TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 
Latin, but little corrupted, mixed with much Arabic, and some Greek, prevailed ; 
the second, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, in which the language agrees 
very well with the modern true Italian; and the third, between the fourteenth and 
seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries, when the ‘‘ modern Sicilian,” as now generally 
used, became corrupted or modified. 
Sicily had the honour of giving birth to Italian poetry, as Petrarch distinctly as- 
serted, and the great Dante made “ Siciliana Favella” synonymous with modern 
poetical language. 
The first important poet of that island, since the revival of letters, Ciwllo d’ Alcamo, 
composed his verses, in the twelfth century, in the earlier dialect of the second period, 
which is similar to and in fact was the parent of pure Tuscan. 
Mr. John Hogg entered into a more detailed and critical notice of the Linguaggiu 
Sicilianu, or ‘‘modern”’ dialect of the last period; and he introduced many exam- 
ples of words in the latter idiom compared with the Italian. Having remarked on 
the paucity of prose works in ‘‘ modern”? Sicilian, he gave several interesting speci- 
ee τ poetry as written at this day; and added to each a literal translation in 
nglish. 
The author afterwards brought forward in an historical sketch the different nations, 
which had chiefly effected by their respective languages the changes and alterations 
in the dialects of Sicily: he observed that Sicilian, as now spoken, reminded him of 
the style and pronunciation of Doric Greek, and suggested that it might perhaps be 
termed a Doric dialect of the Italian. 
Next, Mr. J. Hogg separated, as Adelung had done, Sardinian into—I. the ancient 
native language, and 11. the foreign language. 
Having pointed out the distinctions existing between the two chief dialects, the 
southern and the northern idioms of the native Sardinian, he stated the existence of a 
Spanish dialect, the Catalonian or Catalan, in Alghieri and its vicinity ; and a variety 
of the Zuscan in Sassari, and some other places, both being introduced or foreign 
languages. 
According to Mr. Tyndale, the Sarde native language, or Sardic, especially that of 
the northern district, is the nearest of existing languages to pure Latin. 
Mr. John Hogg then gave some notices concerning the material differences of the 
Sardinian idioms, and peculiarities of their grammatical structure, from that author’s 
instructive work on Sardinia. 
. Having added some general examples of Sardinian as compared with Italian, the 
author inserted many sentences, and some specimens of poetry in the former tongue, 
together with English versions, in order to afford ample illustrations. And, as he 
had in the first part of this essay given éwo versions of the Lord’s Prayer in dialects 
of the Sicilian, he followed out the same plan in appending four copies of that prayer 
re different dialects of the Sardinian, so that the former might be compared with the 
atter. 
In both islands Italian is likewise spoken by the higher classes, whilst the lower 
only use the common Sicilian (dialetto volgare) and Sardic dialects. 
The author said in this communication he had considered Sicilian and Sardinian, 
for the sake of convenience, as “‘ languages,’’ and not mere dialects of the Italian, 
because they will be found to branch out into several dialects. 
On the Original Distribution of the Germanic, Lithuanic and Slavonic 
Populations. By R.G. Latuam, MD., F.RS. 
At the beginning of the proper historical period, 7. e. when the parts in question 
were first known otherwise than from hearsay evidence, there were few or no Ger- 
mans east of the Elbe; on the contrary, the whole population was Slavonic. This 
is generally considered to have been of recent origin, the previous population being 
German. The current reasons for this opinion lie in the fact of the parts between the 
Elbe and Niemen being parts of Tacitus’ Germania. 
The evidence of this, as well as of other classical works, is not sufficient to counter ' 
balance the very opposite state of things in the ninth and tenth centuries; since to 
reconcile the undoubted Slavonic character of the populations at that time with 
the common interpretation of Tacitus, is to assume an unparalleled amount of 
