Comparative philology. From the Edinb. review |
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Page 5
... varieties , if we observe the great changes which each of these languages has undergone in the course of centuries , we see that language has , like man , a history of its own . Without studying this history , and analysing the forms of ...
... varieties , if we observe the great changes which each of these languages has undergone in the course of centuries , we see that language has , like man , a history of its own . Without studying this history , and analysing the forms of ...
Page 6
... varieties , like our own language , but that an historical method alone can lead to satisfactory results . In order to know , for instance , how English came to be what it is at present , it is necessary to study all the languages which ...
... varieties , like our own language , but that an historical method alone can lead to satisfactory results . In order to know , for instance , how English came to be what it is at present , it is necessary to study all the languages which ...
Page 12
... Varieties of Man . ' This gentleman , to whom we owe already a history of the English language , em- bodying the results of Grimm's celebrated Teutonic Grammar , has also thought it necessary in his present work to avail himself of the ...
... Varieties of Man . ' This gentleman , to whom we owe already a history of the English language , em- bodying the results of Grimm's celebrated Teutonic Grammar , has also thought it necessary in his present work to avail himself of the ...
Page 14
... varieties of man ; and it is remarkable , not only for the vastness and accuracy of its learning , but also for that noble spirit of truthfulness and fairness which pervades all the works of Dr. Prichard . After having enumerated the ...
... varieties of man ; and it is remarkable , not only for the vastness and accuracy of its learning , but also for that noble spirit of truthfulness and fairness which pervades all the works of Dr. Prichard . After having enumerated the ...
Page 36
... varieties seem to have been produced by an inward nisus , which decreased with the advancing age of the world . The like with respect to languages . The process of linguistic formation did not suddenly terminate . A certain degree of ...
... varieties seem to have been produced by an inward nisus , which decreased with the advancing age of the world . The like with respect to languages . The process of linguistic formation did not suddenly terminate . A certain degree of ...
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Common terms and phrases
A'ryas accent adá amamini ancient Anglo-Saxon aptotic Arian family Arian languages Arian numerals Babylonia bhaga Bopp's Brahmans called Cascans Celtic character Chinese Christian classical scholars classification of languages Colonel Rawlinson common origin Comparative Grammar Comparative Philology comparison conjugate connexion Darius Dasyus declensions derived deus deva dialects Dispater Dyaus Egyptian language etymology Europe explained express families of languages formation French gods Gothic Greece Greek and Latin Greek language guage heaven Homer human idioms India Indo-European languages inscriptions instance Italian Latham Latin laws Lithuanian mankind masculine means modern languages natural Nebuchadnezzar old word Old-High German Oscan Ossetic participle Persian plural praise preserved Prichard Professor Bopp Pronouns prove Provençal race results of Comparative Rig-Veda Roman Romance languages root Sanskrit Sarmatic Sclavonic Semitic sense Shang-tee Singular Spanish spoken termination Teutonic word tion tongues trace Veda Vedic verb word Tien Zend Zendavesta Zeus
Popular passages
Page 22 - The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists...
Page 37 - It was a custom, borrowed from Assyria, that the bricks used in building the ancient cities on the Lower Tigris and Euphrates should be stamped with the name and titles of the royal founder.
Page 4 - The comparative study of languages shews how races of nations, now separated by wide regions, are related to each other, and have proceeded from a common seat ; it discloses the direction and the path of ancient migrations ; in tracing out epochs of development, it recognises in the more or less altered characters of the language, in the permanency of certain forms, or in the already advanced departure from them, which portion of the race has preserved a language nearest to that of their former common...
Page 5 - ... is an historical science. Language is here treated simply as a means. The classical scholar uses Greek or Latin, the oriental scholar Hebrew or Sanskrit, or any other language, as a key to an understanding of the literary monuments which by-gone ages have bequeathed to us, as a spell to raise from the tomb of time the thoughts of great men in different ages and different countries, and as a means ultimately to trace the social, moral, intellectual, and religious progress of the human race. In...
Page 4 - ... as objects of the natural history of the human mind, being divided into families according to the analogy of their internal structure, have become, (and it is one of the most brilliant results of modern studies in the last sixty or seventy years), a rich source of historical knowledge. Products of the mental power, they lead us back, by the fundamental characters of their organisation, to an obscure and otherwise unknown distance.
Page 43 - This spirit of heaven is known in Chinese by the name of Tien, and wherever in other religions we should expect the name of the supreme deity, whether Jupiter or Allah, we find in Chinese the name of Tien or sky. This Tien, according to the Imperial Dictionary of Kanghee, means the Great One, he that dwells on high and regulates all below.
Page 21 - In the later dogmatical literature of the Vedic age, the name of A'rya is distinctly appropriated to the three first castes of the Brahmanic society.
Page 37 - With regard to Babylonia Proper, it is a remarkable fact, that every ruin from some distance north of Bagdad, as far south as the Birs Nimrud, is of the age of Nebuchadnezzar. I have examined the bricks in situ, belonging perhaps to one hundred different towns and cities within...
Page 12 - Sanscrit is to him a very doubtful language, still more its modern descendants — Hindi, Bengali, Mahratti, &c. According to him ' the nation that is at one and the same' time Asiatic and Indo-Germanic remains to be discovered.' This prejudice against Sanscrit is not peculiar to Dr. Latham. It is, or at all events it was, shared by many who found it troublesome to learn this new language. Sanscrit was called a factitious idiom concocted by the Brahmins after the expedition of Alexander into India...
Page 21 - Zeus, is invoked in the following words (Rigveda, i. 57, 8) : " Know thou the Aryas, 0 Indra, and they who are Dasyus ; punish the lawless, and deliver them unto thy servant ! Be thou the mighty helper of the worshippers, and I will praise all these thy deeds at the festivals.