CHAPTER III.

EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

THE European Languages may be classed in the four families of Pelasgic, Gothic, Celtic, and Sclavonic; the former belonging to Southern Europe, the three latter to Central and Northern. The Pelasgic family, includes the languages of ancient and modern Greece and Rome; with those derived from them: while the chief tongues of the Gothic family, are the English and German :-and these two families, the Pelasgic and Gothic, are much the most important, of all modern languages, to the civilized world. Except the Greek and Latin, they are languages which were formed during the middle ages of history; that period which produced the nations of modern Europe, partly from the wreck of the Roman Empire.

There is no doubt that all the European languages are of Asiatic origin; and the comparison of them with the more ancient languages, has been a problem of deep interest to the philologist. Thus, the Greek, may be traced to the Phoenician, and Egyptian; the Latin, to the Phoenician and Greek;-while the Italian, Spanish, and French, are immediately derived from the Latin; of course with an intermixture of Gothic words. The languages of Central and Northern Europe probably came from the central and northern parts of Asia; but doubtless from various sources, so intermingled, that their exact origin cannot now be ascertained. Most of the European languages are highly syntactic; changing the forms of words, to express variations of number, person, relation, intensity, time and mode, in nouns, adjectives and verbs. Our own language is, perhaps, the least variable, in these respects, among them all.

We proceed to speak briefly of the European languages, in the order of Classification above proposed.

§ 1. The Pelasgic family of languages, includes the Greek; the Romaic or Modern Greek; the Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and French languages; with the subordinate dialects. The Pelasgians were the oldest inhabitants of Greece: and received their name from Pelasgus, one of their leaders. With them, the Greek and Latin languages both originated; and from these, all the others, of this family, have been derived.

The Greek language, is emphatically that of ancient poetry and philosophy. It is remarkable for its copiousness and strength; and for the ease with which its words may be united, to form compounds. Though derived immediately from the Egyptian and Phoenician, it is said to have much affinity to the Sanscrit, both in individual words, and grammatical forms. Its earliest alphabet, that introduced by Cadmus, as already mentioned, (p. 41), was the old Phoenician, containing only 15 letters; to which Y was soon after added. Four more letters, z, e,, and x are said to have been invented by Palamedes, during the Trojan war; and the remaining four, H, , v and 2 were added by Simonides, about the time of the Persian war, or 490 B. C.

The alphabet, thus completed, was first adopted by the Ionians; hence sometimes called the Ionic alphabet. The Ionians first introduced the mode of writing from left to right, about 450 B. C.: previously to which, the Semitic, or inverse order prevailed; or else the method called boustrophedon, alternately from right to left, and left to right. The shape of the letters having been changed, from the original uncial characters, the following is the Greek Alphabet, with the name and sound of each letter, and its numerical power:

The letter his expressed by the aspirate (), as in, of us; dylarthru, be hallowed; &s, as; je lead. To complete the series of numerals, the Greeks used (r), a character called episemon for 6; (or), koppa, for 90; and (●) sanpi, for 900. The following is the Lord's prayer in Greek, as given by St. Matthew. (Ch. vi. 9—13.)

ΠΑΤΗΡ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς· ἁγιασθήτω το ονομα σου. Ελθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου. Γενη θήτω το θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν ουρανώ, και επί της γης. Τον άρτον ήμων τον επιούσιον έως ἡμῖν σήμερον. Και αφες ἡμῖν τα οφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς και ημείς αφίεμεν τοις οφειλέταις ημών. Και μη εισενέγκης ημάς εις πειρασμού, αλλά μέσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηρού. Ότι σου εστιν βασιλεία, και ή δύναμις, καὶ ἡ λόξα, εις τους αιώνας. Αμην.

The signification of some of the words in this specimen of the Greek language, is as follows: marry, father: jus, of us, (from us, we ): &, (the definite article used as a relative): iv, in: roig οι μάγοις, the heavens, (from & oi,avoç, the heaven): ayı, let it be hallowed, (from 40s, holy; and ago, I make holy): ro ovopa, the name, (o being the neuter gender of the article); sov, of thee, (from , thou), kasir, let it come, from 1, yoμai, I come: ¿ Baronia, the kingdom, (; being the feminine form of the article). Tay, let it be done, (from grouai, I become,: to bikrua, the will: &, as: xas, and, or also: ini, upon: tr、 yrs, the earth, (17 requiring the genitive or possessive case of, the earth). Tor a row, the bread, (the objective or accusative case of & pros, the bread): Or, daily, or suitable, (agreeing with aprov): dos, give, (from didwai, I give); Fu, to us, (the dative case of quis, ru, today. We have no room here, interesting though it may be, to pursue the subject farther.

Of the dialects of the Greek language, the Doric, spoken in the Peloponnesus, is the oldest, and most harsh; the .Eolic, spoken in Greece north of the Isthmus, and in Eolis of Asia Minor, resembles the Doric, but is smoother, and more like the Latin language; while the Ionic, spoken chiefly in Ionia, and the neighboring islands, is more soft and flowing; and the Attic, confined to Athens, and its