THIRTEENYH ORDINARY MEEEING. 165 
The following represent the exceptions to the rule both in form 
and ia numerical proportion :— 
ENGLISH. LeSGHTAN, OTHER Forms. 
yellow tlela dula, = Lesghian. 
day tlyal thyal, tehzal * 
horn tlar adar, Basque. 
knee tlon belaun “ 
From the preceding examples it appears that the Les ghian sounds 
represented by ¢/, thi, ntl, are the equivalents of r and / generally, 
and sometimes of / or ¢ The latter exception probably finds its 
explanation in Basque, for in the dialects of that language an occa- 
sional permutation of r and 7 into ¢ and d takes place. Thus ideki 
to take away, becomes ireki, and iduzki the sun, becomes iruzki, 
while eur snow, sometimes assumes the form edur, and belar grass, 
that of bedar. The last exception cited, that in which the Lesghian 
tlon is compared with the Basque belaun, is really no exception, for 
elaun is the true representation of tlon, the initial 6 being prosthetic 
to the root, as is frequently the case in Basque. Among many 
examples that might be given, I may simply cite belar the ear, as 
compared with the Mizjeji lerk. 
Turning now to the Aztec, on the supposition that it is related to 
the Basque and Caucasian languages, we naturally expect to find on 
comparison a coincidence of roots and even of words following upon 
the recognition of ¢/ and ntl as the equivalents of 7 and / in these 
forms of speech. The fact that the Aztec alphabet is deficient in 
the letter r favours such an expectation. But our comparison must 
be made with due caution. Any one who has examined a Mexican 
dictionary, such as that of Molina, must have been struck with the 
remarkable preponderance of words commencing with the letter ¢ 
over those beginning with any other letter of the alphabet. These 
words comprise considerably more than one third of the whole lexi- 
eon. A certain explanation of this is found in the fact that the two 
particles ¢e and ¢/a possess, the former an indefinite personal, and the 
latter a substantive, signification, und thus enter largely into the 
structure of compound words. Whatever its grammatical value in 
Aztec, however, it appears, on comparing the Aztec vocabulary with 
its related forms of speech, that initial ¢ or te, which leaving ¢/ out of 
account still occupies one fifth of the lexicon, is frequently prosthetic 
to the root. 
The following are some of the chief laws of phonetic change derived 
