454 ARYAN HYPOTHESIS AND CONTROVERSY. CHAP. xxm. 



CHAPTEE XXIII. 



ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGES AND SPECIES 

 COMPARED. 



ARYAN HYPOTHESIS AND CONTROVERSY THE RACES OF MANKIND 



CHANGE MORE SLOWLY THAN THEIR LANGUAGES THEORY OF THE 



GRADUAL ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES DIFFICULTY OF DEFINING WHAT IS 

 MEANT BY A LANGUAGE AS DISTINCT FROM A DIALECT GREAT 

 NUMBER OF EXTINCT AND LIVING TONGUES NO EUROPEAN LANGUAGE 



A THOUSAND YEARS OLD GAPS BETWEEN LANGUAGES, HOW CAUSED 



IMPERFECTION OF THE RECORD CHANGES ALWAYS IN PROGRESS 



STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE BETWEEN RIVAL TERMS AND DIALECTS 



CAUSES OF SELECTION EACH LANGUAGE FORMED SLOWLY IN A SINGLE 



GEOGRAPHICAL AREA MAY DIE OUT GRADUALLY OR SUDDENLY 



ONCE LOST CAN NEVER BE REVIVED MODE OF ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES 



AND SPECIES A MYSTERY SPECULATIONS AS TO THE NUMBER OF 

 ORIGINAL LANGUAGES OR SPECIES UNPROFITABLE. 



THE supposed existence, at a remote and unknown period, 

 of a language conventionally called the Aryan, has of 

 late years been a favourite subject of speculation among 

 German philologists, and Professor Max Miiller has given us 

 lately the most improved version of this theory, and has set 

 forth the various facts and arguments by which it may be 

 defended, with his usual perspicuity and eloquence. He 

 observes that if we knew nothing of the existence of Latin, 

 if all historical documents previous to the fifteenth 

 century had been lost, if tradition even was silent as to the 

 former existence of a Roman empire, a mere comparison of 

 the Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Wallachian, and 

 RhaBtian dialects would enable us to say that at some time 

 there must have been a language, from which these six 

 modern dialects derive their origin in common. Without 



