Apbil 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNO^A/'LKDGE 



177 



countenance, and a universal faith prevails in the sovereign 

 virtue of the remedy. . . . The cfleet of the delusion was 

 really astoui.shing : for many quickly and perfectly recovered. 

 Such as had not moved their limbs for a month before were 

 .seen walking the streets sound, upright, and in perfect 

 health. They boasted of their cure by the Prince's remedy. 

 . . . Many who declared that they had been rendered worse 

 by all former remedies, recovered in a few days, to their 

 inexpressible joy, and the no less general surprise, by taking 

 (almost by their having brought to them) what we affirmed 

 to be their graciou.'i Prince's acre." We may add that on 

 another occasion widespread scurvy was suddenly cured in a 

 very difterent way : it is stated on good authority, says Dr. 

 Todd, "that in 1744 the prospect of a naval engagement 

 between theBriti.sh and allied fleet h.ad theettect of checking 

 the sciu'vy." 



(To he continued.) 



ORIGIN OF THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.* 



NTS work is a valuable introduction to 

 Teutonic philology, and will be found 

 full of interest by many who regard the 

 ; fS[t '^A > studyof language from without — in the same 

 fj^i 'J^ii sense that the geologist regards the study 

 of chemistry or the pateontologist the study 

 of botany. It is in this last respect that we 

 prop.isu here to deal with the book, and we select, as an 

 illustration of its value and interest, the treatment of the 

 Indo-European languages in the third chapter. "We believe 

 that a better idea of the qualities of a book may be obtained 

 by thus examining at full length a selected portion than bj' 

 attempting to present a summaiy of the whole in a neces- 

 sarily imperfect manner. 



The languages of the Indo-European family, belonging to 

 the Indo-European races, may be grouped under nine 

 principal heads. 



First, we have the Indian group, in which we find the 

 oldest extant form assumed by the original language as it 

 broke up into dialects. The Vedas are in a language which, 

 though written, represents evidently what was the language 

 spoken by the people when the Vedas were composed. It is, 

 indeed, known that the Yedic hymns existed long before 

 they were consigned to wi-iting. We have in Sanski-it {i.e. 

 the language "put together" or "perfect") a language 

 wliich was developed from the older spoken language, and 

 differing doubtless in some respects from its original ; but, 

 though simplified and reduced to a fixed form, it was true 

 in sound and grammar to the older language, just as the 

 English of our books is true to the English spoken bj- the 

 people. Sanskrit is still employed bj' the learned in IndLi, 

 just as Latin was employed in Italy long after it had become 

 a dead language in its own home. The ancient popular 

 language in India was called Prakrit (" vulgar " or "copied "). 

 The modern popular dialects in India are the Hindustani, 

 the Marathi, the Bengali, <tc. (The older races did not call 

 themselves Indians, but Aryans.) 



Secondly, we have the Iranian gi-oup, more properly 

 called Eranian — now the Persian — also calling themselves 

 Aryan, from " Aryas," true or noble, whence Eran is directly 

 derived. We have very ancient works of old Persian in 

 cuneiform inscriptions relating to Darius, Xerxes, and 

 Artaxerxes. These inscriptions are numerous enough to 

 give a good idea of the langviage. Of the old Bactrian, or 

 East Eranian language, called Zend, we have specimens in 



* " Outlines of a History of the German Language." By H. A. 

 Strong and Kuno Meyer. Sonnenschein & Co., London. 



the Avesta, or sacred writings of the Parsees. The language 

 shows signs of gi'e;it antiquity. In the commentfxries on 

 the Zend Avestti we have samples of the Middle-Eranian 

 languages, which present many Semitic and Arabic words. 

 Tlie finest example of modern Persian is tlio Shahnameh 

 or Book of Kings, dating from lOTil a.d. Modern Persian 

 has a simple grammar — simpler even than English ; it does 

 not even mark gender in the third personal pronoun. 



Thirdly, we have the Armenian group, connecting the 

 Asiatic and European. The Armenian language has manj' 

 features in common with the European languages of the 

 same famih'. It is interesting as giving us the only evidence 

 we have about the languages spoken by the Phrygians, 

 Lydians, C'arians, and other extinct peoples of Asia Minor. 



Foiu-thlv, WH have tlie (Jreek groiip. The languages of 

 this group ditler little from each otlier, being r:ither dialects 

 than distinct languages. (Professor ^leyer, of Gnw, has, 

 however, suggested that Albanian is an oflshoot of the 

 Greek family, and, if this is so, we certainlj' have in it a 

 language which shows more than a dialectical difference 

 from the Greek.) We find in Greek the signs of greater 

 antiquity in some respects even than in Sanskrit. This is 

 to be recognised in the Doric and ^Eolian dialects more 

 clearly than in the Ionian and Attic. The differences 

 between the imperfect and the aorist, between perfect 

 and pluperfect, and between optative and conjunctive, are 

 especially characteristic of antiquity, as are also the dual 

 forms in declension and conjugation. Modern Greek is a 

 true development from ancient Greek, not a distinct language. 



Fifthly, comes the Italian group. The original langu.age 

 is not known. But in Old Latin, Umbiiau, and Oscan, we 

 have its immediate offspring. (Etruscan is doubtful, and 

 Messapian does not belong to the Italian group.) Latin, as 

 we find it in literature, was not spoken at any time which 

 can be defined. The spoken language changed constantly, 

 but written Latin remained without change. It was only 

 when the changes of dialect had left written Latin an 

 entirely dLstinct language that the new dialects came to 

 be themselves employed in writing ; so that the various 

 Romance languages were spoken long before we have 

 any written record of their existence. Of these Romance 

 languages the modern representatives are the Italian, 

 Roumanian, and Romaunsh (spoken in the Engadine) 

 in the east ; the Sp;inish and Portuguese in the south- 

 west ; the Provencal (langue d'oc) and the French {langue 

 d'oil) in the north-west. (Modern written French was 

 formed from the dialect of the Ile-de-France, the old 

 Duchy of Francia.) 



Sixthly, the Celtic group. The oldest records of the 

 original language of any value (for Greek and Roman 

 records are practically valueless) are found in glosses and 

 interlinear versions of Irish ecclesiastical writers, and 

 date from near the end of the eighth century. But even 

 at that stage the Celtic showed signs of decay. The Old 

 Irish is the best of all the Celtic languages, and appears 

 to stand nearest to the original. Modem Celtic is divided 

 into two groups — the Ii'ish division, which includes modern 

 Irish, Gaelic, and Manx ; and the Cymric, including Wel.sh, 

 Cornish, and Bas Breton, or Armoricau. (Of these the 

 Cornish is now a dead language.) 



Seventhly, we have the Slavonic group. Here also the 

 original language is lost; but the Old Bulgarian, which we 

 have in MSS. dating from the eleventh century, is near the 

 original language in most of its forms. On the contrary, 

 the modern Bulgarian is the most lawless of all Slavonic 

 languages. Servhin is one of the oldest of Slavonic dialects : 

 it can be traced back to the ninth century. Croatian is a 

 dialect of Servian. We have a record of the Slovenian 

 dialect (now spoken by the Slavonic inhabitants of Carinthia, 



