212 MAJOR C. BR. CONDER, R.E., D.C.L., LL.D., M.B.A.S., 
ARYAN LANGUAGES. 
The study of the comparison of Aryan languages was 
placed on a sure foundation, not much more than half a 
century ago, by the band of great scholars, among whose 
names those of Bopp and Grimm are perhaps the most widely 
famous. Of late years, however, great advance has been 
made in the true appreciation of their connection; and the 
name of J. Schmidt will be remembered as that of the 
writer who has substituted for the older idea of a genealogy 
of languages, that of a parallel growth of dialects, develop- 
ing with the orowth of the tribes of Europe, in their various 
centres, This change of method has two results. One that 
it requires a much less extended period of time to account 
for the variations of the dialects, and the other that it 
recognises in Aryan speech the same mode of development 
which had already been recognised in Semitic and Mongoliec 
languages. 
Thefierce controversies (full of political virus), which raged 
of late as to the home of the Aryans, appear to have been laid 
at rest by the calm and moderate exposition ole Di Oz 
Schrader, whose imteresting volume is remarkable for its 
bold contession of the uncertainties which still surround its 
subject. His conclusion that the cradle of the race (as a 
distinct stock) is to be sought on the Southern Steppes near 
the Volga, seems destined to be generally accepted; but it 
In no wise conflicts with the contention oF Max Miller, that 
the parents of the race came from Asia, Although the 
various Aryan tongues form a complete chain, starting from 
the Volga, and meeting again in Armenia, yet a very 
marked division mto two great eroups—European and 
Asiatic—exists,* and the migrations from the Volga centre 
* A certain number of Phrygian words are known, and are all Aryan, 
of the European section. Aryan words, given by Greek writers as 
Lydian and Carian, are also known. Armenian, though it has many 
Turanian and even some Semitic words, has been shown to be an Aryan 
language between Slavonic and Zendic ; many Armenian words compare 
with Georgian. The language of Lycia, which I have specially studied, 
proves to be an Iranian language comparable with Zend and Sanskrit, but 
influenced by Greek (see “Journal Royal Asiatic Society,” where I have 
treated the question at length). I believe the Vannic dialect to be clearly 
akin to Lycian and Persian. The names of Medes and other Asia Minor 
and Armenian chiefs, encountered by the Assyrians, are clearly Aryan, 
and belong to the Iranian group. Herodotus speaks, however, of a 
Phrygian colony in Armenia, whose language was no doubt the old form 
of the present Armenian. 
