Vi THE ARYAN QUESTION 273 



volved. It is a matter of fact that such languages 

 exist, that they present certain substantial and 

 formal relations, and that convention sanctions 

 the name applied to them. But the close con- 

 nection of these widely differentiated languages 

 remains altogether inexplicable, unless it is ad- 

 mitted that they are modifications of an original 

 relatively undifferentiated tongue; just as the 

 intimate affinities of the Romance languages 

 French, Italian, Spanish, and the rest would be 

 incomprehensible if there were no Latin. The 

 original or " primitive Aryan " tongue, thus postu- 

 lated, unfortunately no longer exists. It is a hypo- 

 thetical entity, which corresponds with the " primi- 

 tive stock" of generic and higher groups among 

 plants and animals ; and the acknowledgment of 

 its former existence, and of the process of evolu- 

 tion which has brought about the present state 

 of things philological, is forced upon us by 

 deductive reasoning of similar cogency to that 

 employed about things biological. j 



Thus, the former existence of a body of re- 

 latively uniform dialects, which may be called 

 primitive Aryan, may be added to the stock of 

 definitely acquired truths. But it is obvious that, 

 in the absence of writing or of phonographs, the 

 existence of a language implies that of speakers. 

 If there were primitive Aryan dialects, there 

 must have been primitive Aryan people who 

 used them ; and these people must have resided 



182 



