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XII. An Essay on the best Mecms of ascertaining the Affinities of Oriental 

 Languages, by Baron William Huhboldt, For. M.R.A.S. Coiitained in 

 a Letter addressed to Sir Alexander Johnston, Knt., V.P.R.A.S. 



Read June 14, 1828. 

 Sir: 



I have the honour to return you Sir James Mackintosh's interesting 

 memoir. It possesses (Uke every thing which comes from the pen of that 

 gifted and ingenious writer) the highest interest ; and the ideas which are 

 so luminously developed in it have the more merit, if we consider, that, at 

 the period when this memoir was pubUshed, philosophical notions on the 

 study and nature of languages were rarer and more novel than they are at 

 present. 



I would, in the first place, observe, that the Royal Asiatic Society 

 could not direct its efforts to a point more important, and more in- 

 timately connected with the national glory, than that of endeavouring 

 to throw further Hght on the relations which subsist among the different 

 Indian dialects. Since we cannot doubt that this part of Asia was the 

 cradle of the arts and sciences at an extremely remote period, it would be 

 highly interesting to ascertain with greater certainty whether the Sanscrit 

 be a primitive idiom belonging to tliose countries, or whether, on the 

 contrary, as most of the learned are at present inclined to believe, it was 

 introduced as a foreign language into India ; and if so, the country whence 

 it originated would naturally follow in the course of inquiry. It is equally 

 curious to determine whether the primitive languages of India are to be 

 traced over the Indian archipelago in dialects differing little from each 

 other, and whether we are to assign their origin to these islands or to the 

 continent. Mr. Ellis's paper on the Malayalam language, with which you 

 were so good as to furnish me, contains assertions on the affinity of the 

 Tamul language to the idioms of Java, which it woiUd be very important to 

 verify. 



