Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c6.23

c6.23

The languages of the civilised nations of the world have been divided into three families, the Áryan or Indo-European, the Semitic, and the Turanian. The first comprises the Indian branch, consisting of Sanskrit, Pâli and the Prâkṛits, and the modern Vernaculars of Northern India and of Ceylon; the Iranic branch consisting of Zend, the sacred language of the Parsis, the Pehlevî and the other cognate dialects; the Hellenic or the Greek branch, comprising the languages of Ancient Greece and its modern representatives; the Italic branch, consisting of the Latin and the cognate ancient languages of Italy and the dialects derived from Latin, the Italian, the French and the old Provençal, the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the Wallachian; the Keltic or the language of those Kelts or Gauls that so often figure in Roman history, and distinguished into two varieties, the Kymric, now spoken in Wales and in the Province of Brittany in France, and the Gaelic, spoken in the Isle of Man, the Highlands of Scotland, and Ireland; the Lithuanian and Slavonic, comprising the languages of Lithuania, Russia, Bulgaria, and of the Slavonic races generally; and the Teutonic branch, consisting of the Scandinavian group, *i.e.* the languages of Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Denmark, of the High German *i. e.* the old and the present lauguage of Germany, and of the Low German, which comprised the old Anglo-Saxon and the other languages spoken on the coasts of Germany, the modern representatives of which are the English, and the dialects spoken in Holland, Friesland, and the North of Germany. The second family comprises the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Chaldee, the Syriac, the Carthaginian, and the cognate and derived languages; and the third, the Turkish and the languages of the Mongolian tribes. To this last family the dialects spoken in Southern India are also to be referred. The Zend approaches Sanskrit the most, but the affinities of this latter with Greek and Latin are also very striking, and such as to convince even a determined sceptic. Sanskrit has preserved a greater number of ancient forms than any of these languages, hence it is indispensable for purposes of comparative philology.