324 Dr Prichard (?» the Belations of Ethnology 



a proof that the languages so related must have been de- 

 rived from one root, the ramifications of which have been dif- 

 ferently developed. 



The existence of similar words in several languages, even 

 when such resemblances are very numerous, does not, in all 

 cases, afford proof that the languages in question belong to 

 the same family, since intercourse between different nations 

 often gives rise to the adoption of expressions by one tribe 

 for the language of another, as the English have adopted a 

 great many words from the French, and the Welsh a still 

 greater number from the English. The question, whether a 

 considerable number of common or similar words in two lan- 

 guages affords evidence of original connection between them, 

 may be solved by adverting to the particular sorts of words 

 which are found to resemble. Even when one nation has de- 

 rived from another a considerable proportion of its entire 

 stock of words, there often, and indeed generally, remains an 

 indigenous or aboriginal vocabulary, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, or a home-bred speech, consisting of such words 

 as children learn in early infancy, and in the first develop- 

 ment of their faculties. This domestic vocabulary consists of 

 words of the first necessity, such as those denoting family 

 relations, father, mother, child, brother, sister; secondly, 

 words denoting parts of the body, and material objects, for 

 which children have names; thirdly, personal pronouns, 

 which are found to be amongst the most durable parts of 

 language ; fourthly, the numerals, especially the first ten ; 

 fifthly y verbs expressive of universal bodily acts, such as, to 

 eat, drink, sleep, walk, talk, &c. ; sixthly, names of domestic 

 animals. As no human family was ever yet without its own 

 stock of such words, and as they are never changed, within 

 the narrow domestic circle, for other and strange words, they 

 are almost indestructible possessions ; and it is only among 

 tribes who have been entirely broken up and enslaved, so 

 that family relations have been destroyed, that this domes- 

 tic languiige can have been wholly lost. Tribes and fami- 

 lies spread abroad have preserved them for thousands of 

 years, in a degree which has allowed an easy recognition of 

 this sign of a common origin. 



