centuries, they have undergone-few alterations except through
the effect of conquest^ or -the intermixture of nations. Thus
the Bretons who emigrated Trom this island to the shores of
Armorica, in the fifth century, are .still easily-: intelligible to
the natives of Wales : the Bretonne language scarcely differs
from the Welsh, except in a slight intermixture of the one
dialect with French and of the other with English words.
In like manner the Scots, who emigrated from the north of
Ireland to Argyleshire, at a somewhat earlier period,* can still
converse with the natives of Ireland. The Greek now spoken
at Athens may. beTermed the same language as-the Greek, if
not of the time of Pericles at least as that of Constantine Palse-
ologus: it is indeed corrupt, but still retains in part thé' same
inflections-and the same vocabulary. Languages by intermixture
of nations become disintegrated; they lose a part.gf
their grammatical modification. By lapse of time many inr
flexions are lost, as the German languages have entirely lost
the passive voice in verbs, which may be traced distinctly , in
the Mceso-gothic.* In the meantime no new forms of'human
speech are -produced : no new varieties of inflection e^fis^
sive of the modifications of ideas by changes in <4hét endings
or the initial syllables of words are ever attempted: particles
and auxiliaries are inserted to imply the want of 'obsolete
inflections. Formations of language and the developement
of grammatical systems have long ceased. As in geology, we
now only witness thé disintegration of whab the first ages
produced. How different was the habit of the human mind
with regard to language in the age when the Sanskrit, the
Greek, the Latin and the Moeso-gothic idioms were developed
from one common original! If we examine the system of
verbs in these languages, we find the same laws of gramma-
tical inflection, and the same principles .of developement and
modification, (as the use of “guna” and the reduplication of
syllables,) adopted in all of them, but giving rise by the ya-r
rious ways in which they are exercised, as if by common consent
and on a preconcerted plan, to the diversities which distin-
guish the grammatical systems of these four languages from
* Grimm’s Deutsche Grammatik.
each other. Perhaps nearly a similar instance of variety in
the developement of cofnmon principles- of formation may
beiitraeed in the sister, languages *of. -the Finnish family :
the relation^ bètfveén \the Finnish and the Hungarian
may be compared to- that between the Greek and Latin and
Sanskrit. A'-.later "and.óiore restricted'method of variation,
hardly extending to the'origination of neW|-bmt only modifying
old or common forms, has beem'exercised/in the developement
of what may -J^é1 considered as principal5 dialects, rather
than -, sister-languages. Suchi were the changes, which gave
rise to the diversity between the Erse jiör ..Gaelic, and thé
British or Welsh languages, and.that betwêen théêtwo great
branehesOf the* Germanic family, whic h i t f e | Germ an grammarians
distinguish as jGimbrictçr Western and the Teutonic
or Suevian branch, a diversity which many huye considered as
toQ ’gréafc to have, been produced- since itbq, era when the Gem
men race settled in the northern region,' which 'the^had
occupied some centuries before the Ohfistian era-.’^Sueh' dialects
s as I now alludé to must be distinguished from modern
dialects,o|«f which the French and Italian may be examples.
The differences between modem cognate dialects consist in
the different degrees .to which the forms of the old languages
have been broken down, as in: the comparison of French and
Italian verfôê) on in the different proportions in which they
havé iheem corrupted by intermixture with' foreign languages*
We find in comparing modern dialects • nothing like the developement
of new forms, or the origination of new inflexions.
Nothing of this kind can be traced when we examine and
compare the French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese,--Romance^
and Provençal dialects. The developement of new grammatical
forms is indeed but feebly displayed, in the'comparison of
ancient dialects, such as the Welsh and. Gaelic,' or the old dialects
of the Germanic tongue, the Icelandic^.Anglo-Saxon, and
High German. We musf go back to the era when th e a te r-
languages of the Indo-European family separated from each
other) in order to. find a free and copious developement of new
forms of speech from : common elements. , At that time languages.
were varied without corruption or intermixture with
foreign idioms, according to rules purposely framed and