454 ARYAN IIYrOTHESIS AND CONTROVERSY. CQAP. xxur. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



OKIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OP 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 OKIGIN OF LANGUAGES AND 



SPECIES A MYSTERY SPECULATIONS AS TO THE NUMBER OF ORIGINAL 



LANGUAGES OR SPECIES UNPROFITABLE. 



rpiIE supposed existence, at a remote and unknown period, 

 -■- of a language conventionally called the Aryan, has of 

 late 3'ears been a favorite subject of speculation among Ger- 

 man philologists, and Professor Max Miiller has given us 

 lately the most improved version of this theor^^, and has set 

 forth the various facts and arguments by which it may be 

 defended, with his usual perspicuity and eloquence. He ob- 

 serves that if we knew nothing of the existence of Latin, — • 

 if all historical documents previous to the fifteenth centur}'' 

 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 RhsB- 

 tian 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 this suppo- 



