248 
REPORT— 1847 
in Africa, and to have been much more extensively spread in that quarUrrf 
the world than they were formerly supposed to have been. The Syro-A» 
bian idioms of Asia have been divided by Gesenius and other learned vriio 
into three groupes.—1, the Northern, Aramajan orCbaldaeanj 2, thedialea 
of Palestine, the Hebrew, Samaritan and Phrrnician, including the languar 
of the Sacreii Scriptures and that of the Phoenician inscriptions and u 
Punic or Carthaginian*; 8, the Arabic of the Koran and of the Kufic icicn- 
tions, and likewise the modern dialects of the Hedjaz and Yemen, iheMi;?- 
grebyn or Western idiom of the Arabs in Africa being a peculiar dial<tt<i 
this language. 4. Late writers have supposed that they have dUcoverd« 
fourth branch ; this is the Ekltkili of M. Fresnel, preserved, as he says, hy litf 
noble race who inhabit the mountains of Hhnzik, Mifbit and Zhafar, near lit 
southern coast of Arabia. This is supposed to be the idiom of the HimysnBc 
inscriptions. 5. Akin to this last is the Ghy/. or Old Ethiopic, as well asii 
modern Tiigrayaw and Amharic. The Abyssinian languages may be 
a fifth division of the SjTo-Arabiau groupc. 6. A sixth, the various diaie®** 
the Old Libyan language, viz. tlie Berber, Shillali, Showiiih and Tuarjtid 
one of the idioms of the Canary Islands. Professor Newman has innt' 
gated the history of these languages, and has shown by proofs, derived fw 
the intimate structure of words and the analogy of their graniinatitai foBK 
that they belong to the Syro* Arabian family, and are nearly allied lo w 
oldest members of that -stock. 7. The same writer has shown that tit 
Haiissa language, which is one of the idioms of the black nations of 
has likewise u graniuiatical affinity to the Syro-Arabiau dialects. 8- 
(*alla languages (which, since the publication of several works by thembsif'®’ 
aries, the learned Mr. Ka-apf ami others, and M. Tiitschek’s valuable gn^ 
mar and dictionary, are beginning to be known) display some grammaWt 
analogies to the same stock. The extent of this relation ha* nut yetw® 
explored. 
More important in an historical point of view tlnin any of these doubtf®! 
matters is the question, what rolatioirs exist between the ancient EgJ’P^ 
language and the Syro-Arabiau. This difficult ptroblem I shall leave 
illustrated by a distinguished scholar, whose great learning and puweff" 
intellect render him the best fitted for the taskf. . 
Ihe four great families oflanguages, of which I have now enumerate*!^ 
principal ramifications, divide, os 1 have before said, between them mW. 
A r of the Great Continent, with the exception of those . 
Africa which He between the Tropic and the Equator and to the soutb^ 
ot that hue. The vast and unexplored region of Central Africa or 
am stretches, like a broad belt, from east to west across the whole coo , 
m the region of iu greatest brt^adth. This region is supposed to be ocjvip^ 
by immense chains of mountains, among which the Jebel Kumra or 
tains of the Moon have been famous in all tiim-s. To the westward of 
he mountains whicli support the tublc-land of Senegambia and the cb«“ 
the Kong mountains, numing parallel to the coast of Guinea, are great 
mlogical lines of ilemarcation. But the greatest boundary between the 
Africa 18 produced by a line running across the whole continent fro® ' 
■ Off 1 ‘ corner of the Bight of 
Luts ofi the comparatively narrow portion of Af rica from the broader ^ 
families of nations who inhabit Africa are separated by 
se to the northward are distinct from the southern races. Between 
Hebrew!^”''”* I’ceved that the Punic scene of Pkutna was, as origtoaHv wfiur®’ ^ 
t The Chevalier Bunsen, 
