1860.] Is the Pushto a Semitic Language ? 313 



Sans. kshur Pushto *^ (Mraya) shear. 



„ stana (breast) (compare £j\ p. 3) „ ij>y**» (stúnae) throat. 



„ ura „ (jSJjj (warai) wool. 



„ lap (say) „ ^ (lwa) read. 



„ lap, (Benfey, G-riechisclies Wurzel- *aJJ (lamba) fíame, 

 lexicón, II. p. 127). 



„ masyádhára Pusbto ísjb^" (mashwánre) inkstand 



„ mil (societatem inire) „ JU (mal) companion. 



„ madana „ A¿x«o (mina)* love. [yereor. 



„ bhrí „ %y¿ (wyara) fear ; cf. Lat. 



„ vish „ u**¿J (wesh) división. 



„ vání „ Ujj (wená) speech. 



The foregoing list the reader will observe consists only of words 

 whose identity with their equivalents in the sister languages may be 

 recognised at a glance ; if it were extended so as to include such as 

 can fairly be proved, by the recognised rules for the shifting of 

 consonants (Lautverschiebungsgesetze) , to be unmistakably Arian, by 

 far the greater portion of the entire vocabulary would have to be 

 transcribed. 



A cursory inspection of this list will convince the reader that it 

 confirms the truth of the philological maxim that comparatively rude 

 dialects preserve oíd forms better than their more polished relatives ; 

 henee for the etymological investigation of the Persian an acquaint- 

 ance with Pushto would be more than merely useful. Vuller's 

 Lexicón would have been far more satisfactory, or rather far less 

 unsatisfactory, if the author had availed himself, for the etymological 

 portion of his work, of the connecting links the Pushto offers. The 

 length to which this paper has already grown, will admit of but an 

 instance or two of such links as one may expect to fincl. 



* Compare the Germán minne. The conneetion with the Germán will most 

 probably be doubterl, at least by Germans, as it is the fashion to connect minne 

 with the very opposite of the root of madana, which is mad. It is possible that 

 the Pushto mina Í3 allied to Venus, and the Sanskrit root van ; the change of v 

 iuto m is quite cominon in Pushto: nwar (Zend hvar) is pronouuced timan 

 newasi (Latin nepos), nmasai ; Persian JIjJ = Pushto J^UJ (nmanz), etc. 

 analogous to the Latin mare for Sanskrit vari. 



