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language is Germany, and the Germanic languages are those which are most closely connected with our own. In Germany, languages and dialects allied to each other and to the mother tongue of the English have been spoken from times anterior to history.

13. The Teutonic branch of the Gothic stock falls into three divisions: the Maso-Gothic, the High Germanic, and the Low Germanic. 1. No modern German dialect represents the Maso-Gothic. The Gospel translation of Ulphilas, a celebrated bishop of the Moso-Goths, referable to the fourth century, is the chief datum for researches into this important language. This is the most ancient specimen of any German tongue whatever. 2. The High Germanic, to which the current German of the present day belongs, is bounded east by Lithuanic, Slavonic, and Hungarian languages; while on the south it touches the Italian and French, and on the north it joins the Low Germanic division. 3. The Low Germanic comprises the Anglo-Saxon and the modern English, the old Frisian and the modern Dutch, the old Saxon, the Platt Deutsch or Low German, the words being used in a restricted sense. The Anglo-Saxon, the old Saxon, and

the Frisian are closely related to the English.

14. The Scandinavian branch of the Gothic stock comprehends, 1. The languages of Scandinavia proper, the Norwegian and Swedish. 2. Of the Danish Isles and Jutland. 3. Of Iceland. 4. Of the Ferroe Isles.

§ 15. The term Gothic is taken from the name of those German tribes who, during the decline of the Roman empire, were best known to the Romans. The older writers say that it is derived from the word Gothl-goodl or brave.

§ 16. The term German is a name given by the Romans to the natives of the country called Germania. It was first applied to proper Germanic tribes in the time of Julius Cæsar, and it served to distinguish the Gothic Germans from the Celtic Gauls. The general power of the word has been limited to the Germans of Germany. Neither English nor Scandinavian writers call their countrymen Germani. The two German tribes most generally meant when the word German is used in a limited sense, are the Franks and the

Alemanni. The word has by some been supposed to be con nected with the Latin word germani=brothers, tribes in brotherly alliance with the Romans. Others derive it from

gar a dart, and man-dart-man.

§ 17. The term Dutch with us means the people or the language of Holland. In Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia, it means the language or people of Germany; and the general power of the word is retained even with us in the expressions High Dutch, Low Dutch. The word is derived from peuda a nation or people. O. H. G. Deutisc; A. S. peo disk; L. Theodisca; It. Tedesco; Dan. Tyske; E. Dutch.

The word Teutonicus was introduced by Latin writers about the tenth century, as more classical than Theotiscus. It is derived, according to Grimm, from the Gentile name of the Teutones conquered by Marius.

§ 18. Anglo-Saxon. In the ninth century the language of England was Angle or English. The lingua Anglorum of Bede is translated by Alfred on Englisce. The term Saxon was in use at an early date: fures quos Saxonice dicimus vergeldpeovas. The compound term Anglo-Saxon is later.-Grimm, Introduction to Third edition of D. G., ., p.

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THE HYPOTHESIS OF AN ABORIGINAL FINNIC PEOPLE.

§ 19. This hypothesis is grounded upon the following lines of reasoning: In the Celtic stock it is the Gaelic branch that is oldest, and in the Gothic stock the Scandinavian is anterior to the Teutonic. Of the two divisions the Low German is the most ancient. The Hellenic branch is younger than the Italian. With the antiquity of a language its geographical position coincides; in other words, the older lanlie either west or north of the newer ones. guages The east is the fountain-head of the Indo-European. The Celtic stock (its Gaelic branch going first) was driven westward by the Low Germanic branch of the Gothic stock. The Low Germans were pressed upon by the High, and these by the Slavonic nations. The pressure forced the retirers either westward, northward, or to mountain fastnesses. The aborig. ines of Europe were Finnic tribes. Of these the Laps and proper Finlanders were pressed northward. The Basques

withdrew to the Pyrenees. Just as in Scandinavia there was a Lappish race anterior to the immigration of the Goths, so there was the same in Britain.

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF LANGUAGE.

§ 20. The birth-place of language is the birth-place of the human race. Sir Humphry Davy surmised that this locality must be somewhere near the tropics, in a genial climate. Sir William Jones fixed upon Persia or Iran. Ade. lung has concluded in favor of a contiguous locality; viz., the regions of the Indus, the borders of Cashmere and Thibet. Adelung's grounds for selecting the central Asiatic regions of Cashmere and Thibet are, 1. Their geographical position and high elevation, and the direction of their mountains and rivers, which render these countries a natural source. for the diffusion of population over the globe. The high land of this region does not sink on one side only, but on all sides, and toward every point of the compass, and toward different oceans, to which there is access by extensive river systems. 2. Their climate and natural productions. At his first creation man needed a paradise. To this appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely land of Cashmere. Owing to its high elevation, the heat of the south is tempered into a perpetual spring, and Nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, plants, animals, and man, to the highest state of perfection. Cashmere is a region of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise, "compasseth" the whole land. The men of this country are distinguished among the nations by superior natural endowments, mental and physical. The contiguous region of Thibet, also, presents in a native state the various plants and animals which have been domesticated by man. Here are found in the wild state the vine, the rice-plant, the pea, the ox, the horse, the ass, the sheep, the goat, the camel, the pig, the cat, and even the rein-deer, "his only friend and companion in the polar wastes." 3. The ancient Indian accounts, which are corroborated by the Scriptural narrative. The Indian accounts, equal in antiquity, it is believed, to the Scrip

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tural narrative, actually fix the first abode of man on Mount Meru, on the borders of Thibet and Cashmere. Now from Mount Meru spring four rivers, the Ganges, the Burampoota, the Indus, and another stream which flows into Thibet. Now Michaëlis, Adelung observes, translates Genesis, ii., 10, "Four rivers flowed out of Eden, and they separated continually more and more widely from each other." 4. In these regions is the line which separates from other Asiatic races the nations who exhibit the Mongul or Tartar physiognomy. 5. The same line separates the monosyllabic languages and the polysyllabic languages. The former begin in Thibet, the latter in Cashmere. 6. The astronomical reasonings of Bailly. The theory of this astronomer is, that the various nations of the ancient world were descendants of emigrants from a primeval community superior to them in knowledge, and of which he places the locality in Central Asia. For a fuller exhibition of Adelung's reasoning, see Jones's Philological Proofs of the Unity of the Human Race.

THE VALUE OF LANGUAGE.

§ 21. The gift of reason to the human race derives its great value from the gift of speech.

Just conceive for a moment of a soul swelling with large thoughts and strong emotions in the body of a man without the gift of utterance. Such a soul, thus confined within walls of flesh, struggling in vain to come forth into communication with others, must, to a large extent, be isolated from human kind. In native intellect he may be angelbright, in affections angel-lovely, but the workings of that intellect and those affections must be the workings of one in solitary confinement; and the consciousness of this impotence must be, as is the ineffectual struggle to speak when the nightmare sits brooding on the sleeper. A single instance, however, furnishes but a faint illustration of what would be the wretched condition of the human family if they were all so many mutes. Mutum et turpe pecus would they be. Being mute, they would, of course, be degraded. Speech is the deliverer of the imprisoned soul. It leads the thoughts and the emotions into light and liberty. Words

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reaching from the speaker's tongue to the listening ear are the links of that electric chain upon which thought flies from mind to mind, and feeling from heart to heart, through the greater or the smaller circles of human society.

22. The gift of speech to the human race derives its permanent value from letters; or, to use equivalent terms, spoken language derives its permanent value from written language.

Summon to your memory some tribe of men gifted like others with reason and speech, but without the aid of letters. However correct and bright their thoughts may be, however strong and graceful their emotions, however distinct and eloquent their expression, they must all die with the individual, or be but faintly transmitted to future generations, at last to fade entirely from the memory of man, or be mingled up with fables. But let those same thoughts, and emotions, and expressions be recorded by letters and transmitted to the future, and they become the seed-corn in the minds of the next generation, to bear a glorious harvest of new thoughts and new emotions, or, at least, a profitable harvest in the application of knowledge to those acts of life which minister to human improvement. Vox volat. The voice flies from the lips to mingle with the winds, to be lost without an echo to the thought which it conveyed. Scripta manet. Written down, it may continue sounding on, as from a trumpet-tongue, through all time, speaking still to the common heart of man like Homer, or to the conscience like Paul.

THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE,

§ 23. There is the same reason for the study of language that there is for the study of thought.

It is by means of language that the thoughts and emotions of one mind are projected upon another. Language is the medium through which the object of thought in the mind of the speaker or writer is exhibited to the hearer or the reader, and the object is projected upon the receiving mind in an image that is true, distinct, and bright, or in one that is distorted, blurred, and dim, according as that mind is acquainted or not with the medium. If language is only expressed

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