Professor Rasx’s Remarks on the Zend Language. 535 
to Mr. Ersxrne’s ingenious observation, is lately formed from the Pahlavi, 
because I fancy the ancient cuneiform alphabet was too inconvenient in 
books; and by frequent use in hand-writing for many ages, those little 
excrescences might easily originate, though they cannot reasonably be 
expected to occur in an ancient original alphabet. It must still be observed 
that the cuneiform inscriptions are probably not written in ancient Median, 
but in ancient Persian; and consequently that all their words and forms 
cannot justly be expected to agree altogether with Zend: but that there 
should be, notwithstanding this, so strong a resemblance between them and 
the Zend, in spelling, inflexion, and the words themselves is, in my opinion, 
no slight evidence for the Zend having been the ancient language of Media. 
The other circumstance I would adduce, is the dialect of an Iranian tribe, 
called by the Georgians Osi, by the Russians Osetinzi, living on the very 
summit of Caucasus; at present without any particular religion, and 
supposed by M. Ktraprota (in his journey into the Caucasus and 
Georgia), from historical probability, to be an ancient Median colony. 
This Osic dialect has lost the old complicated grammatical structure, 
like the modern Persian, but it has preserved some peculiar words and 
forms, agreeing with the Zend, though differing from all other Iranian 
dialects. I shall only mention a few, extracted from a small but valuable 
collection in manuscript, kindly communicated to me by the learned 
Professor F. Aprzunc: y= the sun (not yx), Zend hware ; ij earth, 
Zend 240; »\ jire, by transposition in Zend, dtars. Another curious 
transposition you will have observed in the Zend words quoted above, 
namely gs for the modern Persian sh, in the European languages sk, The 
Zend which, from ancient names in Greek ‘Pwkavae, &C.. we may infer to 
be the genuine, is also with a slight alteration preserved in Osic ; for 
instance, i+! night; Zend gsofs, Persian 5 (shab) ; Jims\ six, Zend 
qswas, Persian 44 (shash) ; again, pm! milk, Persian py (shir). We may 
trace these words in the Icelandic skim, Danish skumring, darkness ; 
Icelandic, skyr ; Danish, skormelk, a sort of sour milk, &c. 
As to the authenticity of the Zendavesta, it seems to stand or fall with the 
antiquity and reality of the language wherein it is written: to state 
nothing, however, without some kind of proof, I shall shortly mention 
the reasons on which my own persuasion rests. The Pahlavi, as well as 
Parsi, evidently presupposes the Zend, and it is apparent that the religion 
