On Comparative Philology. 93 



numbers to live in the neighbourhood of others who have learnt to express 

 their sentiments accurately; what improbability is there that they will 

 keep their own vocabulary, but learn to intiect it from the foreigners ? To 

 disprove this, appears to need an extensive induction concerning the 

 habits of the savage mind^ such as savage communities are not likely to 

 afford. Again : while in the collision of languages, inflexions are destroyed, 

 as has happened in Europe and southern Asia ; contrariwise, in the desarts 

 of Arabia and Africa, a vast variety of vocabulary might co-exist with un- 

 changeable inflexions of grammar. For tribes that live apart have no ten- 

 dency to change these latter ; while the love of slang terms and other 

 inexplicable causes, induce a considerable change in the vocabulary. The 

 copiousness of Arabic is only an illustration of this. 



There is a language which has of late excited curiosity in Europe ; that 

 which is talked by the Berbers of Mount Atlas. It is said to be identical 

 with the language of the Tuaricks, and of the other straight-haired nations 

 of north-western and central Africa : whose branches (says Prichard) "ex- 

 tend from the Oasis of Siwa on the eastern, to the mountains of Atlas, 

 and even to the Canary Islands, on the western side." That there were 

 two great nations in the northern half of Africa, Ethiopians and Libyans ; 

 the former, straight-haired and with European features ; the latter, woolly- 

 haired, in short, negroes ; the ancients were aware. The Berber language, 

 should it be compared with that of the Berberins of the Upper Nile, might 

 throw great light on the composition of the inhabitants of Africa. A trans- 

 lation of the twelve first chapters of St. Luke's gospel into the language of 

 the Berbers of Mount Atlas, was procured at Algiers by the French, and 

 having found its way to England, was published by the Bible Society. If 

 the task prove not too difficult, we propose before long to lay before our 

 readers such a concise account of the nature of this language, as may con- 

 vey instructive information without the tedium of mere details. At present 

 some general remarks must suffice. 



It is written in the Arabic character, with slight modifications. It has 

 a large assortment of Arabic roots, but not in the most familiar objects and 

 ideas. In fact, the whole material of the language seems opposed to 

 Arabic, as much as vulgar English is to French : yet many of its gramma- 

 tical peculiarities and inflexions very nearly resemble Arabic. English is 

 of triple formation, being originally Saxon, then mixed with Norman, and 

 thirdly, infused with Latin and Greek by the learned j so may the Berber 

 have originally been of the Shemitic stock, have been corrupted with Negro 

 dialects, and in a much later age have received a new infusion of Arabic, 

 at a time when its common words had lost all resemblance to Arabic j just 

 as much as earth and terre, water and eau, child and enfant, horse and 

 cheval. This possibly may have been the case ; but on the other hand, a 

 few of the Berber inflections prompt the inquiry whether they may have 

 been all borrowed. The most striking fact of this sort, on the face of the 



No. 3.— Vol. I. o* 



