From the earlier Greek proceeded the Latin, which is in fact little else than the die Greek, with a mixture probably of some Etruscan and Sabine, and perhaps some German and Gaulic words, gradually received from the neighbouring countries.
While the languages we have mentioned were thus formed in early times, it is probable that the foundations of the Gothic and the Celtic were also laid. Flow far back, however, we are to date the first formation of these lan guages, and in what order they spread through the nor thern and western countries of Europe, has been a subject of controversy, agitated with a keenness rather dispropor tioned to the importance of the subject. Both of them appear evidently to have been brought, at a remote period, from the regions bordering on the Caspian and Euxine Seas, by colonies passing northward and westward in quest of a settlement. It is not improbable, that at first the two languages were not very dissimilar ; and even yet many resemblances in their structure may be traced. The Go thic spread through the north of Europe, and was evident ly the parent of the Danish, the Swedish, the German, and the ancient Saxon. Of one branch of the Gothic tongue, the i1Zrso-Gothic, we have a valuable fragment in the trans lation of the Gospels by Ulphilas, written so early as the fourth century ; which, although only a fragment, and con sequently containing but a small part of its words and phrases, is still highly curious, from its exhibiting the early state of that language, and enabling us to ascertain the near relation of the Saxon, German, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Anglo-Saxon, to the Gothic, as well as the affinity of all of them to the Phoenician, the original Greek, and even the Persian and Sanscrit. The Celtic is by no means yet extinct ; dialects of it are spoken in the High lands of Scotland, in Ireland, in Wales, in that part of France named Bretagne, and in the Spanish province of Biscay. Both, in the modes of inflection, resemble the Greek ; in the roots from which vast multitudes of their words themselves are formed, the most striking similarity can easily be traced.
Of the original language of our own country, there is some difficulty in fixing the origin. So far as can be con jectured, it rather appears, that the earliest inhabitants spoke the Celtic language, and that, by successive impul ses of the tide of population, new races of settlers, spread ing in different directions, superinduced certain dialects of the Gothic. Accordingly, we can collect from our
venerable Saxon historian Bede, that in his day four lan guages prevailed in Britain-1 he Irish, the British or C1012.• raig, the Pictish or Scandinavian, and the 4nglo-Saxon. Of these, it is probable that the relation was not very dis tant ; and if the ascending line were far enough followed up, they would all be found to terminate in one.
The languages of the various other countries of Eu rope underwent similar revolutions ; hut it would be te dious to trace them through their separate stages. In the southern states, the Latin tongue had been universally established, under the dominion of the Romans. The in cursions and establishment of the northern tribes introduc ed new modes of speech, which, blending more or less with the native tongues, gave rise to the various modern lan guages of southern Europe.
Towards the northeast of Europe, the Sclavonic tongue, with its affiliated dialects, Bohemian, Pclish, Hungarian, Lusatian, Carinthian, Dolmatian, and the widely extended Russian, have for many centuries prevailed. The affinity of the Sclavonic through its different dialects to tale Mace (Ionic Greek, is apparent in many of its inflections, but above all in its radical terms, when thoroughly analyzed and stripped of the additions and mutations introduced in the channels through which it has passed.
While the primitive tongue appears thus to have been carried in various forms to the north and west, its pro gress eastward gave rise to a different, though not less re markable set of languages. Of these the most eminent is the Sanscrit, a polished and elegant tongue, and fixed in the writings of its classic authors at a period it is thought prior to the commencement of the Christian era. Both in the roots of verbs and forms of grammar, the Sanscrit is found to bear so close an affinity both to Greek and to Latin, that those philosophical writers who have attended to its structure, do not hesitate in considering it as a branch of that primeval tongue which was gradually transplanted into various climates, becoming Sanscrit in India, Pohlovi in Persia, and Greek on the shores of the Mediterranean.