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Show 52 ON TilE DISTRIBU1'JON AND One may partition, according to their degree of development, these tonO'ues into four groups,-thc Ougrian group, that comprises the Osti'ak, the Samoycdc, the Vogoul, and divers other dialects of Siberia: tho Tartar gi·oup properly so called, which comprehends the Mongol that occupi 'Sin it the lower rung, the Ou'igour, tho Maudchou, and the Turldsh, whose position is on tho highest: the Japonic group, to which belongs the Corcan; and the Finno-Oug1·ian, that embraces the Suomi or Fiulandic, the Esthonian, the Lapponic, and tho Magyar; all whi h latter tongues arc superior to those of the preceding groups, as concerns the grammatical system and ideology. Tho Finno-Oug1·ian family prolongs itself into North America, whore we c:mcountor its most widely-spread branches in tho most boreal latitudes. And in like manner it is to be noted, that tho Eskimaux race, and tl10 septa thiuly scattered over those frozen countries, apyn·oximato in their type to that of the Ougrian. Tho idioms spolrcn in the entire sub-Arctic region present the same uniformity, therefore, as the fauna of this rcgion. 18 Indeed,· wo know tl1at animal species are found to be very nearly the same along the boreal latitudes Loth of the Old and tho New world. Whilst one body of the groat Indo-European migration from Asia was advancing by detachments into our temperate countries, another corps descended through tho defiles of the IIindoo-Kosh, and by the basin of tho InduR, into tho vast plain of tho Ganges; and spread itself bit by bit over tho whole peninsula, of which this ri vor laves the northern provinces. This is what we arc taught not merely by tho traditions of tho IIindoos, but also by tho study of tho languages spoken in this peninsula. In fact, while we encounter, at the north of IIindostan, idioms emanating from the Sauscrit family, we meet, further to the south, with an "ensemble" of tongues, absolutely foreign to it, as well in vocabulary as in grammar. Those languages appertain all to tho same family, and they are denominated, after the IIindoos, by tho epithet of Dravirian or Dravidian. Hen co, the Arian tribes had been preceded in India by populations of a wholly distinct family; in tho same manner that tho sisters of the former had encountered in Europe another race, di:fforent likewise from themselves. ,And, what is remarkable, tho two categories of languages spoken by tho autochthones of Europe and the indigenous peoples of IIindostan belong, in classification, to lin· guistic families having many traits in common. The Dravidian tongues subdivide themselves into two groups; one 18 AoAssrz, "Skotoh of tho Naturo.l Provinces of tho Animnl World, o.nd their reht;ou to tbo different 1'ypcs of Mo.n "-in No:r:r o.nd GLIDDON's J'ypu of Afankind, 7th edition, 1856, pp. lx.-xiii. CLASS FICATION OF TONGUES. 53 the northern, and the other .southern. The first embraces tho languages spoken by the dispersed native tribes, whom tho descendants of tho invading Aryas havo repelled into the Vindbya mountains, viz: tho Male or Radjmahali, tho U1·aon, the Oole, and tho JOwnd or Gondo. 1'ho second comprises tho Tamoul or Tamil, tho Telougou or TolonO'a (called also Kalinga), tho Talava, tho Malayalam, and tho Oarnatic or Camataka. As tho populations at tho south of tho peninsula have preserved, during a longer time, their national indopondonce, and even have attained a civilization of their own, one an understand that the idioms of tho southern group must be far richer and more developed than those of tho northern group. N evortholoss, despite this inequality of dovolopmont, one discovers, in a strihng manner, the same characteristics in the whole of those tongues. Another branch of tho same family, which extends to tho north-cast of the basin of the Ganges, indicates to us through its prose nco, that a fraction of the indigenous population was thrown townrds tho north-cast; so that, it must now be admitted, tho groat Dravidian nation, cut through its centro (by tho intrusiv Aryas), was, like the primitive population of Europe, driven off to tho two opposite extremities of its vast territory. Tho Bodo and tho Dltimal arc the two principal ropro~ontatives of this cluster separated from tho stem, whoso most advanced branches continuo onward until they lose thorn· selves in Assam. All tho characters appertaining to tho Ougro-J aponic tongues are found again in these Dravidian languages, of which tho Gondo may be considered to have preserved to us their more ancient forms. All manifest in a high degree tho tendency to agglutination. Tho law of harmony, that wo have perceived just now in tho Finnish languages, re-appears bore with the same character. Tho foundations of tho grammatical system, which are identical in all those tongues, dou btloss constitute them as separate families ft·om Tartarian; but this (Dravidian) family is very close, certainly, to those idioms spoken by tho Tartars. The same contrasts exist, as regards tho vocalization, between the Ougro-J aponic and tho Dravidian tongues. 1'ho Magyar may bo compared to that Dravidian idiom richest in consonants, -for example, to the Toda or Todara, which is spoken by an ancient aboriginal tribe established in tho Nilghel'l'i-hills ; and tho Finnish, with the J aponic, correspond in their softness to tho Tclougou ta.lked at the south-east of Tiindostan. Those Dravidian populations wore spread even to tho islands of Ceylon, tho Maldives and the .Laquedivos; inasmuch as the idioms there still spoken attach themselves also to tho Dravidian group. Comparative philology demonstrates to us, thoroforo, that a popu. |