ON ETHNOLOGY. 
267 
Iranian stock as presented in Asia. Here we must establish two great sub* 
divisions. The oue comprises tlie nations of Iran proper, or the Arian stock, 
the languages of INXedia and Persia. Its most primitive representative is the 
2xnd. We designate by this name both the language of the mo.st ancient 
caneiforin inscriptions (or Persian inscriptions in Assyrian clmracters) of the 
sixth and fifth century', and that of the ancient parts of the Zend-Avesta, or 
tbesacrcd booksof the. Parsis, as expIsincU by Burnouf and I.a8.«en. We take 
the one as the latest ^cimen of the western dialect of the ancient Persian and 
Median (for the two nations hod one tongue), in Us evanescent state, as a dead 
language; the other as an ancient specimen of its eastern dialect, preserved 
for ages by tradition, and therefore not quite pure iu its vocalism, but most 
complete in its system of forms. The younger n-preseiitativea of tho Persian 
languages are the Pehlevi (the language of the Sassaiiians), and the Pazend, 
the mother of the present, or modern Persian longue, which is represented 
in its purity by Ferdusi, about the year 1000. The Pushtu, or language of 
the Afgans, belongs to the same branch. The second subdivision embraces 
the Iranian languages of India, represented by the Sanscrit and its daughters. 
\Vhich of the languages of Hiudustau belong to the Ariau stock, and which 
to the Indian family of languages prevalent before the Iranian immigration, 
is a disputed point, which we hope will be brought nearer to n settlement 
by Dr. iMuUer's lecture this day. 
The ^^4 family is the Helleuico^Italic, or the Greek and Roman, and all 
the Italic languages, with the doubtful exception of the Etruscan, which at 
all events was a mixed language, having a Pelasgic groundwork, with a great 
barbarian admixture. Under Italic tongues wo uuderstand the languages of 
Italy proper, south of the Apennines, and of the Italic isles. 
The sixth family Is that of the Shrconic nations in their two great 
baches; the ewtom, comprising the Old Slavonic of the Bible and of 
Nestor, the Itussiau, Servian, Croatic, andWcndic; and tlie western, the 
languages of the Tacheclis (Bohemians), Slovaks, Poles, and Serbians, 
once prevalent in the north of Gormauv, and now spoken from the Adriatic 
to the Dnieper. In the ancient world, this great, powerAd and much.divided 
tomilyis reprcseotc-d by the Sauromutte of the Greeks, or the Sarmaia of the 
Romans, a nation living on the Don and near the Caspian Sea. For the state¬ 
ment of Herodotus that they spoke a faulty Scythian, may as well be under¬ 
stood in the sense in which the English may bo said to speak a bad French, 
M in that in which one might say, tJic French speak an incorrect Franconian 
German. The firat interpretation U, according to the testimonies of other 
'*'*'*1®*^ resjjecting the physiognomy of the Saruiotce, the only admis¬ 
sible one. Those tribes which Herodotus knew, spoke their language mixed 
with that of the Scythians, which does ni»t prove that the rest did. 
The tevailh, nearly allied to this atid the next family, that of the LUhvanian 
rtbes, among which the ancient Prusbiau represents tlie most perfect form, 
is in some points nearer to the Sanscrit than any oUtor existing tongue. 
Finely, last not least, the Ttutonic nations tu their two branches, the 
Scandinavian and the German. The first has preserved its most ancient 
form in the Icelandic; the Swedish and DauUh are the modem daughters of 
the Old Norse language of Scandinaviu. The second is the German, now 
the language of the whole of Germany, ami almost the whole of Switzerland. 
It* northern or Saxon form ha* received a peculiar individuality iu the 
Hemish and Dutch toii^ma, and, by the emigrations of the fifth century of 
our era, has become, mixed with French words *uice the Norman Conquest, 
the prevalent and leoiling language of the British Wes, and is becoming 
now, by the still continuing emigrations since the seventeenth century, that of 
