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Show 4.2 ON TIIE DISTRIBUTION AND These cases arc even occasioun.lly identical with those of this last tongue. 'l'he Sclavonic, or Shlavo, idioms properly so denominated, subdivide th msclves into two branches, that of tho south-west and that of the west. The first comprises tho Rus.~ian, the Bu..lgarian which furnishes us with the most ancient Shlavic form (npproximating very much to the idiom termed Cyrillic or ccclcsiasticnl, in which are composed tho most ancient monuments of the Christian literature of this race), tho Illyrian, the Serbe or Servian, the Croat, and tho Slovine spoken in Carinthia, in Carniola, a part of Styria, and in a canton of western IIunO'ary. 'l'he hlavic tongues of the west embrace the L elch or Poli~h, the Tcheq or Bohemian, the Sozab or Wonclic (popular dialect of Lusacc), and tho Polab,-that has disappeared like the ancient Prus~ian, and which was spoken by the Sclavonic tribes who of yore wore spread along both banks of tho lower Elbe. 'l'ho GcL'manic languages attach themselves (we have already said), more to tho Zond and the Persic than to the Sauscrit. 'l'ho I crsic and Zeud arc part of a group of tongues that is designated by the name of Iranian languages. It embraces again many other idioms, of which several have disappeared. To it are attached notably tho A.ffgMn or Puslttu, tho Beloodchi spoken in Bcloodchistan, the J(urd, tho Armenian, and tho Ossete-which seems to be nothing else than tho lauguage of those people known to the ancients by the name of Albanian, the Aghovc'ms of Armenian authors. This narrow bond between tho Germanic and tho Iranian languages tells us plainly whence issued the populations which spread themselves over centralEurope, and that very likely drove before them the Celts. 'l'ho affinity that binds these Germanic tongues amongst each other _ that is to say, the ancient Gotltic, or dialects of the German prop~rly so called, to which cling tho Flemish and the Dutch, the Frison and the Anglo-Saxon, and lastly tho old Icelandic and its younger sisters the Danis!~ and Swedish-is much closer than that observable between the Shlavic and amongst the Pclasgic languages. Four traits in comroo~, .as M~. J Aeon G~IMM has noticed, attach them together, viz: var1atwn of sound, wh~eh tho Germans call "ablaut·" metathesis or transposition; and finally, the existence of two different forms' of verbs aud of nouns, that arc denominated "strong declension or conjugation," and "weak declension or conjugation." An attentive comparison of the laws of the Sanscrit grammar and vocalization, with those of German grammar and vocalization has revealed some curious analogies which explain those rcsembl~nces that had been, even anciently, perceived between German and Greek. Celtic languages are known to us, unhappily, only through some CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 43 doubtless very degenerate representatives of that powerful family, viz: tho Gcelic or W clsh, and the Armorican or Bas-breton (which are in reality no more than dialects of the Kimr-ic tongue), the Irish, tho Erse or Gadholic idiom spread over the Scottish llighlands, and tl1o Manx or idiom of the little isle of Man,-not forgetting the lost Comish dialect. We hardly know anything of the tongue spoken of erst by our fatherf:l, the Gauls ( Gaulois or Galls); except that the small number of words remaining to us suffices to cla sify it with the same family. Of all the branches of tho Indo-European family this ColLie is, in fact, the one whose de tinics have been tho least happy, and the most confined. Its tougues have come to die along the shor s of tho Ocean that opposed an impassable ba1Ticr to renewed emigration of those who spoke them. Invaded by the Latin or Oct'man populations, the Keltic races have lost, for tho most part, tho lanO'uagc that distinguished them, without, on that account, losing altogether the imprint of their individuality. 'l'ho history of tho Indo-European languages is, therefore, tho surest guide we can follow in endeavoring to re-construct the order of those migt·ations that have peopled Europe. ~his ?omunt~ity of :anguagc that unveil itself beneath an apparent d1vcrstty, can 1t be sunply the fleet of a commonality of organization physical and intellectual? The in habitants of Europc,-do thoy belong solely to what might be termed the same formation? It would, if so, become useless to go Rcarching in Asia fol' their common cradle. Tl.1e fact is il: itself buL little vcrisimilar; but, horo arc some compamtlvo connectwns of anothct· order that como to add themselves to those which languages have ofl:crcd us, and to confirm tho inductions drawn from the pre-ceding dn.ta. . . . . On studyilw tho mythological trachtions contamcd m the Vedas, as well as in the 0 most ancient religious monuments of India and Persia, there has been found a multitude of fables, of beliefs, of surnames of gods and some sncrcd rites, some variants of which, ~lightly altered, arc rc-cncountered in the legends and myths of anttque Greece, of ol<.l Jtaly, of Germany, Scandinavia, Rtlssia, ancl eve~ of England. It is only since a few years that these new analogws. ~avo .been broucrl1t to light· aml the Journal directed by two d1stmgmshed b ' OL'icntalil:ltS of Berlin, MM. 'rrr. AuFRECilT and ADALBERT KunN, has boon the chief vcl1iele for their exposition. One of the first Indianists of Germany, M. ALBF.lt1' WEBER, has also contributed his portion to this labor of (rapprochement) comparison; of which, in France the Baron D'EcKS'L'BIN lcal'ncdly pul'sues the application. I hn.~c already said that th~ names of gods mot with in Greek and Latin indicate to us a wol'ship (culte) among tho Pelasgi altogether |