Page:Language and the Study of Language.djvu/218

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
196
CORRESPONDENCES IN THE
[LECT.

all its branches escaped being superseded by expressions of later growth, although there is hardly one of them which does not here and there exhibit a modern substitute.

The following table will set forth, it is believed, in a plain and apprehensible manner some of the correspondences of which we have been speaking. For the sake of placing their value in a clearer light, I add under each word its equivalents in three of the languages—namely Arabic, Turkish, and Hungarian—which, though neighbours of the Indo-European tongues, or enveloped by them, are of wholly different kindred.

English two three seven thou me mother brother daughter
Germanic:
Dutch twee drie zeven mij moeder broeder dochter
Icelandic tvö thriu siö thu mik modhir brodhir dottir
High-German zwei drei sieben du mich mutter tochter
Mœso-Gothic twa thri sibun thu mik brothar dauhtar
Lithuanic du tri septyni tu manen moter brolis dukter
Slavonic dwa tri sedmi man mater brat dochy
Celtic dau tri secht tu me mathair brathair dear (??)
Latin duo tres septem tu me mater frater
Greek düo treis hepta me meter phrater thugater
Persian dwa thri hapta tum me matar
Sanskrit dwa tri sapta twam me matar bhratar duhitar
Arabic ithn thalath sab anta ana umm akh bint
Turkish iki iich yedi sen ben ana kardash kiz
Hungarian ket harom het te engem anya fiver leany

I have selected, of course, for inclusion in this table, those words of the several classes represented which exhibit most clearly their actual unity of descent: in others, it would require some detailed discussion of phonetic relations to make the same unity appear. Thus, the Sanskrit panca, the Greek pente, the Latin quinque, and the Gothic fimf, all meaning 'five,' are as demonstrably the later metamorphoses of a single original word as are the varying forms of the primitive tri, 'three,' given above: each of their phonetic changes being supported by numerous analogies in the respective languages. The whole scheme of numeral and pronominal forms and of terms of relationship is substantially one and the same in all the tongues ranked as Indo-European.

These facts, of themselves, would go far toward proving the original unity of the languages in question. To look