same study will, I am spre, convince any one who* is prepared
for the. investigation, by. a n adequate previous} acquaintance
with the Finnish and Lappish dialects. A great number
of words are common to these languages, or are' very similar
in several of them, and these are words such as, are essential to
every human idiom. Numerous terminations also, coincide,
and this is perceptible, notwithstanding the. fact, that nobody
has yet investigated the permutations to which; the. elements
of speech are in these dialects regularly subjected.” I shall
have occasion to observe hereafter, th a t subsequent researches
into this last-mentioned subject have afforded confirmation
to Rask’s opinion,, by -showing that a great number<of roots
are thus to be traced in several of the Turanian, languages,, the
resemblance having been disguised by certain permutations,
of consonants, of which the rules have been but lately,! ascertained.
#
This writer afterwards gives some further reasons for; com-
ctuding that the Finnish and Turkish "languages, with* all
their branches, are referable to one stock; andlex^essesikn
opinion that the ancients were correct in comprehending
under one name, that o f Scythians, all the nations of Northern
and Central Asia, and the northern parts of Europe. He extends
still more widely the domain of this Scy thian race, by
adopting the notion of Arndt, who supposed that he; found
proofs of affinity between the ancient Iberians, of Spain and
the Finns and Samoiedes.'/ He even asserted that, indications
o f the same affinity were partially discoverable in. the-Celtic-'
dialects, and that the Celtse might be partly Finnsw He
cites the observation of Klaproth, th at the various languages
spoken in Caucasps, or in the great mountainous region between
the Euxine» and Caspian seas, are, with the exception
of the Ossete and Dugorian, which, last are Indo-European
dialects, related to the Samoiede and other languages of the
north of Asia. With the same groupe Rask connects the
Georgian language. With still greater licence of conj ecture he
admits the idioms of the Greenlanders and the Polar Americans
into the same class. He professes to rest all these opinions on
philological proofs, and om similar grounds v e n tu re s ^ bring
* PfineipaMy by Dr. Siebott. Tersuch iibBlf die Tatarischen Sptiicheii.
J* I A
within the pale of his great Scythian family, the aboriginal nations
of the Indian peninsula, who are now generally admitted
to %è'‘à distinct racé from the Hindoos, and who
speak the Tamil, Malayalam, Karnataca, and Telugu languages:;'“’"
Thè- '-conjectures of sübh writers as Professor Rask are
worthy of consideration: We shall have further occasion in
the-seépiefto Examine the fondation o f his opinions, and wé
éhal'1 find that many of them ate-supported- on. firmer grounds
than those* persons who have n o t ‘investigated’ the subject
would suppose. Fortifié present we. must' take leave tof this
topic, after briefly enumeratitfgMhfi principal ' groupes of
nations belonging*-té that department o f th e human family
which we have termed thev Allophy liari races.
1.. In the West, as a b o rig in e s ^ Western Europe, we
have the Euskaldunes, or ■ ancient - Iberians, whose language
was the Euskanan spegeh; They are'supposed to have- inhabited
Spain, Gaul, sad Italy. ■
o, 2a^eparated from the Euskaldunes-by tihe whólé country
occupied and/ perhaps, wrested from' them by thè?@eltie and
German races bëâue the beginning of historyfafe the Jotune
oriGgorian raee, the remains, as^tishptflcMeem, of the aborigp*
nes of thesNorth of Europe and Asi$, ovèr'which they appear
to have been-spread from the Danish Isles ^to thë river Obi.
This-:groupe ’ of • nations" includes* the- Finnudf and Lappish
tribes, the Tschudes, the'Vogules of tH^¥Miiffi»mountains,
the .Ostiaka -of Siberia, and the Magyars or Hungarians.-- .
3. Beyond the Jotuns, towards thé north and east, are the
Khasova, a race termed by the Russians Samoiedes* They are
spread alopg the- northern-coast ofEurèpe and Asia, from the
White Sea tb the mouth- of the Lena* Other tribes of the
same race are found on therebnfines< of the Chinese - and Russian
empires, in the high-.region of Central Asia.
4. Beyond the Samoiedes > several fishing and- hunting
tribes - occupy the*.country -Which reaches from! the Lena to
Behring’s* Straits and the'Pacific Ocean. As they speak
sêveral distinct1 MAgu&gès, th e y must he aceountéd different
racés. The r & is' also. some diversity-tin their physical charac-
— yfa&H