EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. 55 



CHAPTER III. 



EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. 



THE European Languages may be classed in the four families of 

 Pelasgic, Gothic, Celtic, and Sclavonic ; the former belonging to 

 Southern Europe, the three latter to Central and Northern. The 

 Pelasgic family, includes the languages of ancient and modern 

 Greece and Rome ; with those derived from them : while the chief 

 tongues of the Gothic family, are the English and German : and 

 these two families, the Pelasgic and Gothic, are much the most im- 

 portant, of all modern languages, to the civilized world. Except the 

 Greek and Latin, they are languages which were formed during the 

 middle ages of history ; that period which produced the nations of 

 modern Europe, partly from the wreck of the Roman Empire. 



There is no doubt that all the European languages are of Asiatic 

 origin ; and the comparison of them with the more ancient languages, 

 has been a problem of deep interest to the philologist. Thus, the 

 Greek, may be traced to the Phcenician, and Egyptian ; the Latin, 

 to the Phoenician and Greek; while the Italian, Spanish, and 

 French, are immediately derived from the Latin ; of course with an 

 intermixture of Gothic words. The languages of Central and 

 Northern Europe probably came from the central and northern parts 

 of Asia ; but doubtless from various sources, so intermingled, that 

 their exact origin cannot now be ascertained. Most of the Euro- 

 pean languages are highly syntactic ; changing the forms of words, 

 to express variations of number, person, relation, intensity, time and 

 mode, in nouns, adjectives and verbs. Our own language is, per- 

 haps, the least variable, in these respects, among them all. 



We proceed to speak briefly of the European languages, in the order 

 of Classification above proposed. 



1. The Pelasgic family of languages, includes the Greek; the 

 Romaic or Modern Greek ; the Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, 

 and French languages; with the subordinate dialects. The Pelas- 

 gians were the oldest inhabitants of Greece : and received their name 

 from Pelasgus, one of their leaders. With them, the Greek and 

 Latin languages both originated ; and from these, all the others, of 

 this family, have been derived. 



The Greek language, is emphatically that of ancient poetry and 

 philosophy. It is remarkable for its copiousness and strength ; and 

 for the ease with which its words may be united, to form compounds. 

 Though derived immediately from the Egyptian and Phcenician, it 

 is said to have much affinity to the Sanscrit, both in individual words, 

 and grammatical forms. Its earliest alphabet, that introduced by Cad- 

 mus, as already mentioned, (p. 41), was the old Phoenician, contain- 

 ing only 15 letters; to which Y was soon after added. Four more 

 letters, z, e, <i>, and x are said to have been invented by Palamedes, 

 during the Trojan war; and the remaining four, H, H, and ft were 

 added by Simonides, about the time of the Persian war, or 490 B. C. 



