CHAPTER LI.

LETTIC-SLAVIC GROUP.

Lettic-Lithuanian-Prussian-Lettic proper.

(a.) Lettic. This branch is mainly known through that language which, on account of its antique and well-preserved structure, is commonly considered the oldest of this group not only, but the most ancient and most important of all now existing Indo-German Languages. This is

The Lithuanian, in comparison with which the two cognate dialects, the Prussian and the Lettic proper, appear as much younger idioms. It has alone preserved the characteristic seven cases and the dual of Indo-German languages, and among the former some so well preserved that they are even now identically the same as those of the Sanscrit. On the other hand, it has kept entirely free from those remarkable modifications of sounds, which are a characteristic feature of the other languages of this group, and which arise especially from the peculiar influence which the letter i here exercises on the preceding consonant.

The Lithuanian is of especial importance for the understanding of the cognate idioms, especially the Slavic; it is, as it were, the connecting link between these numerous younger

idioms and the other Indo-European languages, and occupies the same position among Slavic tongues that the Gothic holds, as the oldest and least corrupted of Germanic languages in the German family. It is not a little remarkable that such an ancient language, so little changed and mixed, can be found at all among the now living idioms-a circumstance which the political insignificance and the undisturbed isolation of the people of Lithuania alone can explain. The Icelandic is the only similar instance among the German tongues.

The Lithuanian has, however, undergone such changes as every language suffers in the course of centuries. Thus it has lost all the oldest modes of expressing relation by reduplication, change of radical vowels and augment, besides many inflections of noun and verb, for which quite modern and peculiar substitutes have been introduced. It forms the passive by the aid of the auxiliary to be (esmi, essi, esti), and possesses a Medium by means of the addition of the pronoun of the third person, s or si to all persons of the verb.

A literature cannot properly be said to exist in this remarkable idiom; besides popular songs which have been collected but recently and a longer poem on the seasons by Donaleitis, there exist only translations of religious writings. This, combined with historical revolutions in that part of Europe where the Lithuanian is spoken, threaten a speedy extinction of this noble language. It is now in use only among the common people of some portions of the province called Eastern Prussia, around the towns of Memel, Tilsit, Ragnit, Labiau, and Insterburg. Here also a strong infusion of German race and tongue has been more or less fatal to the Lithuanian, which prevails

pure and unmixed only on the eastern frontier of Prussia and in the neighborhood of Memel. The last division of Poland gave to Prussia some additional territory to the east of Old Prussia, in which the same idiom is spoken, so that it counts now, altogether, probably over 200,000 Lithuanian subjects. Schaffarik counts in Russia about 1,282,000 inhabitants of the same race, but in both countries their number diminishes and their language disappears more rapidly even than the Welsh of England.

The Lithuanian is written with German or Latin letters, slightly modified after the manner of the Polish, so as to be able to express such sounds as were not originally represented in these alphabets.

The Prussian has unfortunately suffered already the sad fate which now threatens the Lithuanian. It was originally spoken along the coast of the Baltie, beginning east of the Vistula and extending as far as Memel. It was, however, early and permanently injured, whilst under the iron rule of the Teutonic Order, whose masters destroyed their Prussian, then mostly Pagan, subjects with fierce cruelty. It is true that the last of the Masters of this Order, Albert of Brandenburg, treated them better and even caused the catechism to be translated into their language, thus bequeathing to posterity the only written document of this idiom which we now possess. The latter, however, did not long survive, and, towards the middle of the seventeenth century, it had already become extinct as a national tongue. As a language spoken by nearly two millions of men, it retains, at least, a certain historical interest; the absence of literature impairs, of course, its linguistic value as one of the Lettic idioms.

The Lettic proper is the popular language of Courland, the greater part of Livonia and the peninsula which separates the Curische Sea from the Baltic. It stands very nearly in the same relation to the Lithuanian as the Italian to the Latin. It has an article, which the older language did not require, weakened inflections, and a large admixture of sounds and forms derived from the Slaves that surround it on all sides. Still, it is not written with Slavic but with German letters, and even possesses the German sign h; to represent the sounds which the Lettic alone possesses, diacritical marks are added to those German letters, whose sounds most resemble their own. The bulk of words is the same as that of the Lithuanian, the laws of euphony alone differ, and a moderate number of German and Russian words have been admitted. Its literature does not extend beyond translations of the Bible and religious writings, for which the purest of its many dialects has been employed. A few printed national and popular songs are uncommonly beautiful and interesting also by their mythological allusions. The Lettic is written with German letters, of which even the h has been admitted, and those sounds for which the German alphabet had no signs, are expressed by diacritical marks.

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CHAPTER LII.

Slavic.-Prussian-Bulgarian-Illyrian-Sorabian-Croatian-Slovensi.

(b.) Slavic.-The Slavonian race did not at first appear under that name in European history. Their German neighbors called them Wendes or Winds; they bestowed upon themselves the names of Servians, Serbs, or Sorabians. Both these names serve now, that the race is better known, to designate only minor subdivisions, all of which are collectively called Sclavonian or Slavic. Their language comprises dialects that extend over a larger territory than any other European idiom. From the banks of the Dwina in the east to the Erzgebirge in Wohemia in the west, and from the Northern Frozen Sea to the Black Sea, the Adriatic and the Archipelago, some branch or other of the Slavic is spoken. As the language of that race which rules almost exclusively in the north of Europe and Asia. it extends sporadically through Asia and even into America.

The name Slave is, by themselves, derived from slava, glory, a designation peculiarly gratifying to their national pride. The difference of the vowels a in slava and o in slovák, their present name in most dialects, is irrelevant, as this interchange is very frequent in Slavic languages, and occurs, for instance, in the same way in the various names of the nightingale, which in Russian is soloweg, in Bohemian slavik, and in Polish again