The New York herald., 1921-11-27

TRACES LANGUAGE
TO THE LITHUANIANS
Prof. Bender's Lecture Tends
to Prove Their Land That
Of Indo-Europeans.
DEDUCTION BY WORDS
Common Origin for Many Ash
Prof. Bender's Lecture Tends
DEDUCTION BY WORDS
Common Origin for Many Ash
attic Tongues and Those Of
Europe and Americas.

Was the language of tho ancient
Lithuanians the mother tongue from
which has descended many of the Ian
guages Of the present period?
That it might very well have been is
the conclusion arrived at by Harold H.
Bender, professor Of Indo-G -Germanic
philology at Princeton University. after
a careful research in which other the
ories are discarded by the process of
elimination.
In the later Stone Age. or Neolithic.
period, Prof Bender declared in a lee
ture at Princeton on the subject, there
lived somSWhere a people or q group
OF peoples who spoke a tongue from
which were descended the languages
of the Hindus and the Persians.
the Greeks and the Romans, the Slavs,
the Celts and the Teutons, includ-
ing the Scandinavians and the English.
This. Prof. Bender points out means
a common origin for the present
speech OF perhaps a quarter of billion
of persons in Asia and Of most of the in
habitants Of Europe and North and
South America.
Comparative study of these various
languages" Prof Bender continues, has
reconstructed to q considerable extent
not only the speech, but also the daily
life, the government and the religion of
that Neolithic people known as Aryan,
Indo-Germanic or Indo-European, which
had split into groups and wandered
apart before tho dawn Of recorded his
tory"
That this mother tongue whence came
the modern languages was employed by
a people of Asia was theory generally
held by philologists. One of the most
widely accepted arguments in favor Of
this theory was the assumption Of close
contact between early tIndo-European
and Semitic civilizations. The evidence,
Prof. Bender points out, consisted main
ly Of q ningling In prehistoric times OF
the Indo- European decimal system and
the Babylonian duodecimal system. This
argument is a general one, although sew
sral scholars have presented claims In
behalf OF particular localities In Asia
others have laid the home of the Indo-
Europeans north Of Afghanistan, still
others for the Plateau Of Pamir and
others for Armenia.
Common Word for Honey.
But" Prof Bender declares. mod
ern pathological research has shown that
almost every Indo-European language
shares with its cognates common word
for honey, or for an Intoxicating drink
made from honey. The first stem melit
is not represented in Indo-Iranian nor in
Balto-Slavic, but is widespread else
where as in: Latin. mel honey; Gothic,
milp; Anglo-Saxon, milisc, literally
honey dew or mildew. The second stem
is distributed practically over the entire
field.
1T is clear, therefore, that the
primitive home of the Indo- Europeans
must have been a honey land, where the
honey bee abounded. Now, it seems to
have been proved that the bee did not
exist in India nor in Turkestan, and
that none of the Asiatic sites which have
been seriously considered as the possible
home of the Indo-Europeans falls within
the bee belt"
While all Asia is not eliminated by the
foregoing evidence that the Indo-Euro-
peans probably lived in the temperate
zone. arguments in favor Of any remain
ing part are weakened. Prof. Bender
finds by the fact that research has
shown no common Indo- European word
for elephant, camel, lion, tiger, monkey.
crocodile, parrot, banyan or palm, but
that there are common words for oak,
beech, pine, birch, bear, wolf, otter, deer.
rabbit, mouse dog, eagle, hawk, duck,
partridge. pheasant, snake, tortoise crab,
ant and bee.
Other arguments in favor Of Europe
as the home of the Indo- Europeans Is
seen in the rejection of the argument
that human migration has always been
westward. There have been. Prof. Ben
der declares, several early tribal or
national movements in the other direc-
tion-from Europe to Asia. The pro-
fessor again applies the process OF elm
nation eventually, concluding that
Lithuania Is the most logical site Of the
home of the users of the ancient mother
tongue.
Countries That Are Left.
IF it be granted" he says. ''that the
original home of the Indo-Europeans
probably was In Europe IL Is possible
still further to restrict the place of
origin. We can at once cut or the
south, the west and the north Of Europe,
because these regions were earlier in
habited by non-Indo- European peoples.
This leaves US in general southern
Sweden. Denmark, the Netherlands part
Of France. Germany, Austria, Hungary.
Czecho-S Slovakia, the Ukraine, Poland,
Lithuania, the Balkan countries and
southwestern Russia.
Now we can take further step and
cut off all of Europe that borders on the
sea despite opinion to the contrary,
there is sufficient evidence that the Indo-
Europeans were not familiar with the
great ocean.
"The various chronological and archeo-
logical arguments for Germany and
Scandinavia seem to have failed. The
Teutonic languages of the Netherlands.
Scandinavia. Germany and Austria have
drifted In their fundamental treatment
of consonants (Grimm's Law and In
the decay of their infections. 30 far
away from the mother tongue as repre-
sented by the other Indo-European Ian
.rouos tI,o+ a. is difY1c,flf IN concefve of