Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-11-18
THE ORIGINAL IDENTITY OF
LANGUAGES.

!
Prof. W. D. Whitney, of Yale College,
is laboring with great success in the
history and origin Of what are now
known as the Iudo-Europcan languages,
and is already m authority upon mat
tiers of Oriental scholarship. A short
time ago, he published twelve lectures
on the study of language. These are
attracting great attention, as showing
how, by slow degnees, languages have
grown into their present forms. In the
October number of the North American
Rerie,r, the same gentleman has an arti-
Gle on Indo-European P~hilology, which,
to those interested in such matters, must
be of great value, both as showing how
little some men, who write on these sub
jects in Europe, know in proportion to
what they profess; and, on the other
hand, how far the science of language
really extends at the present time, and
what it proves. That Prof. Whituey's
knowledge on all these subjects Is Of
thorough and reliable character, there
can be no question. He spent three
years in the study of Sanscrit at Berlin
and Tubingen. In the former place he
not only assisted Professor Roth, in
bringing out the Atharva Veda, bat
copied out the whole with his own hand,
~translsting and publishing notes on 1t.
His numerous articles, held in high re-
spect in Europe as we'll as this country,
show the diligence, caution and fruits
of close and laborious study.
Few persons are aware Of the real i'm
portance Of these labors, or how much
error we are saved from by work such
as this, while every year we are gain
ing an insight into the history of the
tions of the earth of the most important
character. When the British conquered
India, and their officers went to work
to study Sanscrit, they were soc aston
| ished at the affnities Of this Oldest Ian
guage committed to writing in India,
with nearly oil the languages of Europe.
BY degrees it became developed, that
apart from oil written language, and,
before it, an active white race had is
sued from the northern part Of Asia, and
had. in course Of time, o%yerspread large
territories, and settling at first on the
banks of the Indus while other branches
Of it had moved on to Persia, Greece,
Italy, Germany, and even so far
West as Ireland. The chief proof Of
this was the identity Of tho roots of their
languages. At what precise time this
occurred we do not know, but the moro
important question is, how much does
the spread Of a language in this way
prove? NJ. oppert, a French Professor
Of Sanscrit, is very anxious to prove
that the correspondence of Indo-Euro-
pean languages do not prove a race con-
necrion of common descent of oil the
nations speaking these languages; but
he thinks it is the result of propagation
from a single conter through the hetero.
geneous masses Of q widely extended
population-that it represents an impo-
sition of linguistic materials and usagss
by one tribe upon others.
Professor Whitney, however, thinks
the union a good deal closer, and that
the Indo-European languages are really
one in their fundamental substance and
essential structure, from India to Ire
land. That is, "they have sprung from
a single stock; all count with the same
numerals, call speakers by the Same
~pronouns, address parents and relatives
by the same titles, decline their nouns
upon the anne system"
How far we car prove from all this
the strict unity of the nations speaking
the Iudo-European languages, we need
not here discuss. But this is clear.
There has been a strong aggressive and
migrating race ~ovsrrunning the country,
if not suoduing any aboriginal races
that may have come in. contact with
them. Without leaving any written
records of their work, this race impress
sed their modes of thought, their speech
and some of their traditions upon the
whole of Europe, as well as Asia, in
such a way as to prove how completely
the tide of migration swept all before it.
The Chinese is the simplest Of all Lam
guages, being easily traced to roots with
two letters. Egyptian comes next, hav-
ing African roots, also Of great simplic-
ity. Tho Semitic languages, such as
the Hebrew, Arabic, have roots of three
letters. These languages form distinct
branches from the Iudo- European fami-
ly. By what process shall the earlier
history of language be traced, except,
indeed, so far as Prof. Whitney has
traced it?
A CosrRAsr.-Tom Fitch, in his sun
a. ..- -. C..u.J., .,,o..-