in Hungary, This line extends 
 along that river while it forms the limit between Hun- 
 gary and Styria, then turns into Styria, passing the 
 towns of Radkersburg, Volkermarkt, Klagenfurt, Vil- 
 lach, to Pontafel; thence southward, along the small 
 towns of Resciutta, Bardo, towards Udine, and then, 
 following pretty closely the course of the Isonzo to the 
 Adriatic sea, it extends along the sea-coast until below 
 Capo D'Istria. Here it takes an eastern direction, pas- 
 sing the towns of Materia, and Laas, to Neustadtel, 
 Motling, Petrinia, and the mouth of the Unna, which 
 falls into the Save on the Turkish frontier. Hence 
 northwards past the towns of Novska, and Belovar, until 
 it reaches Veroviz on the Drave, behind which river it 
 tpuqhes the Magyar frontier at Grogs-Sigetb, Here it 
 
66 
 
 runs west again, past the towns of Breznica, Kaniza, 
 Lindava and Z^estrig, until it again reaches Monastur. 
 The smaller or eastern portion of this territory is inha- 
 bited by Kroats, and the larger and western portion by 
 the Sloven tsi. 
 
 Kroatian. The Kroatian or Chorvatian dialect is spoken in 
 
 the Comitats of Agram, Kreuz, and Warasdin, and nu- 
 merous colonies exist in the western parts of Hungary. 
 The language stands between Slovenian and Servian, 
 more closely allied to the latter, but, particularly at 
 Agram, influenced by a small literary party, who in the 
 absence of anything like a definite standard, introduce 
 Slovenian or Cyrillic expressions into the language. 
 Thus the Dual, which according to Berlie is unknown 
 in the spoken language except in Slovenian, has been 
 introduced into literary works, and terminations are 
 used in the declensions which have a warrant only in 
 the Cyrillic translation of the Bible. 
 
 Slovenian. Slovenian, also called Corutanian or Windic, is 
 spoken in the country surrounded by the Adriatic, the 
 Isonzo, the Upper Drave and Kroatia. It is the lan- 
 guage of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and reaches 
 into the west of Hungary, the lUyrian coast and part 
 of Istria. 
 
 Seman. The territory occupied by the Servian.s is bordered 
 
 on the west by the Adriatic from Capo D'lstria to the 
 mouth of the river Bojana. The southern frontier 
 separating the Servians from the Albanians, extends from 
 , the lake of Scutari towards the towns of Rosalia, Ipek, 
 and Jakova, as far as Prizren (Perserin). Here begins 
 the eastern frontier towards the Bulgarians, passing the 
 towns of Morava, Nova Berda, and Nissa, as far as 
 Gurgusovatz, and following thence the Timok, which 
 forms the frontier until it falls into the Danube. 
 
 The Danube then forms the march towards the 
 Wallachians, as far as Golubatch, where the line crosses 
 that river and extends past the towns of Saska, Weiss- 
 kirchen, Denta, Ritberg, and Temesvar, as far as Arad : 
 then westward along the small towns of Lak, Marienfeld 
 
67 
 
 Kaniza, Topola, and Mohacz to Sigeth, and along the 
 lUyrian frontier to Capo D'Istria. 
 
 This extensive area comprises within the Austrian 
 dominions the southern Comitats of Hungary, the whole 
 of Slavonia, a great part of Kroatia and Carniola, Istria, 
 the Littoral Dalmatia and the military frontier of Cro- 
 atia, Slavonia, and Hungary, — and within the Turkish 
 dominions, the principalities of Servia, Bosnia, Herze- 
 govina, Montenegro, and the ancient Rascia (the ter- 
 ritory between Novi Bazar and Nova Berda). The 
 Servian population belongs partly to the Roman Catholic 
 and Greek persuasions, partly to the Mahometan reli- 
 gion. 
 
 According to Vuk Stephanowitch the Servian is 
 divided into three dialects : 
 
 1. The dialect of Herzegovina, Bosnia, Montenegro, 
 Dalmatia, Kroatia, and the upper part of Servia, in the 
 district of Matshwa, as far as Maljewo and Karanowatz. 
 
 2. The Ressawian dialect, spoken in the district of 
 Branitshevo, on the Resava, in the district of Levatsh, 
 on the Upper Morava, and along the Schwarzbach, as 
 far as Negotin. 
 
 3. The Syrmian, spoken in Syrmia, Slavonia, in the 
 Batshka, in the Banat of Temesvar, and in Servia, 
 between the Save, the Danube, and the Morava. 
 
 The Magyars and Slovaks call the Servians of the 
 Greek persuasion. Razes, from Rass, the former capital 
 of Servia, now Novi Bazar. 
 
 We now come to the Western branch. 
 
 The frontier-line of the territory inhabited by the Western 
 Poles in the north is the coast of the Baltic, from the liiiguas" 
 promontory of Hela, in the gulf of Putzig, along the sea 
 as far as the Lake of Schmolsin ; then westward, 
 toward the German nation : at first along the Pom- 
 meranian frontier to the neighbourhood of Bytov, then 
 in the direction of the towns of Jastrow, Wersitz, 
 Chodsiez, Filehne, Meseritz, Lissa, Bojanow, Rawicz, 
 Wartenburg, and Rosenberg; next westward, as far as 
 the mouth of the Neisse, which falls ipto the Oder 
 
 f2 
 
68 
 
 below Brieg, and along the river Bialo toward Zuck- 
 mantel, on the Austrian frontier. Here, after abend 
 in an easterly direction, it falls in with the frontier 
 of the Bohemo-Moravian dialect, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Troppau. The Polish language comes in con- 
 tact with this dialect from Oderberg along the course 
 of the Oder, down to the Carpathian ridge. Hence 
 the southern frontier extends toward the Slovaks, 
 along the foot of the Carpathians as far as Pivniena, 
 where the Poprad forms the limit between the three 
 populations of the Poles, the Slovaks, and the Russians. 
 The southern frontier towards the Russines runs through 
 Gallicia, past the towns of Sandec, Biecz, Krosno, 
 Bereziv : — whence the eastern frontier extends straight 
 northwards, past the towns of Lezaisk, Krzeszov, Goraj, 
 Turobin, Krasnostav, Radzyn, Miedzyryc, along the 
 river Zaa, towards Biala and Sarnaki ; and thence also 
 eastwards along the frontier of the White Russians, in the 
 direction of the towns of Bransk, Tykoczyn, Korysyn, 
 Stabin, Lipsk, and as far as Grodno. The Niemen 
 forms in part the north-western frontier toward the 
 Lithuanians. From this river it follows the Hanscha as 
 far as Sejny, then westward towards Olezko, near which 
 place it returns to the Prussian territory, descending by 
 the town of Goldapp to Darkehmen. Hence it takes a 
 westerly course, toward the Germans, in the ancient 
 kingdom of Prussia, touched by the Polish frontier near 
 the towns of Rastenburg, Bischofsburg, and Iseburg ; 
 then to the mouth of the Wels, which disembogues inttf 
 the Drewenz above Neustadt. Besides the inhabitants 
 of this territory, all the upper classes in the ancient 
 provinces of Poland are composed of Poles by origin, o 
 of others who became Polonized during the Polish 
 dominion in those parts. 
 
 The old name of the Polish language was Lekhian, 
 spoken in ancient times beyond its present limit, in parts 
 of Ponimerania and Silesia now occupied by Germans. 
 At present it exists in two dialects, Polish and Kashubian, 
 — the latter spoken in a small district between Lela 
 
69 
 
 and Lailenburg, where the English fleet may hear it on 
 the Baltic coast. 
 
 The limits of the Bohemian population may be Bohemian, 
 marked by a line beginning between the towns of 
 Josephstadt and Koniginhof, which are on the Bohe- 
 mian side, and Turnau and Semil, on the German. 
 -This line runs from the last-named ' place in a north- 
 ■jyestern direction along the towns of Bohmish Aicha, 
 Leitmeritz, Theresienstadt, Laun, Pilsen, Mies, 
 Bischofteinitz, as far as Klenz ; thence it turns in a 
 south-eastern direction along the towns Winterberg, 
 Krummau, Grratzen, Neuhaus, Moravian -Budweis, 
 Znaym, Lundenburg, as far as Rabensburg, on the 
 river March. Hence to the south-east, touching the 
 Slovaks in an almost straight line, along the towns 
 Holitz, Strasnitz, and Wessely, to the Carpathian ridge, 
 where it comes into contact with the Poles of Galicia. 
 From this point the river Oder forms the frontier as 
 far as Oderberg. Passing then from Sternberg along the 
 Sudet mountains, through Moravian-Neustadt, it returns 
 to Koniginhof. The territory within this line compre- 
 hends a space of about 800 German square miles, which, 
 with the exception of German colonies, is inhabited by 
 a pure Slavonic population. 
 
 Another name for the language of Bohemia and 
 Moravia is Tchechian. Some literary monuments of the 
 ancient Tchech language exist, as the song of Libussa 
 of the ninth century, and poems of the thirteenth, ex- 
 hibiting a much richer grammatical system than the 
 spoken Bohemian. This is divided again into dialects, 
 Horakiali, Hanakian, Moravo-Slovakian, Wallachiaft, 
 and others. 
 
 The language of the Slovaks has retained, in its sioyakian. 
 grammar, certain origitial forms which the Bohemian 
 has lost. It is spoken by the Slovaks, who are sepa- 
 rated from the Bohemians, on the north-west, by a 
 line already mentioned." Thence the boundary continues 
 along the Carpathian ridge to the town of Pivniena, 
 separating the Slovaks from the Poles in Gallicia. 
 
70 
 
 From that place it runs through the towns Bordiov, 
 and Humenne, and follows the course of the river 
 Ondava, which parts oiF the Eussines in Gallicia and 
 Hungary. On the south the Slovaks are divided from 
 the Magyars by a line running through the towns 
 Sechovtze, Kashau, Tornala, Filekovo, from the river 
 Eipel to the Hont-,— thence along the towns of Levica, 
 Neuhausel near Comorn, to Pressburg ; then following 
 the course of the Danube to the mouth of the river 
 March, which separates them from the Germans. The 
 territory inhabited by the Slovaks extends over fifteen 
 Comitats, of which five are entirely, and the rest 
 principally, occupied by them. There are besides several 
 large settlements of Slovaks scattered over difierent parts 
 of Hungary. 
 Wendian or The last Slavonic dialect is the W e n d i a n, spoken by 
 Lusatian. ^j^^ Wends of Lusatia, whose probable number does not 
 at present exceed 144,000. They are the remnants of 
 those Slavonians by whom all that country was formerly 
 inhabited, and whose settlements extended beyond the 
 Elbe to the river Saale. They are called by a general 
 name the Polabes (from po, near, and Labe, the Elbe). 
 The Wends inhabit the region around the towns of 
 Liibben, Lieberose, Cottbus and Muzakov, forming a kind 
 of Slavonian island in a German sea. Their language is 
 also called Sorbian, and divided into two dialects, each 
 possessing translations of the Bible, and other sacred 
 works. 
 Slavonic The following is an estimate of the Slavonic popu- 
 
 statistics. 1 ,• 
 
 lation: 
 
 1. Great-Russians (Welikoruski) . 35,000,000 
 
 2. Little-Russians (Maloruski) . 13,000,000 
 
 3. White-Russians (Beloruski) . 2,700,000 
 
 4. Bulgarians (Bolgari) . . 3,600,000 
 
 5. Kroatians (Horwati) . . 800,000 
 
 6. Slovenians (Slovenzi) . . 1,150,000 
 
 7. Servians 5,300,000 
 
 Carried forward 61,650,000 
 
71 
 
 Brought up 
 
 8. Poles (Polaki) • 
 
 9. Bohemians (Czechi) 
 10 Wends (Syrbi) 
 
 This gives for the Eastern branch 
 „ for the Western branch 
 
 61,550,000 
 
 9,300,000 
 
 7,200,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 78,200,000 
 
 62,000,000 
 17,000,000 
 
 79,000,000 
 
 According to their religion the Slavonic races were 
 arranged by Safarik (in 1842) in the following table : — 
 
 
 Greek or 
 Bastera 
 Church. 
 
 Greek 
 united 
 
 Boman 
 
 Protes- 
 
 Maho- 
 
 
 with 
 Borne. 
 
 Catholics. 
 
 tants. 
 
 metans. 
 
 Great EusBiana, or Musoovitas 
 
 36,314,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 little Bussiana, or Malorusaea 
 
 10,164,000 
 
 2,990,000 
 
 
 
 
 White BuBBians 
 
 2,376,000 
 
 
 360,000 
 
 
 
 Bulgarians 
 
 3,287,000 
 
 
 60,000 
 
 ..• 
 
 250,000 
 
 Servians or lUyiians 
 
 2,880,000 
 
 
 1,864,000 
 
 
 660,000 
 
 KroatB 
 
 
 
 801,000 
 
 
 
 Catrnthians 
 
 ... 
 
 
 1,138,000 
 
 13,000 
 
 
 Poles 
 
 ... 
 
 
 8,923,000 
 
 442,000 
 
 
 Bohemians and Moravians . . . 
 
 ... 
 
 
 4,270,000 
 
 144,000 
 
 
 SloTaka {in the North of) 
 Hungary) j 
 
 ... 
 
 
 1,963,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 
 Lusatians orWenda, TJp^er ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 10,000 
 
 88,000 
 
 
 „ Lower ... 
 
 "*• 
 
 
 
 44,000 
 
 
 Total 
 
 64,011,000 
 
 2,990,000 
 
 19,369,000 
 
 1,631,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 According to the States to which they belong, the 
 Slavonic races were arranged by iSafarik (in 184i2) in 
 the following table : — 
 
 
 Bussia. 
 
 Austria; 
 
 Prussia. 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 Bepub- 
 
 hcof 
 
 Cracow. 
 
 Sax- 
 ony. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Great Eussians 
 
 35,314,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 35 314,000 
 
 Little Bussians 
 
 10,370,000 
 
 2,774,000 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 13,144,000 
 
 White Eussians 
 
 2,726,000 
 
 
 M. 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 2,726,000 
 
 Bulgarians 
 
 80,000 
 
 7,000 
 
 »■ 
 
 3,600,000 
 
 
 
 3,687,000 
 
 Servians and Illyrians 
 
 100,000 
 
 2,694,000 
 
 ... 
 
 2,600,000 
 
 ... 
 
 
 6,294,000 
 
 Kroats ; 
 
 
 801,000 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 801,000 
 
 Carynthians 
 
 
 1,151,000 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 1,151,000 
 
 Poles 
 
 4,912,000 
 
 2,341,000 
 
 1,982,000 
 
 
 130,000 
 
 
 9,366,000 
 
 Bohemians and Moravians ... 
 Slovaks in North Htmgary . . . 
 
 
 4,370,000 
 
 44,000 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 4,414,000 
 
 ... 
 
 2,783,000 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 2,763,000 
 
 Lusatians orWends, Upper ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 38,000 
 
 ... 
 
 
 60,000 
 
 98,000 
 
 i> ,. Lower ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 44,000 
 
 
 
 
 44,000 
 
 Total 
 
 53,602,000 
 
 16,791,000 
 
 2,108,000 
 
 6,100,000 
 
 130,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 78,691,000 
 
72 
 
 Political Numerically as well as politically, the Russians stand 
 
 the Greaf ^t present in the van of the Slavonic races, while 
 UussiLs. formerly the Poles held a place much more important in 
 the political system of Europe. In the sixteenth century 
 the Russian eagle began to try his wings, after shaking 
 off the yoke of the MongoUans, who for nearly two 
 hundred years had held Russia in the most cruel 
 vassalage. The first conquests of the Russians were 
 near the Volga : 
 
 In 1552jthey conquer the countries along the middle 
 course of the Volga. 
 1554, the Lower Volga. 
 1577, the Lower Don. 
 1581, they cross the Ural. 
 1584, they occupy the middle course of the Ob. 
 1594-96, they take the countries watered by the 
 
 Irti*. 
 1608, tiie Lower Ob. 
 1620-30, the Yenisei. 
 
 After thus conquering the north, the Russian arms 
 turned to the South and the Caucasus. 
 
 In 1630-40 they take the Baikal lake and the Lena- 
 country. 
 
 1646, the Behring Straits. 
 
 1658, they cross the Southern Siberian mountains, 
 and advance into Mongolia, along the Chinese 
 river Amur. They found NyerAinsk. 
 
 1690, they take Kam^atka, and push along the 
 Aleute islands into America ; while in Europe 
 they advance to the Don and Dniepr. 
 
 1721, they take the coast of the Finnic, Bay and 
 the Gulf of Riga. 
 
 1743, Karelia taken. 
 
 1783, Krimea taken. 
 
 1791, they advance against Tatario tribes as far as 
 the Dniestr. 
 
 1802, Georgia is annexed. 
 
 1813, Daghestan and Sirwan taken. 
 
73 
 
 1828, AbAasia, Mingrelia, and Araxes-oountries 
 
 taken. 
 1809, Sweden taken as far as the Bothnian Gulf. 
 1812, Advance to the Pruth in Wallachia. 
 1 828, the mouth of the Danube secured. 
 ] 848, Principalities occupied against revolutionary 
 
 tendencies, 
 
 1853, Principalities occupied as a material gua- 
 rantee. 
 
 1854, Declaration, that Kussia does not aim at 
 conquest. 
 
 We have thus completed our survey of the second Gentalogi- 
 family of languages, and the following table will give a the^A^Mi"^ 
 general view of all the members which can be proved to Faauiy. 
 belong to it. Each column begins with the language 
 now spok'en. These are traced back to their previous 
 stages, wherever literary monuments have been pre- 
 served, and are then referred to the different classes, 
 branches, and divisions, which all took their origin from 
 one central language, the language of the Arian ancestors. 
 Since their first separation took place, in times previous 
 to Homer, Zoroaster, and the poets of the Veda, no new 
 roots have been added to the common inheritance of 
 these dialects, no new elements have been created in the 
 formation of their grammar. They have experienced 
 various losses, and compensated them by a skilful appli- 
 cation of what they carried away as their common 
 heirloom. All, from Sanskrit to English, are but 
 various forms of the same type, modifications of a 
 language, once formed in Asia we .kn«w not and can 
 hardly imagine how, yet a language the existence and 
 reality of which has the full certainty of matters resting 
 on inductive evidence, although it goes back to times 
 when historical chronology borders on the geological eras. 
 
74 
 
 AniAK Familt 
 
 Southern Dmsion 
 
 Kortbem 
 DiTision 
 
 ■o 
 
 
 
 
 ct 
 
 
 ;! 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 t4 
 
 
 ' 
 
 a 
 
 A 
 
 fl 
 
 -p 
 
 
 
 
 S.2 
 
 .2 B 
 
 a 
 
 i> 
 
 o «g 
 
 5 ,5 
 
 
 a 
 
 5 At- 
 
 ^ t5 
 
 o 
 
 •0 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 •W 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 t? 
 
 P 
 
 f^ 
 
 g 
 
 
 u 
 
 o ^ 
 
 I -I 
 
 o-n 
 
 9 
 
 pa.9 W a,20fNm 
 
 2-3 2 I 0^2:^ 
 OfM o o-^ooo , 
 
 ■■§la 
 
 
 
 r<D ■•§■§ 
 
 3 
 o 
 
75 
 
 The third family is the Turanian. It comprises all Turanian 
 languages spoken in Asia or Europe not included under Family, 
 the Arian and Semitic families, with the exception of 
 ■ the Chinese and its dialects. This is, indeed, a very wide 
 range ; and the characteristic marks of union, ascer- 
 tained for this immense variety of languages, are as yet 
 very vague and general, if compared with the definite 
 ties of relationship which severally unite the Semitic and 
 Arian idioms. The common origin of some of these 
 wide-spread idioms has indeed been proved with the same 
 accuracy as that of Sanskrit and Greek, of Hebrew and 
 Arabic : — and languages as widely distant as Hungarian 
 and Finnish, have been traced back conclusively to one 
 common source. Large divisions have thus been esta- 
 blished, and five linguistic districts, the Tungusic, 
 Mongolic, Tataric, Samoiedic and Finnic, have 
 been surveyed and laid down definitely as portions of 
 one vast kingdom of speech. And after the convergence 
 of these five divisions towards tme central point has once 
 been established, it will be difficult to exclude from the 
 same system the other provinces of speech which lie 
 scattered throughout on the map of Asia and Europe. 
 
 The absence of that close family likeness which holds Character 
 the Arian and Semitic languages together, becomes pr^om"ade 
 almost one of the distinguishing features of the Turanian Languages, 
 dialects. They are Nomadic languages as contrasted 
 with the Arian and Semitic dialects, which may be 
 called State or political languages. In the 
 grammatical features of the latter class, we can dis- 
 cover the stamp of one powerful mind, once impressed 
 on the floating materials of speech at the very beginning 
 of their growth, and never to be obliterated again in the 
 course of centuries. Like mighty empires founded by 
 the genius of one man, in which his will is perpetuated 
 as law through generations to come, the Semitic and 
 Arian languages exhibit in all ages and countries a strict 
 historical continuity which makes the idioms of Moses 
 and Mahomet, of Homer and Shakspeare, appear but 
 slightly altered impressions of one original type. Most 
 
76 
 
 words and grammatical forms in these two families seem 
 to have been thrown out but once by the creative power 
 of an individual mind ; and the differences of the various 
 Semitic and Arian languages, whether ancient or modern, 
 were produced, not so much by losses and new creations, 
 as by changes and corruptions which defaced in various 
 ways the original design of these most primitive works 
 of human art. This process of handing down a lan- 
 guage through centuries without break or loss, is possible 
 only among people whose history runs on in one main 
 stream; and where religion, law, and poetry supply 
 well defined borders which hem in on every side the 
 current of language. Thus only can it be explained 
 how, at the present day, the Lithuanian peasant ex- 
 presses, "I am, esmi," with exactly the same root and 
 the same termination which the poet of the Veda used in 
 India four thousand years ago; and how the numerals 
 which we employ, are, as it were, the same coins which 
 were handled by the common ancestors of the Teutons, 
 Greeks, Romans, and Hindus. 
 
 The case is widely different with the Turanian 
 languages. First of all, the area over which they are 
 spoken is much larger than that of the Arian and 
 Semitic dialects. The latter occupy only what may be 
 called the four Western Peninsulas of the great Asiatic 
 continent — India, Arabia, Asia Minor, and Europe; 
 and we have reason to suppose that even these countries 
 were held by Turanian tribes previous to the immigra- 
 tion of the Arian and Semitic races, tip to our own 
 times, by far the greater part of the primeval continent- 
 belongs to the descendants of Tur. But secondly, so 
 far as history can reach back, no lasting nucleus of 
 society or civilization has ever been formed in these vast 
 Turanian wildernesses. Empires were no sooner founded 
 there than they were scattered again like the sand-clouds 
 of the desert ; no laws, no songs, no stories outlived the 
 age of their authors. How quickly language can change 
 if thus left to itself without any standard, and kept up 
 only by the daily wants of a savage life, may be seen 
 
from the endless variety of idioms in America, or on the 
 borders of India, Tibet, and China. There it has hap- 
 pened that colonies from the same village, settled in 
 neighbouring valleys, became mutually unintelligible 
 after one or two generations. If then v^e bear in mind 
 that thousands of years must have elapsed since the first 
 separation of the Finnic and Mongolic races, that for a 
 long time these races possessed nothing like a national 
 or sacred literature, such as the Veda in India, or Homer 
 in Greece, but that the scanty conversation of scattered 
 tribes was the only safeguard for words once fixed to a 
 certain meaning, and forms once coined with a certain 
 value, we may understand why among the descendants 
 of Tur we do not find the same clear traces of linguistic 
 consanguinity as in the Arian and Semitic families, 
 A different method must, therefore, be adopted to bring 
 out the few remaining features that all Turanian 
 dialects share in common, and which, though seem- 
 ingly vague and general, it would be impossible to 
 consider as the result of mere accident. The most 
 necessary substantives, such as father, mother, daughter, 
 son, have frequently been lost and replaced by synonymes 
 in the different branches of this family; yet common 
 words are found, though not with the same consistency 
 and regularity as in Semitic and Arian dialects. The 
 Turanian numerals and pronouns point again to a single 
 original source, yet here again the tenacity of these No- 
 madic dialects cannot be compared with the tenacity of 
 the political languages of Asia and Europe : — while these 
 common roots, discovered in the most distant Nomadic 
 idioms, are mostly of a much more general form and 
 character than the radicals of the Arian and Semitic 
 treasuries. 
 
 But although we do not find, and cannot expect to 
 find, in Nomadic languages material coincidences like 
 those by which the common origin of the Arian branches 
 of speech has been proved, we are struck in them by a 
 similarity of form such as it would be difficult to explaiiji 
 without the admission of common blood running in the 
 
78 
 
 veins of all Turanian dialects. This requires some 
 explanation. 
 Morpho- A reference to the latter stages of the Arian language, 
 
 ioiX"^ may serve to illustrate what is meant by a similarity in 
 cidencesof form between Turanian languages. The grammatical 
 Laru'a'es forms of the Arian languages were fixed but once. 
 Each language, whether Greek or Sanskrit, received 
 them ready made, and preserved them without conscious 
 feeling of the manner in which originally they had 
 been formed. No Roman probably was aware that in 
 amamus, we love, mus was the remnant of a pronoun 
 once attached to the root am a; as little as we suspect 
 that the d in "I loved " was originally an auxiliary 
 verb (to do), added to a root for the purpose of giving 
 it a past sense. Most, if not all, of these grammatical 
 forms had become typical before the common Arian 
 speech was broken up into Sanskrit, Grreek, and the 
 rest. Now, if in place of adopting these grammatical 
 forms, each language had produced them anew from its 
 own materials, it is clear that while the material parts 
 of these new forms might have differed, the principle on 
 which they were composed might still have been the 
 same. Let us take, for instance, the Future of the 
 Romance languages, the formation of which was ex- 
 plained before. We cannot say that this Future 
 j'aimer-ai, I-to-love-have, had become fixed and typical 
 previous to the separation of the Romance dialects, 
 that is to say, at the time when Latin was no longer 
 classical Latin, but not resolved as yet into Italian, 
 French, or Spanish. If this had been the case, the simi- 
 larity between the Future in the six Romance languages, 
 would probably be much greater than it is. Besides, 
 we know for certain that in Froven9al at least the 
 component parts of this new Future had not yet 
 coalesced, but were understood as meaning " I have to 
 love." Here then we have in the later remodelling of 
 the Latin grammar, a coincidence in form analogous to 
 the coincidences which unite the Turanian languages. 
 Each Romance dialect took its own auxiliary verb " to 
 
79 
 
 have," under that peculiar form which it had reached 
 after ceasing to be the Latin " habeo." Hence the mate- 
 rials of which these Futures are formed cannot be said 
 to be the same, nor can be treated as mere corruptions 
 of one original type. Cantero was never chanterai, 
 nor canterei, a modification of canteraggio. Each 
 Romance dialect formed its Future for itself, but all 
 according to the same principle. And this applies to 
 the Turanian languages. The materials employed by 
 each for the production of grammatical forms are gene- 
 rally taken from its own resources ; but the manner of 
 the combination shows a character common to all. To 
 use a homely illustration, the uniforms of the Arian 
 languages are actually made of one and the same piece 
 of cloth and by the same hands, while the uniformity 
 of the Turanian dialects lies not so much in the stuff, 
 as in the cut and make of their dress. 
 
 The most characteristic feature of the Nomadic or The system 
 Turanian languages is called 'Agglutination.' This °.^\?^^' 
 
 o o _ _ "o tinatiou. 
 
 means not only that m their grammars pronouns are 
 glued to the verbs in order to form the conjugation, or 
 prepositions to substantives in order to form declensions. 
 That would not be characteristic of the Turanian lan- 
 guages ; for in Hebrew as well as in Sanskrit, conjuga- 
 tions and declensions were originally formed on the 
 same principle. What distinguishes the Turanian lan- 
 guages is, that in them the conjugation and declension 
 can still be taken to pieces, and although the terminations 
 have by no means retained their significative power as 
 independent words, they felt as modificatory syllables, 
 and distinct from the words to which they are added. 
 In the Arian languages the modifications of words, 
 comprised under declension and conjugation, were like- 
 wise originally expressed by agglutination. But the 
 two component parts began soon to coalesce, so as to 
 form but one word, liable in its turn to phonetic 
 corruption, rendering it impossible after a time to 
 decide which was the root and which the modificatory 
 termination. The difference between a Turanian and 
 
Turanian 
 roots 
 
 80 
 
 an Arian language is somewhat the same as between 
 composing and reading. The compositor puts the s to 
 the end of a word, and looks on the type s in his 
 hand- as producing the change of pound into pounds ; 
 to the reader the s has no separate existence (except on 
 scientific reflection); the whole 'word expresses to him 
 the modified idea, and in his perception the same change 
 is produced in penny and pence aa in pound and 
 pounds. 
 Integrity of The reason why, in the Turanian languages, the 
 termination appears but slightly united to the body of 
 a word is this, — it was felt essential that the radical 
 portion of each word should stand out in distinct relief, 
 and never be obscured or absorbed, as happens so fre- 
 quently in the later stages of political languages. The 
 French dffe, for instance, has lost its whole material 
 body, and is nothing but termination. Age, in Old 
 French, was eage and edage. Edage is a corruption of 
 aetaticum; aetaticum is a derivative of aetas; aetas an 
 abbreviation of aevitas, and in aevum, ae only is the 
 radical portion (the Sanskrit kj-ns), containing the 
 germ from which these various words derive their life 
 and meaning. What trace of ae, or aevum, or aevitas, 
 remains in age? Turanian languages cannot afford to 
 retain such words as a^e in their living dictionaries. 
 It is an indispensable requirement in every Nomadic 
 language that it should be intelligible to many, though 
 their intercourse be but scanty. It requires, tradition, 
 society, and literature to maintain forms which can no 
 longer be analyzed at once, nor the formal elements 
 separated from the base. 
 
 The Arian verb, for instance, contains many forms in 
 which the personal pronoun is no longer felt distinctly. 
 And yet tradition, custom, and law, preserve the com- 
 prehensibity of these veterans, and make us feel un- 
 willing to part with them. But in the evershifting state 
 of a Nomadic society no debased coin can be tolerated in 
 language, no obscure legend accepted on trust. The metal 
 must be pure, and the legend distinct; that the one 
 
81 
 
 may be weighed, and the other, if not deciphered, at 
 least recognized as a well-known guarantee. 
 A Turanian might tolerate the Sanskrit, 
 
 aa-mi, a-si, as-ti, 's-mas, s-tha, Vanti, 
 
 I am, thou art, he is, we are, you are, they are ; 
 
 or even the Latin, 
 
 's-um, e-s, es-t, 'su-mus, es-tis, 'sunt. 
 
 In these instances, with a few exceptions, root and 
 affix are as distinguishable as for instance in Turkish : 
 
 bakar-im, bakar-sin, bakar, 
 
 I regard, thou regardest, he regards, 
 
 bakar-iz, bakar-siniz, bakar-lar. 
 
 we regard, you regard, they regard. 
 
 But a conjugation like the Hindustani, which is a 
 modern Arian dialect, 
 
 hun, hai, hai, liain, ho, hain, 
 
 would not be compatible with the genius of the Turanian 
 languages, because it would not answer the requirements 
 of a Nomadic life. Turanian dialects exhibit, either no 
 terminational distinctions at all, as in Man^u, which 
 is a Turgusic dialect ; or a complete and intelligible 
 system of affixes, as in the spoken dialect of Nyer^insk, 
 equally of Turgusic descent. But a state of conjugation 
 in which, through phonetic corruption, the suffix of the 
 first person singular and plural, and of the third person ' 
 plural are the same, where there is no distinction 
 between the second and third persons singular, and 
 between the first and third persons plural, would neces- 
 sarily lead in a Turanian dialect to the adoption of new 
 and more expressive forms. New pronouns would have 
 to be used to mark the persons, or some other expedient 
 be resorted to for the same purpose. 
 
 But we must not dwell much longer on these general Dirergence 
 features of Turanian languages. All we desire to show oj^"'f°"*° 
 is the fact that dialects whose grammar has not yet 
 
 a 
 
82 
 
 settled down into a solid system, are liable to perpetual 
 changes, and likely to diverge most rapidly if separated 
 for any length of time. A Turanian retains, as it were, 
 the consciousness of his grammar. The idea, for 
 instance, which he connects with a plural is that of a 
 noun followed by a syllable indicative of plurality"; a 
 passive is a verb followed by a syllable expressive of 
 suffering. Now these determinative idfeas may be 
 expressed in various ways. But in one and the same 
 clan, and during one period of time, one suffix would 
 generally become popular, and be assigned to the expres- 
 sion of a single grammatical category, such as the 
 plural, the passive, or the genitive. Thus, out of large 
 mass of possible formations, a small number only 
 would become customai-y and technical, leading finally 
 to a scheme of declension and conjugation such as we 
 find in Turkish and Finnish. Different hordes, how- 
 ever, as they separated, would still feel themselves at 
 liberty to repeat the same process ; thus forming in 
 their different idioms different phases of grammatical 
 life, which, if confined to a single tribe, would naturally 
 have disappeared without leaving any traces. 
 
 In Nomadic languages, therefore, the sudden rise of a 
 family or of a small association may produce an effect 
 which, in political languages, can only be produced by 
 the ascendency of a town or a province, a race or a reli- 
 gious sect. Where so little is fixed, the peculiarities of 
 a rising family may change the whole surface of a lan- 
 guage, and the accent of a successful Khan may leave 
 its stamp on the grammar of all the tribes that follow 
 him. When one of the great Tatar chiefs proceeds on 
 an expedition, he, as Marco Polo tell us in the fourteenth 
 century, puts himself at the head of an army of a hun- 
 dred thousand horse, and organizes them in the following 
 manner. One officer he appoints to the command of 
 every ten men, and others to command a hundred, a 
 thousand, and ten thousand men respectively. Thus, 
 ten of the officers commanding ten men take their orders 
 ft-om him who commands a hundred; of these, each ten 
 
83 
 
 from him who commands a thousand ; and each ten of 
 these latter from him who commands ten thousand. By 
 this arrangement each officer has only to attend to the 
 management of ten men, or ten bodies of men, and the 
 word of command is spread from the Khan to the 
 hundred thousand common soldiers, after passing through 
 not more than four mouths. This is characteristic lin- 
 guistically as well as politically. 
 
 If a language is once fixed by literary works of a Turanian 
 national character, change becomes difficult, nay, impos- Languages 
 sible without ^political convulsions. Where Nomadic ing to an" 
 nations rise to this stage of civilization and political Arian type, 
 organization, their language, though Turanian in its 
 grammar, may approach to the system of political lan- 
 guages, such as Sanskrit or Hebrew. This is indeed 
 the case with the most advanced members of the Tura- 
 nian family, the Turkish and Finnish. Here some 
 terminations have been so much worn out by continual 
 use, and yet not replaced by new syllables, that on this 
 point, the distinction between Turanian and Arian 
 grammar appears to vanish. Yet some characteristic 
 Turanian features are always retained : the root is 
 never obscured ; the determinative syllables are placed 
 at the end ; and the vowels never become so absolutely 
 fixed for each syllable as in Sanskrit or Hebrew. On 
 the contrary, there is a law of harmony, according to 
 which the vowels of eaph word may be changed and 
 modulated so as to harmonise with the key-note struck 
 by its chief vowel. The vowels in Turkish, for instance, 
 are idivided into two classes, sharp and ilat: If a 
 verb contains a sharp vowel in its radical portion, the 
 vowels of the terminations are all sharp, while the 
 same terminations, if following a root with a flat vowel, 
 modulate their own vowels into the flat key. Thus 
 we have sev-mek, to love, but bak-mak, to regard, 
 mek and mak being the termination of the infinitive^ 
 Thus we say, ew-ler, the houses, but at-lar, the horses, 
 ler and lar, being the termination of the plural. 
 
 g2 
 
No Arian or Semitic language has preserved a similar 
 freedom in the harmonic arrangement of its vowels, 
 while traces of it have been found among the most dis- 
 tant members of the Turanian family, as in Hungarian, 
 Mongolian, Turkish, the Yakut, spoken in the North 
 of Siberia, and in dialects spoken on the eastern frontiers 
 of India. 
 
 A number'of words and roots, common to all Tura- 
 nian languages, has been collected by Professor Schott in 
 his Essay " On the Tatarie Languages," 
 
 Tungusic 
 
 Mongolic 
 Branch. 
 
 It would carry us too far were we attempt to pass 
 in review all the languages of the Turanian family. We 
 shall only mention those with which the English Army 
 is likely to be brought into more immediate contact. 
 Hence we may dismiss the whole Tungusic branch, 
 which extends from China northward to Siberia and 
 westward to 113°) where the river Tunguska partly 
 marks its frontier. Though Tungusic tribes in Siberia 
 are under Kussian sway, they are not likely to appear 
 on the theatre of war. The other Tungusic tribes 
 belonging to the Chinese empire, are known by the name 
 of Man^u or Mandshu, a name taken after they had 
 conquered China in 1644, and founded the present 
 Imperial Dynasty. The name Tungus is derived from 
 Donki, which means " men," and by this the Tungusic 
 tribes in Siberia call themselves. Other Tungusic tribes 
 speak of themselves as Boye, which likewise has the 
 original meaning of " people." 
 
 The Mongolic branch also might be passed over for 
 the present, as far as the original seats of the people who 
 speak Mongolic dialects are concerned. These lie near 
 the Lake Baikal and in the eastern parts of Siberia, where 
 we find them as early as the ninth century after Christ. 
 They were divided into three classes, the Mongols 
 proper, the Buriats, and the Olot or Kalmiiks. 
 Z"ingis-khan (1227) united them into a nation and 
 founded the Mongolian Empire, which included however, 
 
85 
 
 not only Mongolic, but Tungusic and Tatario tribes. 
 The name of Tatar soon became the terror of Asia and Origin of 
 Europe, and it was applied promiscuously to all the^/t^-"® 
 Nomadic lyarriors, whom Asia thea poured forth over 
 Europe. Originally Tatar signified the Mongolic races, 
 but through their political ascendency in Asia after 
 jE'ingis-khdn, it became usual to call all the tribes 
 which stood under Mongolian sovereigns by the name of 
 Tatar. In linguistic works Tataric is now used in two 
 several senses, Following the example of writers of 
 the middle ages, Tataric, like Scythian in Greek, has 
 been fixed upon as the general term comprising all 
 languages spoken by the Nomadic tribes of Asia. 
 Hence it is used sometimes in the same sense in which 
 we use Turanian, Secondly, Tatario has become the 
 name of that class of Turanian languages of which the 
 Turkish is the most prominent member. While the 
 Mongolic class — that which in fact has the greatest 
 claims on the name of Tataric — is never thus called, it 
 has become an almost universal custom to apply it to 
 the third branch of the Ultra-Altaic division, because 
 the races belonging to this branch have in many in- 
 stances themselves adopted the name. These Turkish, 
 or as they are more commonly called, Tataric races, 
 were settled already on the northern side of the Caspian 
 Sea, and on the Black Sea, and were known as Romanes, 
 Pe^enegs, and Bulgars, when conquered by the son of 
 Hingis-khan, who founded the KapAakian Empire, 
 extending froni the Dniestr to the Yemba, and the 
 Kirgisian steppes. Russia for two centuries was under 
 the sway of these Khans, known as the Khans of the 
 Golden Horde. This empire was dissolved towards the 
 end of the 15th century, and several smaller royalties 
 rose out of its ruins. Among these Krim, Kasan, and 
 Astrachan, were the most important. The princes of 
 these empires still gloried in their descent from iTmgis- 
 khdn, and had hence a right to the name of Mongols 
 or Tatars. But their armies or subjects also, who wer^ 
 
86 
 
 of Turkish blood, 'received the name of the princes ; 
 and their languages were hence called Tataric, even 
 after they had been brought under the Russian sceptre, 
 and were no longer governed by Khans of Mongolic or 
 Tataric origin. It would perhaps be desirable to use 
 Turkic or Hunnic, instead of Tataric, when speaking 
 of the third branch of the northern division of the 
 Turanian family, did not a change of terminology gene- 
 rally produce as much confusion as it remedies. The 
 recollection of their non-Tataric, i.e. non-Mongolic origin, 
 remains, it appears, among the so called Tatars of 
 Kasan and Astrachan. If asked whether they are 
 Tatars, they reply no; and they call their language 
 Turki or Turuk, but not Tatari. Nay, they consider 
 Tatar as a term of abuse, synonymous with robber, evi- 
 dently from a recollection that their ancestors had once 
 been conquered and enslaved by Mongolic, that is, 
 Tataric tribes. All this rests on the authority of Klap- 
 roth, who during his stay in Russia, had great oppor- 
 tunities of studying the languages spoken on all the 
 frontiers of this half-Asiatic Empire. 
 The Mon- The conquests of the Mongols or the descendants of 
 goUc Hingis -khdn, were not confined however, to these 
 
 conquests. O mi t n^ • • ^ 
 
 Turkish tribes. They conquered Chma m the east, 
 where they founded the Mongolic dynasty of Yuan, and 
 in the west, after subduing the Khalifs of Bagdad, and 
 the Sultans of Iconium, they conquered Moscow, and 
 devastated the greater part of Russia. In 1240 they 
 invaded Poland, in 12il Silesia. Here they recoiled 
 before the united armies of Germany, Poland, and Silesia. 
 They retired into Moravia, and having exhausted this 
 country, occupied Hungary. At that time they had to 
 choose a new Khan, which could only be done at Kara- 
 korum, the old capital of their empire. Thither they 
 withdrew to elect an emperor to govern an empire which 
 then extended from China to Poland, from India to Si- 
 beria. But a realm of such vast proportions could not be 
 long held together, and towards the end of the 1 3th cen- 
 
87' 
 
 tury, it broke up jilto several independent states, all under 
 Mongolian pritices, but no longer under one Khan of 
 Khans. Thus, new independent Mongolio empires arose 
 in China, Turkestan, Siberia, Southern Russia, and; 
 Persia. In 1360, the Mongolian dynasty was driven 
 out of China; in the 1.5th century they lost their hold on 
 Russia. In Central Asia they rallied once more under 
 Timur (1369), whose sway was again acknowledged from 
 Karakorum to Persia and Anatolia. But in 1468, this 
 empire also fell by its own weight, and for want of a 
 powerful ruler like Singis-khdn or Timur. In (ra- 
 gatai alone, the country extending from the Aral Lake 
 to the Hindukush, between the rivers Oxus and Yaxartes,, 
 ((rihon and Sihon)," and once governed by G^agatai, the 
 son of JCingis-khan — the Mongolian dynasty maintained 
 itself, and thence it was that Baber, a descendant of 
 Timur, conquered India, and foimded the Mongolian 
 dynasty, surviving up to our own times as the Great- 
 Moguls of Delhi. Most Mongolic tribes are now under 
 the sway of the nations whom they once had conquered, 
 the Tungusie sovereigns of China, the Russian Czars, and 
 the Turkish Sultans. 
 
 The Mongolic language, although spoken (but not Mongolic 
 o^ptinuously) from China as far as the Volga, has given "'''^'^• 
 rise to but few dialects. Next to Tungusie, the Mon- 
 golic is the poorest language of the Turanian family, and 
 the scantiness of grammatical terminations accounts for 
 the fact that, as a language, it has remained very much 
 unchanged.' There is, however, a distinction between 
 the language as spoken by the Eastern, Western, and 
 Northern tribes, and incipient traces of grammatical life 
 have ktely been discovered by Castren, the great Swedish 
 traveller and Turanian philologist, in the spoken dialect 
 of the Buriats. In it the persons of the verb are dis- 
 tinguished by aflSxes, while according to the rules of 
 Mongolic grammar, no other dialect distinguishes in the 
 verb between amo, amas, amat. 
 
 The Mongols who live in Europe have fixed their 
 tents on each side of the Volga and along the coast of 
 
Languages. 
 
 88 
 
 the Caspian Sea near Astrachan. Another colony is 
 found south-east of Sembirsk. They belong to the 
 Western branch, and are Olot or Kalmiiks, who left 
 their seats on the Koko-nur, and entered Europe in 
 1662. They proceeded from the clans Diirbet and 
 Torgod, but most of the Torgods returned again in 1770, 
 and their descendants are now scattered over the Kir- 
 gisian steppes. 
 Tataric Much more important at the present moment are 
 
 the languages belongmg to the third branch of the 
 Turanian family, most prominent among which is the 
 Turkish or Osmanli of Constantinople. The number 
 of the Turkish inhabitants of European Turkey is 
 indeed small. It is generally stated at 2,000,000 ; but 
 /S'afarik estimates the number of genuine Turks at 
 not more than 700,000, who rule over fifteen millions of 
 people. The different Tataric dialects of which Turkish 
 is one, occupy one of the largest linguistic areas, extending 
 from the Lena and the Polar Sea down to the Adriatic. 
 Turkish or The Turkish of Constantinople is so full of Persian 
 Osmanli. ^jj^ Arabic words, that a Turk from the country finds 
 difiiculty in understanding his master in town. Yet 
 the real stock of the language has changed so little, that 
 a Turk from Tomsk and Yeniseisk in Siberia is said to 
 be able to understand the Turkish of Constantinople if 
 spoken slowly and distinctly, and without admixture of 
 Persian or Arabic words. A well-educated Turk may 
 speak a whole sentence containing no one word of 
 Tataric origin, and even particles and grammatical termi- 
 nations, the last importations ever from one language into 
 another, betray frequently a Persian or Arabic origin. 
 Arabic as the language of Mahomet and the Koran 
 would naturally find its way into the language of the 
 people who adopted that religion. As to Persian, this 
 was long the language of the most civilized and most 
 advanced nation in Asia. In the first centuries of the 
 Islam, Persians were the.teachers of Arabs, and among 
 the early Arabic authors, many names are found of 
 Persian origin. Persian literature again was the only 
 
89 
 
 source whence, in the East, a taste for the more refined 
 branches of poetry could be satisfied, whether through 
 originals or by the medium of translations. In fact, Persian 
 was for a long time the French of Asia, and it is still 
 used there as the language of diplomatic correspondence. 
 Hence many terms connected with literary subjects, or 
 referring to other occupations of a society more ad-, 
 vanced in civilization, are of Persian, i. e. of Arian 
 origin. A knowledge of Persian and Arabic is therefore 
 invaluable to the student of Turkish. 
 
 A list of all Tataric dialects, arranged under three 
 divisions. South-eastern, Northern, and Western, is given 
 at the end of this chapter according to Beresin. 
 
 The most ancient name by which the Turkic tribes Ancient 
 of Central Asia were known to the Chinese, was Hiung- t*^jj,° 
 nu. These Hiung-nu founded an empire (206 b. c.) Tribes, 
 comprising a large portion of Asia, west of China. 
 Engaged in frequent wars with the Chinese, they were 
 defeated at last in the middle of the first, century after 
 Christ. Thereupon they divided into a northern and 
 southern empire ; and after the southern Hiung-nu had 
 become subjects of China, they attacked the northern 
 Hiung-nu together with the Chinese, and, driving them 
 out of their seats between the rivers Amur and Selenga, 
 and the Altai-mountains, westward, they gave the first 
 impulse to the inroads of the Barbarians into Europe. 
 In the beginning of the third century, Mongolic and 
 Tungusic tribes, who had filled the seats of the Northern 
 Hiung-nu, had grown so powerful as to attack the 
 Southern Hiung-nu and drive them from their terri- 
 tories. This occasioned a second migration of Asiatic 
 tribes towards the west. 
 
 Another name by which the Chinese designate these 
 Hiung-nu or Turkish tribes, is Tu-kiu. Tukiu is supposed 
 to be identical with Turk, and although the tribe to 
 which this name was given was originally but small, it 
 began to spread in the sixth century from the Altai to the 
 Caspian, and it was probably to them that in 569 the 
 Emperor Justinian eept an ambassador in the persoji of 
 
90 
 
 Semarchos. The empire of the Tii-kiu was destroyed 
 n the eighth century, by the ffui-ke (Chinese Kao-Ae).' 
 This tribe, equally of Turkish origin, maintained itself 
 for about a century, and was then conquered by the 
 Chinese and driven back from the northern borders 
 of China. Part of the Ilm-he. occupied Tangnt, and 
 after a second defeat by the Mongolians in 1257, the 
 remnant proceeded still further west, and joined the 
 Uigurs, whose tents were pitched near the towns of 
 Turfan, Kasgar, ^amil, and Aksu. 
 
 These facts, gleaned chiefly from Chinese historians, 
 show from the very earliest times the westward ten- 
 dency of the Turkish nations. In 568 Turkish tribes 
 occupied the country between the Volga and the sea of 
 Azov, and numerous reinforcements have since strength- 
 ened their position in those parts. 
 
 Turkmans. fjjg northern part of Persia, west of the Caspian Sea, 
 Armenia, the south of Georgia, /Sirwan, and Dagestan, 
 harbour a Tutaric population, known by the. general 
 name of Turkman or Kisil-bas (Red-caps). They 
 are Nomadic robbers, and their arrival in these countries 
 dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 
 
 East of the Caspian Sea the Turkman tribes are 
 under command of the Usbek-Khans of Khiva, Fer- 
 gana and Bukhara. They call themselves, however, 
 not subjects but guests of these Khans. Still more to 
 the East the Turkmans are under Chinese sovereignty, 
 and in the south-west they reach as far as Khorasan 
 and other provinces of Persia. 
 
 Usbeks. The Usbeks, descendants of the JIay-he and Uigurs, 
 
 and originally settled in the neighbourhood of the towns 
 of lloteu, Kasgar, Turfan, and ^'amM, crossed the 
 Yaxartes in the sixteenth century, and after several suc- 
 cessful campaigns gained possession of Balkh, Kharism 
 (Khiva), Bukhdra, and Ferganah. In the latter country 
 and in Balkh, they have become agricultural ; but gene- 
 rally their life is nomadic," and too warlike to be called 
 pastoral. 
 Nogais. Another Turkish tribe are the Nogai, west of the 
 
91 
 
 Caspian, ahd also north of the Black Sea. To the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century they lived north- 
 east of the Caspian, and the steppes on the left of the 
 Irti» bore their name. Pressed by the Kalmiiks, a 
 Mongolio tribe, the Nogdis advanced westward as far as 
 Astrachan. Peter I. transferred them thence to the 
 north of the Caucasian mountains, where they still graze 
 their flocks on the shores of the Kuban and the Kuma. 
 Their chief clans are the Kasbulat, KipAak, Mangut, 
 Yedisan, ©ambulat, Yedikul and Naurus. Between the 
 rivers Sots and Laba, the Mansur-ogli, and between the 
 Terek and Kuma, the Kara-Nogai, Yedikul, Yedisan, 
 and G'ambulat. One horde, that of Kundur, remained 
 on the Volga, subject to the Kalmiiks. 
 
 Another tribe of Turkish origin in the Caucasus are Bazianes. 
 the Bazianes. They now live near the sources of the 
 Kuban, but before the fifteenth century within the town 
 Ma^ari, on the Kuma. 
 
 A third Turkish tribe in the Caucasus are the Knmllks. 
 Kuraiiks on the rivers Sun^a, Aksai, and Koisu : now 
 subjects of Russia though under native princes. 
 
 A grammar of Tataric dialects, as spoken in the 
 Caucasus, was published at Tiflis in 1848 by Makarow. 
 It is written in Russian. An account of it is given 
 by Professor Boehtlingk in the Melanges Asiatiques, i., 
 p. 127. It comprises the dialects of the Nogais, the 
 Kumiiks of Aderbi^an, with others : — showing where 
 they deviate in pronunciation or grammatical pecu- 
 liarities from the general rules of Turkish or Tataric 
 grammar. 
 
 The southern portion of the Altaic mountains has Ba«kirs. 
 long been inhabited by the Baskirs, a race considerably 
 mixed with Mongolic blood, savage and ignorant, sub- 
 jects of Russia, and Mahometans by faith. Their land 
 is divided into four Roads, called the Roads of Siberia, 
 that of Kasan, of Nogai, and of Osa, a place on the 
 Kama. Among the Baskirs, and in villages near Ufa, 
 is now settled a Turkish tribe, the Me«^eraks who 
 formerly lived near the Volga. 
 
a2 
 
 The tribes near the Lake of Aral are called Kara^ 
 
 Kalpak^ They are subject partly to Eussia, partly to 
 
 the Khans of Khiva. 
 
 Tatars of The Turks of Siberia, commonly called Tatars, are 
 
 Siberia, partly original settlers, who crossed the Ural, and 
 
 founded the Khanat of Sibir, partly later colonists. 
 
 Their chief towns are Tobolsk, Yeniseisk, and Tomsk. 
 
 Separate tribes are the UranAat on the ^ulym, and the 
 
 Barabas in the steppes between the Irtis and the Ob. 
 
 The dialects of these Siberian Turks are considerably 
 intermingled with foreign words, taken from Mongolic, 
 Samoi'edic or Russian sources. Still they resemble one 
 another closely in all that belongs to the original stock 
 of the language. 
 Yakuts. In the north-east of Asia, on both sides of the river 
 
 Lena, the Yakuts form the most remote link in the 
 Tataric chain of languages. Their male population has 
 lately risen to 100,000, while in 1795 it amounted only 
 to 50,066. The Russians became first acquainted with 
 them in 1620. They call themselves Sakha, and are 
 mostly heathen, though Christianity is gaining ground 
 among them. According to their traditions, their an- 
 cestors lived for a long time in company with Mongolic 
 tribes, and traces of this can still be discovered in their 
 language. Attacked by their neighbours, they built 
 rafts and floated down the river Lena, where they 
 settled in the neighbourhood of what is now Yakutzk, 
 Their original seats seem to have been north-west of 
 Lake Baikal. Their language has preserved the Tataric 
 type more completely than any other Turco-Tataric 
 dialect. Separated from the common stock at an early 
 time, and removed from the disturbing influences to 
 which the other dialects were exposed, whether in war 
 or in peace, the Yakutic has preserved so many primitive 
 features of Tataric grammar, that even now it may be 
 used as a key to the grammatical forms of the Osmanli 
 and other more cultivated Tataric dialects. 
 
 Southern Siberia is the mother country of the Kirgis, 
 one of the most numerous tribes of Turco-tataric origin. 
 
 Kirgis, 
 
93 
 
 Tho Kirgis lived originally between the Ob and Yenisei^ 
 where Mongolio" tribes settled among them. At the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century the Russians 
 became acquainted with the Eastern Kirgis, then 
 living along the Yenisei. In 1606 they had become 
 tributary to Russia, and after several wars with two 
 neighbouring tribes, were driven more and more south- 
 westward, till they left Siberia altogether at the be* 
 ginning of the eighteenth century. They now live at 
 Burut, in Chinese Turkestan, together with the Kirgis 
 of the " Great Horde," near the town of Ka^gar, north 
 as far as the Ivtis. 
 
 Another tribe is that of the Western Kirgis, or 
 Kirgis-Kasak, who are partly independent, partly tri- 
 butary to Russia and China. 
 
 Of what are called the three Kirgis Hordes, from 
 the Caspian Sea East as far Lake Tenghiz, the Small 
 Horde is fixed in the West, between the rivers Yemba 
 and Ural; the Great Horde in the East; while the 
 most powerful occupies the centre between the Sarasu 
 and Yemba, and is called the Middle Horde. Since 
 1819 the Great-Horde has been subject to Russia. Other 
 Kirgis tribes, though nominally subject to Russia, are 
 really her most dangerous enemies. 
 
 The Turks of Asia Minor and Syria came from Turks of 
 Khorasan and Eastern Persia, and are Turkman, or ^^V* ^'"™ 
 remnants of the Sel^uks, the rulers of Persia during the Europe. 
 Middle Ages. The Osmanli, whom we are accustomed 
 to call Turks par excellence, and who form the 
 ruling portion of the Turkish empire, must be traced to 
 the same source. They are now scstttered over the whole 
 Turkish empire in Europe, Asia and Africa, and their 
 number -amounts to between eleven and twelve millions. 
 They form the landed gentry, the aristocracy, and 
 bureaucracy of Turkey, and their language, the Osmanli, 
 is spoken by persons of rank and education, and by all 
 government authorities in Syria, in Egypt, at Tunis, 
 and at Tripoli. In the southern provinces of Asiatic 
 Russia, along the borders of the Caspian, and through 
 
Osmanlis. 
 
 94. 
 
 the whole of Turkestan, it is the language of the people. 
 It is heard even at the Court of Teheran, and understood 
 by official personages in Persia. 
 Rise of the The rise of this powerful tribe of Osman, and the 
 spreading of that Turkish dialect which is now empha- 
 tically called the Turkish, are matters of historical 
 notoriety. We need not search for evidence in Chinese 
 annals, or try to discover analogies between names 
 that a Greek or an Arabic writer may by chance 
 have heard and handed down to us, and which some 
 of these tribes have preserved to the present day. 
 The ancestors of the Osman Turks are men as well 
 known to European historians as Charlemagne or Alfred. 
 It was in the year 1224 that Soliman-shah and his 
 tribe, pressed by Mongolians, left Khorasan and pushed 
 westward into Syria, Armenia, and Asia Minor. Soli- 
 man's son, Ertoghrul, took service under Aladdin, the 
 Sel^uk-Sultan of Iconium (Nicaea), and after several 
 successful campaigns against Greeks and Mongolians, 
 received part of Phrygia as his own, and there founded 
 what was afterwards to become the basis of the Osmanic 
 empire. During the last years of the thirteenth century 
 the Sultans of Iconium lost their power, and their former 
 vassals became independent sovereigns. Osman, after 
 taking his share of the spoil in Asia, advanced ihrough 
 the Olympic passes into Bithynia and was successful 
 against the armies of the Emperors of Byzantium : — 
 and Osman became henceforth the national name of his 
 people. His son, Orkhan, whose capital was Prusa 
 (Bursa), after conquering Nicomedia (1327), and Nicaea 
 (1330), threatened the Hellespont, He took the title of 
 Padishah, and his court was called the " High Porte." 
 His son, Soliman, crossed the Hellespont (1357), and 
 took possession of Gallipoli and Sestos. He thus became 
 master of the Dardanelles. Murad I. took AdrJanople, 
 1362, made it hie capital, conquered Macedonia, and 
 after a severe struggle, overthrew the united forces of the 
 Slavonic races, south of the Danube, the Bulgarians, 
 Servians, and Kroatitoe, in the batUe of Kossova-polye 
 
95 
 
 (1389). He fell himself, but his successor Bayazeth, 
 followed his course, took Thessaly, passed Thermopylae, 
 and devastated the Peloponnesos. The Emperor of 
 Germany, Sigismund, who advanced at the head of an 
 array, composed of French, German and Slavonic sol- 
 diers, was defeated by Bayazeth on the Danube in the 
 battle of Nicopolis, 1399. Bayazeth took Bosnia, and 
 would have taken Constantinople, had not the same Mon- 
 golians, who in 1244! drove the first Turkish tribes west- 
 ward into Persia, threatened again their newly acquired 
 possessions. Timur had grasped the reins, fallen from 
 from the hands of ^ingis-khdn : Bayazeth was com- 
 pelled to meet him, and suffered defeat (1402) in the 
 battle of Angora (Ankyra) in Galatia. 
 
 Europe now had respite, but not long ; Timur died, 
 and with him his empire fell to pieces, while the 
 Osmanic army rallied again under Mahomet I. (1413), 
 and re-attained its former power under Murad 11.(1421.) 
 Successful in Asia, Murad sent his armies back to the 
 Danube, and after long continued campaigns, and power- 
 ful resistance from the Hungarians and Slaves under 
 Hunyad, he at last gained two decisive victories ; Varna 
 in 1444, -and Kossova in 1448. Constantinople could 
 no longer be held, and the Pope endeavoured in vain 
 to rouse the chivalry of Western Europe to a crusade 
 against the Turks. Mahomet II, succeeded in 145 J, 
 and on the 26th of May, 1453, Constantinople, after a 
 valiant resistance, fell and became the capital of the 
 Turkish empire. 
 
 Four hundred years have since elapsed, and it is now 
 no longer the power, but the weakness of the Turks, 
 which forms the terror of Europe. The vacuum which 
 was created by the decay of the Byzantine empire, 
 in the political system of Europe, filled for a time by 
 the Turks, begins to make itself felt again, and con- 
 comitant pressure from all sides has brought on the 
 events we are called to witness. 
 
 It is no «asy matter to acquire a perfect knowledge 
 
96 
 
 of Turkish. In order to speak, to read, and to write 
 it with ease, elegance, and correctness, we must in reality 
 learn three languages, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, 
 each built on a different system of grammar, the Arabic 
 belonging to the Semitic, the Persian to the Arian, and 
 the Turkish to the Turanian family of speech. But 
 few, even of the most learned Turks, command this full 
 knowledge of their language, no more perhaps than in 
 England possess a knowledge of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, 
 and Norman-French. Divested of its foreign elements, 
 few languages are so easy, so intelligible, and I might 
 almost say, so amusing as Turkish. It is real pleasure 
 to read the Turkish grammar, even though one may 
 have no wish to acquire it practically. But the inge- 
 nious manner in which the numerous grammatical forms 
 are brought out, the regularity which pervades the 
 system of declension and conjugation, the transparency 
 and intelligibility of the whole structure must strike all 
 who have a sense for that wonderful power of the human 
 mind which has displayed itself in language. Given 
 so small a number of graphic and demonstrative roots 
 as would not sufiSce to express the commonest wants of 
 human beings, and to produce an instrument that shall 
 render the faintest shades of feeling and thought; — given 
 a vague infinitive or a stern imperative, — and to derive 
 from it such moods as an optative or subjunctive, and 
 tenses as an Aorist or Paulo-post Future ; — given inco- 
 herent utterances, and to arrange them into a system 
 where all is uniform and regular, all combined and har- 
 monious — such is the work of the human mind which 
 we see realized in " language." But in most languages 
 nothing of this early process remains visible, and we 
 hardly know whether to call them the work of nature 
 or of art. They stand before us like solid rocks, and 
 the microscope of the philologist alone can reveal the 
 remains of organic life which compose them. 
 Turkish But in the grammar of the Tataric languages we 
 
 nave before us a language of perfectly transparent struc- 
 ture, and a grammar whose inner workings we can 
 
 Grammar, 
 
97 
 
 study, as if watching the building of cells in a crystal 
 beehive. An eminent Orientalist remarked " we might 
 imagine Turkish to be the result of the deliberations 
 of some eminent society of learned men ;" but no such 
 society could have devised what the mind of man pro- 
 duced, left to itself in the steppes of Tatary, and guided 
 only by its innate laws, or by an instinctive power as 
 wonderful as any within the realm of nature. 
 
 Let us examine a few forms. " To love," in the Turkish 
 most general sense of the word, or love, as a root, is in "^n"^** 
 Turkish sev. This does not yet mean "to love," which 
 is sevmek, or "love" as a substantive, which is sevgu, 
 or sevi; but it only expresses the general quality of 
 loving in the abstract. This root, as we remarked 
 before, can never be touched. Whatever syllables may 
 be added for the modification of its meaning, the root 
 itself must stand out in full prominence like a pear] 
 set in diamonds. It must never be changed or broken, 
 assimilated or modified, as in the English I fall, I fell, 
 I take, I took, I think, I thought, and many" similar. 
 With this one restriction, however, we are free to treat 
 it at pleasure. 
 
 Let us suppose we possessed nothing like our con- 
 jugation, but had to express such ideas as I love, thou 
 lovest, and the rest for the first time arising in the mind. 
 Nothing would seem more natural now than to form 
 an adjective or a participle, meaning " loving," and 
 then add the different pronouns, as I loving, thou 
 loving, &c. Exactly this the Turks have done. We 
 need not inquire at present how they produced what 
 we call a participle. It was a task by no means facile as 
 we now conceive it, nor is it possible in every case to 
 trace a process essentially complicated. In Turkish, 
 one participle, corresponding to ours in ing, is formed 
 by er. Sev + er, would, therefore, mean lov+er or 
 lov + ing. Thou in Turkish is sen, and as all modifi- 
 catory syllables are placed at the end of the root, we 
 get sev-er-sen, thou lovest. You in Turkish is siz; 
 hence sev-er-siz, you love. In these cases the pronouns 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 and tjifi terminations of the verb coincide exaetly. In 
 other persons the coincidcfices are less complete, because 
 the pronominal terminations have sometimes been modi- 
 fied, or, as in the third person singular, sever, dropped 
 altogether as unnecessary. A reference to other cognate 
 languages, however, where either the terminations or the 
 pronouns themselves have maintained a more primitive 
 form, enables us to say that in the original Tatarjc verb, 
 all persons of the present were formed by means of pro- 
 nouns appended to this participle sever. Instead of 
 " I love, thou lovest, he loves," the Tataric gramma- 
 rian says, " lover-I, lover-thou, lover." 
 
 But these personal terminations are not the same 
 in the imperfect as in the present. 
 
 PRESENT. IMPERFECT. 
 
 Seyer-im I love sever-di-m, I loved, 
 
 Sever-sen sever-di-n*. 
 
 Sever sever-di. 
 
 Sever-iz sever-di^k (miz). 
 
 Sever-siz sever-di-n"iz, 
 
 Sever-ler sever-di-ler. 
 
 We need not inquire as yet into the origin of the di, 
 added to form the imperfect ; but it should be stated 
 that in the first person plural of the imperfect, a various 
 reading occurs in other Tatario dialects, and that miz is 
 used there instead of k. Now, looking at these termi- 
 nations m, n-, i, miz, n-iz, and ler, we find that they are 
 exactly the same as the possessive pronouns used after 
 nouns'. As the Italian says fratel-mo, my brother, and 
 as in Hebrew we can say El-i, God (of) I, i. e. my God, 
 the Tatario languages form the phrases " my house, thy 
 house, his house," by possessive pronouns appended to 
 substantives. A Turk says,— 
 
 B^hsi, father, ba,ba-m, my father 
 
 Agha, lord, agha n; thy lord. 
 
 El, hand, el-i, his hjmd. 
 
 0"hlu, son, o""hlu-muz, our son. 
 
99: 
 
 Ana, mother, an^m'iz, your itiolher. 
 Kitab, book, . kitab-leri, their book. 
 
 We may hence infer that in the imperfect these' 
 pronominal terminatibns were originally taken in a 
 possessive sense, and that, therefore, what remains after 
 the personal terminations are removed, sever-di, was, 
 never an adjective or a participle, but must have been 
 cfiginally a siibstajiti've capable of receiving terminal 
 possessive pronouns ; that is, the idea originally expressed 
 by the imperfect could not have been "loving-I," but 
 " love of me." 
 
 How then, could this convey the idea of a past tense 
 as contrasted with the present ? Let us look to our own 
 language. If desirous to express the perfect, we say, I, 
 have loved, j^ai aime. This " I have," meant originally, 
 I possess, and in Latin "amicus quem amatuni habeb," 
 signified in fact a friend whom I hold dear, — not as yet, 
 whom I heme lovedi Jn the course of time, however, 
 these phrases, " I have said, I have loved'," took the sense 
 of the perfect, and of time past — and not unnaturally, 
 inasmuch as what I hold, . or have done, is done ; — 
 ddHej as we say, and past. In place of an auxiliary 
 possessive verb, the Tatario language uses an auxiliary 
 possessive pronoun to the same effect. ',' Paying .be- 
 longing to ine," equals "I have paid;" in either case 
 a phrase originally possessive, took a tempdral significa- 
 tiohi alid became a past or perfect tense.' This, MweV^r, 
 is the very anatomy of grammar, and when a Turk says 
 "severdim" he is, of course, as unconscious of i^s literal 
 force, " loving belonging to me," as of the circulation of 
 his blood. Leaving, therefore, these analyticarnicetitss, 
 and the earlier stage of the Turanian speech, we proceed 
 to a rapid glance at some' of its further developments. * ' 
 
 The most ingenious part of Turkish is undoubtedly 
 the veri)^ Like Gfreek arid Sanskrit;, it exhibits a vari^fy 
 of moods and tenses, sufficient to express the nicest 
 sliades of doubt, of surmise, of hope, and suppositioii'. 
 In all these forriis the" root remains intact, and §{)iinds 
 
100 
 
 like a key-note through all the various modulations 
 produced by the changes of person, number, mood, and 
 time. But there is one feature so peculiar to the 
 Turkish verb, that no analogy can be found in any of 
 the Arian languages — ^the power of producing new roots 
 by the mere addition of certain letters, which give to 
 every verb a negative, or causative, or reflexive, or reci- 
 procal meaning. 
 
 Sev-mek, for instance, as a simple root, means to 
 love. By adding in, we obtain a reflexive verb, sev-in- 
 mek, which means to love oneself, or rather, to rejoice, 
 to be happy. This may now be conjugated through all 
 moods and tenses, sevin being in every respect equal to 
 a new root. By adding ish we form a reciprocal verb, 
 sev-ish-mek, to love one another. 
 
 To each of these three forms a causative sense may be 
 imparted by the addition of the syllable dir. Thus, 
 I. sev-mek, to love, becomes iv, sev-dir-mek, to 
 
 cause to love. 
 II. sev-in-mek, to rejoice, becomes v, sey-in-dir- 
 
 mek, to cause to rejoice. 
 III. sev-ish-mek, to love one another, becomes vi, 
 sev-ish-dir-mek, to cause one to love one another. 
 
 Each of these six forms may again be turned into a 
 passive by the addition of il. Thus, 
 
 I. sev-mek, to love, becomes vii, sev-il-mek, to be 
 
 loved. 
 II. sev-in-mek, to rejoice, becomes viii, sev-in-il- 
 mek, to be rejoiced at, 
 
 III. sev-ish-mek, to love one another, becomes ix, 
 sev-ish-il-ifiek, not translatable. 
 
 IV. sev-dir-mek, to cause one to love, becomes ix, sev- 
 dir-il-mek, to be brought to love. 
 
 I V. sev-in-dir-mek, to cause to rejoice, becomes xi, 
 
 sev-in-dir-il-mek, to be made to rejoice. 
 VI. sev-ish-dir-mek, to cause one to love one ano- 
 ther, becomes xii, sev-ish-dir-il-mek, to be 
 brought to love one another. 
 
101 
 
 This, however, is by no means the whole verbal 
 contingent at the command of a Turkish grammarian. 
 Every one of these twelve secondary or tertiary roots 
 may again be turned into a negative by the mere addition 
 of me. Thus, sev-mek, to love, becomes sev-me- 
 mek, not to love. And if it is necessary to express the 
 impossibility of loving, the Turk has a new root at hand 
 to convey even that idea. Thus while sev-me-mek 
 denies only the fact of loving, sev-eme-mek, denies its 
 possibility, and means not to be able to love. By the 
 addition of these two modificatory syllables, the num- 
 bers of derivative roots is at once raised to thirty-six. 
 Thus, 
 
 I. sev-mek, to love, becomes xiir, sev-me-mek, 
 
 not to love. 
 II. sev-in-mek, to rejoice, becomes xiv, sev-in-me- 
 mek, not to rejoice. 
 
 III. sev-ish-mek, to love one another, becomes xv, 
 sev-ish-me-mek, not to love one another. 
 
 IV. sev-dir-mek, to cause to love, becomes xvi, sev- 
 dir-me-mek, not to cause one to love. 
 
 v. sev-in-dir-mek, to cause to rejoice, becomes xvii, 
 sev-in-dir-me-mek, not to cause one to rejoice. 
 
 VI. sev-ish-dir-mek, to cause one to love one ano- 
 ther, becomes xviii, sev-ish-dir-me-mek, not to 
 cause one to love one another. 
 
 VII. sev-il-mek, to be loved, becomes xix, sev-il- 
 
 me-mek, not to be loved, 
 viu. sev-in-il-mek, to be rejoiced at, becomes xx, 
 sev-in-il-me-mek, not to be the object of rejoicing. 
 
 IX. sev-ish-il-mek, if it was used, would become xxr, 
 sev-ish-il-me-mek; neither form being trans- 
 latable. 
 X. sev-dir-il-mek, to be brought to love, becomes 
 XXII sev-dir-il-me-mek, not to be brought to 
 
 love. " _ 
 
 XI. sev-in-dir-il-mek, to be made to rejoice, be- 
 comes xxiii, sev-in-dir-il-me-mek, not to be 
 made to rejoice. 
 
102 
 
 XII. sev'isli-dir-il-me.k, to-be brought to loye one 
 another, becomes xxiv, sev-ish-diB-il-me-mek, 
 not to be brought to love one auothieir. 
 
 Some of these forms are of course of rare occurrencej* 
 
 aiid with many verbs these derivative roots, though 
 
 possible grammatically, wowld be logically impossible.* 
 
 ^Elven a verb like 'to love,' perhaps the most pliant- of 
 
 all, resists some of the modifications to which a Turkish 
 '' ■ ' ■ ■ '■ - >i 
 
 grammarian is fain to si^bieot it. It is clear, however,^ 
 
 tbat wherever a negation can be formed, the idea of impos- 
 sibility also pan be superadded, so that by substituting 
 eme for me, we should raise the number of derivative 
 roots to thirty-six. The very last of these, xxxvi, sev- 
 ish-dir-ii-eme-mek woald ,be pei-feotly intelligible, 
 and might be used, for instance, at the present moftient, 
 if, in speaking of the Sultan and the Czar, we wished to 
 say, that it was impossible that .they should b& brought 
 f64o*'e; one another. ■ ; "i'o ■ ' 
 
 „, , Qy^t review Qfthe languages of the seatjof war in the 
 East might here be plpsed, beC|aiise the next, branch of 
 tlie Turaiiiao family, the Fininic, carries us up so far to 
 the north of Europe, and Asia^ that, we may .hope 
 no European army will haye to march tliere. But 
 Vfhile the army in the South will probably never 
 exchange words with a Finn, mao-y of the inhal^tants 
 ,of .the._ Baljtic coast, wHh whom the 'fleets will hav* 
 before long to exchange shots, belong to this division of 
 <^e Turanian race. And indeed so wide and wayward 
 have b,eeB the. migration^ of this family, tlj^t its scattered 
 membfirs, -^ Ma^yjyjs or Hytngarians oo , the Middle 
 .Pafli^bfi, and pifltHs. gjid Lapps on, the Northern Gfulf, 
 touch either extreme 'on the vast line of the allied 
 opera,tions» W^ shall th^r^^re add a few words on. these 
 .^^tions ai;^ thei^ ewly wanderings., .'-'.'' 
 
 Finnic It ig generally supposed that the origineiJl spat of 
 
 jti^ije Ei,nqi,q tribes was in the Ural naonntains, anid their 
 .l^nguagqg have been _ therefore called Uralic. From 
 this centre they spread east and west : and ^out^hward 
 
103 
 
 in ancient timesr, even to the Black Sea, where Finnic 
 tribes, together with MongoHc and Tataric, were pro-- 
 bably known to th© Greeks under the comprehensive 
 and convenient name of Scythians, As we possess no 
 literary documents of any of these Nomadic nations, it is 
 impassible to say, even where Greek writers have pre- 
 served their barbarous nanjes, to tvhat branch of the 
 vast Turanian fatmily they belonged. Their habits were 
 pobably identical before the Christian era, during the 
 Middle Ages, and at th® present day. One tribe takes 
 possession of a tract and retains it perhaps for several 
 generations, and gives its name td the meadows where it 
 tends its flocks, and to the rivers where the horses are 
 watered. If the country be fertile, it will attract the 
 eye of other tribes; wars begin, and if resistance be 
 hopeless, hundreds of families fly from their paternal 
 pastures, to migrate perhaps for generations, — for "migra- 
 tion they find a more natural life than permanent habita- 
 tion, — and after a time we may rediscover their names 
 a thousand miles distant. Or two tribes will carry on 
 their Warfare for ages,, till with reduced nftnubers botk 
 have perhaps to make common cause against some new 
 enemy. 
 
 During' th-ese continjied struggles tkeir languagesi lose 
 as many words as men are killed on the field of battle. 
 Some words (we might say) go' over, others are made 
 prisoner^, and exchanged aigain during times of peace. 
 Besides, there are parleys and challenges, and at last a 
 dialect is produced which may very properly be called a 
 langufage of the camp, — (Urdu^zeb^, campi-langaage, is 
 the proper name of Hindustani, formed in the armies of 
 the Mogol-emperors) — but where it is diffieult for the. 
 philologfet to arrange the living and tot mimber the 
 slain, uftless some salient points of grammar have beeH^ 
 preserved' throughout the medley. We saw bow a 
 number of tribes may be at times suddenly gathered- 
 by the command of a Hingis-khan or Timur, like 
 bil'l'ows heaving and swelling at the call of a thunder- 
 storm-. One such wa,v& roliing on from- |CarakoBum- 
 
104 
 
 Four 
 Divisions 
 of the 
 Finnic 
 Branch. 
 
 to Liegnitz may sweep away all the sheepfolds and 
 landmarks of centuries, and when the storm is over, 
 a thin crust will, as after a flood, remain, concealing the 
 underlying stratum of people and languages. Geologists 
 tell us that beneath a layer of gravel, granite rocks are 
 often concealed. And thus when we set aside the 
 family name of Tatar, conferred by the princes of the 
 house of Hingis-khan on the tribes of the Black Sea 
 and Siberia, we recognize the tribes themselves as in- 
 dubitably and purely Turkish. 
 
 On the evidence of language, the Finnic stock is 
 divided into four branches, 
 
 The Knik, 
 The Bulgaric, 
 The Permic, 
 The Ugric. 
 
 The Kudic 
 Branch. 
 
 The Kuiio branch comprises the Finnic of the Baltic 
 coasts. The name is derived from Kud (Tchud) originally 
 applied by the Russians to these Finnic nations in the 
 north-west of Russia. Afterwards it took a more general 
 sense, and was used almost synonymously with Scythian 
 for all the tribes of Central and Northern Asia. The 
 The Finns. Finns, properly so called, or as they call themselves 
 Suomalainen, i. e., inhabitants of fens, are settled in the 
 provinces of Finland, (formerly belonging to Sweden, 
 but since 1809 annexed to Russia,) and in parts of the 
 governments of Archangel and Olonetz. Their number is 
 1,521,515. The Finns are governed by Russia with some 
 moderation, and their country, though apparently more 
 swamp than soil, yields an annual surplus of revenue. 
 The Finns are the most advanced of their whole family, 
 and are, the Magyars excepted, the only Finnic race that 
 can claim a station among the civilized and civilizing 
 nations of the world. Their literature and, above all, 
 their popular poetry bear witness to a high intellectual 
 development in times which we may call mythical, and 
 in places more favourable to the glow of poetical feelings 
 than their present abode, the last refuge Europe could 
 
105 
 
 afford them. These songs still live among the poorest, 
 recorded by oral tradition alone, and preserving all the 
 features of a perfect metre and of a more ancient lan- 
 guage. A national feeling has lately arisen amongst the 
 Finns, despite, of Russian supremacy, and the labours of 
 Sjogern, Lonnrot, Castren, and Kellgren, receiving hence 
 a powerful impulse, have produced results truly sur- 
 prising. From the mouths of the aged an epic poem has 
 been collected equalling the Iliad in length and complete- 
 ness, nay, if we can forget for a moment all that we in 
 our youth learned to call beautiful, not less beautiful, 
 A Finn is not a Greek, and Wainamoinen was not a 
 Homer. But if the poet may take his colours from that 
 nature by which he is surrounded, if he may depict the 
 men with whom he lives, " Kalewala " possesses merits 
 not dissimilar from the Iliad, and will claim its place as 
 the fifth national epic of the world, side by side with the 
 Ionian songs, with, the Mahabharata, the Shah-nameh, 
 and the Nibelunge. This early literary cultivation has 
 not been without a powerful influence on the language. 
 It has imparted permanency to its form and a traditional 
 character to its words, so that at first sight we might 
 almost doubt whether the grammar of this language had 
 not left the agglutinative stage, and entered into the cur- 
 rent of inflection, with Greek or Sanskrit. The agglutina- 
 tive type, however, yet remains, and its grammar shows a 
 luxuriance of grammatical combination second only to 
 Turkish and Hungarian, Like Turkish it observes the 
 "harmony of vowels," a feature peculiar to Turanian 
 languages, as explained before. 
 
 Karelian and Tavastian are dialectical varieties of 
 Finnish. - 
 
 The present civilization of Finland, its schools and 
 university (Helsingfors), its literature and government, 
 are rather of Teutonic than of indigenous growth. But 
 traces of the Finnic character are visible amongst the 
 existing race. A tone of sad resignation, broken by 
 fantastic wildness, runs through their literature, and me- 
 ditativeness has almost become their national character. 
 
106 
 
 The Estho- The Esths or Esthonians, neighbouring on the Finns, 
 mans. gpeak a language closely allied to the Finnish. It is 
 divided into the dialects of Dorpat (in Livonia,) and 
 Reval. Except some popular songs it is almost without 
 literature. Esthonia together vnth Livonia and Kurland 
 form the three Baltic provinces of Russia. The popula- 
 tion on the islands of the Gulf of Finland is mostly 
 Esthonian. In the higher ranks of society Esthonian is 
 hardly understood, and never spoken. 
 The Livo- Besides the Finns and Esthonians, theLivonians and 
 mans. ^^ Laps must be reckoned also amongst the same family^ 
 Their number, however, is small. The population of 
 Livonia consists chiefly of EstbSi Letts, Russians and 
 Germans. The number of Livonians speaking their own 
 dialect is not more than 5000. 
 The Lap. The Laps or Laplanders inhabit the most Northern 
 
 ^° ^"' part of Europe. They belong to Sweden and to Russia. 
 Their number is estimated at 28,000. Their language 
 has lately received much attention, and Castren's travels 
 give a description of their manners most interesting 
 from its simplicity and faithfulness. 
 The Bui- We need not dwell on the Bulgaric branch. This 
 
 Branch. comprises the ^eremissians and Mordvinians, scattered 
 in disconnected colonies along the Volga, and sur- 
 rounded by Russian and Tatarie dialects. Both lan- 
 guages are extremely artificial in their grammar, and 
 allow an accumulation of pronominal affixes at the end 
 of verbs, surpassed only by the Bask, the Caucasian, and 
 those American dialects that have been called Poly- 
 synthetic. 
 
 The general name given to these tribes, Bulgaric, 
 is not borrowed from Bulgaria, the present seat of war,' 
 Bulgaria, on the contrary, received its name (replacing 
 Moesia) from the Finnic armies by whom it was con- 
 quered in the seventh century. Bulgarian tribes ad- 
 vanced from the Volga to the Don, and after a period, 
 passed under the sovereignty of the Avars, on the'I>on' 
 and Dniepr, adVaticing to the Danube in 635, they ' 
 founded the Bulgarian krngdfom'. TMs has retained its 
 
107 
 
 name to the present day, though the Finnic Bulgarians 
 have long been absorbed by SlaroHnic inhabitants, and 
 both brought under Turkish sway since 1392. 
 
 The third branch also, Permic,- concerns us little* The Permic 
 It comprises the idioms of the Votiakes, the Sirianes, ^'■a°<=h. 
 and the Pemsiaus, three dialects of one language. 
 Perm was the ancient name for the country between 
 61°_^6° E. L., and ' 55°— 65°, N. L. The Permic 
 tribes were driven westward, by their eastern neighbours, 
 the Voguls, and thus pressed upon their western neigh- 
 bours,* the Bulgars of the Volga. The Votiakes, are 
 found between the rivers Vyatka and Kama. North- 
 warlis follow the Sirianes, inhabiting the country on 
 the'tTpper Kama, while the Eastern portion is held by 
 the Permians. ' These are surrounded on the south by 
 the Tatars of Orenburg and the 'Baskirs ; on the north 
 by the Samoiedes, aijd on the east, by Voguls, who 
 pressed on tbeiH from the Ural. 
 
 These Voguls together with Hungarians and Ostiakes The Ugric 
 form th^ fourth and last branch of the Finnic famjly, ^™°''''- 
 the Ugric. It was in 462, after thfe dismemberment of 
 Attila's Hunnic empire that these Ugric tribes approached 
 Europe. They were then called Onagurs, Saragurs and 
 Urogs ; and in later times they occur in Russian Chro- 
 nicles as Ugry. They are the ancestors of the Hun- 
 garians, and should not.be confounded with the Uigurs, 
 an ancient Tataric tribe mentioned before. 
 
 The- similarity between the Hungarian language and 
 dialects of Finnic origin, spoken east of the Volga, is 
 not a new disc!av€i''y' ^^ 1253, jWilhelm Ruysbiroeck, a 
 priest who) trav,e^led beyond the Volga, remiarked that a 
 race called. Pascatir, who live on the Yaik, spoke the 
 same language as the Hungarians. They were then settled 
 east of the old Bulgarian kingdom, the capital of which, 
 the ancient Bolgari, on the left of the Volga, may still 
 be traced in the ruins of Spask. If these Pascatir— the 
 portion of the Ugric tribes that remained east of the 
 Volga — are identical with the Baskir, as Klaproth sup- 
 poses, it would follow that, in later times, they gave up 
 
108 
 
 their language, for the present Baakir no longer speak a 
 Hungarian, but a Tataric language. The affinity of the 
 Hungarian and the Ugro- Finnic dialects was first proved 
 philologically by Gyamathi in 1799. 
 
 , A few instances may suffice to show this connection :— 
 
 Hungarian. 
 
 ^eremissian. 
 
 English. 
 
 Atya-m, 
 
 atya-m, 
 
 my father. 
 
 Atyard, 
 
 atya-t, 
 
 thy father. 
 
 Attya, 
 
 atya-se, 
 
 his father. 
 
 Atya-nk, 
 
 atya-ne. 
 
 our father. 
 
 Atya-tok, 
 
 atya-da, 
 
 your father. 
 
 Atty-ok, 
 
 atya-st, 
 Declension. 
 
 their father, 
 
 Hungarian. 
 
 Esthonian. 
 
 English. 
 
 Nom. ver 
 
 werri 
 
 blood 
 
 Gen. vere 
 
 werre 
 
 of blood 
 
 Dat. vernek 
 
 werrele 
 
 to blood 
 
 Ace. vert 
 
 werd 
 
 blood 
 
 Abl. verestol 
 
 werrist 
 Conjugation. 
 
 from blood 
 
 Hungarian. 
 
 Esthonian. 
 
 English. 
 
 Leiem 
 
 leian 
 
 I find 
 
 Leled 
 
 leiad 
 
 thou findest 
 
 Leli 
 
 leiab 
 
 he finds ' 
 
 Leljiik 
 
 leiame 
 
 we find 
 
 Lelitek 
 
 leiate 
 
 you find 
 
 Lelik 
 
 leiawad ' 
 
 they find 
 
109 
 
 o 
 
 -a 
 
 O 
 
 s a 
 a 
 
 s a 
 
 o 
 
 "a 
 
 1 
 
 s 
 
 ^ 
 n 
 
 r 
 
 1 
 
 PI 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 'C 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 :d 
 
 d 
 
 f^ 
 
 S3 
 
 a 
 
 O 
 
 a 
 1 
 
 93 :ed 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 s a 
 
 "^ S 
 
 O «4 
 
 -^ s 
 
 t8 •*» 
 
 S> Cm 
 
 =« « 
 
 O ® 
 
 S 
 
 (U 
 
 
 t 3 
 
 t 1 =3 
 
 I I 
 
 •T3 
 
 •5" 
 
 ■a 
 I 
 
 I- 
 
 o 
 H 
 
 ■Si 
 
 s 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 ■%, 
 
 ■J3 
 
 
 § 
 
 <» 
 
 pi] 
 
 I" 
 ,3 
 
 a ± 
 
 S o 
 
 "3 "3, 
 
 I 
 
 P^ 
 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 
no 
 
 Ascending We have thus examined the four chief classes of the 
 scale of the Turanian family, the Tiingusic, Mongolie, Turkic, and 
 Mra^oUc, Finnic. The Tungusic branch stands lowest ; its 
 Turkic, and grammar is not much richer than Chinese, and in its 
 Branches structure there is an abserwe of that arcMtectotiic order 
 ■which in Chinese makes the Cyclopean stones of lan- 
 guage hold together without cement. This applies, 
 however, principally to the Man^u; other Tungusic 
 dialects spoken, not in China, but in the original seats 
 of the Man^us, are even now beginning to develop 
 grammatical forms. 
 
 The Mongolie dialects excel the Tuogusic, but in 
 their grammar can hardly distinguish between the 
 different parts of speech. The spoken idioms' of the Mon- 
 golians, as of the Tungusians, are evidently struggling 
 towards a more organic life, and Castrdn has brought 
 home evidence of incipient verbal growth in the 
 language of the Buriats and a Tungusic dialect spoken 
 near Nyer^insk. - ~ , 
 
 This is, however, only a small beginning, if compared 
 with the profusion of grammatical resources displayed by 
 the Tataric languages. In theii* system of conjugation, 
 the Turkic dialects can hardly be surpassed. Their 
 verbs are like branches, which br^ak down under the 
 heavy burden of fruits and blossoms. The Excellence of 
 the Finnic languages consists rather in a diminution 
 than increase of verbal fprms ; but in declension, Finnish 
 is even richer than Turkish. 
 The North- These four branches, together with the Samoiedic, 
 SouAera constitute the Northern or Ural-Altaic Division of the 
 Divisions Turanian family.' The Southern division consists of the 
 Turanian Tamulic, the Bhotiya, comj)rising the Gangetic and 
 Family. Lohitic, the Tai, and the Malay branches. These two 
 divisions compcehend very nearly all the languages of 
 Asia, with the exception of Chinese. A few, such as 
 Japanese, the language of Korea, of the Koriakes, the 
 KamAadales, &c. remain unclassed, but in them also 
 some traces of common origin with the- Turanian lan- 
 guages have, it is probable, survived, and await the 
 discovery of philological research. 
 
Ill 
 
 Genpalogical Table of the Turanian Family of Speech. 
 
 Lttinq Laugdaobs. 
 
 Dialects of the Xe^fpitB (Upper Tun- 
 giiska) 
 „ , Orotongs (Lower Ti}n-' 
 
 Dead 
 IiAirauAOBS. 
 
 ■ Ftople of THyevkm^'k . , , 
 laibutes (Coast of Oh- 1 
 
 otBk) J 
 
 Manpu (China) 
 
 j^arra - Mongols (So^tk ) 
 
 of Gobi) (■ 
 
 Khalkias (North of 1 
 
 G<)bi) 
 i^rsigol (Tibet aod Tan- 
 , S"t) 
 Jffwot (Koko-utir) ■) .. 
 
 Dsungar f Oliit or 
 
 {lergod (Ealmtlks 
 
 BUrhet } 
 
 Aimaka li. e. tribes of ) 
 
 Persia) ) 
 
 Toiyas (Tibet) 
 
 Bnri&ts (Lake Baikal) 
 
 UlgOrs 
 Komans ... 
 JTa^taia ... 
 Usbeks ,.« 
 Turkomans 
 People of Easan . 
 Kirgis 
 Ba^kirs 
 Nogais 
 Eumians ... 
 Kara^is ... 
 Earakalpaks 
 
 People of Siberia,. , 
 
 Yakuts 
 
 People of Perbond 
 „ Aderbifrau 
 „ , . Kriinea 
 ,t Anatolia 
 - „ BuniQlia 
 
 Yurazes 
 
 Tawgi 
 
 Yenisei 
 
 Oatiakorgainoiedes 
 
 Eamas 
 
 Hupgarians 
 
 Vogifls 
 
 Ugro-Ostiakes ... 
 
 feremissians ... 
 
 Mondyins 
 
 Permians 
 
 .Votiaka 
 Lapps 
 FJRn^ 
 Esth's 
 
 BRAHCHE9. 
 
 Westera 
 Eastern 
 
 Easte^o or Mongols ' 
 Proper 
 
 Cuksssa. 
 
 Tunguaia ' 
 
 Western-Mongols 
 Northern-Mongols 
 ,7agataio, S.E. ~, 
 
 : Uongolic 
 
 Tatario, 
 
 Tataric, V. 
 
 !• Northern 
 \ Eastern 
 !■ Ugrio 
 j- Bulgaric 
 [■ Permio 
 
 !• i'udio 
 
 !, N. ) Turkic 
 
 I 
 lit 
 
 • Sampiedic 
 
 I Finnic y 
 (UraUc) / 
 
112 
 
 Scattered Di'alects which have become separated from the cotn- 
 
 of'the'*^^' mon stoolc at an early time, and have'growii up without 
 Turanian further intercourse, are sometimes cari-ied away by cer- 
 """y* tain individual peculiarities to an extent that effaces 
 every sign of their common and original character. 
 Intercourse with other nations, and a national literature 
 preserve languages from dialectic schisms, and the per- 
 petuation of the fancies of individual expression. Lan- 
 guage, "and particularly Turanian language, is so pliant, 
 that it lends itself to endless combinations and com- 
 plexities. Even in Turkish, so long under the influence 
 of a literary cultivation, the number of possible forms is 
 endless : and some are actually used in the dialects of 
 Tataric tribes, which the literary Osmanli has discarded. 
 Tribes that have no idea of literature or other intel- 
 lectual occupation, seem occasionally to take a delight in 
 working their language to the utmost limits of gram- 
 matical expansion. The American dialects are a well- 
 known instance : and the greater the seclusion of a tribe, 
 the more amazing this rank vegetation of their grammar. 
 Perhaps we can form no correct idea with what feeling 
 a savage nation looks upon its language; perhaps, it 
 may be, as a plaything, a kind of intellectual amuse- 
 ment, a maze in which the mind likes to lose and to 
 find' itself. But the result is the same everywhere. If 
 the work of agglutination has once commenced, and 
 there is nothing like literature or society to keep it 
 within limits, two villages, separated only for a few 
 . generations, will become mutually unintelligible. This 
 takes place in America, as well as on the borders of 
 India and China ; and in the North of Asia, Messer- 
 schmidt relates, that the Ostiakes, though really speak- 
 ing the same language everywhere, have produced so 
 many words and forms peculiar to each tribe, that even 
 within the limits of twelve or twenty German miles, 
 conversation between them becomes extremely diflBcult. 
 It must be remembered also that the dictionary of these 
 languages is small if compared with a Latin or Greek 
 Thesaurus. The conversation of Nomadic tribes moves 
 
113 
 
 within a narrow circle, and with the great facility of form- 
 ing new words, and the great inducement that a solitary 
 life holds out to invent, for the objects which form the 
 world of a shepherd or a huntsman, — new appellations, 
 half-poetical perhaps or satirieal, we can understand 
 how, after a few generations, the dictionary of a Nomadic 
 tribe may have gone, as it were, through more than one 
 edition. These few hints I give to show from what 
 point of view we should look upon the relationship 
 between Nomadic dialects : prepared to find but scanty 
 remains of their original vocabulary among tribes who 
 after being severed from the rest, have continued for 
 centuries without literature and without tradition, in 
 the. fastnesses of the Pyrenees, the unapproachable val- 
 leys of Mount Caucasus, or the solitary Tundras of 
 Northern Europe. 
 
 After these preliminary remarks, we proceed at once 
 to a consideration of the Caucasian dialects, one of the 
 outstanding and degenerated colonies of the Turanian 
 family of speech. 
 
 The first scholar who supplied information on the Caucasian 
 languages spoken in the Caucasus, was Klaproth. His Languages, 
 travels, undertaken under the auspices of the Russian 
 government, fall in the years 1807 and 1808, and their 
 results were published in several works, as " Travels in 
 the Caucasus and Georgia ;" " Archives for Asiatic 
 Literature, History and Languages," and " Asia Poly- 
 glotta." 
 
 He drew a, distinction between the Caucasian 
 ■ tribes, properly so called, who have lived in their 
 present seats from time immemorial, and other tribes 
 now settled there, but known to be later immigrants, 
 the Ossetes, and the Georgians ;— and Turkish tribes, the 
 Bazianes and others. 
 
 The Georgians occupy the larger portion of the Georgic 
 Caucasian territory. Their frontiers are the river Ala- ^''^'"'^• 
 zani in the east; the Black Sea on the west; the Cau- 
 casian mountains on the north ; and the river Kur, the 
 tiiountains of Karabagh, Pambaki, and KMiv in the 
 
114 
 
 south. They immigrated from the south-east ; and their 
 traditions, framed on Christian models, assign the country 
 south- of the Kur, to Karthlos, son of Thargamos, and 
 great-grandson of Japhet, the reputed ancestor of the 
 Georgians. 
 
 The Georgians are divided into four branches. 
 
 Georgian. 1. The Georgians proper, called also Grusians 
 
 orKarthuAli, inhabit Karthli, Kha^ethi and Imerethi, 
 and extend westward to the river TsAenis-tskali. The 
 Psawi and Gudamakari in the high Caucasian moun- 
 tains, east of the river Aragwa, belong to the same 
 branch. 
 
 Mingrelian. 2. The inhabitants of Mingrelia, Odisi, and 
 Guria. Their country is the old Colchis, and their 
 language most closely allied with the Lazian. 
 
 Suanian. S. The Suans, or, as they call themselves, Swan 
 
 (not Shnau), inhabit the southern slopes of the Cau- 
 casian Alps, where they rise from the Black Sea and 
 cross the Isthmus from west to east. Their country 
 lies west of the Mount (?uman-taw, along the rivers 
 TsAenis-tskali, Enguri, and Egrisi. Part of the Suans 
 are independent ; others are under the rule of Min- 
 grelian princes : none as yet subject to Russia. The 
 district of Le^kum, on the TsAenis-tskali, is in- 
 habited by Georgians ; also the district of Ra^a, in the 
 Rion - basin. Both are governed by Russia. These 
 Georgians are called Imerians, and all the country west 
 of the MesAian mountains, goes by the name Imerethi. 
 The eastern tribes of the Suans are mixed with Os ; 
 and those further east, the Psawi, ^evsurs, and Thusi, - 
 along the sources of the Eastern Aragwa, the Alazan, 
 and the Andian Koisu, are mixed with Kek tribes, and 
 have lost almost all sign of Georgian descent. 
 
 Ptolemy knew the Suans as Suano-Kolchi. Their 
 language is peculiar on many points, if compared with 
 Mingrelian and Lazian : but the coincidences in roots, 
 words, and grammatical forms are sufficiently numerous 
 to give it a place in the Georgian family. 
 
 Lazian. 4. The Lazes, in the Sauf/akat of Lazistan, belonging 
 
ns 
 
 to the Pashalik of Trebizond. Their language is spoken 
 along the coast of the Black Sea from, the Promontory 
 of Kyemer Burnu to the mouth qt the Zbrok. In 
 the south it extends only a fesy leagues from the coast 
 into the interior, while in the north the Lazian is 
 spoken as far east as the watershed of the Zbrok, and 
 even beyond. At Batum, which belongs to the San- 
 ^akat of Lazistan, the Grusian dialect of Guria is spoken ; 
 at Trebizond — Turkish, Greek, and Armenian : but 
 there is no distinct Lazian. dialect for Trebizond, as 
 Klaproth asserts, though Lazes from all parts of Lazistan- 
 are gathered within that city. 
 
 In the Middle Ages there was a powerful Lazian 
 kingdom, comprehending the whole of Imerethi. The 
 Lazes afterwards became subordinate to the princes of 
 Grusia : but when these were conquered by the Turks 
 in 1580, every valley of Lazistan declared itself indepen- 
 dent under small princes, who were continually engaged 
 in warfare and mutual depredation. Not quite twenty 
 years ago Lazistan was conquered by Osman Pasha and 
 incorporated with Turkey. The inhabitants are Maho- 
 metans; their alphabet is Turkish; and Turkish is 
 frequently spoken in their valleys. 
 
 These four branches speak dialects different, but 
 decidedly cognate, with many varieties in each valley, 
 consisting: mainly in the words. Their grammatical 
 system is throughout identical, and connects the lan- 
 guage east and west of the Caucasian watershed, into 
 one family. The mountains that form the Isthmus 
 between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, are no 
 barrier between the languages they geographically 
 divide. On the east the mountains rise gently, and 
 open many passes towards the western coast. It is 
 difficult to say whether Georgia dialects were ever 
 spoken on the coast of the Caspian Sea, but from the 
 river Alazani westward they form an uninterrupted 
 chain across the entire Isthmus. Among them,^ two,x 
 Lazian. and Mingrelian, agree so much both in words 
 and grammar, that they may formerly have been buj one 
 
 "i2 
 
116 
 
 Aboriginal 
 Langaages, 
 
 Lesghic 
 Branch. 
 
 Avaiian 
 Language. 
 
 Kasiku- 
 miikian 
 lijingnage. 
 
 language, as French and Italian. The people them- 
 selves are fully aware of the great similarity of their 
 idioms, but they would deny all connection with the 
 Suanian, Their relation with this dialect is indeed 
 more distant ; not so much, however, as not to disclose 
 the traces of a common family type, when more carefully 
 examined and compared. 
 
 The aboriginal inhabitants of the Caucasian territory 
 are divided into three branches, 
 
 1. Eastern, or Lesghi. 
 
 2. Middle, or Mits^eghi. 
 
 2. Western, or JTerkessian and Abasian tribes. 
 
 Lesghistan, or the country of the Lesghi, also called 
 Daghestan, or the mountain-country, lies between the 
 rivers Koisu, Alazani, and the Caspian Sea. The 
 Lesghi or Leski, are called Lekhi by the Georgians, 
 Leksi by the Armenians, and Leki by the Ossetes, and 
 may therefore be the same as the " Legae " mentioned 
 by Strabo. 
 
 The inhabitants of Lesghistan do not call or esteem 
 themselves one people, and according to Klaproth, not 
 less than four different languages are spoken in this 
 small country. These are : — 
 
 1. Avarian, spoken in the districts of i?undsag, or 
 Avar, Kaseruk, Hidatle, Mukratle, Ansokul, Kara^le, 
 Gumbet, Arrakan, Burtuna, AnzuA, Tebel, Tumurga, 
 A^ti, Ruthul, ^ari and Belakan, amongst the Andi, 
 and at KabuA. It is subdivided into various dialects. 
 The frontiers of the Avarian are, the river Aksai on 
 the west; the mountains south of the Aksai, Endery 
 and Tilbak in the north ; the rivers Koisu in the 
 east; and the Upper Samur and' Mount >Sadagh in the 
 south. 
 
 The language of the districts Dido and Unso on the 
 Upper Samur, though mixed with other Caucasian 
 words, belongs to the Avarian division. 
 
 2. The language of the Kasikumiiks, spoken in 
 various dialects in Kara-kaitak and Tabaseran. Its 
 western frontiers are the river Koisu ; southern, the 
 
117 
 
 river Gurieni ; the promontories of Tabaseran and North 
 Daghestan on the east ; and the sources of the Osen 
 to the north. On the coast of the Caspian Sea Tatar 
 tribes have settled in considerable numbers, and north 
 of Derbend we find not less than twelve Turkman vil- 
 lages, the Kaitak. Again in the north and east of the 
 Caucasian Isthmus, numerous Tatar settlements exist: 
 dating perhaps from the time of Hingis-khan. They 
 belong to the Nogai-Tatar, and in some places preserve 
 that name. 
 
 S. The language of Akuska, spoken also in Tsuda- Akuskian 
 kara and KubiAi, and in the Alps between the Koisu, ™S"age- 
 the Upper Manas-rivers and the sources of the Buam. 
 
 4. The language of Kura in south Daghestan. Kurian 
 
 The Leschians are Mahometans, and like most ^^^S°^«- 
 Caucasians, belong to the orthodox sect of the Sunites. 
 The Islam made little progress in the Caucasus in 
 early times, except on the Eastern coast, which is open 
 to Persian influence, particularly the portion known 
 under the name of Daghestan. It was only when com- 
 pelled to surrender the Krimea to Russia, and after 
 the fall of Kuban (now Hernomoria) before the Czar, 
 that the Porte found it expedient to strengthen its 
 political and religious hold on the people of the Cau- 
 casus as a barrier against Russian influence. Since 
 that time several prophets, Mursids or teachers, have 
 risen in the Caucasus and inflamed their flocks against 
 the Giaour and the Muscovite. Their chief object is to 
 establish a feeling of common interest, and of national and 
 religious unity among these tribes kept asunder unfor- 
 tunately by muttial feuds, difference of language, and 
 national prejudices. The name of Mahomet Mansur, 
 taken prisoner in 1791, and never heard of since his 
 confinement in the. fortress of Schliisselburg, the name 
 of Kasi-Mollah, who fell with the fortress of Himri in 
 1832 ; of Hamsad Beg, murdered in ] 834, and Shamyl, 
 the living hero, rouse dreadful recollections in the minds 
 of Russian officers. 
 
118 
 
 Uitsi/e- 11. The language of the Mits^eghi, a race some- 
 
 Branch times called Kistian, is spoken west and north-west of 
 the Lesghian. Its frontiers are, — in the west, the Upper 
 Terek ; north, the Little Kabardah and the river Sun^a ; 
 south, the snowy heights of the Caucasus which sepa- 
 rates the Mits^eghi Proper from the Hevsms, Psawi, 
 Gudamakaris, and from KhaAethi ; eastward, the Upper 
 Ya^sai and Endery. Some mixed Mits^eghian tribes, 
 as the Thusi, live south of the mountains near the 
 sources of the Alazani. 
 
 The Mits^eghi, or as the Russians pronounce it, 
 Mitshik, are again divided into three branches. 
 Galgai. The first comprises the Galgai, Halha or Ingus, who 
 
 call themselves Lamur, i. e., mountaineers. They in- 
 habit the country on the rivers Kumbalei, Sun^a and 
 /Sfalgir or Asai. 
 Karabulak. The second comprises the Karabulak, or Aristoyai, 
 as they are called by the ^e^entsi : but in their own 
 language named ArsAte. They live in the valley of the 
 Martan-river. 
 •S^'^*- The third consists of the Kek, or as the Russians 
 
 name them iiTeAentsi, extending from the Karabulaks 
 eastward to the river Ya^sai. Kek, with the Russian 
 termination, ife/centsi, derived from a village where one 
 of the first battles between this race and the Russians 
 took place, is sometimes, at least by Russians, used as a 
 general name for all Mits^eghian tribes. 
 
 The languages of these three tribes have a common 
 type, different from the other Caucasian idioms, but 
 approximating in grammar most to the Lesghian dia- 
 lects, particularly the Kasi-Kumukian and Avarian. On 
 the Sun^a the Mits_^eghi are considerably mixed with 
 Tatars, and several tribes, such as the Borahan, Topli, 
 and Istissu, speak Tataric. Ingus is a name given to 
 some Kek clans, east of the Terek, who border on the 
 Karabulaks in the plains. The Ingus were formerly 
 Christians, but are now little removed from heathenism. 
 The rest are Mahometans, and all have acted a pro- 
 minent part in the war against Russia. 
 
119 
 
 III. The Western Caucasians are best known to us x^erkessic 
 by the name of Circassians, ^erkessians or Abas-^""*""^- 
 sians. They call themselves Adighe. In ancient 
 times their seats were not only in the Western Cau- 
 casus but extended within the Krimea; and Arnian, 
 at the beginning of the second century after Christ, 
 mentions Zu^ot, supposed to be the iCerkessians on the 
 coast of the Black Sea. According to their own tra- 
 ditions, one of their tribes, the Kabardah, emigrated in 
 the thirteenth century from the Kuban to the Don, and 
 thence to the Krimea : traces of them still exist there 
 in the plains between the rivers Ka^a and Belbik. 
 They afterwards returned to the Kuban, and became a 
 powerful tribe under Kabardah princes. 
 
 The ^erkessians are by the Ossetes and Mingre- Kerkes- 
 lians called KasaA, said to have been their name before ^'*"^' 
 the Kabardas returned from the Krimea. Kasachia was 
 known to Konstantinus Porphyrogeneta, as the country 
 between Sychia on the Black Sea and the Alanes. 
 
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century ^erkes- 
 sians inhabited the coast of the Lacus Maeotis, from 
 the Don to the Kimmerian Bosphorus. Thence they 
 were driven back by Russian and Tatar conquests ; and 
 the present Cossacks, who are Slavonic, are supposed 
 by Klaproth to be of mingled :ff'erkessian and Hussian 
 blood. 
 
 The name of the ^erkessians or Circassians on the 
 coast of the Black Sea, by the north-western extremity 
 of the Caucasian mountains, has been known in Europe 
 particularly since 1836^ after the capture of the English 
 ship Vixen, and through their resistance against Russia, 
 whose previous operations had been mainly directed 
 against the east of the Caucasian isthmus. Greek 
 writers, however, recognized the ^erkessians, settled 
 on their present territory, and their name is a cor- 
 ruption of the ancient " Kerketoi." In later times 
 the Greeks place the Zychoi on the coast, and the 
 Kerketoi further inland. At present the Zerkessians 
 on the sea-coast, and south of the Kuban, distin- 
 
120 
 
 guish themselves by the name of "Adighe," while 
 those of the interior, in the Kabardah, south of the 
 Malka and along the Terek, are properly called ^er- 
 kessian. The Kabardah was one of the first districts 
 in the Caucasus conquered by Russia. The inhabitants 
 are Mahometans, and the Adighe also belong mostly to 
 the Islam, though traces of their former Christian and 
 heathen practices still remain among them. The Ka- 
 bardah, east of the Elburs, south of the Malka, and 
 extending west beyond the Terek as far as the sources 
 of the Sun^a, is divided into Great or Western, and 
 Little or Eastern Kabardah. The northern frontier of 
 the Adighe is the Kuban. They inhabit the mountains 
 from the sea to 68° east longitude, and on the northern 
 side of the range, here called the Black or Ahmed Moun- 
 tains, they extend even to 69° east longitude. The 
 tribes which have maintained their independence are 
 the NatoAua^, /S'apsuA, AbadseA, and part of the MoAo« 
 and Besle. Subject to Russia are the Bsedu^, Hattukai, 
 Temirgoi, and Yegorokoi ; all tribes considerably reduced 
 in number. 
 Abassians. The Abassians have occupied their present seats on 
 the Black Sea at least since the Christian era. Arrian 
 calls them Abasci, the Georgians AbAasi and their 
 country Ab^asethi : the Russians Ab^as, or Cigeth. 
 They name themselves Absne. They are divided from 
 the £erkessians, on the north, by the river Kapoeti ; 
 from the Mingrelians, in the south, by the river Enguri, 
 or, according to Rosen, by the small river Erthi-tskali. 
 Eastward they are conterminous with the Suanes. 
 Some Abassians live between the Upper Kuban, the 
 Kuma, and the Malka. ' 
 
 The chief Abassian tribes in the northern parts of the 
 Caucasus, and south of the Kuban, lie from east to 
 west ; the Besilbai, Midawi, Barrakai, Kasilbeg, iffegreh, 
 Ba/J, Tubi, UbuA, Bsubbeh, Abased, and NeAkua^a. 
 
 The Abassians on the right of the Kuban, as far as 
 Podkumok, are Russian subjects ; on the left, near the 
 Little Inyik, they are still independent. Named by 
 
121- 
 
 th«!ias.elvea Tapaata, they are called B^ske/*by Kevk^s-, 
 sians, Alti-Kesek Abasi by the Tatars., 
 
 Although B.^ssia^ troopa occupy nuijjerous fort? on, 
 the caast, and have there gucceeded ia sujbduing some 
 tribes a,s the JZiUel4, yet nq stranger, l.eagt of all a 
 Russian, can venture many wUes *way from the co9,s,t, 
 tbe» Abasaian trihea being the fiercest of the Caijcasus, 
 Thfi BiPiSsians hold wh^at they call the, I^ittle Abadsa; 
 AbadsOi being the Russian name of the country north ofi 
 the. mountain ridge, of which the Little Abadsa js th#, 
 eastern, portion. The UhyA, a clan of Jbigbkaders i^ 
 the ipifth^'West, who have made thftmselv^, formidajble if^ 
 the Rassiansj, are, probably the same as the IJbi^ op 
 XJ<bu^» ef Abas^ian origin. The Abassjans are darker 
 than the £erkeasian@., Soiioe, c^U th,e^selves Christiao^ 
 Qthers Mahtv^i^tan. 
 
 The following ia an appco^ipj^te statement of tha 
 G%u@3i|ian population : 
 
 £erkes8ians .... 280,000 
 
 Abassiana .... 140,000 
 
 Ossetes . , . . 60,000 
 
 Gfeorgiana . . . . 60,000 
 
 Mits^eghians .... 110,000 
 
 Lesghians .... 400,000' 
 
 Tatars . . . ' . . 80^000 
 
 1,2QP,Q00 
 
 How then, it may be asked, should a man learn alt Historical 
 these languages ? Cardinal Mezzofanti, at the time of his ff=°"^''- 
 
 ° " , " ne • 1 1 • tions con- 
 
 recent death, spoke not, less, thap liity-eight,; but even nected with 
 tily s number wonld not sujffifie to carry a man through '""^ ^*°- 
 aU the dialects spoken along the Danube, the Black Sea, the seat of 
 the Caspian Sea, and in the Ens? ian Empire at largCt ''"• 
 And most of these cannot be learned from Grammars, 
 either because none exist; or if existing, are freqiHeutly 
 written in a language which would have to be learned 
 first, as Russian, German, or Armenian. The Caucasu? 
 
122 
 
 IS called by the Persians " the Mountain of Languages," 
 and the diversity of dialects spoken there in every valley 
 has been the chief obstacle to a united resistance on the 
 part of the Caucasian tribes against Russia, The south- 
 east of Europe has indeed long been notorious as a 
 Babel of tongues. Herodotus* (iv. 24) tells us that the 
 caravans of Greek merchants, following the course of the 
 Volga upward to the Ural Mountains, were accompanied 
 by seven interpreters, speaking seven different languages. 
 These must have comprised Slavonic, Tataric, and 
 Finnic dialects,*^ spoken in those countries at the time of 
 Herodotus as at the present day. In yet earlier times 
 the South-east of Europe was the first resting-place for 
 the nations who transplanted the seeds of Asia to 
 European soil. Three roads were open to their North- 
 westward migrations. One, east of the Caspian Sea and 
 West of the Ural Mountains, leading to the North of 
 Asia and Europe. Another, on the Caucasian Isthmus, 
 whence they would advance %long .the northern coast of 
 the Black Sea, and following the course of the Dniepr, 
 Dniestr, or Danube, bq led jnto Russia and Germany. 
 A third road was. marked by the Taurus through Asia 
 Minor, to where the Hellespont marks the "path of 
 the Hellenes" into Greece and Italy. While the main 
 stream of the Arian nations passed on, carrying its 
 waves to the northern and western shores of Europe, it 
 formed a kind of eddy in the Carpathian Peninsula, and 
 we may still discover in the stagnating dialects North 
 and South of the Danube, the traces of the flux and 
 reflux of those tribes who have since become the ruling 
 nations of Europe. The barbarian inroads, which from 
 the 7th century before to the 15th century after Christ, 
 infested the regions of civilization and led to the destruc- 
 tion of the Greek and Roman Empires, followed all the 
 
 * An interesting and lucid account of the early inhabitants of Russia, 
 founded on the researches of S^afarik and others, is found in a pamphlet 
 by Kurd de Schloezer, " Les premiers Habitants de la Russie," Paris, 
 1846. 
 
123 
 
 same direction. The country near the Danube and 
 the Black Sea may be called the battle-field of Asia and 
 Europe. Each language settled there on the confines of 
 civilization and barbarism, recalls a chapter of history. 
 
 The Ossetic in the Caucasus reminds us of the 
 Scythian Empire in the 7th century before Christ, and 
 of the Median colony of the Sauromatae, then trans- 
 planted to the Tanais. 
 
 The Greek names of cities on the coast of the 
 Black Sea remind us of their foundation at the same 
 period; when the terror of the Cimmerians had subsided, 
 and their conquerors, the Scythians, had in turn been 
 annihilated by the Medians ; 606 b.c. It was then 
 that the name Axine — " the Inhospitable Sea," passed 
 into theEuxine — "the Hospitable." Sinope, destroyed 
 by the Cimmerians, was rebuilt in 632; Odessa was 
 founded in 672, b.c. 
 
 Modern Greek, still spoken in Asia Minor and 
 Hellas, recalls the whole history of Greece, the decline 
 of Byzantium, and the latter war of independence. 
 
 Wallachian, again, speaks of the Roman Empire, 
 its wide-spread colonies, and its final annihilation by 
 Teutonic and Slavonic armies, 
 
 Hungarian transports us to the murderous forays 
 of Attila and his Huns in the 6th century, when it 
 struck roots in soil covered with German, Roman, and 
 Mongolia blood. 
 
 The Bulgarian brings back, at least by name, the 
 period when Finnic races founded the Bulgarian King- 
 dom in the ancient Moesia (635, a.d.). Their name 
 remained ; though by the year 800 their language and 
 nationality had been fully absorbed by the Slavonic 
 inhabitants of the country. 
 
 At the end of the 12th century the Bulgarian King- 
 dom was involved in long protracted wars with the 
 Hungarians; and when these two nations, both of 
 Turanian origin, had weakened themselves by successive 
 victories and defeats, a third Turanian race knocked at 
 
 K 2 
 
124 
 
 tHe gates of Europe, and defeated nations, that, united, 
 might have repulsed the Turks of Osman. The Turkish 
 language, now spoken in all the important cities of 
 Turkey, and even in Africa and Asia, regions where its 
 sound was unheard before the 15th century, teaches an 
 historical lesson which should make us pause before we 
 deny to the Turanian race the energy of conquest and 
 the power of organization. While the Turkish empha- 
 sizes these latest conquests of Tataric tribes in Europe, 
 the Tatar dialects spoken on the Black Sea, in the 
 Dobrudsha, the Krimea, and along the Volga, remind 
 us of the earlier achievements of the armies of ifingis- 
 khdn and his successors, of the " Golden Horde," and 
 the Mongolian yoke which Russia bore through cen- 
 turies. 
 
 Finally, the- Slavonic languages, spoken over so 
 
 large an area, and in dialects so closely allied, excite an 
 
 interest not confined to their past alone. The nations 
 
 that speak them, on the confines of Asia and Europe, 
 
 may have great destinies to fulfil in the long future ; they 
 
 have means at their command vast as any European 
 
 nation^ and if they can throw out of their system the 
 
 bastard blood of a Mongolian nobility, and resist the 
 
 poison of a premature civilization, their history and 
 
 literature may rise high on the horizon of Europe, and 
 
 restore to " Slava" its original meaning of " good report 
 
 and glory." 
 
 List of T'^o I'sst introduction to a knowledge of the Slavonic 
 
 grammars, languages is Russian. For practical purposes this 
 
 dialogues, ' ^^^^ ^® most desirable to our officers, and more available 
 
 &c. than an acquaintance with the minor Slavonic dialects. 
 
 The following books will be found useful for studying 
 
 Russian : — 
 
 Reiff's Russian Grammar, or Principles of the 
 Russian language for the use of Englishmen, with synop- 
 tical tables for the declensions and conjugations, gradu- 
 ated themes or exercises for the "application of the 
 grammatical rules, the correct construction of these 
 
125 
 
 exercises, and the acceatuation pf all the Russian worde. 
 8vo., 1853. 4s. 
 
 Reitf's Dictionary of the Russian, French, German, 
 and English Languages. Square Svo., 1853. 8s. 
 
 , Dictionary of the Russian and English Languages. 
 16mo. stereo. Leipzig. 3s. (More portable.) - -^ 
 
 Heym, (J.) Dictionnaire des. Jiangages Russe, 
 Fran9aise, et AUemande, ^ yols, 8vo., Leipzig. 1844. 
 
 18». ; 
 
 Hamoniere, (Q.) Dialogues Russes et Franfais. 
 ,8vo.,J816. Ss. 6d. - 
 
 It is essential that those who wish to learn Russi^ 
 .should begin by familiarizing thejtnselves with the 
 .alphabet. This, alphabet has been one of the greatest 
 barriers between Russia and the intellectual world, of 
 Europe, but there is no hope of its being -given up at 
 present. On the contrary, it has .been the policy of 
 Petersjburgh to maintain and to extend it as much as 
 possible. A comparative table of the Russian characters, 
 both written and printed, has been published by Major 
 T. B.;,Jervis, to, assist in deciphering Russian ma^a 
 and documentsi 
 
 ', For Bulgarian, the only available grammar is 
 Kyriak Cankof, Grammar of theBulgarian Language. 
 Royal 8vo., Vienna, 1852. 5s, Sd. The grammar is 
 written in German, the Bulgarian words translated in 
 Roman letters. It, contains useful exercises and dia- 
 logues. There is no modern Bulgarian literature, except 
 a few religious' books imported from Hussia. In 1840, a 
 Bulgarian translation of the New Testament was printed 
 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Translations 
 of. the Old or New Testament, which exist in almost all 
 languages, will indeed in all cases be found very useful 
 for a first attempt in reading. 
 
 A Bulgarian grammar iij English was published by 
 E. Riggs, an American Missionary at Smyrna; b,ut 
 whether it is ob!ta}na,ble I cannot say. 
 
 For lUyrian, we have Berlic's Gi'ammar of the 
 
126 
 
 Illyrian Languages, as spoken in the Southern Slavonic 
 countries, in Servia. Bosnia, Dalmatia, Kroatia, and by 
 the Illyrians and Servians in Hungary and in the 
 Vojvodina. Agrain, 1849. 6s. It is written in German 
 but printed in Roman characters, and contains useful 
 dialogues. 
 
 E.ichter and Bellmann, Dictionary of the Illyrian 
 and German, and German and Illyrian Languages, for 
 the use of Germans and Illyrians in Croatia, Slavonia, 
 Syrmia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Servia, Albania, Ragusa, 
 Montenegro, the Herzegovina, the Banat, and Hungary. 
 Vienna, 1839. 
 
 Voltiggi, (I.) Illyrian, Italian, and German Dic- 
 tionary and Grammar. Thick 8vo., (610 pp.) Vienna. 
 6*. 6d. 
 
 Principj Elementari della Grammatica lUirica, pre- 
 messi al dizionario Italiano, Latino, Illirico, del P. 
 Ardelia della Bella, ed ora di nuovo pubblicati. Ragusa, 
 1827. 
 
 Illyrian, as we saw, was used as a general name to 
 comprehend all the dialects of the South Slavonians, with 
 the exception of Bulgarian. Servian also is sometimes 
 used in this general sense. Of all the dialects spoken 
 in Servia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, 
 the Kroatian is perhaps the most independent, yet is 
 only one dialect of the language common to all Illyrians. 
 Russians learn these dialects with great ease, inasmuch 
 as they resemble Russian more than any other Slavonic 
 language. 
 
 Servian. 
 
 Wuk Stephanowitsch, small Servian Grammar, 
 translated into German by Jacob Grimm. Svo., Berlin 
 1824. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Wuk Stephanowitsch, Servian, German, and Latin 
 Dictionary. Svo., Vienna, 1818. 22s. 
 
 New Testament in Servian translated by S. Wuk. 
 Svo., 1848. 9s. 6d, 
 
127 
 
 Wuk, Servian Proverbs in Servian. Alphabetically 
 arranged. 8vo., 1850. 6*. 
 
 Milutinovitsch. Songs of the Montenegrians, in 
 Servian. Svo. 5s. 
 
 Kroatian. Gyurkovechky, (S.) Kroatian Gram- 
 mar. Svo. Ofen. 1825. 
 
 Slovenian. 
 
 Murko, (A. J.) German Slovenian, and- Slovenian 
 German Dictionary, according to the dialects of the 
 Slovenes in Styria, Carinthia, Carniolia, and the West 
 of Hungary. 2 vols., 8vo. Gratz, 1833, 10s. 6<i. 
 
 Kopitar, Grammar of the Slavonic Language in 
 Carniolia, Carinthia, and Styria. Svo. Laibach, 1808t 
 5s. 
 
 Murko, Slovenian Grammar. Svo. Gratz, 1843. 
 2s. 6d. 
 
 Weissenthurn, (Fr. V.) Saggio Grammatical 
 Italiano-Cragnolano. Svo. Trieste, 1811. 6s. 
 
 The Western Slavonic dialects will be of less prac- 
 tical importance, with the exception perhaps of Polish. 
 
 Frings, (M. T.) Polish, French, and German 
 Dialogues. Svo. Lemberg, 1847. 3s. 
 
 There is a Polish Dictionary with explanations in 
 thirteen other Slavonic dialects ; 6 vols., 4to. Warsaw, 
 1807-14. £6 16s. 6d. Rather too heavy for field 
 service. 
 
 Mongrovius, Polish-English, and English-Polish 
 Dictionary. 2 vols., royal Svo, Berlin, 1851. 20s. 
 
 Schmidt, (M.) Dictionnaire portatif. Polonais et 
 rran9ais. 16mo. Leipzig, 1847. 3s. 
 
 Bohemian. 
 
 Cebnsky, (A.) Grammar of the Bohemian Lan- 
 guage. Svo. Vienna, 1852. 2s. 
 
 Bible in Bohemian. Leta Pane. Calf, 1833. 14s. 
 
 Dictionary, Bohemian and German. 16mo. Leipzig, 
 stereo. 3s. 
 
128 
 
 Slovakian.- - ' 
 
 Dianiska, (K.) Slavokian Grammaf (with Dia- 
 logues ftnd Selections). 8vo. Vienna, 1860. 4s. 
 
 A tabulae arrangement of the four principal Slayonic 
 dialects was published by Froehlich,.(E,.A.) compre- 
 hending Bohemian and Polish, Illyrian and Russian. 
 Vienna, 1847. 8vo. 4s. 
 
 Classical wOfks on the Slavonic langua,ges in general, 
 are— 
 
 (Safarik, (P* J.) Slavonic Antiquities, translated 
 into German. 2 vols., 8vo., 1858. 16s. 6d. 
 
 Ssihrik, History <jf the Slavonic Language and Lite- 
 raturo. 'SVo.'Ofefl, 1826. ,10s. 6^. 
 
 /Siafarik, Slovansky Narodopis (Slavonic Ethnology). 
 Praze, 1849. Svo. •: " - 
 
 It is hardly necessary to give a list of grammars and 
 dictionaries for acquiring a knowledge of German, 
 Danish, and Swedish, ; as any bookseller will supply 
 them. 
 
 In the case of the Romance languages also, it will 
 be sufficient to mention the grammars and dictionaries for 
 Wallachian. These are^- 
 
 Alexi, (J.) Grammatiea Daco-Romana sive Vala- 
 chica. 8vo. Vienne, 1826. 3s. 6d. 
 
 Blacewicz, (T.) Grammar of the DaCO'Romanic, 
 Moldavian or Wallachian Language. 8vo. Lemberg, 
 1844. 4s. In German, with modern Cyrillic types. 
 Both grammars contain dialogues, 
 
 Lesi-Gon, Romatoescu, Latineseu, U»garescu, Nem- 
 tescu ; i.e., Wallachian, Latin, HungM-ian, and Getmau. 
 4to. Budae, 1825. Scarce. 
 
 Vaillant, (J. A.) Vooabulaire Fran9ais — Roumain 
 et Roumain-Fran9ais. 8. Boucoureshti, 1 840. 6s. 
 
 Vaillant, (J.A.) Grammaire Roumane a I'usage 
 des Fran9ais. 8, Boucourest, 1840. (Let us hope that 
 the entrance of Frenbh and English troops into Walla- 
 chia may soon amplify this title into " k i'usage des 
 Fran9ais et des Anglais.") 
 
129 
 
 F(W Modern Greek, a grammar that can b&reoomr 
 mended is— > 
 
 Corpe, ,(H.) An Introduction to NeorHellemo, oir 
 Modern Greek, containing a guide to its pronunciation 
 and an ^itome of its ^grammar. 8vo. London, 1851. 
 5s. ., .,..,;■ 
 
 A Translation of the Bible into Modern Gr^ek 
 has lately been issued from the University Press at 
 Oxford. 
 
 Deheque, (F. D.) Dictionaire Greo-Modeme et 
 Fran9ais. 12mo. Londonj 1825. 5s. 
 
 For a ^udy of Albanian, little assistance can be 
 derived from bpoks. Th<p,be8t grammatical compilation 
 hitherto is — 
 
 Xylander, (I. v.) The Language lof the Albanian's 
 orSkipetars. Svo. JFraikfort, 1835. 4s$, §d. (In 
 • German.) . ^ . , - • 
 
 An account of Albania is given by — t 
 
 Leake^ (W. M.) Researfches 4n Greece. London, 
 4to. 1814. . 
 
 And Hobhouse, (J. ;C.) Journey throBgh Albania, 
 &c. 4to. London^ 1813. 
 
 The last and most comprehensive work on Albania 
 is — 
 
 Haha, (J. G. Von) Albanian Studies. Thick 4to. 
 Jena, 1854. £1 10s. 
 
 The first part contains geographical and ethnogra- 
 phical notices, travels in Albania, description of Customs 
 and manners, researches on the origin of the Albanians, 
 an account of th6 Albanian alphabet, atid a history of the 
 country. The second part gives a grammar of the 
 Toskian diale6t, Toi^iain and Geghan poeifiSj, proverbs, 
 phrases, fitoriea; and lastly, a dietioaaty, , Albanian- 
 German, and German- Alb^iahi. An abstract of this 
 work might be Useful. 
 
 T?he great desideratum during the present war will, 
 no doubt, be a knowledge of Turkish. Most officers will 
 
130 
 
 probably be satisfied if they are able to speak by inter- 
 jections and gestures, and succeed in making a Turk 
 understand that they want a horse, or provisions, or 
 directions for the road in a country not advanced to sign- 
 posts. This can be learned from dialogues, and even 
 ■without a knowledge of the Turkish alphabet. By far 
 the best book for this purpose is — 
 
 Bianchi, (C. X.) Le nouveau Guide de la Conver- 
 sation en Fran9ais et en Turc. It is so arranged, that 
 in learning the dialogues by heart, one learns the gram- 
 mar without being aware of it. An abridgment of this 
 book, in English, would be invaluable. The Turkish 
 should be transcribed, however, so as to suit English 
 pronunciation. 
 
 Another work which will answer this purpose is — 
 
 Le Dragoman Turc. — Regime sanitaire Monnaies, 
 Vocabulaire, Grammaire. ]2mo. Paris, 1854. 2s. 
 6d. brds. 
 
 Those, however, who have taste and leisure to study 
 Turkish should make themselves, first of all, acquainted 
 with the Turkish alphabet. It is true, no doubt, that 
 by means of transcription in Roman characters the 
 grammar can be learned, without a previous knowledge 
 of the alphabet ; but in the long run more time is lost 
 than saved by this. The Roman alphabet is better 
 adapted to -express the sounds of the Turkish language 
 than the Arabic alphabet now used by the Turks; but 
 until this great alphabetical revolution is accomplished — 
 until the Turks condescend to write their language in 
 those signs which in time must and will be the alphabet 
 of the whole world, any one who wishes to acquire a 
 competent knowledge of Turkish should begin with the 
 alphabet j and impress the declensions and conjugations 
 on his memory, in their Turkish dress. Else he will 
 find that when he comes to read, his Romanized verbs 
 will not answer to their Turkish originals. Then the 
 whole must be learned again ; with the discovery that by 
 this double proceeding the learner has weakened and 
 
131 
 
 confused what ought to be the most distinct in his 
 memory, " les premieres impressions de k grammaire 
 Turque." Soldiers know best that in storming a fortress 
 it does not answer to leave the detached works untaken; 
 though at first they may seem to offer no resistance to 
 advance, they are sure to open fire when least expected. 
 
 Turkish Grammars :— 
 
 Redhouse, (J. W.) Grammaire raisonnde do la 
 Langue Ottomane. Royal 8vo. Paris, 1846. 13s. 6d. 
 (Best ; but why not repeated in English ? ) 
 
 Boyd, (Charles) The Turkish Interpreter, or a 
 New Grammar of the Turkish Language. Paris, 1842. 
 8s. 6d. 
 
 Pfizmaier, (A.) Grammaire Turque, ou developpe- 
 ment de trois genres de style, TArabe, le Persan, et le 
 Tartare. 8po. Vienna, 1847. 15s. 6d. 
 
 Mirza A. Kazem Beg, Derbend-Nameh, or the 
 History of Derbend ; Turkish and English. 4to. St. 
 Petersburg, 1851. 10s. 6d. 
 
 By the same author we have the only grammar of 
 the different Tatario dialects which deviate from the 
 Turkish standard. It is written in Russian, but a 
 German translation has made it more accessible. The 
 translation is not, however, altogether satisfactory. 
 
 General Grammar of the Turco-Tartaric Language, 
 by Mirza A. Kazem Beg ; translated by Dr. Julius Th. 
 Zenker. Leipzic, 1848. 8vo. 12s. 
 
 For a thorough knowledge of Turkish, a previous 
 acquaintance with- Persian and Arabic is invaluable. A 
 useful Persian Grammar is Meerza Mohammad Ibra- 
 heem's Grammar of the Persian language. 8vo. Lon- 
 don, 1841. 
 
 For the spoken Arabic, there is 
 
 Mouhammad Ayyad el Tantavy, Sheikh. Traits do 
 la langue Arahe vulgaire. 8vo. Leipzic, 1850. 6s. 
 
 The most scientific grammar is still Sylvestre de 
 Sacy's Grammaire Arabe a I'usage des eleves de I'ecole 
 
132 
 
 speciale des langues Orientales vivantes. 2 vols. 8vo 
 Paris, 1831. 
 
 Of Tungusio, Mongolic, Samoiedio, and Finnic 
 languages, it yi^ould be superfluous to recommend 
 grammars and dictionaries, as none of them, I suppose, 
 will be chosen for praotipal gtudy. JPerhaps an excep- 
 tion might be made in favour of Hungarian, which has 
 lately attracted more attention, and of which English 
 grammars and dictionaries may be procured, 
 
 Frereych, (E.) Hungarian and English Dialogues, 
 for the use of Travellers and Students. 8vo. Pesth, 
 1851. 2s. 
 
 Csink, ; Complete Practical Grammar of the Hun- 
 garian Language, with Exercises, Selections from the 
 
 Jbest Authors, and Vocabularies ; to which is added a 
 
 , Historical Sketch of Hungarian Literature,. 8vo. hoards. 
 
 "Ss. ■ 
 
 , . We now come to ;the last cluster of languages, the 
 dialects spoken in the Caucasian Babel. Here the 
 difficulties are greatest, and the means of acqtiiring a 
 knowledge of the languages proportionably small. Not 
 one of these numerous dialects has found as yet an 
 English grammarian, and few have been reduced to a 
 grammatical system in any language. Klaproth's " Asia 
 Polyglotta" gives considerable lists of words which, as 
 a beginning, would be found useful; but in the few 
 cases where, his collections have been checked by later 
 travellers, they have not proved accurate and satisfac- 
 tory. This applies particularly to the Georgian, and its 
 ■cognate dialects, Lazian and Mingrelian. Here we 
 have since Klaproth, the works of Brosset and 
 Ro^en— 
 
 Brosset, L'art liberal, du grammaire Georgienne. 
 8vo. Paris, 1834. 
 
 Brosset, Elements de la langue Georgienne. Svo. 
 Paris, 1837. 
 
 Klaproth, (J.) Vocabulaire et grammaire de la 
 langue G€orgleune. Svo. Paris, 1827. Other works 
 
133 
 
 on the Caucasus by Klaproth are, "Travels in the 
 Caucasus ;" " Description of the Russian Provinces 
 between the Caspian and Black Sea," Berlin, 1814; 
 and " Asia Polyglotta," 4to, and atlas folio. 24s. ' 
 
 Tschubinof, Dictionnaire Georgien- Russe-Francais, 
 4to. Petersburg, 1840. 24s. 
 
 Of the Lazian, Mingrelian, and Suanian, 
 grammatical outlines v^ere published by Rosen in the 
 Transactions of the Berlin Academy, 1846. 4to. 2s. 
 
 The same author has given a grammar of the 
 Ossetic (4to. 1846, 6s.), the only Arian dialect spoken 
 in the centre of the Caucasus ; and one more complete 
 has since been published by Sjogren. 
 
 Oasetic Grammar, with a short Ossetic-German and 
 German -Ossetic Vocabulary. Petersburg, 1844. Thick 
 4to. 12s. 
 
 Of the remaining dialects spoken between the Caspian 
 and the Black Sea no grammars can be procured, as the 
 Russian Government, so liberal in other respects' in its 
 support of linguistic studies, has not thought fit to encou- 
 rage a study of these mountain idioms. Grammatical 
 notices and short lists of words may indeed be found scat- 
 tered through the Transactions of different Academies, 
 in Klaproth's works, in " Mithridates," in Balbi's Atlas 
 Ethnographique, in Bell's Journal of a Residence in 
 Circa'ssia, and similar publications ; but all that could be 
 extracted thence as of practical use might be brought 
 into a very small volume. Rosen's grammatical notices 
 of the AbAasian dialect are found in the Transactions of 
 the Berlin Academy, and give an idea of the JTerkessian, 
 of which the AbAasian is but a variety A grammar 
 and dictionary of ^ejkessian were published by L'Huilier, 
 Odessa, 1846; written in Russian. 
 
 The southern neighbour of these Caucasian languages, 
 the Armenian, of Arian extraction, has met with a 
 better fate. Besides grammars and dictionaries' in other 
 languages we have here, both in English — 
 
 Aucher, (P.) A Grammar, Armenian and English. 
 Svo. Venice, 1832. 6s. 
 
1S4 
 
 Auther, (P.) Dictionary, English and Armenian, 
 with the assistance of J. Brand. 2 vols. 4to. Venice, 
 1821. 24*. 
 
 Of the Kurdian language neither grammar not 
 d.ictionary can bo procured. 
 
 The works here specified may be had by applying to 
 Williams and Nokgate, 14, Henrietta-street, Covent 
 Garden, London. The prices, as mariced above, have 
 been taken from their Catalogues. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY HAEKISON AKD SONS, 
 LONDON OAZ£TT£ OmCE, ST. UASTIH'S LANS, 
 
Arian Languages 
 I Teutonic 
 1 MaUachifin 
 
 ! iHhaidarL 
 
 CZD W&st SUo'Otdtll'oUAi, 
 ^ohemian , SloyuJi. 
 
 SoiitliEast Slavonir 
 
 Ithvut.UUlt.tuulintitt. 
 liii^gian , Sultfuri/Ln , 
 tAJul Wyriitn / 
 
 Jrnieruun 
 
 KurdUui 
 
 Osseiiait. 
 
 ibjufT'-tian , SiAjurUa.n. , ami 
 Lazi*M.n . 
 
 3 liesatlic , iitchuiing Avarinn. , 
 KcLtikiunukutri, Miutkieut . 
 lUiti- IQ^r'iari . 
 
 \ Mitsje*fhic , irt^huiing the. 
 dixjdecU of iJit Gidtfai , J&Mi-aJjuIiLk , 
 urul Chechentti. 
 
 I CherJzASsic , uu-lujUnq the. 
 
 ^-^'^*'~i- , FoUtical Boitnxlaj'ieg 
 
 11 LingitisUc Boundftrus 
 
 IScunes of Latiffvuitfts are nritUn thus. ''X}iKYA%)A