History of Classical Sanskrit Literature c5.82

c5.82

**13.** "The languages of the world have been divided into three families, the Aryan or Indo-European, the Semitic and the Turanian. The first comprises the Indian branch, consisting of Sanskrit, Pali and the Prakrits, and the modern vernaculars of Northern India and Ceylon; the Iranic branch consisting of Zend, the sacred language of the Parsis, the Pehlevi 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 cognate ancient languages of Italy and the dialects derived from Latin, the Italian, the French and the old Provencal, the Spanish, the Portugese, and the Wallachian; the Keltic or the language of those Kelts or Gauls that so often figure in Romam 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 Lithunian and Slavonic, comprising the languages of Lithunia, 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 language 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 inferred. 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.”