Spoken by the descendants of Shem, from which circumstance they derive their name, they were native in Palestine, Phoenicia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, from the Mediterranean to the Tigris, and from the Armenian Mountains to the south coast of Arabia. The Shemitic class of languages consists of three principal divisions. 1. The Arabic; to this belongs the Ethiopic, as a branch of the southern Arabic. The Koran is written in this language. 2. The Aramean, in the north and northeast. It is called Syriac in the form in which it appears in the Christian Aramean, but Chaldee as it appears in the Aramean writings of the Jews. To the Chaldee is closely allied the Samaritan, both exhibiting frequent admixture of Hebrew forms. The Targums are composed in this language. 3. The Hebrew, with which the Canaanitish and Phœnician stand in connection. The sacred Scriptures are in this language. With the ancient Egyptian, from which the Coptic is derived, the Shemitic came in many ways into contact in very early times. The Coptic, therefore, which, with some others, is supposed to be of Hamitic origin, has much in common with the Shemitic. PECULIARITIES OF THE SHEMITIC LANGUAGES. § 30. Some of the peculiarities of the Shemitic class are: 1. Most of the radical words consist of three consonants. 2. The verb has only two tenses, the preterit and the future. 3. The noun has only two genders. 4. Scarcely any compounds appear in verbs or nouns except proper names. 5. Only the consonants were given in the line as real letters. Of the vowels, only the longer ones, and even these not always, were represented by certain consonants. 6. These languages, with the exception of the Ethiopic, are always written from right to left. The Shemitic languages are adapted to narration, to poetry, to the description of objective realities, but not to the exhibition of subjective experience, the deductions of logic, or the truths of philosophy. They had lit tle to part with, and, of necessity, have handed down to succeeding ages what they were endowed with at starting. The Shemitic languages have furnished important materials to the English language. See § 415. CLASSIFICATION OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN STOCK. § 31. The Indo-European stock of languages, sometimes called the Japhetic, is subdivided into the following families: 1, the Sanscrit; 2, the Iranian or Persian; 3, the Latin; 4, the Greek; 5, the Celtic; 6, the Gothic; 7, the Slavonic; 8, the Lithuanian; 9, the Armenian; 10, perhaps the Finnic, Tartarian, and some others. SYNTHETIC AND ANALYTIC LANGUAGE S. § 32. "The term synthetic is employed to distinguish those languages in which it is customary to express with one word both the existence of a thing or action and its relation to other things in space and time, as filiæ; Oúyatɛpos; feci; est; from such languages as reduce an idea to its elements, each of which requires a separate word, as, of the daughter; j'ai fait; he is; which are called analytic. Thus the Sanscrit, the Greek, the Latin, are synthetic languages, while the English and the French are analytic languages. "Where synthetic languages have at an early period been fixed by books, which served as models, and by a regular instruction, they have retained their form unchanged; but where they have been abandoned to themselves, and exposed to the fluctuations of all human affairs, they have shown a natural tendency to become analytic, even without having been modified by the mixture of any foreign language." CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GUAGES. INDO-EUROPEAN LAN § 33. In comparison with the Shemitic, the bond which embraces this stock of languages is not less universal, but in most of its bearings of a quality infinitely more refined. "The members of this race inherited, from the period of their earliest youth, endowments of exceeding richness, and with a system of unlimited composition and agglutination. Possessing much, they are able to bear the loss of much, and yet to retain their local life; and by multiplied losses, alterations, and displacements, the members of the common family are become scarcely recognizable to each other."-BOPP's Comparative Grammar. The received opinion is, that these languages took their origin from a common parent, namely, a language spoken somewhere in the central or southern part of Asia, not far from the birth-place of man, and that they spread from thence into Europe. Hence the term Indo-European. THE SANSCRIT FAMILY. § 34. This word Sanscrit refers not to the locality where it was spoken, or to the nation that spoke it, but to the character of the language. It is equivalent to the term Classical. It is derived from that common parent just mentioned, and is itself the mother of the present languages of India, namely, the Hindostanee, the Bengalee, the Pali-Mahratta, &c. The name is from sam, "altogether," and krita, "completely done," "perfected." This very name points to an antecedent state of the tongue, before it had become settled, and not entitled to the appellation "completely formed." Sir William Jones says, "The Sanscrit language is 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 have been produced by any accident; so strong, indeed, that the philologer could not examine them all without believing them to have sprung from a common source." It has five vowels, twenty-three consonants, and an alphabet of fifty characters. It has three numbers, three genders, eight cases; namely, the nominative, vocative, dative, accusative, ablative, locative, instrumental, and genitive. It has two voices; one of which, the active, has two forms, one of them being reflexive, corresponding to the middle voice in Greek. It has ten conjugations, five modes, six tenses, all formed by inflection. Its Syntax is logical and simple. It is itself a dead language, and is studied in India as the Latin and the Greek are with us. It is regarded as the most composite, flexible, and complete language known. It was spoken only by the privileged classes, while the common people spoke the Pacrit, the "spontaneous" tongue. This ancient tongue once prevailed throughout all Hindostan, from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea, and from the southern extremity of the country to the Himalaya Mountains in the north. The Sanscrit, the Zend, and the Classical stocks, may well be called, as they have been, "the language of the immortals." The Vedas, the Laws of Menu, the Sacontala, are among the works extant in this language. THE IRANIAN FAMILY. § 35. This is the ancient language of Persia, the sacred idiom of the Magi. It is sometimes called the Zend. Coming from the same source as the Sanscrit, it spread itself among the worshipers of the Sun, and is the parent of the several dialects now spoken in Persia. It was in this language that the Zendavesta was composed by Zoroaster, fragments of which still remain. THE LATIN FAMILY. § 36. The Latin is the language which was spoken in Italy by the Romans. It is more ancient than the Greek, and is the mother tongue of the Roman languages, namely, the Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian, and the Provençal. SPECIMEN OF THE LATIN. 1. In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat verbum. 2. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. 3. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt; et sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est. 4. In ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux hominum. 5. Et lux in tenebris lucet, et tenebræ eam non comprehenderunt. 6. Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Joannes. 7. Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine, ut omnes crederent per illum. -ST. JOHN, chap. i., v. 1-7. THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE. § 37. This is the Latin language in new forms, produced by the union of its ancient elements with the languages of the northern nations, which came into Italy as conquerors. Of the various languages produced by the union of Latin with northern languages, the Italian is the softest and the most harmonious. In receiving the Latin, it was governed by true principles of euphony. Two consecutive consonants occurring in a Latin word are not allowed to stand in Italian; but generally, for the sake of euphony, the repetition of the one consonant is substituted for the other, as in the Latin words obviare, acto, facto, which, in Italian, become ovviare, atto, fatto. All consonants which interfere with the established principles of euphony are totally rejected. Hence we find, in Italian, fiore for flore; fiocco for flocco. SPECIMEN OF THE ITALIAN. 1. Nel principio la parola era, e la parola era appo Iddio, e la parola era Dio. 2. Essa era nel principio appo Iddio. 3. Ogni cosa è stata fatta per essa e senza essa niuna cosa fatta è stata fatta. 4. In lei era la vita, e la vita era la luce degli uomini. 5. E la luce riluce nelle tenebre, e le tenebre non l' hanno compresa. 6. Vi fu un' uomo mandato da Dio, il cui nome era Giovanno. 7. Costui venne per testimonianza, affin di testimoniar della Luce, aciochè tutti credessero per lui.-ST. JOHN, chap. i., v. 1–7. THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. § 38. The French language was formed by the union chiefly of the Latin with the Celtic, and was, from the number of Roman words and elements, called the Romance. About the tenth century, it diverged into two principal dialects, the langue d'oc, spoken in the south, and the langue d'oil. During the thirteenth century, the langue d'oil became the language of the court and capital of France, and superseded the langue d'oc. It is in the habit of contracting the Latin words which enter into its composition. This it often does by omitting one of the internal consonants: thus, ligare, in French, is converted into lier, laudare into louer, sudare into suer. In point of construction, the French is remarkable for its clearness and uniformity, and its idiomatic phrases are particularly concise and expressive. SPECIMEN OF FRENCH. 1. Au commencement était la Parole, et la Parole était avec Dieu; et cette Parole était Dieu. 2. Elle était au commencement avec Dieu. 3. Toutes choses ont été faites par elle, et sans elle rien de ce qui a été fait n'a été fait. 4. En elle était la vie, et la vie était la lumière des hommes. 5. Et la lumière luit dans les ténèbres, mais |