38 



ON THE COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY 



an etymological connection between the Hebrew ro and Yoruba bata, a hide, by the 

 Yoruba traditions,* and by the marvellous grammatical affinity (which I believe no one has 

 previously noticed), that exists between the Yoruba, Egyptian, and Coptic languages. This 

 confirmed probability adds so great weight to one of the strongest arguments in favor 

 of linguistic unity, that I cannot refrain from quoting, in this connection, Max Miiller's 

 admirable statement of that argument. 



10. "Now, if wo consider the large number of tongues spoken in different parts of the 

 world, with all their dialectic' and provincial varieties, if we observe the great changes which 

 each of these tongues lias undergone in the course of centuries, bow Latin was changed 

 into Italian, Spanish, Provencal, French, Wallachian, and Roumansch; how Latin again, 

 together with Greek, and the Celtic, the Teutonic, and Slavonic languages, together like- 

 wise with the ancient dialects of India, and Persia, must have sprung from an earlier 

 language, the mother of the whole Indo-European or Aryan, family of speech; if we see 

 how Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriae, with several minor dialects, are but different impressions 

 of one and the same common type, and must, all have flowed from the same source, the 

 original language of the Semitic race; and if we add to these two, the Aryan and Semitic, 

 at least one more well-established class of languages, the Turanian, comprising the dia- 

 lects of the nomad races scattered over Central and Northern Asia,, the Tungusic, Mongolic, 

 Turkic, Samoyedic, and Finnic, all radii from one common centre of speech; if we watch 

 this stream of language rolling on through centuries in these three mighty arms, which, 

 before they disappear from our sight in the far distance, clearly show a convergence towards 

 one common source: it would seem, indeed, as if there were an historical life inherent in 

 language, and. as if both the will of man and the power of time could tell, if not on its 

 substance", at least on its form."f 



11. The third of these "mighty arms," appears to have had a pre-Semitic branch, which 

 traversed the whole breadth of Africa. The researches of Champollion, Lepsius, Bunsen, 

 and others, have demonstrated the Turano-Semitic affinities of the monumental Egyptian, 

 and Mr. Bowen's work enables us to discern widely extended ramifications of those affinities 

 which were previously unknown. 



ble reasons for supposing that the original complexion of man was olive, and that the change has been in one 



direction to brown ami white; and in the other, to red and black. 



"White, ) .-.,. f Copper, 

 Brown, j ' ( black. 



* "Tim traditions of the Yoruba people as to the orjgin of their tribe, arc obscure and contradictory. They 

 generally affirm that, mankind wen; created at lie, a considerable town in the eastern part of the Yoruba country. 

 Sometimes they speak of lie as being four months' journey distant,, as though the present town of that, name were 

 confounded with some other place, of which the people retain an obscure traditional recollection. ... 1 have been 

 informed by some intelligent natives, that, the 5Toruba people once lived in Nufe, beyond the Niger." — Bowen, p. xv. 



j Lectures on the Science of Language. First American Edition, pp. 12—3. 



