Indigenous Races of the Earth

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30 ON TnE DTS'T'RtHU'l'TON AND less determined. The history of languages is but tho conlinnal march fl'om synthesis towards analysis. Everywltcre one beh~lds a first idiom giving place to a vulgar tongue, ~lw,t.docs not cons~:tu~o, to r;pcak cot'l' ctly, a different idiom, but wh1ch. JS ~ vernacnl~t m1ts secon(1 p1 1 <"•s ·1s , t,11 at 1·s , 'a t a period more a•n alyt10al. W111lst thhe primitive Loncruo is ovcl'loadcd with :flexions m ord?r to express t e mor d li cate0 r ln.tions of thougllt, richer in images ~f.perhaps poo.rcr in id aA, tho mod rn dialect is clcn.rer, more e~pbc1t.,-scparat~ng thn.t wl1ich tho a.ncionts crowded together; breakm.g up the mecb,tn­isms of t11o anci nt tongue so as to give to each 1dea, and to each relation its isolated expression. / And 'hero 1 t not the ex'Pre~ons be confounded ;rith tho wm·.ds. Tho words otherwise called the clements, that enter mto tho expt~s­si n, are ~hort, gon01·ally monosy11abi.c, furnished nearly ~11 WJth shol'L vowels ot· with simple consonants; bnt these words d.1sappcat· in the exp1·essions within which they enter ;-~n.e do~s not se1ze them more than can the cyo, in the color green, dtstmgmsh the blue and ycltow. 'rho composing words arc pressed (imbricated, to spea~c with botanists), to such degree, that one might call then:, accordmg to tho comparison of JACOB GRIMM, blad s of .h.orbage m a grasH-p1ot. Ancllhat which takes place, for tho compos1t10n of tl1e exprcss10ns, happ ns n.lso as regards the pt·onuncia~ion ?~the words th.a~ so strin­gonlly cling t them, viz: tho same s1mpbcrty o.f sonnds, .masmuch as tho expression must nevertheless n.llow all tho pm·ts of 1ts organ­ism to bo seized. "No primitiv tongne," writes M. JACOB GltiMM, in his memoir on tho origin of speech, "possesses a duplication of consonant. This doubling arises solely from tho gradual assimHation of <liflcr nt consonants." At tho secondary epoch thoro appear tho dipltLhoncrs and breakages (b,.isements); whcr as the tertiary is char­act rizcd by softenings and by other altomtions in the vowels. Above n.ll, it is the Sansm·it whi h bas made evident thcso curious ]aws of tho gradnal transformati n of languages. The Ranscrit, with its admirable richness of grammati ·al forms, its eight cases, lis six moodA,-its numerous terminations tmd its varied forms onouncing, alongAido of th principal idea, a host of accessory notions-was emi­n nUy snit c1 to th study of tho growth and cleclin of a tongue. At its debut, in tho Rig-v da, tho langnagc appears with this synthetic character; these continual inversions, these compl x xprcssions that we just now signalized as conditions in the primordial exercise of thoug11t. Aft rwards follows the anscrit of the grand opopccs of In<lin,. The la.ngu.acro h{~d th n acquir d more suppl n ss, whilst prcB<'rvincr, nov rthcloss, the rigidity of its pristine processes: but soon tho grammatical edifice becomes decomposed. The Pali, which CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. corresponds to its first age of alteration, is stamped with a remark­able spirit of analysis. "'l'he laws that presided over tho fol'mation of this tongue," writes EuoJiJNE BunNouF," "aro tho so of which the application is discernible in other idioms, at diverse epochas and in very different countries. These laws are general, inasmuch as they are necessary. Lot tho Latin, in fact, be compared with the lan­guages which arc derived fr·om it; tho ancient Ton ton io dialects with tho tongues of tho same origin; tho ancient Greek with the modern; tho Sanscrit with the numerous popular dialects of India; and the same principles will bo seen to develop themselves, the same laws to be applicable. The organic inflections of tho mother tongues subsist in part, but in an evident state of alteration. More generally they disappear, and are replaced; tho cases by particles, tho tenses by auxiliary verbs. 'l'hoso processes vary from one tongue to another, but the principle remains tho same. It is always analysis, whether a synthetical language finds itself suddenly spoken by bar­barians who, not understanding the strncturo, suppress and replace its inflexions; or whether, abandoned to its own course, and hy dint of being cultivated, it tends towards decomposition, and to subdi­vide the signs representative of ideas and of the relations them­solves." Tho Pralc?-it, which represents tho secondary ago of alteration in ancient tongues, is submitted to tho same analogies. On tho one hancl, it is loss rich; on tho other, simple and more facile. Finally, tho Kawi, ancient idiom o.f Java, is a corruption of tho Sansorit; wb rein this language, cloprived oC its inflexions, has tak h in their place the prepositions and tho vernacular dialects of tl1at island. 1'hcso three tongues, themselves formed through derivation from the Sanscrit, soon undergo the same lot as their mother: they become, each in its turn, dead, learned, and sacred languages, -the Pall, in tho isle of Ceylon and in Indo-China; tho Prakrit among the Djainas; tho K.awi in tho islands of Java, Bali and Madoura; and in their place arise in India dialects more popular still, the tongues Gours, llindee, Oashmerian, B engalee, tho dialect of Guzorat, tho Maltratta, &e., together with the other vulgar idioms of IIindostlin, of which the ~:;ystem is far loss leamod.6 Languages o.f tho regions intermediary between India and the Caucasus offer, in tbei r relation and a:ftiliation, differences of the same order. At the more ancient period app ar tho Zend and the Parsi, bound together throngh a close relation hip with the Sanscrit, but conesponding to two diilcrent developments of the faculty of ' R8sai Btlr le Pali, pttr E. llullNOUI' et Cuu. LASSEN. 6 EltNEBT RENAN, Op. cit., "do l'origine du langn.go," p. 22.