PHILOLOGY. 



519 



(*am, A house. Domus. 



Obitaiet, He dwells, Habitat. 



Pakoi, Peace, Pax. 



Ssedit, He sits, Sedet. 



To these may be added levi, leevus ; brat, /rater ; 

 speklo, speculum; and many others. The same 

 writer lias shown similar affinities between the Rus- 

 sian and ancient German. He has put together a 

 few sentences in the two languages containing in the 

 whole fifty words, literally translated from the one 

 language into the other, and striking out all 

 vowels, and leaving only the consonants as the 

 bones or skeleton of the words, he has shown them 

 to be exactly the eame, without the least difference. 

 ("See Catherinens der Grossen Verdienste um die 

 f'ergleichende Sprachenkunde, p. 19.) The numer- 

 ous affinities between the Sanscrit and the languages 

 of Western Europe are still more remarkable. The 

 following will serve as an example out of a very 

 great number collected by various German philolo- 

 gists : 



Ada, I eat ; Lat. edo ; Russ. yeda. 



Aghni, fire ; Lat. ignis ; Russ. ogn. 



Aschuga, dry ; Ital. asciugare. 



Bratha, brother; Russ. brat. 



Bhrouvo, bhrowan, the eyebrows ; Russ. brovi. 



Cabala, head ; Gr. xnfnX.. 



Da, give (imper.) ; Lat. da. 



Dwi, two ; Lat. dm; Gr. luu; Fr. deux. 



Du'ar, opening ; Eng. door ; Russ. dver. 



Gada, going ; Eng. to gad (about). 



Ghena, woman ; Gr. ywn ; Russ. zhena 



Herda, heart. 



Hima. cold ; Lat. hyems (winter). 



Ita, yes ; Lat. ita (thus). 



Yuga, yoke; lat.j 'ugum ; Fr.joug. 



Yuva, young ; Lat. juvenis. 



Krschra, a scream ; Eng. to screech. 



Kuka, a cock ; Fr. coy. 



Mrita, mortal ; Lat. mors, mortis ; Fr. mart. 



Marcca, frontier ; Eng. mark (landmark) ; old 



Germ, mark (frontier); Ital. margine ; Eng. 



margin. 



Misra, to mix ; Lat. misceo. 

 Nasa, the nose. 

 Ntcht, nothing ; Germ, nichts. 

 Padi, road, way ; Eng. path. 

 Shoostri, sister ; Germ, schwester. 

 Sonnu, son. 



Sourgo, height ; Lat. surgo 

 Tri, three ; Lat. tres ; Ital. ire. 

 Faihon, wind ; Dutch, fVaaijen (to blow, bluster). 

 fPartana, warti, guardian, doorkeeper; Germ. 



warten. 



Amidst all these affinities existing among so many 

 languages, how is the mother tongue to be discover- 

 ed ? The task is undoubtedly very difficult, but, to 

 a certain degree, perhaps, not impossible. We are 

 inclined to think that the filiation of languages may 

 be pursued to a great extent. Before that is done, 

 however, it will be necessary to establish certain 

 rules, to direct our researches in the thorny paths of 

 etymology. 



By way of example, we shall suggest one rule or 

 canon, which, we are of opinion, will go a great way 

 towards serving us as a clew in this complicated 

 labyrinth. If, in a given language, a radical or 

 primitive word should be found, accompanied with 

 what may be called its family, that is to say, its 

 various compounds and derivatives, and if, in 

 another, we should find only the root, or but a few 

 of the derivatives or compounds, we may safely say, 

 Vhat as far as that goes, the latter is derived f roin 



the former. Thus we find in the French the radical 

 word roi, with its derivatives reine (formerly royne), 

 royal, royaute, &c. ; while, in English, we find the 

 derivatives royal, royalty, royally, under the primitive 

 king. We may then be well assured that the English 

 language has borrowed these derivatives from the 

 French, and, for the origin of the primitive king, we 

 must look somewhere else, until we find the whole 

 family of that word existing together in one idiom. 



Another example may be adduced. In the Basque 

 language, undoubtedly one of the most ancient that 

 exists, the primitive word bi signifies the numeral 

 two. All the family of that word is derived from it 

 or compounded with it ; Ligarrena, second ; birretan, 

 biarretan, twice ; bitan ambat, double ; biderbiro, 

 doubly ; biderbitu, to double ; taut, binaca, two and 

 two ; amabi, twelve (ten and two) ; bicoa, of two ; 

 bitan, bian, in two (speaking of things) ; bigan, in 

 two (speaking of persons), &c. In the Latin tongue, 

 we do not find the simple or primitive word bi; for 

 two is expressed by duo, a word derived from the 

 Greek, which has compounds and derivatives of its 

 own ; but we find a part of its family, bis, twice ; 

 binus, biceps, bicolor, bidens, &c. What are we to 

 infer from this fact, which deserves, at least, to be 

 remarked ? We think it not improbable, that the 

 Basque language, many centuries ago, was spoken 

 in Italy, or, at least, some dialect derived from it, in 

 which was found the primitive word bi, with its fami- 

 ly ; that, in consequence of successive invasions and 

 conquests, that language was pushed farther west- 

 ward, and other idioms took its place, and, either 

 mediately or immediately, the Greek word duo was 

 introduced, while bis and some of its compounds re- 

 mained. Some other language introduced the verb 

 scquor, whence secundus was derived, and expelled 

 the Basque word bigarrena; but the word bis could 

 not be driven off; there remained with it many words 

 derived or compounded from bi, such as binus, biceps, 

 &c., which gradually adapted themselves to the 

 analogies of the new language. It will be said, 

 perhaps, that the Latin word bis is the Eolic form of 

 the Greek S/?, because it is known that in that dialect, 

 the 3 was often changed into /3 ; but why should not 

 the Eolic /3/ x ; be also derived from the Basque ? The 

 baron W. von Humboldt has discovered many affini- 

 ties between that language and the Greek. (See the 

 Mithridates, vol. iv. p. 282.) The word other (alter), 

 which, in several languages, as, for instance, in 

 German, is made use of for second (der andere), is, 

 in Basque, besfea, bercea ; formerly (in Fr. autrefois) 

 berris ; other thing, bcsteric. In all these words we 

 find the letter b, and the analogy of all these words 

 with bi is not to be doubted. We do not think we 

 have gone too far, in asserting the probability that 

 the Basque language, in various dialects, was once 

 spoken in a great part of Europe, and, amongst other 

 places, in Italy. It is impossible not to come to this 

 conclusion, when we consider how much that idiom 

 differs from all others, not only in the derivation of 

 its words, but in its grammatical forms, which have 

 no parallel any where in the old world, and although 

 they resemble, in some degree, those of the American 

 Indian languages, yet diller sufficiently from them to 

 show that there is no real affinity between them. 

 (See Historical and Literary Transactions of the 

 American Philosophical Society, vol. i. p. 39.) Now, 

 we know that mankind are every where imitators, 

 and that, in the gradual formation of their languages, 

 ;hey borrow a great deal from each other ; we can- 

 not, therefore, form an idea of a language so widely 

 different from all others, and particularly from those 

 jy which it is surrounded, without coupling with 

 this fact the idea of the most remote antiquity, and 

 of times when the people who now speak that Ian- 



