The Persian, as it is now handed down to us, is confessedly posterior to the Arabic, to which it is nearly allied both in its primitive letters and whole construction, but it has been shown by writers that the Parthians or Per• sians were Scythian who mingled with the Elemites or original inhabitants of Persia, and gave to the Persian language that Celtic tinc ture which brings it sparer in accordance with the northern language of Europe. In the lan guage of India and Armenia, there are strong marks of resemblance to the Persian ; but as to the Chinese, it was probably one of the earliest tongues formed after the flood, as it bears few or no marks of affinity to any but the Hebrew.
In proof of what has been advanced on the oriental languages, the following alphabets are given As the above mentioned languages were spoken by the most ancient people, it is not surprising to find that they retained so many marks of their origin ; but it is worthy of ob servation, that these languages which sprung out of them underwent greater changes in their external form, so as to give them an air of originality which does not in reality belong to them. Thus it is that the Greek, from the inventive genius of the people, acquired a collar structurestructure and a richness of expression which made it pass for a primitive tongue, when in truth it is as much a derivative lan guage as those which have since been formed. That it was indebted to the Egyptian for the names of its letters will be obvious to any one who should compare the Greek Alphabet with the Coptic, given above ; and antiquarians have made it clear, that the roots of the Greek are to be traced either to the Egyptian, the Phenician, or the Pelasgian, which was spoken by the Pelasgi, a Celtic people, who first took possession of Greece, or the Isles of Elisha, as it is called in Scripture. It has also been clearly shown, that this Pelasgian had a common original with the Irish and Welsh, the primitive languages of Ireland and Britain, which were peopled by two kindred tribes, the descendants of Magog and Gomer, the sons of Japhet, who, at a very early period, proceeded from Scythia to Europe, and laid the founds. tion of all the modern European languages. Those people which inhabited the countries of Europe, except Greece, were afterwards called by the Greeks Keltm or Gallatai, and by the Romans Celti or Galli, Celts or Gauls. The Latin was not formed until a colony of the Pelasgi or Greeks intruded themselves upon the Umbri or Gomerii, the aborigines of Italy, and so far prevailed over their lan guage, that they modelled the mixture of the two upon the plan of the Greek in the forma tion of cases, moods, and tenses, to which were afterwards added many words of Egyp tian or Phenician extraction, from the inter course which took place between the Romans, Carthaginians, and Egyptians. As to the German, Danish, Swedish, and other northern languages, they all bear evident marks of their affinity not only to each other, but to that of the Latin, with which they had a common Celtic original. At the same time, their ances
tors, before their second irruption into Europe, under the name of Goths, Vandals, Huns, &c. had introduced such changes in the pronuncia tion and letters of their several languages, as gave them an appearance of originality and pe culiarity. Besides, it appears that the Hun garian, Sclavonic, Dalmatian, and Russian, as sumed a Greek character by a mixture of the Greek and its several dialects.
The French retains many vestiges of its Celtic original, but in consequence of the Re man conquest the additions of the Latin pre veiled, to all which the people gave it a pe cnliarity both in its pronunciation, orthogra phy, and structure. The same remark applies to the Spanish, which also underwent some additional changes from the incursions of the Moors, who ingralted upon it many words of Arabian and Phenician origin. The Italian is obviously a dialect of the Latin, modified by and assimilated to the French and Spanish, douhthsss during the period when France, Spain, and Italy, were governed by the empe rocs of the west.
The English, the last formed language in the world, is also remarkable for being com pounded of a greater diversity of languages than any other. The ground work of the Eng lish is the Saxon, but there is not a. languagem Europe which has not contributed more or less to its formation- Many words were re tained or borrowed by the Saxons from the language of the original natives, namely, the Welsh, which, as before observed, wan- one of the ancient Celtic dialects, of the same origin as the Saxon itself, but existed long prior to it. On the invasion and settlement of the Dimes, some changes as well as additions were made in the language, which underwent still at the Norman conquest, by meter es mission of Norman as well as French words, and the modelling of the language itself into a form more nearly allied to the French. From this source are derived a vast number of the Latin words and some few words of Greek origin, but the most numerous additions from these resources have since been made by the English themselves, who have also gradually given it a distinct form and pronunciation that entitle it as much to the name of original as any of the other European languages that are of more ancient date. To this diversity in thee origin of the English, and its aptitude to us-. turalize every foreign term, it is indebted for a variety and richness of expression which is not equalled by any other language in the world.
The following list of the names of the ten first numbers among the European nations, taken from Parson's Remains of Japhet, suffice to show the affinity of the languages above mentioned.
I have no regular government, and are ignorant, superstitious, and miserable.