1 840.] from Bactrian and Indo- Scythian coins, 637 



refuted by the mere agency of a petty monument of Gre- 

 cian art. 



§ 13. 



TTie Language, 



That the language of the legends in the Cabulian character 

 belongs to the widely extended family of the Arian languages, 

 is so evident from the foregoing disquisition, as to render it 

 unnecessary to dilate on the subject; a few words only on the 

 latest coins of the Kadphises dynasty, constitute the only 

 exception to this fact. 



The language on the coins also remains at all periods un- 

 altered; in the word tdddro alone is an alteration affected to 

 dhddhdro, giving evidence of a later variety in pronunciation. 



I do not include in this assertion the language of the 

 Kanerki-coins ; they refer to another dialect, on the position 

 of which, as to local use, a conjecture can only be formed here- 

 after. From the discussions, as to the country to which this 

 alphabet was indigenous, the natural inference ensues, that 

 the language, expressed in these letters, may be assigned to the 

 same country; -all peculiarities hitherto discovered, as to the 

 system of sounds in the language, tend to the same conclusion. 



The language is not Zend, for this does not absorb the 

 consonants ; the Zend has puthra, not putta, and retains even 

 on the Kanerki-coins, athro, mithro, ardethro ; the language 

 of the coins, on the contrary, reads, Minadho, Eikatidd ; Zend 

 again retains n before t, but not the language on the coins; 

 Zend does not exclusively express its nominative in the ter- 

 mination 6, and it alters an Indian H into Z, while the 

 language of the coins has mahato. Zend has no L, while 

 with our language it is a favourite letter, as for instance, prati 

 becomes pati, and even pali, A Zendic, or more correctly 

 speaking, an Iranian affinity, appears only in the substitution 

 of k (i. e., q or kv) for sp identical with sv. This fact, and 

 the correspondence with the old Persian in omitting the nasal 

 before dentals, are the only peculiarities which refer to Iran. 



Other facts have been noticed, with regard to the language, 

 as common to the Indian dialects of Pracrit, viz. the absorption 



