IV 



WHAT WE LEARN FROM OLD 

 ARYAN WORDS 



THE discovery of the Aryan family of 

 languages, as elucidated in the preced- 

 ing paper, was the first and most con- 

 spicuous consequence of the zeal for Sanskrit 

 studies which ensued upon the English con- 

 quest of India. Surely, this in itself was no 

 small thing. It was in every way stimulating 

 and suggestive to have detected a specific bond 

 of relationship, in speech and in culture, be- 

 tween such different peoples as the English and 

 the Hindus, who had not previously been sus- 

 pected of possessing anything in common save 

 their common humanity. It had indeed been 

 long ago maintained that languages the most di- 

 verse in superficial aspect were descended from 

 a common source, but such views were based 

 merely on a languid assent to an ill-understood 

 tradition, and no one had the least conception 

 of the proper method of tracing linguistic affin- 

 ity. Down to the beginning of the present 

 century the labours of etymologists had all the 

 crudeness of astrological speculations, or of bar- 

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