152 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Africa. Neither have I yet been able to pay the full attention 

 which I should like to give to Dr. Hyde Clarke's extensive researches 

 in the field of ancient Turanian alphabets. ^^ The inscribed whorls 

 found by Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik, to which he has recently 

 been applying himself, are undeniably of the class under con- 

 sideration. 



From the foregoing statement, it will be seen that the chief 

 materials for determining the phonetic values of the old Turanian 

 characters are the Aztec hieroglyphics, the Corean alphabet, the 

 Cypriote syllabary, and the bilingual inscriptions of Asia Minor. 

 The Etruscan bilinguals have, so far, been a barrier in the way of 

 progress. 



THE LANGUAGE OF THE ETRUSCAN INSCRIPTIONS. 



After transliterating the first twenty lines of one of the Eugubine 

 tables, I found myself among Basque constructions. The forms of 

 the auxiliary verbs naiz and dut, such as hagare, guinela, halu, 

 hanuen, are so peculiar and recur with such frequency, that, so far as 

 my knowledge of languages goes, it is impossible to mistake the 

 Basque for any other tongue." The Basque vocabulary is otherwise 

 common to a large family of languages, which I have in many papers 

 dealt with under the name of Khitan. I am not aware that there 

 is any traditjon of an Italian origin among the Basques, save that 



16 Set forth from time to time in communications to the Athenaeum, Nature, &c. See 

 -Athenaeum, July 25th, 1885, p. 112, for the Hissarlik whorls. 



17 Bagare, modified indicative present, 1st plural, of the verb naiz, I am. 



Paradigm. 

 banaiz, bahaiz, bada — if I am, thou art, he is. 

 bagare, bazarete, badire — we are, you are, they are. 

 ' Gumela, modified indicative past, 1st plural, of naiz. 



Paradigm. 

 naincela, haincela, cela— (it is said) that I was, thou wast, he was. 

 guinela, cinetela, cirela — we were, you were, they were. 

 Balu, modified indicative past, 3rd sing., of the verb dut, I have. 



Paradigm. 

 banu, bahu, balu — if I had, thou hadst, he had. 

 baguinu, bacinute, balute-- we had, you had, they had. 

 Banuen, modified indicative past, 1st sing., of dut. 



Paradigm, 

 banuen, bahuen, bazuen — (it is asked) if I had, thou hadst, he had. 

 baguinuen, bacinuten, bazuten — we had, you had, they had. 



Lecluse, Manuel de la langue Basque, y. 59, 64. M. Lecluse gives five modified indicatives 

 for each of the two auxiliaries. Of the five modifications of naiz, bagare belongs to the first 

 and guinela to the fourth. Of tho-ie of dut, balu belongs to the first and banuen to the third. 



