220 MAJOR C. BR. CONDER, R.E., D.O.le5 LL.D-, \MeRsASes 
occur also in Aryan speech seems to indicate a connection, 
which still existed when language had advanced from its 
most primitive stages. 
But we are able perhaps still further to advance the study 
of the origin of Semitic languages, by a comparison with 
one of the oldest forms of human speech—namely, the 
Egyptian, The labours of Birch, Brugsch, Renouf, and 
Pierret, have furnished us with a very copious vocabulary, 
and a complete grammar of the Egyptian. It is indeed said 
that Coptic alone can be properly considered comparable with 
its immediate ancestor; and the classing of Egyptian with 
any one of the great Asiatic groups is still regarded with 
disfavour.* About 150 Keyptian words are very § similar to 
the Akkadian, and a smaller number are very close to Aryan 
roots, and at least 200 are almost identical with Semitic 
words. Yet Dr. Birch, whose knowledge of Chinese and of 
Semitic languages gives great authority to his words, was, I 
believe, of opinion that Egyptian should be classed with 
Semitic languages. The same opinion was held very strongly 
by the late C. Bertin, who possessed a wide, linguistic know- 
ledge, and the reasons given appear to me to be very strong 
ones: for not only the grammatical structure and syntax 
are similar, but the terminations of masculine and feminine, 
the pronouns, the prepositions, and other parts of speech, are 
almost identical. It is naturally objected that Egyptian is 
not an inflected language; but this seems to render the 
comparison the more valuable. The old language stopped 
short, while that of the early Semitic peoples advanced ; 
and for this reason is the more capable of assisting our 
search. 
So for instance, in both Aryan and Semitic speech, we 
find an _s prefixed to the old root, and forming secondary 
roots. In Egyptian this s, which is an ancient ‘auxiliary, 18 
recognised as being the sign of the causative. In making 
such comparison it should be understood that I speak, not of 
the many nouns which seem to be loan words borrowed 
directly from Semitic peoples, but of the common roots of the 
language, concerned with the most ordinary human actions, 
In Eg eyptian and in Akkadian alike we find common words 
* The Berber or Libyan languages, as Champollion perceived, are 
connected with ancient Egyptian, and many words indeed remain almost 
unchanged as well as the forms of pronouns and particles. 
