404 LANGUAGE AND RACE. 



All the foregoing instances are of the nature of small and 

 minor exceptions to a general rule. Two nations may have 

 started from the same source with a common stock of ideas, 

 and a common psychological tendency, yet in so far as their 

 experiences have been different the formative elements of 

 their languages will be different, and not easily interchange- 

 able. The grammar of pigeon-English is not English, but 

 Chinese ; the grammar of Persian remains Aryan. 



There is, indeed, one case by which at first sight this 

 general rule is flatly contradicted. Certain inscriptions have 

 been found in Persia written in what seem to have been two 

 dialects, usually termed Chaldseo-Pehlevi and Sassanian- 

 Pehlevi. 



This latter is a most heterogeneous mixture of Aryan and 

 Semitic : grammar as well as vocabulary. There is a fusion 

 of the Aryan and Semitic order of words, and also of the 

 inflections. If this dialect were ever a widely spoken one, 

 it would be fatal to the general rule mentioned above ; but 

 further study seems to show it was not a spoken tongue, or, 

 at all events, not beyond a select court or priestly circle. 



Until, therefore, a more convincing example can be 

 brought forwards, we must abide by the belief that the 

 grammar of a nation will remain native, unless wholly 

 supplanted by another ; although under certain conditions 

 foreign influences may effect the adaptation of existing 

 formative tendencies to new uses. Thus, Coptic, which 

 was formerly an afflx-language, like old Egyptian, has be- 

 come a prefix-language, resembling in this respect the 

 Berber and other sub-Semitic dialects of North Africa. 



With regard to the question, *' Can a race adopt an en- 

 tirely new grammar ? " it must be answered in the affir- 

 mative, for numerous examples exist. 



Intimately connected with the grammar is the Phonology 



