Indigenous Races of the Earth

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36 ON TilE DJSTH.IDUTION AND One of tl1 most skilful pltilologir;ts of Germany, M.A. F. PorT, Prot' ss r of .Linguistics at tho University of Halle, has ro · ntly combat d (in a work entitled, "The Inequality of Jiuman Races, viewed espec'ially as regards the Constitution of their Speech/) the ]1ypo­th sis of au n iq no prim iii vo langun.g , whence all otl1crs a1· supposed to ]rave iAsned; and he has shown th~Lt it has no more foundation than tktt wltich would mn,ko all the r;pcci s of on and tho same genus is uo from a sing! individual, and all varioti s fr m one primitive typ . JI has claimed for languages an ctllllological c:Uaractcr, suited to the lassification of races, not Jess certain than tho physical typo and tbe corporeal forms. Perhaps even, l1o observes, tho idiom is a criterion more certain tban tho physical constitution. Does not sp cch, in fact, r fl ct tho intcllig nco bcttcr,-is not language more competent Lo O'ivo tho laLtcr's measurement, than can bo gath­ered from tho dimension of tho facial a1rgl , and the amplitude of the cranium? A powerful mind may inhabit a slender and mis­shnpcn body, whilst a well-made tongue, rich in forms and nuances, could not take Hs birth among intellects infirm or dcgonorato. '!'his oh crvation of M. Pott is just; but it ought likewise to be allowed that tho classiii ation of Janguag s oilers, perhaps, more uncertainty than tbat of races considered physiologi ally. Tho truth of this remark of M. l ott mu t, nov rtholess, bo restricted ; becau o sp cch is ~10t the comr Jete. mcnsuro of intollig nco, t{tkon in tho aggregate. It 1s mer ly pl'Oportronatc to tho degree of perception of relationships of sensibility, nnd of memory: bocansc we Bball sec, further on, tha~ some poop] s, very far advanoccl in civilization, could have a lanrrna(J'c very imperfect in its forms; at tho same time that some savage ~ribos do speak an idiom possessing a certain grammatical richness. SECTION ill. Philologists who have devoted thomRclvcs to tho comparative study of the lan~nagos of Europe, MM. }1'. Borl? and PoTT, in particular, have stab1r.lt c1 the more or less ·lose rol,tLionsbip of tllOso tongues am?ng t each other. All, with tho oxccpLion of some idioms, of wlnch wo shall tr at anon, oftor the same grammatical system, and a vocabulary whose words can be attached one to another through the rules of ot~mology. I ay the rules, because etymology now-a­? ays 1:os osscs lts.own: and ifl no longer governed by arbitrary, often mgcmous, but ch1m neal c1istinctious. Through the attentive com- G Die y,[Jldc!tlteit ~!1 e11 ~chl~cher Ra88C11 haupailcltlich vom Sprachwiasenaclwjtlicl!en Standpunkte unlcr bc&o!ldcrcr Bemcll81chltgung von dca Ora'cn VON Oou . l · ' · W ' & Dotmokl, Svo., l SGU. ~· INioJII.V fl ezc,lllamlgen arlee; Lemgo CLASSIFICA'l'ION OF TONGUES. 37 pariRon of tho chang s that well-known words have nnd.orrrono in . f b paRslng rom one JanrruaO'O into another, modern philology has be-como enabled to grasp the laws of permutation as rcgarul:l tho l 'ttNs, and tho regular processes for th exchange of sounds. Those i~t ·ts once settled, it has b como possible to trace b}Lckwanl won1s, in app(\l1l'­anco strangely dissimilar, to a common root whi ·h stan dB iorth as the typo wh nco modifications ltavo prod uccd all these derive Live wor·<ls. It is in the Sanscrit that this typo lHLS be n di!:lcov red; or, at the very least, the Sanscri.t pros nts its lf under a form much more ancient than tho Bur vean ionnations; an<l, in consequence, it ap­proaches nearest to that typo of which wo can no longer grasp any but tho diversified derivatives. In like manner, the grammar of the htngnagcs of Europe, in its fundamental forms, is rccognit~ d in tho Sanscl'it gmmrnat·. 'l'his gr·ammar, of which wo sp •ifi <1 above tho clrnt'fLdor and richn Rs, inclos s, so to speak, in substance, those of all the JDuropcan idi ms. The clements which compose these idioms arc like so many d6bris of a mor ancient tongue, wlrosc mod 1 sillgularly approximatel:l to tlrc Sanscrit. It is not, howov r, that tho Jangnao· of Europe lmvo not each th ie own rich , and their individual O'enius b Hid 'fl. ln · r­tain points they are often more developed than the Sanscrit. But, tal "cn in th ir collective ampli.lu<le, they arc certainly bmnc]Jcs more irnpov rished than that wl1ich constitutes tlrc SaHscrit. Those branches appertain to a common source that is called Indo-European or Indo-Germanic. 'l'ho sap seems, ncvcl'LhclcsA, to have oxllanstcd it lflittlo by little; and those branches most distant from the trunk have no longer anytlring lil e the yontl1, fulncss, and. lifo, which :flow in the vessels ofth branch s of primary formation. lT nco tho languages of Europ belong to a gr at family, that, at an arly hour, divided it oU' into many bran hos, of who o common an •ostor we arc ignorant, but of whom we cnconntot· in tho anscrit the chief of one of the most a11cicnt collateral lin s. We bavo pre­viously stated that th Pcrsic (Pa1·si) and the Zcnd wc1· two tongues very intimately allied to the Sansceit. Th y arc consoqncnLiy sisters: and, whilst certain tongues of Europe, such as the G I' •k and tlre hlavi • langnao·es, recall, in a sniTi. •iently striking ltHtnncr, tit Sans­crit; otl1 t'., tho Gormauic tongue , hold. more closely to tho Pcrsic and the Z nd. Comparison of the languages of Europe bas cansod tl1 m to be gronpecl into four great chtAscs, repros ntinrr, as it wor·c, r;o many sis­ten! from tho sam. motl1 r, but sisters who have not l> •on cal led to an equality of partition. Tho more one advan cs toward tl10 l~ast, tho more are found those tongues that have partaken of the inheritance.