ON THE COMPARISON OF ASIATIC LANGUAGES. 229 
into each other of dialects, in accordance with geographical 
situation—the Aryans to the North, the Turanians towards 
the East, the Semitic peoples on the West, joining on to the 
Egyptian S. 
GENERAL RESULTS. 
The utmost variety of opinion exists as to the homes of 
the various stocks, showing that the linguistic argument 
is at best a weak one. ‘The Aryan has been transferred 
from Central Asia to Norway, and brought back again from 
thence to the Volga. The Semitic ancestor has been placed 
in Central Asia, in Arabia, and in Egypt. The Mongol has 
been traced from the Oxus, or from the Medic highlands. 
In each case the argument is based exciusively on the study 
of one class of languages. But if it be really true that these 
have a common origin, it is to a common centre that we 
must seek to trace the Asiatics. ‘To me it seems clear that 
the linguistic requirements would all be met by supposing 
that the original home was in the healthy highlands, near the 
source of the Euphrates, whence we may conceive the first 
Aryan family to have migrated to the Volga, the first Semitic 
family to have followed the great rivers towards Arabia, and 
the first Mongolic family to have goue eastwards towards 
Central Asia. Ata later period the returning currents brought 
them again towards the centre. The Egyptian and the 
Semite came up from the South, the Akkadian Mongol 
poured down from the highlands into Chaldea and Syria.* 
The pure Aryan came from Persia, and from Greece, to meet 
in Asia Minor, and the mingling of the peoples (with exception 
of the Aryans) is traced from about 2500 B.c., and continued 
in Western Asia from that time forwards. But meantime 
the great classes of language had been formed, and no 
subsequent borrowing of ore affected very mate tially the 
grammatical structure of the distinct groups, which had 
grown up at separate centres. 
We are led, therefore, to inquire if any light is thrown by 
language on the condition of primitive Asiatics, and of the 
early races When they came again into contact, through the 
growth of population, from the various centres. The positive 
* The Akkadians, as shown in Mr. Pinches’ recent paper, had reached 
the Lebanon and Sinai in 2500 B.c., and the Egyptian mines in Sinai are 
equally ancient. 
