122 



Observations on Original 



[July 



5. In order to illustrate this fact, let us compare two languages, the 

 respective histories of w hich are sufficiently known, viz. the German 

 and the French. That the German is an original language can be 

 clearly proved. Tacitus says of the Teutonic tribes : " The people of 

 Germany appear to me indigenous, and free from intermixture with 

 foreigners, either as settlers or casual visitants." And again, " I con- 

 cur in opinion with those who suppose the Germans never to have in- 

 ter-married with other nations ; but to be a race, pure, unmixed, and 

 stamped with a distinct character. Hence a family likeness pervades 

 the whole, though their numbers are so great; eyes stern and blue; 

 ir.ady hair; large bodies." And there exists not the least intimation, 

 which could imike us suppose that this roving and warlike race, at an^ 

 period before their emigration from the high lands of Asia, had been 

 fixed (as cultivators of land, or otherwise) in any country, and violently 

 subjugated by any other tribe, whereby the originality of their lan- 

 guage could have suffered ;— and it is certain that, after Tacitus, 

 neither the Romans, nor any other nation, ever subdued them and 

 forced another language upon them. The Gauls, on the contrary, 

 were quite trampled under foot by the Romans, the Latin language 

 was forced upon them, and adopted by the Goths and Franks, their 

 conquerors, whose numbers were too small, to be able to force their 

 respective dialects upon them. 



Now, to exemplify the difference between the construction of an 

 original and of a derived language, let us take the phrase : Les 

 montagnes de la Suisse couvertes de glace et de neige ; where the sub- 

 ject, montag?ies i stands first; the modifications, de la Suisse and coU" 

 vertes, follow, and the word couvertes is again followed by its modifi- 

 cations or definitions, de glace et de neige. The construction, in 

 German, is quite the reverse : Die mit eis und schnee bedeckten 

 Schweizerberge, (or, spelled and pronounced strictly according to the 

 Romanizing system, Di mit eis und shne bedeckten Shveitzerberge) ; 

 and the most ancient British writers, who have still preserved the 

 genius of the old Saxon original language, would have said, the ice 

 and snow-clad Swiss mountains. 



6. It would be superfluous to adduce more instances ; suffice it to 

 observe, that this short German phrase is the type of the longest 

 period of a truly original language, which, in conformity with the rule 

 given above, must invariably conclude its periods with the inflected 

 verb (verbum fmitum) ; and the more consistently this construction is 

 carried through in a language, the more justly it lays claim to the 

 honour of being a purely original one; and, consequently, the more 

 accurately and strictly an author, in his compositions, observes this 

 great principle, not only in the position of his words, but also in the 



