year 1809, two Catalan translations of St. Matthew's Gospel were laid before the Committee of that Society, and some inquiries were made as to their respective merits. Ultimately, however, a version of the entire New Testament was prepared at the expense of the Society by Mr. Prat, a native of Catalonia, under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Cheap of Knaresborough. An edition of 1000 copies was printed in London in 1832, under the care of the late Mr. Greenfield, editorial superintendent of the Society. A second edition of 2000 copies of the New Testament was published in London in 1835, and a third edition of 3000 copies was brought out at Barcelona in 1837, under the care of Lieut. Graydon, R. N., the Society's agent in that city. These editions were gladly received by the Catalans, and obtained a speedy circulation. The translation, which was made from the Vulgate conferred with the original text, is accounted accurate and faithful; and the style in which it is written is idiomatic, clear, and elegant. The Psalms and the Pentateuch have since been translated by Mr. Prat, but have not yet been committed to the press.

7

TOULOUSE.

SPECIMEN OF THE TOULOUSE VERSION.

8

9

ST. JOHN, CHAP. I. v. 1 to 14.

6

La paraoulo ero al coumensçomént, la paraoulo ero ambé Dious, é aquello paraoulo ero Dious. 2 Ero al coumensçomént ambé Dious. 3 Toutos caousos an estados faïtos per ello, é rés dé ço qu'a estat faït n'a estat faït sans ello. Accos es én ello qu'ero la bido, é la bido ero la lumièro dés homés. 5 E la lumièro a luzit dins las tenebros, é las tenebros nou l'an pas recepiudo. Y ajec un homé, appelat Jan, qué fousquet énbouyat de Dious. Benguet per estré temouën, é per randré temoignatgé dé la lumièro, afi qué toutis crejesçon per el. N'ero pas el mêmo la lumièro, més ero énbouyat per randré temoignatgé à la lumièro. Ero la beritablo lumièro qu'esclaïro toutis lés homés quand benén al moundé. Ero dins lé moundé, é lé moundé a estat faït per ello; més lé moundé nou l'a pas counescudo. "Es béngut enta el, é lés sious nou l'an pas recepiut. 12 Més à toutis lés qué l'an recepiut, lour a dounat lé dret d'estré faïts lés efants dé Dious, sabé à toutis aquelis qué crezen én soun noum; 13 Qué nou soun pas nascuts del sang, ni dé la boulountat dé la car, ni dé la boulountat dé l'homé, més qué soun nascuts dé Dious. 14 E la paraoulo a estado incarnado, é a habitat parmi nous aoutrés, pleno dé grascio é dé beritat; é abén bist sa glorio, uno glorio talo qu'es la del Fil uniqué béngut del Païré.

ON THE DIALECT OF TOULOUSE.

THE Provençal or langue d'oc, the Romance dialect of Southern France, has already been noticed. During the middle ages it occupied as conspicuous a place among the languages of Europe, as is held by its rival the langue d'oil at the present day, and the few vestiges which yet remain of it are therefore invested with some degree of interest. These vestiges are to be traced in the mountainous parts of Languedoc, where, under the name of the dialect of Toulouse, a corrupt form of the langue d'oc is still spoken by the peasantry. As late as the seventeenth century, and perhaps still more recently, some poems have been occasionally published by native writers in this dialect. Through the influence of education and the press, it is now rapidly yielding its place to the language of modern France; yet it has attracted the attention of the learned, and an attempt has been made to preserve a specimen of this curious relic of past ages before it passes into oblivion. About the year 1820, a translation was made of the Gospel of St. John into this dialect, under the care of a party of French literati; and the version was published at Toulouse, under the title of "Le Sent Ebangely dé Nostré Seignour Jesus Christ seloun Sent Jan; traduit én Léngo Toulouzenzo."

CLASS III.- INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

F. THRACO-ILLYRIAN FAMILY.

2

ALBANIAN.

SPECIMEN OF THE ALBANIAN VERSION.

..

ST. JOHN, CHAP. I. v. 1 to 14.

3

4

Κὲ περπάρα ἴο Φγιάλλια, ἐ Φγιάλλια ἴσ μὲ Περντίνε πάσκε, ἐ Φγιάλλια ἴϋ Περντί. * Κεγιὸ ἴσ κὲ περπάρα πάσκε μὲ Περντίνε. * Τὲ ἴθα πρέϊγ ἀσάϊγ οὐ πένε, ἐ πὰ ἀτὲ νούκ ̓ οὐ πὲ ντονιὲς γκὰ σὰ γιάνε πέῤῥε. * Μπὰ τὲ ἴστε γέτα, ἐ γέτα ἵσ δρίτ ̓ ἐ νιέρεζετ. * Ε δρίτα λὰμψ ντὲ ἐρεσίρέ, ἐ ἐρεσίρα σμουντ τὰ μπάγε ἀτέ. * Κὲ νιὲ νιερὶ δερβούαρε γιὰ Περντία, ἔμερ ̓ ἱτἰγ Ιωάνν.

6

11

5

10

Κούϊγ ἔρδι πὲρ μαρτυρὶ, τὲ μαρτυρίσγε πὲρ δρίτε, κὲ τὲ πεσόγενε Είθε μὲ ἄνε τὲ τίγ. * Αϊ νούκε κὲ δρίτα, πὸ πὲρ τὲ δένε μαρτυρὶ πὲρ δρίτε. ° Ιστε δρίτα ἐ βερτέτε, κὲ ντρὶτ τζδὸ νιερί κὲ βγιὲν ντὲ κετὲ γέτε. Ντὲ πότε κὲ, ἐ πότα πρέϊγ σὶ κὲ πέῤῥε, ἐ πότα νούκ ̓ ἐ νιόχου ἀτὲ. " Ντὲ τὲ τίχτε ἔρδι, ἐ τὲ τίγτε ἀτὲ νούκ ̓ ἐ δέξνε. 12 Ε σὰ μὲ ἐ δέξνε ἀτὲ, οὐ δὰ ἀτοῦρε ἑξουσὶ τὲ πένισνε πίγτ ̓ ἐ Περντίσε, μπ ̓ ἀτὰ κὲ πεσούανε μπ ̓ ἔμερ τὲ τίγ. 18 Ατὰ ἂς πρέϊγ Γιακουτ, ἄς πρέϊγ θελίμετ σὲ κούρμιτ, ἂς πρέϊγ θελίμετ σὲ πούῤῥιτ, πὸ πρέϊγ Περντίσε λένε. “ Ε φγιάλια οὐ πὲ νιερὶ, ἐντένι μπὲ νέβετ ντὲ κούρμ τὲ ὑιερίουτ, (ἐ πὰμ λεβδίμν ̓ ἐτὶγ, πόσι λεβδὶμ τὲ πίῤῥιτ σὲ βέτεμε γκὰ παπάϊ) πλιὸτ μὲ δουρετὶ, ἐ μὲ τὲ βερτέτε.

13

ON THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE AND VERSION.

GEOGRAPHICAL Extent and StaTISTICS.—This language is vernacular in Albania, a country which, in point of situation and extent, nearly coincides with the ancient Epirus. It lies partly opposite to the Ionian Islands, and extends for more than 250 miles along the Mediterranean and Gulf of Venice. The Arnauts or Skipetars (as the Albanians are usually called) differ in language and in physical conformation from all the other tribes of Europe, and are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient Illyrians. The total population of Albania amounts to 1,200,000, but many Turks and Greeks are intermixed with the Arnauts. As much of the country as is comprised between the 37th and 39th degrees of north latitude forms part of the dominions of the King of Greece, and the remainder, although ruled by nearly independent chieftains, ranks as a province of the Turkish empire. The Arnauts are dispersed throughout Greece, especially the northern provinces; they constitute the entire population of Hydra, Spezzia, Paros, and other Greek islands, and they are to be met with in Servia, and on the coast of Calabria in Sicily. They belong, for the most part, to the Greek Church, but many of them are Mahommedans; they are wild and predatory in their habits, and are equally dreaded by their Greek and Turkish neighbours.

1 Wilson's Narrative of the Greek Mission, p. 583.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.-The Albanian contains the remains of a language which has long been extinct, and which probably formed an important link between several families of languages. The basis of the present common dialect of Albania is said to be in a great measure Sclavonian; but Turkish, Modern Greek, Italian, French, and even words that sound like English, enter into its composition. It was an unwritten language till about the beginning of the last century, when a Roman Catholic Missionary, by name Da Lecce, a member of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, made an attempt to reduce it to rule, and eventually embodied it in a grammar, which he called "a new sign in the grammatical heavens." The Greek characters, with various signs to denote the peculiar sounds of the language, are universally used in printing Albanian books.

VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.-The Albanians possessed no version of the Scriptures, and, indeed, no written composition of any kind till the year 1819, when Dr. Pinkerton, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, employed a native Albanian (by name Evangelos Mexicos) to prepare a translation of the New Testament into Albanian. This native had been recommended to Dr. Pinkerton by some of the first dignitaries of the Greek communion, as a person eminently qualified for the work. The revision of Dr. Mexico's labours was entrusted to Gregory, archbishop of Negropont. The translation and entire revision of the New Testament was accomplished in 1825, and in the same year an edition of the Gospel of St. Matthew, printed in parallel columns with the Greek version by Hilarion, was struck off for immediate distribution. The Testament was completed at press in 1827, at Corfu, under the superintendence of the Rev. I. Lowndes. The whole expense of the work was borne by the Ionian Bible Society. Opportunities for its circulation have been few, and it has never reached a second edition.

CLASS III.-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

G. SCLAVONIC FAMILY.

SCLAVONIC.

(For SPECIMEN of this Version, see Plate VII.)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION.-The Sclavonic nations, generally supposed to be descended from the ancient Sarmatæ or Sauromatæ, are frequently mentioned by the Byzantine historians under the various appellations of Slavi, Antæ, Vandales, Veneti, and Vendes. They now occupy more than one third of Europe, and number upwards of 60,000,000 individuals.3 Various dialects prevail among this great family of tribes, but the liturgic or old church dialect, in which the ancient Sclavonic version of the Scriptures and the Liturgy of the Russian Church are written, is now extinct: it is elevated to the rank of a sacred language, and in Russia is employed exclusively for ecclesiastical purposes, and in public worship. It is impossible, at this distance of time, to ascertain with any degree of precision by what tribe or tribes this ancient dialect was spoken, or in what region it was vernacular; but as Cyril and Methodius, the great apostles of the Sclavonians, laboured among the Servians, Moravians, and Carniolans, there can be little doubt but that the version prepared by them for the edification of these tribes, was written in the idiom which was then most generally understood among

them.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.-The old Sclavonic dialect, as exhibited in the Sclavonic version, was at one time imagined to be the original idiom of the Sclavonic family, and the parent of all modern Sclavonic dialects. More accurate investigation, however, has proved that it was only one of the dialects spoken by the Sclavonic tribes during the ninth century: notwithstanding its

1 Hobhouse, Journey through Albania, vol. i. p. 144.

2 Sixteenth Report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 23.

3 Pinkerton's Russia, p. 195.

high antiquity and rare perfection of form, it is, therefore, only entitled to rank as an elder dialect of the Sclavonic language. Almost all the elements of all Sclavonic languages, however, enter into its composition, but divested of the foreign admixture which time and political changes have induced in them; hence it is, through the medium of this ancient dialect, that the original intimate connection of the Sclavonic with the Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin languages can be most clearly traced. But even in this old Sclavonic we see the influence of a heterogeneous idiom, Finnish, Turkish, or Tartar, which acted on it during the long centuries of darkness, when the nomadic tribes, to whom it was vernacular, were in the steppes of Scythia, among the defiles of Caucasus, or on the shores of the Black Sea. Still, the old Sanscrit type is more faithfully preserved in Sclavonic than in Latin, or even in Greek. "Of three sisters," says Dankovsky, "one kept faithful to her mother tongue-the Sclavonic; the second gave to that common heritage the highest cultivation-the Greek; and the third mixed the mother tongue with a foreign idiom-the Latin." Like Sanscrit, the old Sclavonic dialect possesses three numbers, three genders, and seven cases, a perfect system of prefixes and affixes, and an unlimited power of forming compound words. Its affinity with Greek is so great, that one of the greatest scholars of our time contends that a knowledge of Sclavonic is of the utmost use in the study of the Greek language, by clearing up difficult passages, and showing the signification of doubtful words.2 The distinguishing peculiarity of the Sclavonic lies in its method of conjugation. Its verbs are rather deficient in variety of termination, but by means of certain additions in the body of the radical, they can express in their most delicate gradations, not only the moods and tenses, but the different conditions of an action, such as its extent, its actuality, its frequency of occurrence, its accomplishment.3

ALPHABETICAL SYSTEM.-It is commonly thought that the Sclavonic tribes possessed no alphabet of their own till the ninth century, when an alphabet, called from the name of the inventor, the Cyrillian, was introduced for the purpose of writing a translation of the Scriptures. This alphabet, however, is merely an adaptation of Greek characters, with additional forms borrowed from the Armenian and other oriental alphabets, to express such Sclavonic articulations as have no existence in Greek. possesses no less than seven sibilants, all of which are perfectly distinct from each other, and can scarcely be expressed by Roman characters. The consonants 7 and r are considered as vowels. A further modification of the Cyrillian alphabet was introduced during the thirteenth century by a monk of Dalmatia; it is called the Glagolitic, and sometimes the Hieronymian, because falsely attributed to Several copies of the Sclavonic Scriptures have been written in this character, of which the oldest monument is a Psalter of the thirteenth century.

It

Jerome.

VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE.-The Sclavonic version is a faithful and literal representation of the original Greek text. It was chiefly executed during the ninth century by Cyril and Methodius, the first missionaries of the Sclavonians. The name of the former was properly Constantine, but he assumed the name of Cyril (by which he is more generally known) about forty days before his death. He and his brother Methodius were the sons of Leo, a Greek nobleman of Thessalonica. Cyril, though the younger of the two, was the most noted for his profound knowledge of Scripture and of the writings of the Greek fathers: in his youth he enjoyed the best education as companion to the young Prince Michael, but undazzled by the prospect of worldly distinction he withdrew from court, and in a monastery near the shores of the Black Sea he prepared himself for the active duties of his laborious career. Methodius originally held an appointment in the army, and afterwards, for the space of ten years, was governor on the Sclavonian frontiers, where he had ample opportunity for the study of the Sclavonian dialects. He also retired from public life, and secluded himself for a time in a monastery on Mount Olympus. He then joined his brother in a mission to the Hunnic-Tartaric tribe; and at a subsequent period he accompanied him to Moravia, where they spent four years and a half in translating the Scriptures and instructing the inhabitants in the truths of Christianity. Their next journey was to Rome, where Cyril died. Methodius returned to Moravia, to prosecute the great work which they had jointly commenced; he died in 880.

Khazars, a

The Selavonic version is commonly said to have been the joint production of these missionaries, but it is uncertain whether all the books of Scripture were translated by them. Nestor, in his Annals, states that "they translated the Apostles (i. e. the Epistles) and the Gospels; and then they also translated the Psalter, the Octateuch, and the other books." It seems most probable that they completed a

1 Eichhoff, Hist. de la Langue des Slaves, p. 65.

2 Dankovsky, Die Griechen als Sprachverwandte der Slaven.

3 Eichhoff, Hist. de la Langue des Slaves, p. 67.

version of the New Testament and of the Psalms, and that the remaining portions of the sacred volume were added by other hands. It would be difficult, by any other hypothesis, to account for the extreme scarcity and the recent date of MS. copies of the entire Sclavonic Bible; only three such copies are now known to be in existence, and of these, the most ancient bears the date 1499: whereas codices of the New Testament, belonging to the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, are frequently to be met with in Russia and other countries. The book of Proverbs is believed to have been translated before, or in the twelfth century, as the quotations made from it by Nestor agree, on the whole, with the common text. The Prophetical Books and Job were translated, probably in Servia, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century; and the Pentateuch and other books seem to have been translated in the fifteenth century, either in Russia or in Poland. At this latter period the several parts of the Sclavonic Scriptures were for the first time collected into one volume, and arranged in order like those of the Bohemian version which appeared in 1488.

The first portion of the Sclavonic version committed to the press was the Psalter, an edition of which appeared in 1491 at Cracow in Poland: a reprint of this book was published at Montenegro, 1495. The first edition of any part of the New Testament consisted of the Four Gospels, printed at Ugrovallachia, 1512. Another edition of the Gospels appeared at Belgrade, 1552, and a third edition at Montenegro, 1562. In 1553, the Czar Ivan Vasilievitch caused a revision of the Sclavonic text to be undertaken, with a view of rectifying the errors which had crept into it through the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers. A printing office was established at Moscow by the czar for the purpose; the direction of the work was confided to Hans Bogbinder, a native of Denmark; and the printing was committed to Ivan Fedoroff, deacon of the Hostun Cathedral, and Peter Timofeeff; but owing to a variety of obstacles the printing did not actually commence till ten years afterwards, and in 1564 appeared the firstfruits of the typographical art in Russia, consisting of the Acts, the Catholic and the Pauline Epistles, taken, no doubt, from the best MSS. that could be then obtained in Moscow.' Although executed under the immediate patronage of the czar, much hostility was excited by the appearance of this work; the printers were accused of heresy and magic, and were compelled to flee the country. Fedoroff took refuge in Leopolstadt, where he republished the Acts and Epistles in 1573, and Timofeeff settled in Wilna, where he printed an edition of the Sclavonic Gospels in 1575.

In 1577, an edition of the Psalms issued from the Moscow press; and about the same period Constantine, duke of Ostrog, formed the noble design of publishing an edition of the entire Scriptures at his own expense, as the most effectual means of silencing the controversies then in agitation between the Greek and Roman Churches. In order to secure the accuracy of the text, the duke made an extensive collection of Sclavonic MSS. He also caused the Sclavonic text to be collated with that of versions in other languages; but so many discrepancies were brought to light by this collation, that those who were hostile to the undertaking endeavoured to persuade the benevolent projector to abandon his design. So far, however, from yielding to despondency, he was only stimulated by these difficulties to greater perseverance, "in the certain hope that, by the divine blessing on his efforts, he should be enabled eventually to surmount them all." He therefore wrote to Italy, Greece, Servia, Bulgaria, and Constantinople, requesting that individuals skilled in the Greek and Sclavonic tongues might be sent to him, bringing with them the best accredited copies of the sacred text. In compliance with this request, many learned men resorted to Ostrog; and after the necessary collations and corrections had been effected, the first edition of the Sclavonic New Testament was printed in 1580, accompanied with the Psalms. It was printed by Fedoroff, the deacon originally employed by the czar at Moscow.

In 1581, the first edition of the Sclavonic Bible left the Ostrog press. The editors did not merely adopt the text of the Moscow edition, but consulted the Greek MSS. which had been brought for the purpose from Greece. It is uncertain what particular MSS. were consulted; and it is probable

that the text of this edition was also conferred with other versions.

The peculiar characteristics of the Sclavonic version may be concisely enumerated as follows, in the words of Dobrovsky:-1. The Sclavonic version is very literally translated from the Greek, the Greek construction being frequently retained where it is contrary to the genius of the Sclavonian; and it resembles in general the most ancient MSS. 2. In the Gospels it agrees with the Codex Stephani (L. at Paris), more frequently than with any other Greek MS. 3. In the Catholic Epistles it agrees in general with the Codex Alexandrinus, and frequently in the Revelation. 4. In the Acts, and in the Epistles of St. Paul, it agrees in general with the most ancient MSS.; but sometimes with

1 Henderson's Biblical Researches, p. 80.

2 Henderson's Biblical Researches, p. 81.