15 



Liquids and sibilants are often epenthetic and casual, being inserted 

 or omitted without affecting the meaning of the root. 



The Chinese retain the two sounds of i, that distinguish the Eng- 

 lish from the other European languages, their final i^ being pro- 

 nounced either i^ or ai, in different sections of the empire, — and 

 sometimes in the same section, — at the speaker's option. I think a 

 similar vocal latitude (with a still greater extension, that embraces 

 the e^ sound), was found in the early Greek tj and jy. 



Chinese is not an inflected language, but a language of roots, more 

 or less modified by the lapse of time. In introducing it into any 

 philological comparison, w^e should therefore content ourselves with 

 the only kind of comparison that is possible, and we should extend 

 the comparison as far as possible, by taking, 1st, the identical roots; 

 2d, the similar roots ; 3d, the remoter analogues, which may be traced 

 to a possible community of origin by some simple consonant changes. 



Among identical roots I rank many that are as nearly alike as they 

 can be pronounced by the Chinese vocal organs; such, for instance, 

 as differ only 



1, By the substitution of an asper or a tenuis for a lenis, as. Chin. 

 ci^ or cai =: gr. ^^ or yai-, the earth ; 



2, By the substitution of a short for a long vowel ; 



3, By the prosthesis of a breathing, which may finally have har- 

 dened into a consonant, as, Chin, li^ = gr. xAj-, 1. cli-j to descend ; 

 to rest upon ; 



4, By the use of a substitute for an unpronounceable letter; e. g., 

 the Chinese substitute for r is usually 1, but sometimes r is undoubt- 

 edly represented by i, y, or v, and perhaps by other letters ; 



5, By the employment of a truncating letter in place of the yap- 

 fi,g, as in Chin. la° = gr. '/>6c^-, 'pa-/.-, ^pr^y-^ ^iW--'y 1- ^^^-j fio-c-) 

 goth. vrak] e. hreak, crack, ra<j, ivrech ; s. vragtf; 



6, By transposition or epenthesis of a nasal, in cases where the 

 analogies appear so striking as to clearly indicate a common origin, as 

 in Chin, ma^g = s. ma^h; gr. pa/.--, 1. magn- ; Chin. pi,g = gr. 

 -rjrv-. 



Many of the words embraced in the list of cognate roots and ana- 

 logues are such as probably have a merely accidental resemblance, but 

 as such a collection is principally valuable for the assistance it may 

 render in determining the laws of permutation and the phonetic 

 equivalents in different languages, it seems desirable to admit all words 

 which might possibly be derived from the same root by any known 

 etymological law. In a field that has been so little explored, even 



