bi - iin “i 
636 
‘and German, contains the remains of 
the Iberian language. Immediately after 
the Iberians, appeared the Celts, a nation 
in all probability more numerous, which 
occupied the right bank of the Danube, 
the north of Italy, Gaul, the British 
Isles, and a portion of Spain, From 
their language have sprung the two Cel- 
tic dialects, still spoken at this very day, 
the first in Ireland, and the second in the 
snountains of Scotland. Adelung seizes 
this opportunity to give a catalogue of 
the real Celtic words, and dedicates nu 
fewer than thirty-eight pages. to his en- 
quiries into the originality of the poems 
of Ossian, which he pronounces to be 
very modern. He next treats of the 
Welch and Cornish tongues, and of the 
Bas-Bretun, which he considers as merely 
two dialects of the same language. These 
he does, not think, strictly speaking, to 
have been Celtic; they are, according to 
him, two remarkable remnants, of the 
Belgic, or Kimri, an idiom which he con- 
eiders asa mixture of the Celtic and Ger- 
man, surcharged with Latin. 
ext after the Celts} come the Ger. 
mans, more especially in the north of 
Europe; then, in the south, the Thra- 
cians, fathers of the Greeks; finally, in 
the east, and the north, the Slavi; these, 
together with the Fins, appear to have 
been. the last who arrived in that. portion 
of the world, where France and Russia 
are now the chief dominant powers. Of 
the German language, three principal 
dialects remain :—1. The teutonic,, sub- 
divided into the superior, interior, and 
middle, Out of the mixture of the three, 
the second.of which possesses five differ- 
ent branches, in the time of Lyther and 
his first disciples, arose a common idiom 
called High German, because tlie supe- 
rior or upper, dominates; this.is.doubt- 
less a rich idiom, but,not intirely fixed, 
althogzh very much cultivated in: the) . 
nierch of Kurgpe, and greatly. perfected 
during the latter snoiety. of the last cens 
tury. 
2. The Germanic-Scandinavian, which 
has four branches, the Danish, the Nor- 
wegian, the Icelandic, and the Swedish. 
And. S, The Envlish, a prodigious 
mixture, in which the German predomi- 
nates, , 
“ Like the Celtic language,-the Thra- 
cian is also lost; but the remains of it 
are found in its illustrious daughters, 
the Greek.and Latin ; these are classical 
tongues, idioms of literal ideas, dialects 
of literature and Christianity,, languages 
which have. civilized. nations, and which: 
a OR i od 
é es “eo et 
Retrospect of French Literature —Miscellancous. 
will continue to be cultivated so long as 
the human. race shall be preserved from, 
barbarity and destruction.” 
Adelung shows, that the Thracian lan- 
guage prevailed both in Asia~-Minor and 
Europe, in the east and the south. He 
makes the ancient Greek and its various 
dialects, to. spring from it, aud finally 
the modern Greek of our own times. 
From the Greek and: a Celtic dialect, but 
chiefly from the .Greek alone, proeeeded 
the Latin; and from the Latin, whether 
pure or corrupted, proceeded the htalian,. 
the Spanish, and the Portuguese. ‘Phe 
French, according to. him,js:a mixture of 
the Celtic, German, &c. “ but has: lie- . 
come, by its elegance and clearness, by 
its celebrated. works in eloquence and 
poetry, as well as by its. original books 
in all sciences, still more than, by the mi- 
litary prowess, and superior policy of the 
nation, the universal language of modern 
Europe.” ; 
The eastern Sclavoni¢ produced: the: 
Russian, the Illyrian, the Croatian, &c. 
The Western Sclavonic has four branches, 
the Polish, Bohemian, Servian, and) Nor= 
thern Witidic. The Walachian ‘also 
comes from the Sclavonic, but is greatlye” 
mixed with bad Latin ; next comes the 
Finnick language, which is mother of the 
Findlandish, the Laponic, the Esthomian, 
and the Livonian. ‘These, with the Hun 
garian and the Albdaneses, are the idioms 
treated of inthe second volume of Mith- 
ridates, 
which is now in the press.. This is to’ 
contain researches into the languages of 
Africa as well as of America, and M, 
de Marr, of Wirtermburgh, and M. de 
Humboldt, have’ both furnished the con- 
tinuator with. their assistance upon this) 
occasion. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
“ Europe en Petit.”—Europe in Mi- 
niature: being:a collection of medals of 
the middle ages, and appertaining to all’ 
parts of Europe; by the proprietor JEAN: 
Jeorrery Lrrstus, 
Gallery ot, Antiquities appertaining to his 
majesty the king of Saxony. 
The editor has-declined to follow: the’ 
system of Medai, and those who take 
him for. their model, but adopted: that 
followed by Eckhel, in. his Catalogne of 
the Cabinet/of Medals at Vienna, as well 
asin his Doctrina Nummorum Veterum 5 
that is to say, the geographical order. - 
Lipsius bas doubtless. encountered a va- 
riety, of difficulties in the’classification: 
of modern medals, in: conformity to a 
system 
and ‘the whole will be ren- 
dered complete by means of a third,. 
inspector of the: 
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