The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1879-08-14
A Phfloloslst's Discoveries.
AFFINITY OF AN ANCIENT SOUTH AMERICAN
1,ASGrEGE TO THE SEMITIC TONGUES.

LANGUAGE TO THE SEMITIC TONGUES.
From the San Francisco Alta. August 3d.
Rudolph Falb, a German professor, re-
Gently arrived in San Francisco, after spend
ing two years in South America, and now
on his way back to his native country, gu
tborizps US to announce that he has made
discoveries Of great interest to ethnology
and philoIosy. While in Bolivia he studied
the Avmara tongue, which was in use be-
fore the Spanish conquest, and IS older than
the Quichua, which was spoken by the lncas
and their subjects in Peru. This Aymara
language, still spoken by 100000 people OF
the aboriginal blood, bears an unmistakable
and near affinity to the Semitic tongues, in
which the radical form Of every verb has
three consonants. The Arabic and the He
brew are the leading languages i'll this class,
and the relationship of he;Aymara to them
is strong and unquestionable throughout.
If this discovery should prove to be well
founded il will have an immense Influence
on the opinions of the learned world. Some
Of the most Interesting researches OF the
present century have been made IN the
same direction. The discoveries that the
Sanskrit, Hndostanee, Persian, Afghan,
Armenian, Caucasian, Slavonic, Tentonic,
Celtic. Latin. and Greek tongues all belong
10 Tue IlluCCUCu SIus5 VI tii'S
many of their principal words, such as
father, mother, brother, daughter, horse,
OK, fire, sun, sky. light, dark, come. so,
see, hear, eye, ear. hand, mouth, and so on,
have similar sounds in these different
tongues; and that ideas Of later origin,
connected with high degree OF ctviliza-
ton. such as pen, ink, paper, gun, pistol,
and so on, are dificrent-these discoveries
have proved that the Aryan nations, rs they
are called. all sprang from common stock
in Central Asia. whence most or them mi
grated to Europe. BY examining the San
skirt. the oldest OF these tongues, and COM
paring it with the others, we can tell
much of the intellectual, industrial, politl-
! cal, and social condition Of the early pro-
reuitors of these people, which races first left
| the common stock, and how much progress
was made before the separation. The word
for MISUNDERSTANDING little from the Eng.
| lish and German words-in the Sanskrit
means milkmaid, and, therefore, while the
ancestors OF the Germans were still living
with the ancestors OF the Hindoos ia Asia
they had COWS. By the same method Of rea-
soning we know that they had plows; that
they had religious ideas and forms OF Wor-
ship; that they had political rulers, military
training, and so on. We know, further, that
the people who speak the agglutinative IAN
guages, like Magyars, Turks, and Tartars.
and the monosylable languages. like the
Chinese, are Of different blood. Elmo
logically, the Semitic race<-the Ph9ni-
clans, Hebrews, and Arabs-are clearly dis
tinct from the agglutinatiye stock, but
whether they are to be classed US belonging
to the same blood with the Aryans is ques.
ton about which philologiSts and ethnolo-
gists are not agreed.
II, now, the Aymara is Semitic tongue.
the learned world will have q hard task to
determine whether Asia or South America
was its original seat, and how the transfer
was made without leaving any large mass OF
| It's active and imperious blood on the long
road. Was the high plateau OF Soulh Alne.
RIGA the cradle of the Semitic, as tnat OF
Asia was the original home OF Tue ATSIn
kindred? If we understand professor faio
correctly, he would answer that questlon III
the affirmative; and if he establishes MS
pojnt we do not hesitate to say tllat Dc VIII
take mace among the greatest discoveries
and stimuIators of thought and research in
our ,re Of UNPARALLELED and unapproached
intelloctnal activity. There may be no mo.
nev in if. hut there is an immense educating
ond refining influence In tracing back the
history of man through the different steps
| of his natural progress from the lowest con-
dition of savagism in the Stone Age, before
| he had vet learned to make metallic tools,
to his present enlightenment.
Four miles south Of Lake Titicaca, $4,000
feet above the sen, in Bolivia, is the ruin Of
an Aymara temple, with large stone COW
cred with carved hieroglyphs or figures.
| These hieroglyphs Professor Falb claims 10
have interpreted, and he finds in them the
| tI,,tf l,tt, IL. AtaI
mortal OF q great flood. One Of its princi.
pal figures contains Masonic signs, which
mean the light, the thought, the word, the
beginning; and the Specification and bis.
tory Of these signs, after having been lost
for thousands of years, are now again to be
brought within the general comprehension
Figures, used as religious symbols in very
remote days, were preserved long after
some OF their meanings were forgotten
The pathological world will look with inter
est for Professor Falb's revelations.