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known to us as inferences from facts revealed by philological research. Experts in the Science of Language tell us that these Aryans lived in towns, kept cattle, ploughed the ground, used metals, made boats, could count up to a hundred, recognised family relations, and had various names for God. And the line of argument by which they establish these conclusions is of this kind:-If, say they, we find existing in various disguises, in a number of different languages, the same word to express 'horse,' 'sheep,' 'plough,' 'spear,' then the tribe from which these modern races have sprung must have had a word for horse, sheep, plough, spear, and if they had the word, they must have been acquainted with the thing. Language comes to our help again in fixing the original abode of the primitive Aryan tribe. If we find Aryan names for certain plants and animals, we infer that the Aryans had their home in a district where these plants and animals would flourish. Other reasons there are for placing the Aryans where the majority of the authorities on the question have agreed to place them, but this is one reason, and it shows us once more how language throws a light upon history, or even reveals to us history which is otherwise hidden'.

27. Of these Aryan languages some are more closely allied than others. The more closely allied languages we arrange in classes which we call Stocks. Then again we subdivide a stock into classes of still more closely allied languages, and these subdivisions we call, Branches. Let us treat our own language in this fashion. In the first place, it belongs to the Teutonic stock. But many other languages belong to this stock, some of which resemble English more closely than others. Dutch, Flemish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, are all of them Teutonic

1 See Max Müller's Lectures on the Science of Language, 1st series, pp. 238-9, and Sayce's Introduction to the Science of Language, II. pp. 121–134.

languages, but they fall into different groups. English we said was a Low-German language: so is Dutch; so is Flemish. It was pointed out that 'Low' and 'High' are geographical terms, signifying that the people of whom they are used lived on the lowlands near the coast, or on the higher ground of the interior. Modern German is a HighGerman language. Then again the languages of Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, form a third group, which we call Scandinavian. The Teutonic stock is thus subdivided into three branches, viz. Low-German, High-German, and Scandinavian, and it is a full designation of the English language to say that it is a member of the Low-German branch of the Teutonic stock of the Indo-European or Aryan family of languages. We might describe Dutch and Flemish as sister languages of English, and German and Norwegian as its first-cousins.

Another stock of considerable interest to us is the Romanic, or Italic, since to this stock belong the Latin, from which we have borrowed largely, and the modern representatives of the Latin,-Italian, French, Spanish,— Romance languages as they are called, Romance because they come from a Roman source. Then again there is the Hellenic or Grecian stock, which is represented by the Modern Greek.

The Keltic stock also has peculiar interest for us, because the inhabitants of our island before the arrival of our English forefathers were Kelts, and Keltic dialects are spoken at the present day in parts of Great Britain and Ireland. The Keltic stock falls into two branches, the Cymric and the Gaelic. Under the former head are placed the Welsh language and the Armorican, a dialect spoken in Brittany. The old Cornish, which died out two centuries ago, belonged to the same branch. In the Gaelic group are included the native Irish or Erse, the Scotch Gaelic of the Highlands, and the Manx of the Isle of Man.

28. The language brought to this island in the fifth and sixth centuries by our English forefathers was a pure or unmixed Teutonic speech. An unmixed language in the main it long continued to be. Contributions of words from foreign sources came in slowly at first. On the other hand, although Modern English is in its essentials a Teutonic language, it contains a large Italic element, has received considerable additions to its vocabulary from the Hellenic source, and possesses a slight Keltic ingredient. Thus four different stocks have contributed to its formation: it is a mixed or composite language: its words have been borrowed from many different sources.

29. Two groups of European languages remain to complete the list of stocks into which the European members of the Aryan family are divided: these are the Slavonic, of which Russian is an important example, and Lettish, which is represented at the present time by dialects in Eastern Prussia.

As the name Indo-European implies, some of the languages of Asia belong to this family. These languages fall into two groups. One group is the Indian, which includes Sanskrit, a dead language with an important literature; the modern dialects of India which are sprung from Sanskrit, such as Hindustani, Bengali, and others; and Cingalese, the dialect of Ceylon. The other group is the Iranian or Persian.

There are thus eight stocks into which the Aryan or Indo-European family is subdivided, two of them Indian and six European. It must not be supposed from the use of the word 'Indo-European' that all the languages of India and all the languages of Europe belong to the same family. The languages of India we will not discuss in further detail, but it must be borne in mind that the following European languages are not members of this great family:-Turkish, Hungarian, the language of the Laps

in Lapland, the language of the Fins in Finland, and the Basque, spoken in the Pyrenees.

30. Of the other families of languages, the Semitic is the most important. To it belongs Hebrew, in which the greater part of the Old Testament is written, and it contains also Arabic. Besides the Aryan and the Semitic Family, other distinct groups of languages spoken in various parts of the world have been recognised, e.g. the languages of China, of Farther India, of Japan, of South America. Many languages have not yet been studied with the view of tracing their relationships.

31. The Table on the next page shows the relationship of some of the principal members of the Indo-European or Aryan Family of Languages. The names of dead languages and dead dialects are printed in italics.

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TABLE OF SOME OF THE LANGUAGES BELONGING TO THE INDO-EUROPEAN OR ARYAN FAMILY.

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German German Scandinavian

Latin

Mod. Greek

branch branch

branch

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Icelandic

Norwegian

Flemish

viz.

Swedish
Danish

Italian
French

Spanish
Portuguese

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