OLD ARYAN WORDS 



tice two departments of study which have been 

 actually created by the comparative investigation 

 of Aryan languages. Under the first head I shall 

 call attention to some characteristics of scientific 

 etymology ; under the second, we shall get a 

 glimpse of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans. 

 First, as regards etymology, we need consider 

 only a few facts which show how systematic and 

 orderly inference has been substituted for what 

 once was mere random guess-work. In compar- 

 ing different languages, similarity and dissimilar- 

 ity are still, as formerly, the principal tests of 

 relationship ; but in applying these tests we are 

 strictly limited by rules which formerly were ig- 

 nored. Once a vague resemblance between the 

 vocabularies of two languages was considered 

 sufficient ground for assigning them to the same 

 class ; now even a close and sustained likeness in 

 vocabulary is not enough, unless it be accom- 

 panied by likeness in grammatical forms. Thus, 

 the possession of innumerable Latin words, such 

 as opinion, reflect ', admire ', umbrella, honour, colour, 

 contemplate, criminal, etc., does not make Eng- 

 lish a language of the Italic class, nor does it 

 even show arty original kinship between English 

 and Latin. Such words have simply been adopted 

 from Latin, just as ennui and naivete have been 

 adopted from modern French, and such borrow- 

 ing and lending as this can go on between any 

 two languages. It is just as easy for us to use 



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