CHINA'S PLACE m PHILOLOGY. CHIlSrA'S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY: AN ATTEMPT TO SHOW THAT THE LANGUAGES OF EUEOPE AND ASIA HAVE A COMMON ORIGIN. BY JOSEPH EDKINS, B.A., of the London Missionary Society , Peking ; Honorary Member of tTie Asiatic Societies of London and Shanghai^ and of the Ethnological Society of France. ^M* CALIF" " 1 V LONDON: TKUBNEE & CO., 8 and 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 187L All rights reserved. ^^ AKD THE WHOLE EAETH WAS OF ONE LANGUAGE, AND OF ONE SPEECH." — Genesis xi. 1. **GOD HATH MADE OF ONE BLOOD ALL NATIONS OF MEN FOE TO DWELL ON ALL THE FACE OF THE EAETH, AND HATH' DETEE- MINED THE TIMES BEFOEE APPOINTED, AND THE BOUNDS OF THEIE HABITATION." Acts Xvii. 26. 'AA.A' 5 fxkv AlOlonas fxereKiade Tr}\6d^ i6vTas, AlOloiras, to\ Sixda SeSotarai eaxaroi av^pSov, Oi fifv ^vaofxevov Tnepiovos, ol 5' aviSvTos. /If^"^ Horn. Od. A. 22. IZOI it TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE LONDOIST MISSIONAEY SOCIETY, IN RECOGNITION OF THE AID THEY HAVE RENDERED TO RELIGION AND USEFUL LEARNING, BY THE RESEARCHES OF THEIR MISSIONARIES INTO THE LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS, OF VARIOUS HEATHEN NATIONS, ESPECIALLY IN AFRICA, POLYNESIA, INDIA, AND CHINA, THIS "WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. CONTENTS. PAaE Introduction. . . ' xi Chapter I. — Introductory. — Comparison between the ancient Chinese civilization and that of the Babylonians and Egyptians. — Resem- blance in genius and early inventions implies consanguinity in race. — Chronology. — Climatic conditions. — Agriculture. — Altars. — Government. — Arts. — The kings were priests. — Tombs. — Causes of the permanence of Chinese institutions 1 Chapter II. — Comparison with Western Asia continued. — Resem- blances in philosophy and religion. — Numerical philosophy. — The nine categories of the Hung Fan. — Measures. — Practical genius. — Astrology. — Cycles. — Early religion of the world. — Monotheism and burnt sacrifices in Genesis, Job, and the Shu King. — Sabeanism. — Angels. — Evil spirits. — Chinese burnt oflferings to Shang Ti. — "Worship of spirits and of visible nature. — These customs were brought from the west. — Worship of ancestors in temples 13 Chapter III. — Geographical areas of languages. — Chinese and Eastern Himalaic — Japanese — Corean — Mongol and Turkish — Manchu — Tibetan — Tamul — Indo-European — Semitic. — Effect of geographical contiguity 31 Chapter IV. — On the primeval language. — It was monosyllabic. — Examples. — Pronouns. — Laws of position. — Laws of rhythmus. — Pronominal roots also verbs. — Closed syllables a proof of man's continental origin. — Early use of final m. — Names of animals. — Divine origin of language 51 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter V. — The Chinese probably Hamitcs. — Chronology of the Deluge. — Genealogies in Genesis. — Ancient Semite occupation of Persia. — Semitic impress on the Himalaic race. — The Chinese moved eastward before the Confusion of Tongues. — The Chinese ancient syllabary recoverable from the phonetics. — Six final con- sonants. — The surd initials derived from the sonants. — Tones. — Syntax 67 Chapter VI. — The Semitic system older than the Turanian ; younger than the Chinese. — Triliteral roots. — Insertions. — Suffixes. — Prefixes. — Growth of inflexions. — Sex. — Personifica- tions. — Syntax. — The verb placed first. — Post-position of adjec- tive and of genitive. — Post-position of genitive borrowed by European languages. — Semitic relative and European relative compared with the Chinese and Turanian equivalent 92 Chapter VII. — The Himalaic languages younger than the Chinese; older than the Turanian. — Eastern Himalaic branch. — Siamese phonal system. — Cochin-Chinese tones. — Chinese natural tones. — Vocabulary. — Syntax. — Western Himalaic branch. — Tibetan phonal system. — Tibetan and Hebrew common words. — Tibetan tones. — Post-position of case particles. — Derivatives. — Tibetan verb. — Antiquity of the Tibetan type Ill Chapter VIII. — First division of the Turanian system. — Japanese branch. — The triple-branched Turanian family : Japanese, Dra- vidian, and Tartar. — First, the Japanese. — Japanese syllabic alphabet. — Common roots in Japanese. — Formation of com- pounds. — Case particles 139 Chapter IX. — Second division of the Turanian system. — The Dravidian languages. — Proof that this family is truly Turanian. — Common words. — Common laws of sound. — Surds and sonants, " — Deficiency in sibilants. — Abundance of liquids. — Syllables usually open. — Derivation. — Comparative list of words. — The passive. — Negation. — Tense formation. — Dravidian syntax. . .168 Chapter X. — Third division of the Turanian system. — Mongol as a type of Tartar languages. — ^An old Turania in Western Asia. — The Tartar Turanians come nearest to the Indo-Europeans. — System of sound. — S and ./ for sh and d. — Ch for s. — Final nff dropped. — No /. — The seven vowels. — Tone. — Accidence— CONTENTS. IX PAGB Substantive verb and first personal pronoun. — Mongol declension. — Pronouns. — The Mongol verb. — Conjugation. — Adverbial suffixes. — Mongol syntax 204 Chapter XI. — Malayo-Polynesian. — The Malay the type of a distinct family. — Alphabet and syllable. — Polynesian syllable based on the old Chinese syllable. — Effect of marine climate on the Malayo-Polynesian syllable. — Continental origin of the Poly- nesians. — Connexion of Siamese and Malay. — Post-position of the adjective and genitive. — Pronouns. — Case particles. — Semitic principles. — Chinese influence on Polynesia. — Pronouns. — Verbal directives. — Comparison. — Arithmetic. — American languages do not possess an exclusively Turanian or Polynesian type.— The "more civilized were mainly Polynesian. — Semitic and Hindoo traditions in America. — Legends of the Deluge descended from Noah 247 Chapter XII. — The Sanscrit language. — Sanscrit richness in forms. Its principles of development based on older systems. — Alphabet. — Syllable. — Prefix of s. — Insertion of r and I. — Polysyllabic word. — Declension. — Case suffixes. — Plural. — Gender. — Com- parison of adjectives. — Pronouns. — Derivative verbs. — Personal endings. — Tense marks. — Potential and conditional mood. — Infinitive. — Participle. — Auxiliary verbs. — Adverbial suffixes. — Prepositions. — Compounds. — Laws of position. — Zend Syntax. . 274 Chapter XIII. — European languages. — Latest and grandest develop- ment of language. — The alphabet. — Common radical syllabary of Chinese and European languages. — European radical syllabary. — The European word. — Semite influence seen in conjugatioual vowel changes, in doubled consonants, in masculine and feminine terminations, and in dual and plural numbers. — Turanian in- l fluence seen in moods and tenses, and in compounds. — European s}Titax. — Chinese element. — Semitic and Tui'anian elements. — Greek. — Tones in Chinese are accents in Greek. — Common words in Greek and Mongol. — Latin. — Resemblance of Latin gerund and supine to those of Tartar languages. — List of roots common to Latin, Chinese, and Mongol. — Latin syntax more Turanian than the Greek. — Roman family relationships suggestive of con- nexion with eastern ideas. — Resemblance between Romau and old Chinese religious beliefs. — Russian : The best new type of CONTENTS. PAGE the Sclavonic family. — Full alphabet. — Abounds in prefixes to roots. — Examples of syntax. — Anglo-Saxon. — The syntax Turanian. — Anglo-Saxon and German have more of the Turanian element than is seen in the English. — English returns to Chinese and primeval syntax. — Cause of these variations. — Resemblance of Anglo-Saxon poetry to that of the Mongols. — Alliteration : exchanged for rhyme; cause of this change. — English. — List of common words, Chinese and English 318 Chapter XIV. — Conclusion. — Primeval Aryan civilization as known from language. — The common civilization of Aryans and Chinese may be known from language in the same way. — Activity of the third millennium n.c— Ethnology of Genesis x. compared with the modern distribution of races. — Characteristics of families : the Chinese, order; the Semitic, life; the Himalaic, quietness ; the Turanian, extension ; the Malayo-Polynesian, softness ; the Indo-European, elevation; all of one blood. — Proof from Poly- nesian and American traditions. — Resume. — Duty of Christians to Asia 385 L 1 13 Iv A . V 1 INTRODUCTION. To SHOW that the languages of Europe and Asia may be conveniently referred to one origin in the Mesopotamian and Armenian region, is the aim of the present work. Sanscrit philologists, entranced with admiration of the treasure they discovered south of the Himalayan chain, forgot to look north of that mighty barrier. Limiting their researches to the regions tra- versed by Alexander the Great, they allowed them- selves to assume that there was no accessible path by which the linguistic investigator could legitimately reach the vast area existing beyond their adopted boundary. The result of this abstinence on the part of Bopp and other scholars of high fame has been that the idea of comparing Chinese, Mongol, and Japanese with our Xll INTRODUCTION. own mother-tongue appears to some chimerical, hope- less, and uncalled for. Yet Scripture, speaking with an authoritative voice and from an immense antiquity, asserts the unity of the human race, traces the most general features of the primeval planting of nations, and declares that all men once spoke a common language. The most revered and most ancient of human books, in making these statements, sheds a bright and steady light on the obscurity of history, and at the same time reveals the imperfection of those views held by some modern thinkers and writers who deny that the languages of the world had one origin and that its races came of one stock. Alike for the vindication of Scripture and the pro- gress of knowledge, the comparison of the eastern Asiatic languages with the western is a task which must be undertaken, by whatever prescription it may seem to be forbidden. It is indeed not a little sur- prising that this inviting field of scientific research has been hitherto so little cultivated. Among the causes which have operated on the modern school of comparative philology to prevent the advance of inquiry in this direction is the neglect of syntax. By Sanscrit scholars it has been too much taken for granted that this subject is unimportant. At least, Bopp, in his great work on the Compara- tive Grammar of nine Indo-European languages, has INTRODUCTION. Xlll entirely passed it by. As there is no language in the world in which the order of words is not controlled by fixed laws, the omission of these laws from any book on grammar leaves it incomplete in a most vital part. Probably Bopp, seeing that Zend and Sanscrit, while they were sisters in all other respects, had in syntax the most singular disparity, allowed himself to con- clude that difference in the order of words in a sentence is a mere matter of rhetoric, emphasis, and agreeable effect. The tendency of Greek and Latin studies is to produce this feeling. One of the commonest effects of the juxtaposition of languages is the disjunction of syntax and roots. Every one who has visited China knows something about the grotesque dialect called Canton -English. It consists of English words arranged in a Chinese order. Sons of Cantonese traders procure a manuscript vocabulary of English words and contribute the syntax from their own language. A brief time of study qualifies them to become commercial agents, who can make themselves sufficiently well understood to gain profitable employment. In a Semitized country a like phenomenon would occur on a larger and more per- manent scale, if it were conquered by a people of a strange language. The new words introduced would be arranged in the order familiar to the old population. Persia, for example, would retain Semite syntax when it received an Aryan immigration ; and India would > XIV INTRODUCTION. retain Turanian syntax after being conquered by the speakers of Sanscrit. It seems reasonable to account in this way for the resemblance existing between the Dravidian and Sanscrit syntax. Another cause of the extensive belief in the impas- sable nature of the chasm between Indo-European and Turanian languages, is the assumption that the in- flexional principle in the formation of compound words is something entirely distinct from the agglutinative. Yet in fact, as explained by Professor Max Miiller and others, they are but difierent stages of the same pro- cess. Inflexion was at first agglutination, and agglu- tination can in many instances not be distinguished from what is called inflexion. The distinction, how- ever, really exists, as is indicated by the circumstance that the writing of the Eastern Asiatic languages is always syllabic, while that of the Indo-European is alphabetic. Children are in the far east taught to read in syllables, rather than by letters. Where the in- flexional stage of language prevails, the finer analysis of alphabetic writing also exists. If a suJBficient de- duction be made for the difierent aspect of languages as they are written syllabically and alphabetically, and if, further, the inflexional elements added to roots in Europe can be identified with those added by agglu- tination in Tartary, South India, and Japan, the sup- posed chasm will vanish from view. The remaining cause for the want of attention to the INTRODUCTION. XV claims of the Chinese and other eastern lano^uaercs for recognition as genuine sisters, coming from the com- # mon ancestry, like Hebrew, Sanscrit, and Greek, is unbelief in the identity of the roots. Klaproth and other authors, whose studies have led them to make wide comparisons of words in languages of widely separated families, had a conviction that the roots are originally one. This is eminently true of Gesenius. If Semitic scholars have a more thorough confidence in the original identity of the Hebrew and Indo-Euro- pean vocabularies than is shown by philologists of the Sanscrit school, it is probably because they have had the advantage of knowing both the vocabularies more thoroughly. The dissyllabic character of the Semitic roots has been a serious bar to progress in comparing them with those of families which are, like the Indo- European and Turanian, based on the monosyllable. But this should not be viewed as proof of different origin. It is only to be taken as evidence of contem- poraneous development. Branching from the same trunk, the Chinese, Semitic, Turanian, and Indo- European systems grew up together, each with its own laws, and in early times powerfully influenced by each other. If the Semites, as their first step in change, chose to prefix or append another consonant to their roots, and found that which satisfied their love of what is fitting in this widening of the radical base, we need not be deterred by this circumstance from the attempt Xvi INTRODUCTION. to reduce the word thus altered to its original form. Take the word Shebet, sceptre, rod, to pieces by re- moving the sibilant excrescence. The remaining bet is our heat and hat, the Latin hafao, and the Chinese fa or hat, "to strike," "punish," or "chop down." So the verbs kamah, "to be consumed with desire," and kamar, " to burn with love," are identical with the Sanscrit kam, "to desire," the Persian kam, "love," the Chinese ham, " sweet," " to love." There is every reason to hope for the most solid and interesting results from a careful comparison of all the roots in the Eastern and AVestern families of languages, as has been done with those of the constituent members of the Indo- European group. Since the time of William von Humboldt, the re- ference of language to a plurality of origins has been in Germany not uncommon ; and Pott, Steinthal, and F. Miiller hold this view still, against the opinions of r. Schlegel, Bunsen, and Max Miiller. Should it be proved that the Chinese and Turanian families are certainly akin in syllabary, roots, and syntax to the Semitic and Indo-European languages, the area on which this battle can be fought will be very much diminished. To manv minds the difference between Chinese and English will appear as great as that which could be found between any two languages whatever. To such minds what is proved in regard to Chinese will be admitted at once with regard to others. But INTRODUCTION. XVll should further processes of proof be demanded, it may- be shown that the languages of the Pacific Ocean are firmly linked to those" of the south-east of Asia in syntax, in roots, and in inflexional growth. Poly- nesian speech being thus shown to have branched off from the common trunk of Asiatic language, the de- fender of the doctrine of human unity in origin and in language may proceed to America. There is good reason to believe that the languages of that continent can be explained on the principles of the Polynesian and Turanian systems combined. If grammatical processes common in South-Sea speech are found in America, its partial colonization by way of the South Seas and Sandwich Islands must be conceded. The meeting of Turanian peculiarities, introduced from Greenland and Karaschatka, with those of south- eastern Asia, entering America by the tropics across the ocean, will be recognized as having made the lan- guages of that continent what they now are. In the same way in Africa a Malay element would enter from Madagascar and a Turanian element by the Straits of Gibraltar ; and the languages of colonies thus intro- duced may be expected to have exercised an impor- tant influence on the original Hamitic stock of that continent. When to the strictly philological proof are added such evidences as may be derived from history, tradi- tions, mythology, the arts, and special habits of group- XVlll INTRODUCTION. ing the objects of thought, the argument is powerfully increased. For example, in Polynesia, as in Eastern Asia, it is common to have two words for "brother," one for those older than the speaker, and another for those younger. The Mexican and Peruvian civiliza- tions bear a strong likeness to that of Southern Asia. There seem to be none of the religious usages of those races which cannot be furnished with a prototype from the older locality first inhabited by the human family. All these things taken together tend to confirm, with overwhelming certainty, the impression common to mankind in all countries, that all are of one original parentage. This was felt by Terence when he wrote the famous line : "Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum piito." Confucius believed that men are all of one ancestry when he said, "Si hai chi nui kiai hiung ti ye," All within the four seas are brethren, or more literally, are elder and younger brothers, for here we have an example of the principle referred to in the last paragraph. The Buddhists had a deep conviction of the same kind when they taught the vanity of caste distinctions, and the equality, before Buddha's law, of Sudra and Pariah with the most high-born Brahman. They also put in practice this article of their faith when they crossed seas and mountains to proselyte the Javanese islander. INTRODUCTION. XIX the Chinese, and the Tartar, to the cosmopolitan re- ligion of their founder. But having only Hindoo legends as a basis of faith, they could not teach a reasonable account of the origin of man or of language, and the monstrous fictions of their national mythology shut out from their view the perfect God and eternal Creator. It was reserved for Christianity to make known the true commencement of history and of language in the narrative of the creation of Adam. The triple unity of God, of the race of man, and of human speech, are taught in the sacred books of the Jews, and the first two of these are re-asserted with the strongest emphasis in the New Testament. Imbued with this faith, it is impossible for the Christian missionary not to feel an ineradicable conviction that the heathen tribes to whom he proclaims the Gospel are at one in origin with those civilized races that have been long blessed with the light of Christian truth. He sees among the islanders of Polynesia and Madagascar the descendants of the common Adam, who have, through want of instruction and long-continued isolation, lost the knowledge they once possessed, but retain in their traditions, mental structure, habits of thought, and peculiarities of speech, more or less clear traces of their original oneness with the more civilized nations. Such also has been the opinion of men in all ages. Even the claim of the black-skinned African to recog- XX INTRODUCTION. nition by the white man as " a man and a brother " is admitted instinctively by the common human con- science, as it is required definitively by the Christian law. It was reserved for modern science to propose for the first time the hitherto unknown hypothesis of a plurality of origins for the human species and for language. That this has been done without an at- tempt to compare the Chinese ancient language with the Indo-European is an indication of rashness on the part of the promoters of this novel hypothesis. It is hoped that in the following chapters there will be found a sufficient number of new and incontestable facts bearing on the subject to justify the re-opening of the whole question. After a careful sifting of recent discoveries by the geologists on the antiquity of man, it will be the duty of the Christian theologian to examine afresh the question of early Biblical chronology. All new light brought upon this subject from unexpected quarters must be cheerfully accepted, so that difficulties in the current scheme may be as far as possible removed, and the claims of the older portions of the Bible to our intelligent faith may be shown to be as satisfactory as those of the more recent. It only remains to mention the steps by which the hypothesis contained in this work respecting the con- nexion of languages assumed the form in which it now appears. INTRODUCTION. XXI Commencing the study of the Chinese language under the auspices of the London Missionary Society, in 1847, and arriving at Shanghai the following year, I early sought to learn the laws of connexion between the dialects of that vast country. These, with the examination of the phonetic element in the Chinese characters, led me to see in 1854 that a rich mine of information regarding the ancient state of the Chinese syllabary and language lies concealed in the characters themselves, as written 4,000 years ago, and that the dialects furnish the key to it. The use of the Chinese mode of writing began to spread into Japan, Corea, and Cochin-China 2,000 years since, and the trans- criptions then and subsequently made of Chinese sounds contain valuable information on the contem- porary state of the Chinese language. These have been made available by various useful works, published by the deceased missionary. Dr. W. H. Medhurst, who spent forty years in the East, on Corean and Japanese ; by Dr. Hepburn, American missionary-physician, at Yokohama, on Japanese ; and by Father Morrone, of the Roman Catholic missions, on Cochin- Chinese. From these works and a study of the Chinese transcriptions of Sanscrit words found in Buddhist works, made 1,500 years since by the Hindoo missionaries of Buddhism in China, I derived new light on the history of the Chinese language. The examination of this subject has been greatly aided by the work of M. Stanislas Julien. XXll INTRODUCTION. Sent to Peking in 1863, to join the missionary- physician, Mr. Lockhart, in commencing a mission there, I also studied Mongol ; it being the Society's intention to begin afresh the diffusion of Christian light among the tribes of Tartary, a benevolent enter- prise which for more than twenty years had been neces- sarily intermitted. This gave me the opportunity of tracing the connexion between Chinese and that lan- guage, and of examining how far it may be regarded as a missing link between Chinese and the polysyllabic speech of western nations. Feeling convinced, on consideration, that Tartar ag- glutination and European inflexion are essentially one, I came to the conclusion that the apparently accidental likeness in some Latin and Manchu words, signalized by Herr Yon der Gabelentz in his Grammar of the latter language, are examples in some instances of real identity. Such, too, appeared to be the case with Klaproth's list in Asia Polyglotta of what he calls Antediluvian words. The present publication is an imperfect attempt to embody the views thus arrived at. Residing in Peking, I have been unable to consult Mr. Hunter's work on the languages of India and Tartary, and many other valuable books, old and new. Very useful in these inquiries would be examples of old Turanian words from the Turanian cuneiform inscrip- tions, but these I have no means of obtaining. INTRODUCTION. XXUI I have been specially indebted to Dr. Karl von Scherzer for the use of some excellent works executed at the Imperial printing-press at Vienna, the names of which occur in the following pages. Peking, September IZrd^ 1870. I.I li n A iv' V UNI V K!;sri'V «>i' CAi.lKOl'NI V. J CHmA'S PLACE m PHILOLOGY. CHAPTER I. Introductory. — Comparison BErvvEEN the Ancient Chinese Civil- ization AND that of the BABYLONIANS AND EGYPTIANS. — RESEM- BLANCE IN Genius and Early Inventions implies Consanguinity IN Race. — Chronology. — Climatic Conditions. — Agriculture. — Altars. — Government. — Arts. — The Kings wtirb Priests. — Tombs. — Causes of the Permanence of Chinese Institutions. The resemblance existing between the old Chinese civilization and that of the Hamite race long ago developed on the banks of the Nile and Euphrates is very remarkable. The two races made a common progress in agriculture, astronomy, and the arts of weaving and building. They also achieved the in- vention of an available mode of writing. The Baby- lonians impressed their characters on bricks when in a soft state ; the Egyptians cut them on stone ; and the \ Chinese painted them on tablets of bamboo or other kinds of wood. The first books in China consisted of ^ bundles of these tablets strung together. In the west, the first books were made either of the papyrus, or of 1 2 china's place in philology. sheepskin sewed piece by piece into long rolls. So close a similarity in genius between the descendants of Gush and Mizraim, who founded the first arts of the west, and the Chinese, who on the east of the Indo- European area have always reigned supreme in intellect and manual ingenuity, argues a probable connexion of race. Living in a latitude of 30° to 40° north of the equator,^ the early Chinese possessed a climate which during the predominance of the Hamite and the Shem- ite intellect proved most favourable to progress, in science and the arts. They probably came into the noble country assigned them by Providence for an inheritance, with an adequate knowledge of the Baby- lonian agriculture and astronomy. Their most ancient vIn writings record the names of stars, an approximate \ length of the year, and the use of the intercalary \ month. As the Pleiades and other stars were, ac- cording to the native account, observed by means of \v an armillary sphere 2,000 years before Christ at the times of the solstices and equinoxes, we can test the general accuracy of their chronology. Making use of the correction required by the law of the precession of the equinoxes, we learn, for example, that the Pleiades were 4,000 years ago 60° behind their present position. This is in agreement with the Chinese ancient account. 1 The Egyptian Tlicbcs was in 26°, Memphis in 30°. Babylon was in 33°, and Kiucveh in 36°. The old Chinese capital was in 35°. \ CHRONOLOGY. 6 We may therefore rely upon tlie history, so far as these old astronomical fragments are concerned, as generally trustworthy. It has been suggested that the Chinese brought these observations at the solstices and equinoxes with them from the west,^ and preserved by tradition the old positions of the stars. That they brought with them the rudiments of the arts and sciences seems to be unquestionable. But the fact that they brought them is evidence that they were able to make the described observations of celestial phenomena, and we gain nothing by shortening the national chronology. If it had been at a date less than 2,000 years before the Christian era that the earliest Chinese came into their country, the difficulty of the historical problem would be increased. For how are we to explain the physical changes that have made the Chinese type of man what he now is if our chronological scheme is to be curtailed ? It would not be \vise to shorten the time of the separation of the Chinese from the men of the west, to whom they once stood, as will be shown, in the brotherhood of a common ancestry. Alterations in the language are of such a nature as to demand that we should allow for the Chinese occupation of North- western China a period certainly not less than that which is now usually assigned for the Hindoo occupa- tion of India, or about 4,000 years. 1 Lejj'ge's Chinese Classics. Chalmers' Origin of the Chinese. 4 china's place IX PHILOLOGY. As it happened to tlie Babylonians, so was it with the Chinese ; their agricultural, settled life was aflPected by the geological changes proceeding in their time. The Yellow River ^ abandoned what appears to have been its old direction from the Ordos country eastward by Peking to the sea, and turned abruptly southward between Shansi and Shensi to the province of Honan. Here it flowed east, wound its way afterwards north- east, and reached the sea at Tientsin, near its former mouth. The great central plateau of Asia has always been risins: since and for ao^es before the commencement of history. The communication of the Caspian with the Polar Sea has long been dried up, and has become the bountiful inheritance of a Sclavonic population. The north coast -line of Siberia is still going out to sea at a rapid rate, viz. : at one degree of latitude in a century."' The Yellow Sea becomes each year more shallow, and the coast which was a few centuries ago at Tientsin is now forty miles away from it to the eastward. JN^ew alluvial islands spring up in the mouth of the Yang Tsz Kiang through the gradual elevation of the sea- bottom, and, covered with fertile alluvium from the river, become populous and wealthy farming districts. Teno- cheu fu, in Shantung, used to be a port for native ^ Pumpclly in Publications of the Smithsonian Institution, "Washington. - Arago, " Natural History of Human Species.' Quoted in Frinceton Mevieiv. SIMILARITY IN ARTS, ETC., OF CHINA AND BABYLON. 5 vessels of large burden. Now tliey cannot anclioi* there. The old port is left high and dry, and the native shipping proceeds to Chefu, sixty miles eastward. In Babylonia the coast-line advances at the common mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris one mile in from thirtj^ to seventy years. ^ These facts seem to point to the conclusion that the whole of Eastern Asia is con- stantl}^ rising. In particular, the Yellow River has been subject, through subterranean forces causing oscil- lation,'-^ to perpetual changes in its course, and it has entered the sea sometimes to the south of the Shantung promontory and at other times to the north. The necessity of protecting the fields from inundation proved a powerful stimulus to the emperor Yii and his contemporaries (as afterwards to the Chinese of each dynasty), and taught them to erect embankments and cut canals, just as it happened to the ancient Baby- lonians, that they were obliged to make provision against the overflow of the Euphrates by an extensive system of artificial watercourses. The ancient Chinese also erected large square altars and high terraces of earth, stone, and brick. The sacred altars in Peking, on which imperial sacrifices are ofiered, are usually square earthen terraces about sixty yards in circuit, and from four to six feet high. There is a flight of wide marble steps in the centre of each side. The emperor, or his substitute, worships on 1 r. Sraitli's " History of the World.'* 2 Pumpelly 6 china's place in philology. the altar, and on it are placed also the offerings, and the wooden tablet which represents the object worshipped. The terrace for the worship of heaven, 5c iM T^i^n t'an, is round, is in three stages, and is ascended by twenty- seven steps. The paving- stones and carved balustrades of this altar are all of marble. When we keep in mind that the ancient Chinese have always been accus- tomed to erect lofty terraces for astronomical purposes, — such as the Observatory terrace now in Peking ; that most of their terrace altars were for the worship of Heaven, or rather of God under that name, and of the powers of nature ; and that the Cushites, who in- vented Cuneiform writing, erected in maritime Baby- lonia, for the worship of their divinities, terrace towers in stages still remaining ; we cannot but imagine con- sanguinity between these races as probable.^ Let the inquirer take into account also the ancient government of the Chinese. They had feudal barons in five grades, Kung, heu, pe, tsz, nan, in subordination to a lord paramount. The oldest national traditions speak sometimes of the Hwang, and at other times of the Ti, as the lord paramount of the state, and recognize no period when such a personage was wanting. The Chinese, therefore, must be supposed to have entered ^ The tower of Borsippa had seven stages, each dedicated to one of the seven heavenly po^\ers, and distinguished by an appropriate colour. At the top was the Moon, silver, area twenty square feet. Then came, 2, Mercury, blue; 3, Venus, yellow; 4, Sun, golden; 5, Mars, red; 6, Jupi- ter, orange ; and, 7, Saturn, black. Area at base, 272 square feet. SIMILARITY IN ANCIENT CUSTOMS. T their present countr}^ with the idea of an absolute and wise ruler, as essential to the notion of a state. They have also always regarded him as entitled to his posi- tion by the choice of Heaven, communicated through successful war, the consent of the people, and the personal display of imperial virtues. We also know, by the Biblical history of Nimrod, that imperialism was one of the ideas of the Cushites. They with the Chinese were the first imperialists of whom history speaks. Many ancient customs point to a connexion once existing between Western Asia and China. The use of magic, of music, of war chariots, and of religious usages, are in many respects parallel. In Laj^ard's "ISTineveh," three horses are seen harnessed abreast, in a bas-relief, to a two- wheeled chariot without covering, and occupied by warriors with bows. It is a curious fact that in native engravings, such as the Chinese love to make in illustration of their classics, ancient two -wheeled chariots without covering should be drawn with four horses abreast, while the emperor sits in the carriage protected from the sun by an umbrella which is held over him by an officer. At present in North China horses are not harnessed abreast. The farther we go back, the nearer are the resemblances. Sorcerers are mentioned under the name Mo /[A in the Shu king, in the second reign of the Shang dynasty, which commenced b.c. 1765. They are there 8 china's place in philology. spoken of in a disparaging manner, according to the invariable custom of the stern moralists who in China have been the makers of history.^ The Chinese word Mo, '■'■ sorcerer," '' witch," points historically and in its etymology to " brandishing the arms," *' rubbing," and "handling." The ancient magicians wrought charms with their hands in India, Persia, and China. The Latin manus, " hand," and Greek fxdw, " to rub," '' handle," are from the same root, and it appears in Chinese as Ma, '^ to handle," ''touch," and Mo, "to brandish the arms." This therefore is the most probable explanation of the word Magi, the common appellation of the Persian magicians. In the same ancient Chinese records the arts of weaving and of working in metals are mentioned. The "Tribute of Yu"^ says of Tsing cheu in Shantung, "Its articles of tribute were salt, fine grass-cloth, and the productions of the sea of various kinds, with silk, fine hemp, lead, pine-wood, and strange stones. The Lai barbarians are shepherds. They brought in their baskets silk from the mountain mulberrv." Thev seem at that early period to have been acquainted with all the ordinary metals. The date of the " Tribute of Yu" is given by the Chinese B.C. 2205. From South- eastern and "Western China came, as tribute to the emperor of that time, gold, silver, copper, iron, tusks, ^ Perhaps this tone of disparagement may be taken as an indication of later composition. It occurs in a long speech attributed to the sage Yi Yin. 2 Legge's " Shoo king," Tart I., p. 102, slightly altered. KINGS WERE PRIESTS. » liides, feathers, cinnabar, timber, and various fabrics of flax, hemp, and hair. In the time of Joshua, B.C. 1450, Babylonish garments were conveyed to Judaea (Josh. A^ii.). The Persian race in Persia Proper, and as colonists in Turkestan, have always manufactured elegant woollen carpets. The Chinese ordinary word to ** weave" is g^ Chi, old sound Tck ; Latin, tcxo, '' weave." To '' build " is ^ Chu, old sound Tok. Its being placed under the bamboo-class symbol sug- gests that it was the custom to make bamboo hedges. They interlaced thin bamboo stems and used stouter ones as posts. The same word was applied to brick, earthen, and stone walls : for instance, the walls of cities. The Greeks called a carpenter reKrcov. It is highly probable that the kings of Nineveh acted as priests. '•' As in Egypt, they may have been regarded as the representatives on earth of the deity, receiving their power directly from the gods, and being the organ of communication between them and their subjects."^ In China there is no doubt on the point that the emperor has always borne a sacred character, and acted as a priest between God and the people, praying for them in times of distress, and acknow- ledo-inor ffuilt on his own and their behalf. The tombs of the Chinese emperors are remarkable. They are vast conical mounds of earth from a quarter of a mile to a mile in circuit. A long arched passage ^ Layard's *' Nineveh." 10 china's place in philology. througli brick-work leads up to the mound door. Over the passage is the monument inscribed with the title of the emperor. The hall in front, where worship is per- formed, is magnificent in size and appearance. Before this is another smaller hall. The tomb entrance, halls, courts, gates, and boundary walls are all on a large and complete scale. The tombs of the Lj^dian kings were something of the same kind. ** The remains of that of Alyattes still stand near Sardis. The sepul- chral chamber is surmounted by a lofty pile, and so far it is like the pyramids, but as the pile is a mound it is more like the tumuli or barrows of the western world. The basement consists of immense blocks of stone, above which is a heap of earth, surmounted by five pillars carved with inscriptions. The ground plan is a circle three-quarters of a mile round, a little larger than the great pyramid. The sepulchral chamber in the centre of the tumulus is eleven feet lono^, bv eight feet broad, and seven feet high." See E,aw- linson, quoted in P. Smith's Histor}^ Several of the ancient Chinese emperors, fabulous and historic, have funeral mounds assigned to them by tradition. That of Yu, the great engineering emperor, is near Mngpo. That of Fu hi is near Kai feng fu. The tomb of Yau is in Shansi, and that of Shau hau in Shantung. The identi- fication of the tombs of these ancient princes cannot be relied upon without excavations. But the custom of bury- ing the emperors in vast sepulchral mounds of earth is PERMANENCE OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION. 11 thus sliown to be a custom as old as that of erecting large terrace altars for sacrifices, as already described. To suppose that the Chinese originated indepen- dently the arts and usages to which allusion has now been made, is to assign two beginnings to a many- branched civilization which is one in its main features. At this stage of archaeological inquiry in Europe it is preferable, when we accept the conclusion now generally arrived at, that it was the Cushites, the brothers of the Egyptians, who commenced and de- veloped the Babylonian civilization, to proceed to class the Chinese with them. The likeness found to exist in practical bent, in the arts of life, and in all the solid elements of the old-world regime is suflB.cient to justify this step. If the Chinese did not bring with them to their new country all the arts mentioned, at least they came away with the same sort of mind and the same instinctive impulses. With a perseverance and enthusiasm which insured success, they laboured tri- umphantly for science and for the arts. More fortunate than the inhabitants of Babylon and Thebes, they have never seen the wreck of their institutions or the ex- tinction of their national existence. In this they were favoured by their isolated position and the compact mass of their immense population. No Indo-European races approached them. The aborigines they found in the country, and the races that occupied Tartary, Tibet, and the Birmese peninsula, have always been inferior to 12 china's place in philology. themselves. When vanquished and subdued by Tartar races, they taught their conquerors the Chinese civil- ization, and when they became enervated by it, easily drove them back to their native wilds. With a wise foresight, two centuries before the Christian era, they abandoned feudalism, and adopted the centralization system of government, which they have ever since retained. When merchants brought them paper, and probably ink, of Greek manufacture from the West in the Han dynasty, they at once began to make them for themselves. The cumbersome bamboo tablets and coarse paint which were formerly used, they exchanged for wolf's-hair pencils and Indian ink, the modern implements of writing. They gave up war chariots, as did our ancestors, and commenced the use of cannon in place of catapults and battering rams. They discovered the properties of the loadstone, and probably applied it to navigation in the Indian Ocean several centuries before the mariner's compass was thought of in Europe. It was b}^ these and such like improvements on their old institutions that the Chinese have kept pace with the ages, and prevented the fabric of their ancestral civilization from crumbling to irremediable decay. ij i a li A li 1 UN I V Kusrrv of CALM niJNIA. y CHAPTER II. Comparison with "Western Asia continued. — Eesemblances in Philosophy and Religion. — Numerical Philosophy. — The Nine Categories of the Hung Fan. — Measures. — Practical Genius. — Astrology. — Cycles. — Early Religion of the World. — Monotheism and Burnt Sacrifices in Genesis, Job, and the Shu King. — Sabeanism. — Angels. — Evil Spirits. — Chinese Burnt Offerings to Shang Ti. — Worship of Spirits and of Visible Nature. — These Customs were brought from the West. — Worship of Ancestors in Temples. The numerous and very remarkable resemblances found to exist between the ancient Chinese philosophj'' and religion and those of Western Asia constitute a powerful proof of early connexion. There are many and very detailed allusions in the Chinese " Shu king," the most important of the classics, to the philosophy and religion current among the people in the second millennium before the Christian era. The philosophy was in one aspect numerical. The five elements are alluded to as the five energies. Hing (old sound. Gang), " to walk," " to act," may be trans- lated " elemental activities." They are water, fire, metal, wood, and earth, or the five powers supposed to inhere in these substances. Then we meet with the 14 china's place in philology. five relationships, namely, those of prince and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger brother, and the bond of friendship. The following extract, somewhat altered, from Legge's " Shoo king," p. 79, will illustrate the usage of the numbers four and five, etc , in common phrases : — " The emperor Shun said to Yu, You, my ministers, are m}^ legs and arms, my eyes and ears. I wish to help and protect my people. You assist me. I wish to proclaim the powerful eflBcacy of my government through the four quarters. You act for me. I wish to see the emblematic figures of the ancients : the sun, moon, and stars (illumination), the mountains (security), dragons (variety), and pheasants (beauty), painted on the upper garment, the tiger of the ancestral temple (filial piety), the aquatic grass (purity), fire (bright- ness), rice (the support of life), the hatchet (legal decision), and the symbol of discrimination, consisting of two representations of the character £, /r/, placed back to back, thus, 5E embroidered on the lower garment. They should be figured with five colours, splendidly distributed among the five colours for the imperial robes. It is for you to adjust them plainly. I wish to hear the six pipes, the five sounds, the eight kinds of musical instruments, and the seven begin- nings, in order that poems, made according to the scale of five sounds, may go forth from the Court and be brought in from the people. Hear this." THE HUNG FAN. 15 In the Hung Fan^ is found the most comprehensive statement on the old numerical philosophy to be met with in any ancient book. It is said to have been received by Wu wang, B.C. 1100, from Ki tsze, who informed him that Heaven gave it to Ta yu, B.C. 2200, as a reward for his success in subduing the inundations of the rivers, and that the orderly arrangement of the moralities and social relations might thereby be com- pleted. THE NINE CATEGORIES OF THE HUNG FAN. I. Five Elemental Energies. water moistens and goes down salt fire blazes and ascends bitter wood crooked and straight sour metal obeys and changes acrid earth sowing and reaping sweet II. Five Suman Actions. expression respectful Tenerable qualities speaking persuasive order seeing clear prudence hearing intelligent deliberation thinking profound wisdom III. Eight Departments of Government. food. commodities sacrifices works instruction crime guests the army years IV. Five Registers of Time. months days stars calendar V. The emperor's perfection in virtue, or himself attaining the summit of virtue 1 Legge's "Shoo king," p. 320. 16 china's place in philology. YI. The Three Virtues. uprightness times of peace prevailing by firmness times of violence and resistance | i ^- • ^^ prevailing by mildness times of harmony and compliance | ^^. j-^iiv^f^ VII. Investigation of Doubts by the Tortoise and Diviner^ s grass. rp i. • im \ rr (FivB marks : rain, fine weather, clouds, Tortoise {Chan), Tam. | connexion, crossing. Diviner's grass (Pw), PoJc. Two marks : solidity, repentance. VIII. Five Natural Indications, rain sunshine warmth cold times IX. Five Kinds of Happiness and Six of Misery. long life riches health and peace love of virtue submissively accomplishing to the end the will of heaven accidental death sickness grief poverty wickedness weakness. The Pa kwa, or system of whole and broken strokes in groups of three, arranged octangularly, was a set of symbols intended to represent a very ancient philoso- phy, consisting partly of physics, partlj^ of morality, and partly of divination. It is the basis of the " Book of Changes," the time-honoured text-book of the masculine and feminine or dual philosophy. There are two other schemes of strokes and lin^s, called the ''Ho t'u" and the ''Lo shu," maps fabled to have come, the one out of the Yellow River, and the other, the Lo, one of its Honan tributaries. But none of these can be compared in value with the Nine Categories of the Hung Fan, if it be desired to see at one view the forms of ancient Chinese thought. In the sphere of f>hysics, the sages of this nation saw THE HUNG FAN. 17 Jive powers moving through heaven and earth without ever resting, giving variety to the forms of matter, im- parting a natural constitution to all things, and causing the multifarious distinctions of colour, taste, and sound. In the field of human action they remarked the five- fold qualities of the sage corresponding numerically to the activities of the senses and the thinking power. In the government of the empire they had the idea from the first of an imperial head, under whom there was a division of departments, embracing agriculture, trade, religious ceremonies, works, education, judicial decisions, court ceremonial, and war. Their next field of investigation was astronomy and as- trology, which were always regarded as important enough to constitute a distinct branch of study for the sage. Occupying the centre of this logical scheme, and the summit of the social pyramid, appeared to these ancient thinkers the ideal emperor, the priest, the ruler, and the example in his own person of all the virtues. It was the duty of the conscientious statesman to keep constantly before the view of the reigning prince, es- pecially in his youth, the rounded and stainless image of moral perfection, that he might never forget the obligation to reflect it from himself. The sixth division in the scale of thought was occu- pied by the discussion and inculcation of the qualities necessary to a ruler, consisting, when stated most briefly, of strict integrit}^, firmness, and mildness. 2 18 china's place in philology. The seventli was divination for the foretelling of futui'e events. For this purpose, so essential, as .was thought, in agriculture, war, and politics, the aged forms of the same wise men, who during the long ages of the past gradually shaped out the Chinese civiliza- tion, must be imagined bending over the boiled or scorched shell of the tortoise and the forty-nine stalks of the diviner's grass. They desired to know what they indicated in regard to rain, wind, success in battle, and the suitableness of political measures. The eighth department was that of the examination of natural phenomena to know if the emperor was acting wisely and well. Heat and cold coming in due proportion and at proper times indicate that Heaven is pleased with him and with the people. Particular stars foretell wind and rain, and also indicate the existence of certain virtues and vices among princes and their people. This was the people's divination, as that of the tortoise and the forty-nine stalks of grass was the emperor's. Lastly, the sages studied human life in its varying fortunes and the inequalities existing in regard to length of life, riches, health of body, virtuous dispositions of mind, and moral strength and feebleness ; in other words, the doctrine of retribuiion, visiting men always on moral grounds and by the direct agency of the Supreme Ruler. In this sketch of the ancient philosoi^hy of the NUMERICAL PHILOSOPHY. 19 Chinese, coming from a time five centuries earlier than Confucius, we see the predominance of the numerical idea. Fixed cateorories of thouc^ht were constructed bv them and by the Babylonians from a cursory observa- tion of mental and natural analogies. The number of the fin2:ers on the human hand and of the months of the year furnished them with sufficient ground for l making five, ten, and twelve the bases of their cycles. The cardinal points, discovered by mankind in the infancy of language, as shown by the grammatical terms for direction existing in the speech of all races, combined with the succession of the four seasons, gave rise to the categories of four and eight. The category of three came from the observation of heaven, earth, and man, or of heaven, earth, and water, as the three provinces of being. The old category of two was originated by the observation of light and darkness eternally succeeding each other as day and night. There is a striking contrast here observable between the ancient dual philosophy of China and Persia resting on ph3'sical and moral distinctions, as light and dark- ness, or good and evil, and that of modern western philosophy, which turns its eye inward, -and sees only in the world of existence the antithesis of the ego and the non ego. This numerical philosophy was naturally accom- panied by measures and measuring instruments both in China and among the Babj'lonians. Both races had 20 china's place in philology. measures of Icngtli and capacity, which they after- wards communicated to surrounding nations. Our own weio'hts and measures and divisions of time came ori^i- nally, it is agreed, from Babylon. The genius of the Babylonians and Chinese was so similar that, in both cases studying nature synthetically, they were contented with those useful and simple applications to common life and the service of the state which were in accor- dance with the practical bent of their minds. The more striking and profound discoveries of the analytical faculty they left to the Indo-Europeans, among whom thought was destined to soar with a bolder flight, and wing its way to loftier regions. In the astronomy of Babylon and of China there was a common tendency to astrology. As to the numerical philosopher heaven and earth constituted one world, controlled by like laws, and those laws for ever unalterable, human events, he believed, can be foretold by reading aright celestial phenomena. For what reason do the stars grow bright and pale, and shine with a difierent coloured light ? They are surely indications of the dispositions of the heavenly powers towards mankind. The same feeling which at a scien- tific epoch inclines an ardent mind, when gazing on the always mysterious, alwaj's wonderful, scenery of the starry sky, to wish to know the laws of motion, light, and mutual influence which there dominate, inspired in the childhood of science a mind of like aspirations ASTROLOGY. 21 with a longing to become an astrologer. But there was this difference. The aspirant after astronomical knowledge wishes to arrive at correct views of the laws of the physical universe, and to add to the ever- accumulating stores of science. The astrologer, on the other hand, aimed to acquire the key of destiny, and to wield it as a power over his fellow-men. It appears to me more consonant with the facts of the case to trace the Chinese philosophy ultimately to Babylonia than to any other source, because, from its predominantly numerical and cyclical charactenstics, it seems to have been founded very much on astronomy. The land which ori2:inated the numerical science of the Greeks, and of the Hindoos probably at a still earlier time, gave the Chinese the germs of their astronomy and philosophy, The many striking similarities existing between the Babvlonian and Chinese civilization warrant the ex- pectation that the faith and usages of the religion of Enoch, Noah, and Abraham may be found among the ancient Chinese. Belus and Merodach were names unknown when the ancient connexion here contended for existed. It was the time described in the book of Job and the early parts of the book of Genesis, when the monotheistic faith prevailed in Western Asia, con- temporaneously with the brick-building, metallurgj^ music, cloth-weaving, writing, and other primitive arts, for which the people of that region were famed. 22 china's place in philology. Babj'lonia and Mesopotamia were the theatre of the earliest revelation, and it was there that the historic muse first coramenced the record of the events of time. From thence, also, China derived her earliest ideas. The inspired men of that early period led the march of the ages, and were the instructors who communicated the knowledge of the Supreme God, with worship by prayer and burnt sacrifices, to the ancestors of the Indo- Europeans,^ the Chinese, and all races that have preserved the monotheistic tradition. I will here place in succession the argument from the book of Genesis, the book of Job, and the Chinese Shu king. Faith in one God and worship by animal sacrifices (Gen. iv. 4, and viii. 20), with the general duties of morality and religion, taught by the father of the family, who acted as priest and instructor, constituted, according to the book of Genesis, the faith of mankind, first in the region of the Mesopotamian rivers, and afterwards, when the history becomes limited in its scope, in Canaan. The separation of the early nations is described, but nothing is said of their mythologies, which we are left to infer all sjDrang up subsequently. In India, for example, the Brahmanical religion began with monotheism; then it merged into a ^ The Greeks in Iloiner's day used language which shows plainly that they had still the monotheistic tradition. Qeos rh fxev Saxrei rh S'eao-et . . . " For God will grant and permit whatever has pleased him, for he can do all things." — Od. xiv., 444, 445. Sec Max Miiller's " Lectures on Lan- guage," second series. GENESIS AND JOB. 23 mj^thology consisting of a mixed hero-worship and polytheism ; then in the fifth century before Christ it passed into the Buddhistic atheism, substituting an image-worship of ideas for that of mythological per- sonages ; and subsequently went back to polytheism. In Genesis, the first man tilled the ground, and he and his wife were clothed in skins by divine direction. The discovery of the metals soon followed, and the ear of primitive men was pleased with the concord of musical sounds. They dwelt either in tents or in cities, and it is curious that cities should be mentioned first, as agriculture is mentioned before the keeping of sheep. The first animal sacrifice, that offered by Abel, we are left to suppose was burnt by fire from heaven, for we are not told in what way God signified liis acceptance of it. Of Noah it is expressly stated that he offered burnt offerings on an altar, and this is the first mention of an altar. One of the most impressive facts in the book of Job is that while he knew the names of stars, was able to describe the process of mining for silver, had an exten- sive acquaintance with natural history, and was himself an agriculturist and owner of extensive flocks and herds, he knew nothing of any pagan mythology. He was acquainted with the turning of the clay to the seal, and the graving of the pen upon the rock, with the productions of Egypt, with the government of kings upon their thrones, the pawing of the war-horse, the 24 china's place in philology. thunder of the captains, and the shouting of battle ; but he had heard of no God beside Elohim and Shaddai, and to him he offered burnt offerings, as Noah had done before. Though there is an allusion (chap. xxxi. 26) to the Sabean and old Persian worship of the sun and moon, which is condemned as contrary to the monotheistic doctrine, there is no reference to Babjdonian or Syrian mythology ; but there is distinct evidence of belief in the existence of good and evil angels. The enemy of mankind, appearing in Grenesis in the form of a ser- pent, here comes upon the scene as a fallen angel. The ancient Chinese emperors, as the Shu king teaches us, offered from time immemorial burnt sacri- fices to Shang Ti, the Supreme Ruler, and the custom has been retained till the present time of burning an entire bullock, which must be without blemish, and, with the other bullocks which are offered unroasted, is previously kept in the park of the altar of Heaven. The entire bullock is at the present time roasted to ashes in a large furnace built of green glazed bricks, and set fire to from beneath. It stands on the south- east side of the great altar, on which are placed the tablet of Shang Ti and the offerings which are not con- sumed by fire. The emperor kneels and offers his prayer on the large altar, on the centre stone, having the unburnt victims and the tablets before him on the north. The furnace of the burnt offering is nine feet OLD CHINESE AVORSHIP. 25 high and seven feet wide, and is ascended by nine steps on the south, east, and west sides. The fire is kindled from below on the north side. In several points it differs from the altars of burnt offering in the Old Testament, which were made of earth or of un- hewn stones, and at a later period covered with brass. The burning took place among the Jews and other Western nations on the platform of the altar, and such was the ancient custom of the Chinese. The great altar proper, on which the emperor worships, occupies the place of the Jewish Holy of Holies, which con- tained the ark, and where the high priest offered prayer. Pursuing this comparison, the Chinese furnace of burnt offering is behind the imperial pontifex as he worships, and in front of the tablet, which is the visible symbol of the divine presence, and before which the emperor kneels. The more ancient custom was to have for the burnt sacrifices (as we learn from the Li ki, or Book of Rites, the fourth of the five classics) a second altar, T'ai fan, to the south of " the round hillock." When the emperor knelt on the round hillock this altar of burnt sacrifice was behind him. The furnace is a modern invention, and its position to the south-east is a novelty. With regard to the object of the burnt sacrifice, the Chinese state it to be to attract the attention of the Spirit of Heaven. This they also represent as the intention of the music which has, in ancient and modern times, always 26 china's place in philology. accompanied the sacrifices. Special odes are composed for these occasions, adapted to certain melodies, which constitute a sort of sacred music. They are intro- duced at fixed times during the progress of the cere- mony, and much in the same way as at the setting up of the golden image by ^N^ebuchadnezzar in the plain of Dura. The want of acknowledgment of sin and of sub- stitutionary punishment in the Chinese burnt sacrifices distinguish them from those of Genesis, the book of Job, and the Old Testament generally. They are now difierent, but ihcj were one originall3\ Forgetting certain essential ideas, the Chinese have retained some features of undoubted antiquity which link them with the beginnings of human histor}^ in South- western Asia, and with the age of the first divine revelations. To the original monotheism taught by the first inspired men succeeded, when they ceased to guide human thought, the nature-worship of the Turanians and Persians, the polytheism of the Hindoos and Babylonians, the animal-worship of the Egyptians, the Sabeanism of the Arabians. But the primitive age of monotheistic belief is not so far removed, nor has the gnawing tooth of time been so destructive among old- world traditions, as to allow the memoi'y of that early faith to be entirely obliterated in au}^ of the ancient literatures still extant. WORSHIP OF NATURE. 27 It was to Ji '^ Sliang Ti alone that the burnt sacrifice - was offered. This is a name which carries on the surface its own meaning — the Supreme Ruler. Since the Chinese came from South-western Asia (where monotheism originally prevailed), as is shown by a multiplicity of common customs, arts, and beliefs, and that at a time anterior to the change from the worship of one God to polytheism, how can we doubt that the Being they worshipped with burnt sacrifices under this lofty title is the Elohim and El Shaddai of the Old Testament ? The old Chinese records say that the emperor also worshipped the six honoured ones, thought by native critics to be the seasons, cold and heat, the sun, the moon, the stars and drought ; after them the rulers of the mountains and rivers, and finally the multitude of spirits. The honoured ones are called ^ Tsung, " the lofty ones." They are to be viewed as the intrusion of nature-worship into the old monotheistic religion. Evidently they mean those nature divinities that are above the earth, for the mountains and rivers and the spirits that occupy the lower regions of the air are referred to separately. The spirits Shon, anciently pronounced Zhin, may be the Jinn of the Arabs and ^ Legge's "Shoo," p. 34. The name Luy ^ old form Ltit^ was probably chosen on account of the roundness of the altar. Other altars were square, Ltit has, for one of its most prominent meanings, "roundness," as in lut, "reed," "pipe," etc.; and Zm, old sound Lut^ "a round stove," " a skull," " a round hut." 28 china's place in philology. Persians, whicli were fairies or demons. Perliaps they were originally the same as the Beni Elohim, *' sons of God/' of the book of Job, the ordinary name for angels in that inspired poem. The deep impress of religious faith on the national mind continues to be apparent throughout the history of the Shu king, terminating b.c. 650. It was during this time also that the Shi king, the invaluable col- lection of old national poetrj^, was written ; and here the same reverence for the Supreme Ruler, faith in his pro- vidential government of the world, and confidence in those traditions which represented him as speaking to Wen wang, the favourite sage and royal founder of the Cheu dynasty, are abundantly manifest. Monotheistic faith only became weakened on the arrival of an age of speculation, in the latter part of the Cheu dynasty. The emperors were accustomed in their tours of in- spection through the empire to ofier burnt sacrifices to Shang Ti, on the summit of mountains in the north, south, east, and west provinces. Among the sins of Sheu which caused his death and the overthrow of his d3^nasty is mentioned his neglecting the annual sacrifice at the Altar of Heaven. The accession of emperors to the throne, and the occurrence of remarkable victories, together with times of drought and other public mis- fortunes, were always deemed suitable occasions for these sacrifices. The books of Genesis and Job, with the Shu king. ANCIENT MONOTHEISM. 29 all depict an age when open altars were used for worship, when one God was adored, when there was no priestly class, when the chief of the family and of the state was its priest, and when the happiness and misery of man were universally believed to be providentially as- signed by God in the way of rewards and punishments. The Sabean worship of the heavenly bodies grew up with open altars, and was the cause of Abraham's re- moval to Canaan. The Chinese brought with them this earliest deviation from a monotheistic creed, and the habit of worshipping and attempting to propitiate those angels, whether well or ill disposed (the Shen and the Kwei), in whose existence they had learned to believe before coming from the west. To this they added the worship of ancestors in temples by means of tablets. This third deviation from the primitive faith of the world corresponds to the honours paid to heroes, and the polytheistic worship of images with human names in Babjdon, Syria, Egypt, and India, which were also performed in all cases in temples. The temple is imitated from the house, and was intended originally for the posthumous worship of heroic men and the ancestors of kings. When the Chinese left the west, nearly three thousand years before the Christian era, the germs had scarcely begun to appear of those mighty polytheistic religions which followed monotheism and Sabeanism, and preceded or precede Christianity among the nations of South-western Asia, India, and Europe. 30 china's place in philology. That the early Chinese should, in addition to their monotheism, have become infected with the Sabeanism which Job condemned, and with some other heathen usages found to prevail long after in the countries from which they came and through which they passed, need not be wondered at when we recollect that vestiges of the old monotheism co-existed with the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and German idolatries. Cicero said, " Dei nutu omnia pro visa sunt," '' all things are provided beforehand by the will of God." He also says elsewhere, "Haec omnia deorum nutu atque potestate administrari," '' that all these things are administered by the will and power of the gods." He speaks in the one case under the influence of the monotheistic faith, which, lay beneath the prevalent polytheism, and in the other case under that of the popular faith in the greater and lesser gods. "Wilkinson, vol. i., in his chapter on the Religion of the Egyptians, ascribes to the priests an esoteric faith in the Unity of the Deity. Before the introduction of images and temples there was one religion spread among all the Asiatic races. It was the nature- worship which grew up upon the pri- meval monotheism, and it assumed different phases, as the professors of it were Persians, Hindoos, Sabeans, Turanians or Chinese. CHAPTER III. Geographical Areas of Languages— Chinese and Eastern Him- ALAic — Japanese — Corean — Mongol and Turkish — Manchu — Tibetan — Tamul — Indo-European — Semitic. — Effect of Geographical Contiguity. The Chinese probably entered their country, nearly 3000 years B.C., by the usual highway from Moham- medan Tartary, into Kansu and Shensi,^ founding colonies along the banks of the western tributaries of the Yellow lliver, where we find the ancestors of the Cheu family. The road by Kia yii kwan and Lan cheu to Si an Fu would bring the first settlers to the south bend of the Yellow River, at the pass called T'ung kwan, so well known in history. Following the river east and north, they would arrive in Ilonan, where Tang, the founder of the Shang dynasty, had his origin, and in Chili, the north part of which province gave birth to Yau, the first emperor mentioned in the Shu king. Other colonists, crossing the river into Sliansi at ^ Dr. Legge, who, by his translations, has opened to view in the English language the treasures of the Chinese ancient literature with unexampled fullness, is inaccurate when he brings the early settlers by the Yellow River into Shansi, vol. iii. Prolegomena, p. 189. That route would have lengthened very unnecessarily the journey across the desert. The cities of Kansu mark the most practicable route. 32 china's place in philology. T'ung kwan, settled in the ricli valleys of that province, where the emperor Shun was afterwards born. Every- where they found aboriginal inhabitants, w^hom they pushed before them, the ancestors of the present Mian tribes. By the time of Christ they had reached the south-east coast, for that part of China is then spoken of as well colonized. They also pushed their conquests into Cochin China, w^hich was made a Chinese province. The languages of the Chinese, the Miau tribes, and of Cochin China are monosyllabic, and marked by the presence of tones. The same characteristics belong to the speech of Tibet, Birmah, Siam, and Cambodia, with all the hill tribes embraced within their boundaries. These languages together constitute the great mono- syllabic family of south-eastern Asia. Of this numerous family the type is the Chinese, which deserves this distinction, not only on account of the unparalleled population that makes use of it, but for its antiquit}^, its high literary development, and its independence of foreign accessions. It appears from the vocabularies possessed by the Chinese of the Miau dialects that their tribes inhabiting the hill districts in Kweicheu, Kwangsi, Canton and Yiinnan are best regarded as a northern extension of the Siamese and Birmese population. They use partiall}^ both the Siamese and Birmese writing.^ The customs of Siam, ' See the vocabularies of the Min^ Imperial College for Languages, of ^hich Klaproth has made ample use in his " Asia Polyglotta." THE MIAU TRIBES. 33 its' calendar, its costume, are found among them. A few are Buddhists, but most tribes are believers in demons, enchantments, and ancestral worship, and as such must be assigned to the dominion of that old Turanian religion and system of institutions which Logan, speaking of the Tibeto-Burmans, has thus characterized : " The Tibeto-Burmans, where least modified by India and China, preserve all the traits of the ancient race and civilization of Upper and Eastern Asia. They, are Turanian or Mongolic in person only ; their usages are of archaic Mid- Asian origin, like those of the Tartars and Chinese. Long before the rise of the Egyptian, Semitic, and Iranian civilizations, one well- marked civilization, characterized by a common morality and by peculiar usages, religious, social, and domestic, prevailed almost universally." " In this old system,*' he continues, "women were slaves, clanship existed, with sorcery, divination, and ordeals. The old, weak, and useless lives were sacrificed when they became burdensome. They believed in one Supreme God, and an immaterial imperishable spirit in man ; the spirits of ancestors and relatives were feared and worshipped. To gratify the dead and avert their malice, part of their possessions were burnt or buried with them."^ By vocabularies contained in the Iling i fu chi and Kwang si t'ung chi,-' it appears that the Chung Miau ^ J. R. Logan's "Journal of the Indian Arcliipclago," 1858. 34 china's place in philology. are allied to the Siamese. They reside in the south- west of Kwei cheu province. The Lo lo, a very old and extended tribe, in the north-west of the same province, are connected with the Burmese. The first personal pronoun in these dialects varies between ye^ kUy and nau ; while the second is very frequently meu and meng, so that they are cut off from any Indo- European or Tartar connexion. Logan has conferred a great service on philology by his division of the Himalaic languages into two branches, eastern and western. He states that the eastern or Mon Anam branch has some radical pecu- liarities in structure, and has been deeply influenced, first, by the Dravidian family, and, secondly, by the Chinese. The area of this branch is Cochin China, Pegu, Siam, and Cambodia. Farther south, at the peninsula of Malacca, it meets the Malay, which con- stitutes the type of the Australasian and Pol3^nesian languages. The western Himalaic branch retains the same characters in Tibet, India, and Ultra- India, and is more Scythic than the eastern. Most of the migrations of races have been in the direction of radii from the common centre where the first human pair was created, and where the first gene- rations of their posterity lived. Along one radius came the Dravidian races, and after them the Hindoos, by way of the Punjaub into India. The Eastern and Western Himalaic peoples, after traversing Tibet, CHINESE AHEA. 35 passed along the valley of tlie Brahmaputra into Ultra-India ; settling not only in that peninsula, but probably also in Southern China, where the Miau, Lo lo, Nung, Yau, and other tribes are their descen- dants. The Chinese, taking a more northerly route, came along the lands watered by the Turkestan rivers till they reached the north-western corner of China Proper. They met with the Jung in AYestern China, the modern Sz c'hwen. These people have left descen- dants in the Nung, one of the most celebrated branches of the Miau. The equivalent of the Mandarin initial J is in old Chinese N and Ni. In 778 B.C., the Jung were powerful enough to kill an emperor^ at the capital, which was then in Southern Shen si. They were soon afterwards driven back. At present one of the tribes bordering on Yiinnan is called Nu i, or the Nu barbarians. Here the same name occurs, but without the final ng. The Chinese also met in their earliest wanderings other sections of the Himalaic migration in Hunan, viz., the three Miau tribes, and the Lai and Nung in North-eastern China. The old names in China of rivers, tribes, and mountains are but one word, and appear to have been all mono- syllabic. From this it may be inferred that the various aborigines all spoke monosyllabic languages. The present spoken language of the Chinese, as used over two-thirds of China, is called Kican hwa, and 1 Legge's "Shoo king," p. 616. 36 china's place in philology. by Europeans, the Mandarin dialect. The term Man- darin is of Portuguese origin and means commander. Indispensable as it seems, it is a name wbicli cannot be defended, except on the ground of convenience. The northern Mandarin is spoken in the capital and in the four north-eastern provinces : Chili, Shantung, Shansi, and Honan. It has also spread itself through Manchuria and parts of Mongolia by colonization. The Manchus in Girin and Kwantung form but a tithe of the population, and have long forgotten their native tongue. The northern Mandarin is also spoken partially in Shensi and Hupe. The western Mandarin is spoken in Kansu and Sz c'hwen, Kweicheu and Yunnan, and partially in Shensi and Hupe. Portions of Kwangsi and Hunan also belong to its area. In the modern Mandarin language the old sonant initials r/, dj i, i\ s, have disappeared. But they are retained in the dictionaries of the book language. So also the final letters k, t, ]), once abundant at the end of syllables, have been entirely lost over the whole of Northern and Western China. The northern and western Mandarin are differen- tiated principally by the Ju sheng tone class. The immense group of words, amounting to nearly a fourth of the vocabulary, belonging to this tone class are in the northern Mandarin irregularly distributed among the other four classes. In the western, on the other THE OLD MIDDLE DIALECT. 37 hand, tliey liave all gone to swell the HIa ping class, which has thus come to embrace about a third of the entire vocabulary. The southern Mandarin, which retains the Ju sheng as a distinct class, prevails at Nanking, in the north part of Kiangsu and Anhwei, and partially in Hunan. Its area is a belt of varying width, extending from the ocean at the mouth of the Yang tsz kiang and the old mouth of the Yellow E-iver to Chang sha in Hunan. The old middle dialect is spoken at Sucheu, Shang- hai, Hangcheu, and Ningpo, and has the distinctive characteristic of possessing the old thirty-six initials and four tones as used in the syllabic spelling. Kanghi's Dictionary and the native tonic dictionaries all register an ancient pronunciation, which, so far as the initials and the medials are concerned, is best represented at present by the old middle dialect. Its area embraces Chekiang and the southern part of Kiangsu. It then proceeds westward through Anhwei and Kiangsi into Hunan, where, near the boundary of Sz c'hwen, it meets the western Mandarin. This dialect is invaluable for the study of the old Chinese language. A knowledge of its peculiarities renders the syllabic spelling, now eleven or twelve cen- turies old, perfectly available ; and thus the sounds of all characters may be known as they existed before the language underwent that great organic change which produced the Mandarin dialect in its three-fold form. 38 china's place in philology. The assistance derived from the old middle dialect for research into the ancient Chinese language needs to be supplemented by the southern dialects, which are also, especially in regard to their final letters, of great archaeological value. The lost finals, m, A', t^ p, are retained with almost perfect uniformity in the dialects of Canton, Chaucheu, and Amoy. The dialects of Fucheu and Hweicheu, and that called the Hakka, are less valuable in research, being situated on a line of transition. The relation of French to Latin resembles that of Mandarin to the Canton and Amoy dialects. Am, "dark," Latin umhra, "shade," has become an in Mandarin, as suimi, " his," has become son. Kot, "to cut," has become ko in Mandarin, as gladius has become glaive, and traditor, trait re. The root kot, " to cut," appears in gladius, with the sonants g and d, instead of the surds k and t. It is also found in ca^do, " to cut," culter, " a knife," and the EngKsh cut. The / inserted in gladius and culter is dropped in the French couteau. The Japanese call "a sword," katana. The Mongols say hadahu, " to cut," " to reap." The Tamul- speaking people of Southern India say katti for "a knife." The Hebrew word for "to cut ofi" branches " was gadang, ^11 In the case of a wide-spead root like this, found in so many families, it is certainly no slight advantage to have the ancient form well preserved in the south-eastern dialects of China. JAPANESE AREA. 39 The Japanese language, spoken and written, is much mixed with Chinese. The Chinese hmffuasre, literature, and customs were introduced there in or about the first, fifth, and seventh centuries of the Christian era. In addition to many thousand Chinese words, introduced with the contemporary pronuncia- tion and still kept unaltered in the language, the native vocabulary of words is also very extensive. The first Chinese immigration was probably Tauist, and perhaps chiefly intended for the propagation of religious opinions ; but it spread also the Confucian literature and morality, and gave the Japanese the alphabet of fifty letters which they still use. The temples and habits of life and thought of the Sinto priesthood resemble those of the ancient Chinese Tauists of the Han dynasty, who did not use images. During four or five centuries before the arrival of the Buddhists, a.d. 400, the influence of China in Japan continued, and this was the period when the Sinto system, with its numerous Kamiy " spirits " or " gods," became consolidated. From a.d. 400, during the intro- duction of the Go tvoUy ''"Wei pronunciation," and To won, " Tang pronunciation," there was an immigration of Buddhist priests of various Chinese schools. They aided in continuing that powerful impulse which ended in the establishment of a complete system of Chinese instruction throughout Japan, and the universal pro- fession there of the Buddhist faith. From this time 40 china's place in thilology. every youtli learned the language of Confucius at school, and the Colloquial Chinese of the period became mixed with the national language to a most remark- able extent, for the ordinary purposes of life as Well as for the exigencies of the scholar. But in regard to the Japanese native idiom and vocabulary, what is it ? It bears a manifest resem- blance to the Mongol. The root takes polysyllabic suffixes and vowel prefixes in both languages. The verb is placed at the end of the sentence, and is pre- ceded by its object. The case particles are syllabic suffixes attached to nouns. In Alcari too to7noshi} " to light a lamp or candle," ivo is the case suffix for the objective case. Akari, "a light," is the Mongol gerel with a vowel prefix, in Chinese kwang. Tomoshi is the Chinese tiem, "to light," "kindle," with verbal suffix oshi. The Japanese, in regard to pronouns and sub- stantive verbs, is more like the Chinese than the Mongol, but in respect of syntax and polysyllabic derivation, it is manifestly like the Mongol, Manchu, and Turkish. It is then Turanian, but it does not bear so close an appearance of kindred to the Tartar languages as they do to each other. Their having in common the first personal pronoun and substantive verb in h and m, links these three modes of speech together as first cousins, while the Japanese, Corean, and Tamul languages, from the want of * See Hepburn's " Japanese Dictionary." COREAN AREA. 41 these prominent features, are but as second or third cousins. Hence, for the convenient classification of the Tur- anian system, three sub-families are required : — 1. The Tartar, comprising Mongol, Manchu, Turkish, etc. 2. The Japanese, embracing Japanese, Aino, and Corean. 3. The Dravidian, including Tamul, Telugu, etc. That the Corean language should be placed in close family relationship with the Japanese cannot be doubted, when it is remembered that there is in it no trace of the favourite Tartar and Indo-European pronoun and substantive verb in h and m, and that it resembles the Mongol and Japanese in placing the verb at the end of the sentence, immediately following its object, and in adding to the roots polysyllabic suffixes. For the sen- tence ^' this room has two windows," the Coreans say i k^utuly *' this room," Piil c'hang isir, " two windows has." The pronoun ^, ''this," is in Mongol ene, "this," in Chinese i, " that." K'utul may be the Mongol ger, "house," and Chinese kia, ke^ "home." T'^^/ reminds us of the Persian du and English two. C^hang is borrowed from the Chinese &lmang^ " window." /s/r is probably the Chinese yeu^ " to have," with suffix dr. The Japanese ware shiranai, " I do not know," where ware is " I " and 7iai is " not," may be compared with the Corean nUj "I," ajiy "know," mothary "not." 42 china's place in philology. Jjike the Japanese, the Coreans study Chinese litera- ture, and mix Chinese words with their own in the common intercourse of life. An immigration of Chinese Buddhists, continuing for several centuries, communi- cated to the language a large Chinese element. The introduction of French words like adieu into English may be adduced as an example of the same kind of in- fluence on our own language. The Chinese sacred books are read in schools throughout Corea, and the doctrines of Confucius inculcated. The Corean alphabet made for them by the Buddhists on a Tibetan or Sanscrit model, is now used to write the mixed languages as at present spoken. The Aino language spoken on Yesso has the Japanese polysyllabic formation and laws of position, and is without the substantive verbs and personal pronouns in m and b. It is therefore a Turanian language, and is to be classed with the Japanese branch. The best type of the Tartar sub-family of the Turanian languages is apparently the Mongol. The Turks have always been much mixed with the Persians, who early occupied Bactria. That countrj^, indeed, is spoken of in the Zendavesta as the original home of the Arian religion. Though called Turkestan by our geographers, it was Persian before it was Turkish, and its Persian population are the Tadjiks of the present day, and the ^ ^ Ta sh'ih,^ old sound Da zhik, of Chinese historians. ^ In the Chinese dynastic histories, the Arab conquests are attributed to MONGOL AND TURKISH AKEA. 43 They pressed over the passes of the T'simg ling chain, called by the Turks Miistag, "Ice Mountains/' into Chinese Turkestan ; here they became mixed with the Wigur Turks, as at Bokhara with TJsbeks, Turcomans, and other races. The result has been that the Turks of Yarkand, Cashgar, and Bokhara, as well as those of Constantinople, have assumed more of the Indo- European appearance than is seen in the Mongols or the Manchus. This is true also of the Mahommedans who have crowded into North China during the Sung, Yuen, and Ming dynasties. This numerous class, coming, as their traditions say, from Bokhara and the other Turkish cities, have very much of the European head and phy- siognomy — their deep and horizontal eyes, prominent nose, with a tendency to a vertical facial angle, and to the growth of whiskers, bespeak western descent, and help to give them, among the surrounding Chinese, a characteristic and easily recognized physiognomy. This mingling of Turanian and European features of race has affected the Turkish language. The Mahommedan religion has also added many Arabic words which have been adopted into the Turkish, both of Constantinople and of Yarkand, with the other cities of Chinese Turkestan. The word Adam for "man," and ruh for *' spirit," are used in the easternmost Turkish cities. A Bucharian vocabulary, translated by Klaproth from the Ta sliih. This is through an error in their information. They did not learn the true name of the Arahs till more Recently. 44 china's place in philology. Chinese, and printed in the Asia Polj'glotta, is entirely Persian. It is called in Chinese the language of the Hwei hwei or Mahommedans, who during the Ming dynasty appear to have been identified by the Chinese with the Persians, in regard to language, religion, and race. The Turkish is consequently so permeated by the Persian and the Semitic element introduced by religion, that it can scarcely be considered the best type of the Turanian languages ; especially is this true, because the relative pronoun, otherwise foreign to the Turanian family, is found in Turkish in its Persian form, and may best be regarded as borrowed from that language. The Persian influence on Turkish extends even beyond the boundaries of Mahommedanism, into Siberian dialects. In Castren's vocabulary of Turkish dialects in Siberia, Kudcd, the Persian word for the Supreme Being, often identified with our term God, and the German Gott, is employed for *'heaven" and for ''God." Our word foot appears as ji'^d and hut, which are quite Indo-European, the Persian being iMi. The Mongol, therefore, may be viewed as a better Turanian type. It occupies scattered sections of that great belt of land which stretches from near the mouth of the Amoor to the banks of the Volga, and from the Kokonor lake to the Alta'i mountains. In its eastern extension it meets with Tungus tribes and Chinese colonies of agriculturists, some of whom, near the banks of the Amoor, learn to speak better Mongol than MANCHU AREA. 45 tliey do Chinese. The Buriat Mongols, east of the Baikal Sea, are also conterminous in area with Tungus tribes. West of the Gobi Desert the Mongols are mixed with a Turkish population, the descendants of the ancient Wigurs, and with various other tribes of the same race in Turkestan and European Russia. To the south-west they come in contact with the Tibetans, and to the south-east with the Chinese. The Mongol language occupies the centre of the Turanian area so far as Tartary is concerned, and became a written language about five centuries ago, when, in the Yuen dynasty, it was necessary for the fierce nomades of the great central plateau of Asia to accommodate themselves to the usages of civilized countries and commence the formation of a literature. They adopted the alphabet already in use among the "Wigur Turks and which had been given them by the Nestorian missionaries. Thus the present Mongol and Manchu alphabet (for the Manchus took theirs from the Mongols) was derived from the Syriac, through the missionary zeal of the Nestorian communities in Western Asia. The Manchu language is spoken on the lower course of the Amoor by tribes under Chinese and Russian domination. In the Greek church mission, recently established there, the Manchu translation of the New Testament, made at Peking about 1805 by LipoptsoflT, is found to be intelligible and useful. This is the version published by the British and Foreign Bible 46 . china's place in philology. Society. In the Chinese province of Ilei hmg kiang, north of Girin, the Manchu language would seem to have lost ground and to have contributed to the Mon- gol area, for the Chinese colonists there speak Mongol fluently. In the provinces of Girin and in sea-board Manchuria Chinese is the common speech. If we would look elsewhere for spoken Manchu, it must be among the Tungus tribes of Siberia, found scattered at various localities east of the Baikal. In Peking. Manchu is spoken as a Court language, and learnt for that purpose from teachers. It is also extensively written as a documentary language. Numerous helps exist for the studj^ of it in the form of translations, dictionaries, and phrase books, published at Peking. The study of the language is maintained in all the Manchu garrisons in the eighteen provinces of China Proper, and in Mongolia. A syllabary is used of about 1,000 syllables. Where the Mongol writing was deficient in the power of distinguishing sounds, the Manchu has added special marks, so that the mode of writing indicates the pronunciation satisfactorily, which is far from being true of the Mongol. The Tibetan, perhaps the most convenient type of the Himalaic languages, has been well opened to obser- vation by the Dictionaries and Grammars of Csoma de Koros, Schmidt, and others. These two grammarians have not, however, considered the tones, which in a monosyllabic language become of special importance. TIBETAN AREA. 47 Georgi's notice of the Tibetan tones is only sufficient to sliow that they are of the same nature as the Chinese. We have not yet any comparative lists of common words in the Anamitic, Siamese, Burmese, Tibetan, and Chinese languages made with reference to their intonations, by help of which the general laws of tones for all this widespread family might be investigated. The Tibetan language spreads from Ladak, the most northerly of our British Indian possessions, to Sz c^hwen, where it meets the Chinese area. Its eastern member is the Si Fan dialect. The nomade Mongols also occupy Eastern Tibet, and are there mixed irregu- larly with the Si fans. Crossing the Himalayas we find the Dravidian area occupying hill districts in Northern India and the plains and mountains of the South. Among the lan- guages of this famil}^, the Tamul is the best to use as a type. It is spoken by ten millions of people, extending on the east coast from Cape Comorin to a point eighty miles north-west of Madras, and on the west coast from Cape Comorin to Trivandrum.^ The Dravidian family is cut off from its relatives in Tartary and Tibet by the intrusion of a broad belt of the Indo-European area. The Arian invasion of India is supposed to have taken place about 2,000 j^ears before the Christian era. Those who came into India 1 Pope's " Tamil Handbook." 48 china's place in philology. at that time spread the Sanscrit tongue, which was followed by the Pracrit, over three-fourths of India, and gave origin to the numerous group of languages known as Bengali, Sindi, Ilindustani, Guzarati, Urdu, and Marathi. The superior energy of the Indo-European race enabled it to conquer wherever it found a home. Europe and Asia Minor, Persia and Bactria, were all subdued and occupied by this powerful branch of the himian family. Their home extended from Samarcand to Lisbon, and from Calcutta to the land of Thor, and the multiplied experiences of so wide a region tended to excite in their intellectual development a proportionate richness and variety. The gift of imagination was awakened in this race by residence in mountain scenery and around inland seas. They wandered far, they grew up amidst the most beautiful and varying landscapes. Their homes were among the great mountain chains of the world: the Himalayas, the Bolor Tag and Mustag of Bactria, the Caucasus, Mount Taurus, the mountains of Thessaly, and the Alps and Apennines. Their earliest navi- gators traversed the Black Sea and the Caspian, the Archipelago and the Adriatic. Hence the spirit of freedom and the irrepressible sense of poetr}'', the tendency to speculation and the keen appetite for science, that have always characterized this race. All INDO-EUROrEAN AREA. 40 other races, except the Semitic, are comparatively wanting in these splendid gifts, which make the Indo-European nations the very flower and crown of hilmanitv. A natural love for variety of experience, difficult travelling, and new scenes, led the earliest colonies of this favoured race to choose their homes where the eye and the hand, the mind and the body, should be exer- cised in due proportion, and thus the human species be brouglit higher up on the ladder of progress. The result we see in the wonderful expansion of philosophy, science, and literature among many nations of this race, ancient and modern, which has made Europe what it now is. The elder branch of the Caucasian race, the Semitic, occupying Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babjdonia Juda3a, and Arabia, was destined to do more for the religious culture of the race than any other linguistic family. The religious, moral, and spiritual impress on the European races had a parallel in the earlier lin- guistic influence which it appears to have exercised. The superior ease and fluency of European speech, compared with that of Eastern Asia, comes partly from the relative pronoun and partly from the liberty allowed in the construction of sentences. Both the relative, and the freedom used in the position of verbs and words belonging to the other parts of speech, probably come from the influence of Ilebrew and its 4 50 china's place in philology. CQornate langruaores. On the Chinese side of the Hima- lay as, and of the Persian- and Russian- speaking area, the laws of position in sentences are fixed, and there is, properly speaking, no relative pronoun. It was not, then, from this side that the Arians, the youngest of races, derived their freedom in syntax, leading to a beauty and expansion in poetic expression which are inconceivable to the less imaginative races. These characteristics, with the genders of nouns and the voices of verbs, came from the influence exercised by the combined Hamite and Semitic races on the early language of the world. The Semites were always neighbours to the Hellenes and the Persians. The influence of old Turanian languages on the formation of the Indo-European system was favoured to an equal degree by geographical contiguity. Colo- nies belonging to this stock were sprinkled over Western Asia in many localities; and in the Persian area, Iran and Turan from the dawn of history stood in close contact to each other and in hostile attitude. ■ The polysyllabic development of the Arian lan- guages, their case and tense suffixes, together with such vestiges as they retain of a law relegating the verb rigidly to the end of the sentence, are the efiect of Turanian influence. ^ Xn LI 15 !| A \{ \ UNJ VKIJS irv OK CAL1F()I:MA CHAPTER lY. On the Primeval Language. — It was Monosyllabic. — Examples. — PRoxorxs. — Laws of Position. — Laws of Rhythmus. — Pro- NOMixAL Roots also Verbs. — Closed Syllables, a Proof of Max's Coxtixextal Origix. — Early Use of the final M. — Names of Animals. — Divine Origin of Language. "Without yenturing to discuss, except very cur- sorily, the origin of language, I shall here first attempt to mark out some of the common elements existing in the speech of all nations which seem to belong to a primeval language older even than the Chinese and the Eg3rptian. The mother from whom all existing dia- lects have been born may possibly be revealed to our view by carefully rejecting all new elements and retaining what appear to be universal. That it was monosyllabic is deducible from the fact, that in all the families, from the Indo-European upwards, the roots are monosyllables. The words reparation and departure^ for example, are traced to the Latin Fart in parSy parth. The r is lost sight of in the Sanscrit hheda, "dividing," hhedita^ "divided," hhinna^ " separated." It occurs in a dissyllabic form in the Hebrew hadak^ " split " (Latin fidit)^ and hadad and 52 china's place in philology. hadalj " divided," and without a third consonant in the Hebrew had, *^ separation." The Chinese is Bit, Pit, " separate," " other." Our words rotation and radiation are traced to rota, "a wheel," and radius, from the same root, Rad or Rot^ German rad, "wheel," Sanscrit hit, "roll about." In Tamul we find urutchi, " roundness," and urid, " a carriage-wheel." The Chinese call " a wheel " Lun, and many round things, as " a stove," "a cottage," "a skull," " a reed," are known as Lu, where a final t has been lost. Musical pipes they call Lut. The same idea of roundness is found, more or less remotely, in the English rod, reed, oar, row, round. The German ruder, " oar," rudern, " to row," compared with the Greek eretmos, "oar," eresso, "row," Latin remus, "oar," remigo, " row," throw light on the origin of the word oar, and enable us to trace it to the same root with the others. The Chinese Lu, for Lut, is a scull, such as is used in China for propelling a boat by stern action. When we have arrived in such investigations at the monosyllabic root Lut^ Rad, Rot, our progress is en- tirely checked, and we are left to conclude that the primitive speech of man was monosyllabic, and con- tained in it such widespread roots as the two just given. Father and mother must be admitted without hesita- tion into the primeval vocabulary of the human family, for though some nations, as the Mongols, appear to PRIMEVAL MONOSYLLABLE. 53 want them, nine-tcntlis of the inhabitants of Europe and Asia agree in their use. Of course they must be accommodated to the necessities of infancy by cutting off the second syllable of the English form and changing the initial / into ^;, or, still better, into h. The Turks in saying Baha for " father ^' are more primitive than any. The Semites in saying ah and em for " father " and " mother " gratified a tendency to prefix vowels. In the Chinese fu, mu, we have the newest form of what was a few centuries ago Bo, Mo. The claims of brother to a place in the primeval vocabulary are quite hopeless. It appears to be un- known in Asia beyond the Indian and Persian area. There is more hope for sister than for brother. It may perhaps be recognized in the Chinese Tsie for an older Si or So, used in the sense of elder sister. The names of number differ so widely in the various Asiatic languages that they are not to be expected to be very ancient. Of the pronouns, a and nga or ga for the first person, u, nu, and i/u for the second, and i, gi, hi for the third, may claim a very high antiquity ; for their widespread use through the linguistic families is a palpable and striking fact. For the first person we find the old Chinese ^J^ iiga and -^ yo or o, of which the latter, being without an initial consonant, suggests that the ng was prefixed afterwards. Another prefix consisting of a or e made 54 china's place in philology. the Sanscrit aham and Latin, ogo. The m final was a suffix also found in the Chinese $ am^ a dialect form for "/.'' The Hebrews added nochi, anochi, "J." The Arabs said ana^ and the Egyptians anok. There appear to be very few languages in any part of the world that do not in their pronominal forms betray the presence of this root. The same is not true of the pronoun, in w^, which is almost entirely limited to the Indo-European and Tartar languages. Bi, 7nen, ^*I," and manai, *^ my/' are as common, in. Tartary as me, mehiy mens, €fjLo<; in Europe, but there is not a trace of them to be found in China, Tibet, or Japan. Quite as little are they known in the Dravidian area or in the islands of the Eastern seas. The Mongol riding into Peking on his camel, says, manai bic'/iig, for "my book," and the Manchu student learns from his in- structor, manai bit-he, in the same sense, while the Grerman, in a region 100° of longitude further west, says, mein Buck, But these words, in their European or Tartar form, are alike foreign to the Chinese ear, and to that of all the races, Arab or Hebrew, Tamul, Corean, Tibetan, Burmese, or Malay. While, there- fore, the pronoun a, nga, kau, or go, for our English /. represents the primeval pronoun of the first person with great probability, the root in m and h, with its correlate substantive verb, be, bin, futurus, fuisse, in Mongol, amoi, bolhu, boJmoi, can be traced no farther back than the Turanian family in its Tartar branch. NATURAL ORDER OF WORDS. 55 from which it has gone over into the last great lin- guistic formation, the Indo-European. The structure of sentences in the primeval language, it may be reasonably concluded, was according to the order of nature. The nominative preceded the transi- tive verb, and the transitive verb preceded its object. The Chinese, the Hebrew, and the English here agree. It is the Turanian family that is chiefly at fault when tested by these laws. The Japanese, the Mongols, ^he Tamuls, and the speakers of Sanscrit, evidently follow- ing an older nsus loquencU found in the contemporary Turanian speech, resolutely limit the verb to the last place in the sentence, and make the accusative precede it. This is extremely unnatural, and tends to restrict painfully the powers of human speech. Nature first names the actor, then the mode of his action, and finally the person or thing on whom or on which such action is performed. But Turanian speakers avoid this construction. Ching-gis hagan airihen thimen k'umtm alaba, *' Genghis Khan many ten thousands of men killed." The western branches of the Indo-European family refused to imitate the speakers of Sanscrit in their slavish adherence to this Turanian law, and succeeded in restoring the freedom of nature to our modern European modes of speech. So again, in placing the adjective before its substan- tive, the Chinese, English, and Turanian languages have a clear advantage over the Semitic, the eastern 56 china's place in philology. Himalaic, the Malay, and tlie Polynesian, whicli invert this order. The adjective naturally precedes the noun, as the mark of the species precedes that of the genus. We know a thing from its qualities. The *' Bactrian camel " may be called the " Camel of Bactria," or " le chameau Bactrien." Of these, the first is the most natural, and is favoured by the greatest number of important languages and families. The second form, inverting the position of the words and connecting them by o/, de, von, etc., adds greatly to the ease and variety of language. But it is almost exclusively European and Semitic.^ The Sanscrit follows the Turanian and Chinese order in this respect, and thus it is shown that, although she may lay claim to be the model of the European languages in regard to her richly developed system of grammatical inflexions, she cannot be looked to as their mother in s}Titactical order. It is to the Semitic family that we must look for the origin of this inversion, and also for the introduction of the relative pronoun. The third form, " le chameau Bactrien," is not so much a peculiarity of any one family, as of languages occurring here and there in the area of various families. Its introduction has conferred no great advantage on language. ^ I suppose the post-position of tlie genitive and of the adjective to have been borrowed from the Semitic by the Polynesians, Siamese, and other races. PRIMEVAL PROSODY. 57 "We have now arrived at several approximate notions of a rudimentary kind with regard to the primeval language. 1. It was monosyllabic, and its syllabary, though containing no double consonants, had probably con- sonant finals, as hid and lod. 2. Certain roots, verbal and pronominal, are so widely spread among the various linguistic families of Europe and Asia, that a large portion of the primeval vocabulary may be expected to reveal itself as the reward of careful research. 3. The order of words in sentences was that of nominative and verb, verb and object, adjective and substantive, subject and predicate, species and genus. The common laws of position in the primeval language probably agreed with those of the Chinese, Greek, English, and some other languages in such sentences as Charles heat TFilliam, good man, this man is good, or this man good, fir tree. "When two or more verbs occurred, the order was that of time. Our sentence, we7it near and killed him, would be " go near kill," or " go approach kill," and some device would be con- trived to represent past time. 4. The primeval language had probably a rudi- mentary tonic pronunciation. Variety in pitch, even tones, inflexions, pauses, accents, long and short quan- tity, belong more or less to all the tongues spoken among men. The Greeks inflected the vowels of 58 china's place in philology. * certain syllables in their words. The Chinese do the same with their monosyllables, and so do all the neigh- bouring peoples on the west and south. The Hebrews had an elaborate system of accents. The Greek and Chinese inflexions exist in modern European languages, but without attachment to special words or syllables. Probably this last was the character of the primeval prosody. The speech of modern Europe, struggling for greater freedom, rebelled against the prosodial laws which prevailed in the old Indo-European, Semitic, and Chinese areas, and by a powerful instinct succeeded in recovering the primeval use of inflexions and accents. These aids to a natural, efilcient, and graceful elocution should never become dialectic, or be tied to particular words. If language were what it ought to be, all local tones would cease, and those windings of the voice, simple or circumflex, which in England constitute the local habit of dialects, and in China are an element in particular words, would be limited to elocutionary uses. Thus language would be ennobled, the intercourse of men with each other would become refined, and the swiftly changing feelings of the heart would all have a suitable expression. Among the elements of the primeval language, capable of discovery by comparative philology, I omit the distinction between verbal and pronominal roots. All the pronouns seem to be used as verbs. It was when the eye of primitive man saw action that his PRONOMINAL ROOTS ALSO VERBS. 59 hand pointed to the moving object, and if his lips uttered a sound it was an imitation of the natural sound caused by the movement he witnessed. Speech became the instinctive imitation of natural sounds, and words were the names both of objects and actions. How then could the pronouns fail to be also verbs ? Thus, had, *' divide," "separate," "depart," was also in old Chinese used for " that," " he," and called jmt or 2'^it, ^ now known as pi. Do, " to give," is the same word as that, das, etc. The Chinese locative case suffix cJiiing, "middle," more anciently tang, is, when employed as a verb, used in the senses "to strike in the middle," " to strike," " to undertake." As an adjective it means " middle," as in " the Middle King- dom," and as a substantive it is the name of a "bell." A further proof is foimd in the fact that the instru- mental case suffixes are like others formed from pro- nouns, but they must from the nature of the case also be verbs. In fact, post-positions, like prepositions, are all verbs. All case suffixes, as well as case prefixes, may be explained, according to circumstances, either as demonstratives or as verbs. The nominative, possessive, and accusative case suffixes are most con- veniently explained as demonstratives. The case suf- fixes which express instrumentality, motion from, motion to, giving, and locality, are best considered as verbs. Should it be objected to this view that every verb 60 china's place in philology. would then become a pronoun, it may be answered that, for reasons not difficult to discover, the only Tcrbs used as pronouns would be those that occurred most commonly, such as giving, {/oing, coming, being, leaving, carrying. The early forms of such verbs as these by perpetual recurrence established themselves as pro- nouns ; e.g., the pronoun /, " he,'* is probably identical with /, "to go," Such verbs as only find their way into conversation now and then would not become pronouns. It appears to have been an important feature in the primeval language that the syllabary had both open and closed vowels. Many modern languages have no closed syllables. They were rare in Sanscrit and are still more so in Japanese. It is susceptible of proof that the primeval syllabary was not one of this kind. Races occupying areas where enervation is in- duced by climate are liable to lose the final letters of their syllabaries. Nations that spread themselves over mountainous areas and cultivate hardy habits show less tendency to the disintegration of their roots. The absence of final consonants is the result of phonetic decay, or the addition of vowels through change in climate and in national habits, or through foreign influence, and other causes. Hence man must have been created in a temperate climate and in a continental locality. On the hypothesis that words were first formed from CLOSED SYLLABLES. 61 the imitation of natural sounds, it may be expected that both kinds of syllables will occur. Sounds ending in vowels and in consonants occur abundantly in nature, as is shown by the spelling of imitative words in our own language, e.g., peewit, cuckoo, dingdong, hiss, hush, etc. There are other reasons why some words should terminate with certain consonants. Words ending in m and p, are usually expressive in Chinese of combination, closing, holding in the mouth, union, taste, containing, e.g., gap, " combine," ham, ''sweet," 1/em, "salt," gam, "hold in the mouth," "contain," k'am, "hollow," "deficient." The final letter seems in these and similar examples to indicate that the words where it is found are expressive of actions which are easily represented by the mouth opened or closed. Emptiness or deficiency would be fitly pictured by an open mouth, union by a mouth closing. But the labial letters m and p, which would be brought into requisition on such occasions, would naturally be used, because the shaping of the lips in forming them was a not unlikely manner of expressing the ideas to be conveyed. In English r/ap and gape are nearly alike in sound. The labial 2^ with which they terminate may be accounted for in the same way. Gaj) in old Chinese means " to combine," " press under the arms," "narrow," "a narrow pass through mountains," " books fastened together with two boards and straps," " the action of scissors." We may explain the final j; 62 china's place in philology. as expressing the action of the lips, in imitating the act of pressure witnessed by the word- maker, when he first encountered the problem how to describe intelli- gently to his companion the events he had witnessed. The meaning of the root in English and Chinese coalesces when a narrow opening among mountains is in both languages called rjap. The initial g will then be left to be accounted for on the piinciple of the imitation of natural soimds. Should a root once become estabKshed in use, the principle of association of ideas would explain the origin of a multitude of connected words. The adverb " back " is to be derived from the substantive " back." The Chinese word for '' the back " is jjc^^- In Kwan hwa, the modem pronunciation, it is pei. It has for derivative meanings ''to carry on the back," "to repeat lessons " (because the Chinese pupil always turns his back to the schoolmaster while repeating his tasks), "to turn back," or "run away," "the north," "to disobey," etc. We find the some root in ^aard^o), fero, bear, portOf etc. For all these words, with a multitude more, one root hah, as we may judge from the Chinese analogy, would be approximately the original form, and it might be the imitation of sound. The finals k and g occur not seldom in words imitative of sounds, as flagellation, thicach, strike , and the Chinese ^'«^- to "strike gently," which is identical with the root of flageUumy plaga, irX/jaao), the / being inserted later. The thwack NAMES OF ANIMALS. 63 of a whip is to one ear dahy and to another hali. The twang of a bow to the Chinese is hongj to the Greek it was tohy and to the speaker of Latin dok, which became To^ov and arcus, the d becoming r, and the vowel a being prefixed. But to the Teuton bak was the sound, as it would appear from the verb heugen, bow, and the substantive bow. The Russian Ink, " bow," is evidently of the same origin as arcus and to^ov. So also the Arabic raka'a, " to bow." In the Biblical account of the origin of language, it is said that " God brought " the animals " to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." In accordance with this statement, while it was by divine assistance that primitive man made lanoruao^e. it was not without the active exercise of his own faculties. God placed the animals before him and made him feel that he must give them names. In doins: this, he would in manv cases imitate the sounds they uttered. The roar of the lion may have originated the words ieo, lion, and roar. As r and / are both derivable very frequently from d, the primitive form may have been ru or du. The Hebrew is ari or ari/e. On the supposition, as philologists tell us, that r and the sibilants are interchangeable letters within the Semitic area, a word with a sibilant initial might be expected as a name for lion. In fact, in the Persian, which from the most ancient times came under Semitic influence, 64 china's place in philology. the word for lion is shir. The Chinese word, 5^?*, "Lion," seems to be borrowed from the Persian. It occurs first in Chinese literature a little before the Christian era. Other animals would be named from the noise made hy them in flying, as the "Kingfisher," which in old Chinese was called sut. Such a combination would as well represent the sound heard when that beautiful bird darts on its prey, as the combination shoot does in English and in Chinese the sound of an arrow which has just left the bow. The same root sut is used in Chinese to express the " hissing noise of water in ex- tinguishing fire," " to revile people," " to be grieved," and " to be broken to pieces." The modern forms it takes are t'sui and suy. The scriptural account is restricted to the naming of animals. This is in harmony with the fact that language was gradually formed. The opinion has been very generally held, that man had extraordinary divine aid in the construction of language. This would pro- bably consist, partly, in a special control and guidance exercised over him, impelling him to the use of the language forming faculties, and partly in the positive communication to him of such parts of the primitive language as were necessary for the carrying on of those interviews which took place between God and himself in Paradise. Enough of language was taught our first parents by revelation to make existence a pleasure, to DIVINE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 65 lead them to understand eacli other's wants and feel- ings, the first duties of religion, the requirements of a simple agriculture, the preparation of food, the con- Btruction of a suitable habitation. They learned how to make the first rude attempts at clothing and how to take care of domestic animals. Such instruction is implied in the words, ** The Lord God made for Adam and his wife coats of skins, and clothed them." Dr. Magee (On the Atonement, Dissert. 53) says, ''It is sufficient if we suppose the use of language taught him with respect to such things as were necessary, and that he was then left to the exercise of his own faculties for further improvement upon this foundation." Revelation was to primitive man what instinct is and always has been to the lower animals. The same paternal wisdom which teaches the bird to build its nest, gave to the first men by direct instruction the necessary knowledge to make life happy, and to give the human race a good start on its long career. Man was created with physical, social, moral, and religious instincts. They were at first called into exercise b)^ suitable teaching. This seems the only reasonable way of accounting for the common notions of morality that prevail among all nations, and the monotheistic tradi- tion which underlies the religious thought of all ancient literatures. Hence the superior antiquity of moral words in language over those specially suited for science and- philosophy, which are always of later 5 66 china's place in philology. origin. The moral element inheres in all language, and the fundamental moral ideas remaining there after many millenniums of waste and wear, are vestiges of the primeval revelation granted for their early- guidance to our first forefathers. If man had been without reason, instinct would have been a sufficient director ; but having also the high endowments of the thinking and language-forming faculty, he needed that special teaching which, according to the Biblical account, he received. lA i; i; A ii \ UN 1 V KKS I r V OF ^ cai.if()i:ma. ^^ y^ CHAPTER Y. The Chixese probably Hamites. — Chronology of the Deluge. — Genealogies in Genesis, — Ancient Semite Occupation of Persia. — Semitic Impress on the Himalaic Race. — The Chinese moved Eastward before the Confusion of Tongues. — The Chinese Ancient Syllabary recoverable from the Phonetics. — Six Final Consonants. — The Surd Initials derived from the Sonants. — Tones. — Syntax. The most remarkable indication of chansre in the primitive language given in Scripture is at the Con- fusion of Tongues, which took place, according to the Septuagint chronology, 400 years after the Flood. This might not unreasonably be regarded as a limit for the continuance of the primeval language. Yet colon- ization must have been rapidly proceeding from the beginning. During the 2,200 years that elapsed between the Creation and the Flood, the speech of each band of emigrants would, after the lapse of a few generations, unconsciously assume a new form. The Scriptural account of the Deluge and of the Confusion of Tongues I suppose to refer particularly to the world according to its dimensions as then understood, the 68 china's place in philology. 'iraaa oUov/jLevrj of the day. Colonies that went beyond the limits of the Flood of Noah, if there were such, were lost from view. The descendants of Seth were spread perhaps over what afterwards became the Semitic region. The Cainites went more to the east. Whether any of them and the other descen- dants of Adam passed into Eastern Asia and America during those 2,000 years now so little known, we cannot tell. If they did, they would there be beyond the reach of the Deluge, which science has shown did not extend to the more distant parts of the continent. Among the Cainites sprang up the arts of music, me- tallurgy, and the tending of cattle on a large scale. The first two of these features marked the ancient Chinese, but they were never a nomade people given chiefly to the care of flocks and herds. They were more like the Cushites than the Cainites. The art of writing, the idea of universal government, rather mark them out as descendants of Noah. When they came into China, they were not the first emigrants. Others had arrived before them. We therefore can scarcely be wrong in limiting the Chinese emigration to Post-Noachic times, when the arts flourished sufiiciently in the Babylonian region to allow of our identifjang that locality with the original source of the Chinese civilization. The Deluge I suppose to have taken place upwards BIBLICAL GENEALOGIES. 69 of 3,000 years before the Christian era. Hales states it at 3,155. Let us allow for it 3,500. The Call of Abraham he states at B.C. 2078. It was about this time that the Hindoo race took possession of North India, driving the Dravidian population before them. At this date also the Chinese were settled on the Yellow River under imperial chiefs, practising astro- nomy, agriculture, writing, and other ancient arts and sciences. It would be very conformable to the circum- stances of the case if we suppose that they came over from the west soon after the Deluge, and yet not too soon to allow scope for the previous development of the Cushite civilization. The Semite occupation of Baby- lon took place at nearly the same time. The Semites then came into possession of the regions they have held ever since, while the discomfited Cushites either taught their arts to their conquerors, originating the Pha3nician alphabet, or carried them elsewhere. It was with an earlier time that the Chinese emigration is with most probability connected, viz., the age and race of Nimrod. The Christian apologist who desires to see the re- conciliation of Science and Scripture made thoroughly clear, must not be dismayed by the chronological diffi- culties connected with the genealogies given in the Book of Genesis. That the evangelist Matthew omitted three names in the list of the kings of Judah who were ancestors of Jesus is a well-known fact. He 70 china's place in philology. wislied to aid the memory by recording three fourteens. In the genealogy of the patriarchs before the Deluge, ten generations are given, and in the interval between Noah and Abraham there are also ten names. It is not improbable that some names are omitted. What took place so late as the time of Matthew may have occurred in the period of the early transmission of the Book of Genesis. These accounts of the early world were perhaps translated from the primitive mono- syllabic language into Hebrew, soon after the Semite conquest of Babylon, and may have been transmitted orally and by writing from the time of Noah. Moses may have used documents which came from the hands of more ancient inspired men. They would, if this supposition be correct, be among the earliest documents committed to writing. The Septuagint, Hebrew, and Samaritan copies of the Old Testament all differ in regard to dates and numbers in the early genealogy. Too often has it happened in the history of literature^ that numbers have been tampered with for controversial purposes. ^Hio shall say now which of these is the most trust- worthy ? Certainly the Septuagint chronology is the most advantageous for use in ethnological researches. The cramping of the Hebrew chronolog}" is intolerable. There is no room for the development of races and the ^ The Xortliern Buddhists state the birth of Buddha about b.c. 1100. The Southern Buddhists give it in about 500, and they are right. SEMITE OCCUPATION OF PERSIA. 71 growth of languages between Noah and Abraham, if that scheme be adopted. Since Elam is mentioned among the sons of Shem, Persia, of which Elam was always one of the names, was probably a Semite country before it entered the Indo-European area on the arrival of the Persians. The cuneiform writing and the Phoenician alphabet were probably spread over the southern cities of that country early enough to allow for the Devanagari alphabet having been derived from a Semitic source. Attention has been recently again drawn forcibly to the strong resemblance existing between the old Sanscrit writing and the ancient Semitic alphabet, by Professor F. Miiller of Vienna.^ Besides, the lano'uao'es of Persia, from the Zend to the modern Persian, have always possessed more or less a Semitic syntax. There has also been Semite influence operating in the forming of the Himalaic and Dravidian languages. The mascu- line and feminine suffixes found in them are thus best explained. Further, the post-position of the genitive, for which Semitic grammar is so remarkable, is equally characteristic of the eastern Himalaic and Polynesian languages. I suppose, therefore, that South Persia was strono'lv Semitized in the third millennium before Christ, and that races which passed that way into India and Tibet derived certain linguistic elements ^ Novara Expedition. Linguistischer Theil, p. 219, flf. 72 china's place in philology, and articles of belief from the Shemite and Cushite inhabitants of the country. Hence the abstinence of the western Himalaic races from the flesh of the hog, and the remarkable religious traditions of the Karens of Burmah. In the languages of Tartary and China we do not find the same Semite impress. The syntax is not Semite, and masculine and feminine suffixes are un- known. The Chinese and Turanians proper may have come through Persia before it was Semite, or by the north part of the country where the Semite influence was then unknown. Thus it might happen that the Chinese, whose language is of older type, found Eastern and Southern China in the third millennium before Christ already occupied by races partially Semitized in their syntax. These ancient occupants of China were far less civilized than the Chinese, and travelled faster. That the Chinese have not been under a Semite influence appears clear when the laws of syntax are considered, as it also appears clear that the Eastern Himalayans were influenced by the Semites while they still spoke a monosyllabic language. It may therefore be not unreasonably supposed that the Chinese, and after them the Japanese and Tartars, leaving North Persia, were first attracted by the country of Bokhara, and, crossing the mountains, pro- ceeded by the Kashgar route eastward, always travel- EARLY EMIGRATION OF THE CHINESE. 73 ling: in a latitude of about 40° north. There are no passes through the Bolor Tag and Tsung ling mountains south of the Cashgar route, till you come to the Khyber Pass into Cashmere and India in about 34° lat. This would be the route of the Himalaic race, who, leaving Affghanistan and pene- trating into the beautiful valleys of Cashmere, went eastward into Tibet by Ladak and the upper course of the Indus. Under these conditions it would seem that the great breaking up of languages at the epoch marked in Scripture by the building of the Tower of Babel took place soon after the departure of the Chinese from Western Asia. The progress made by the Semite and other language systems is what is described as the Confusion of Tongues. The Chinese people may have remained in North Persia long enough to leave traces behind them or acquire a knowledge of the dual philo- sophy and the worship of angels and the powers of nature. At this time they may have been partially in juxtaposition with the Himalaic races, and those who have since become Malays and Polynesians, as well as with the triple-branched Turanians. Thus, some of the resemblances found in the languages spoken by these races may be accounted for. At least, we are very much under the necessity of allowing that the Chinese started on their Eastern pilgrimage late enough to bring with them the Baby- 74 china's place in philology. Ionian arts, and early enough to retain the features of the primeval monosyllabic language more distinctly than any other old linguistic family has been able to do. The first great step in the development of human speech was taken in the formation of the Chinese language. While residing in Persia and Mesopotamia, the ancestors of the Chinese would both give and receive. The philosophy, religion, and language of the times were common. From the moment of separation changes would commence, and in every emigrant band, each new generation would see an advance towards that complete national individuality which it was destined eventually to achieve. It might be supposed by those who are fresh to the subject, that the task of searching for the old Chinese syllabary of the times of Yau and Shun was hopeless. But it is far from being so. The Chinese had already the knowledge of the art of writing, and the pre- servation of the phonetic, element in the written characters is particularly favourable for investigation. Their use and signification have never been forgotten. We are able to assign, in consequence, definite values to the phonetics without much difiiculty, and the syl- labary of 4,000 years ago comes out to view in a com- paratively clear and trustworthy form. For example, the modern sin, " heart," Canton sem, Fu kien siniy Cochin- Chinese timy Tibetan sems, is known to have PRIMEVAL CHINESE SYLLABARY. 75 been sim anciently, because it rhymes in all old poetry with words in tn. But the poetry reaches back to eleven centuries before the Christian era, and earlier, and the characters were made, according to native opinion, B.C. 2300. In this way we are able to reach the conclusion that the final m and with it, by similar proofs, its correlates ng, n, k', t, p, the six consonant finals of the Chinese rhyming art in all ages, were also the six consonant finals of the earliest Chinese sylla- bary. The Greek rof t/coV,^ " poison," resembles acci- dentally the Chinese ^ tu, old sound dok. The upper fv ' part of the Chinese character chu, "leader," "lord," ^ '*^ if we may argue from its use here as a phonetic, was ^iM probably once called tok, and still earlier dok. It is thus brought into agreement with the Latin duco, dux, and Greek B6lkvu/j.c, and belongs to the verbal root dik, " to point," in Chinese Jg* ch'i, and in Latin and English doceo and teach. The following example will show the remarkable aid to philology afibrded by the phonetics. In Callery's Systema Phoneticum yQ yuen, ^ ivany f^ yucii, ^ yueuy are, as may be shown, equipollent phonetics, with the sounds ?m», an, yuen, etc., and the meaning, ^ The drug used for poisoning arrows was called To|i/c(^j/, from ro^ov, "a bow." This word, again, was from riryxo'"'' ^tvxov, " to hit," " meet with," Chinese ^ cho, old sound dok, "to hit," "to be right," "yes," "put on clothing." The etymology cannot be easily traced of the Chinese for "poison." 76 CHINA S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. " roundness/' " completion/* " origin/' " globule/' and '♦ circle." EQriPOLLBNT PHONETICS. ^ "complete." ^ "round." g "cause." COMPOUND DERIVATIVE CHARACTER8. % "origin." Tcl] ^ "bend." waUf " cut out in a round shape. wan, "rude," "obstinate."^ ^ 1/uen, " canister," J^ " name of a sceptre." ^ w?aw, "a bowl," 5|g|J "cut out in a round shape." ^1 y2 " revolve in a circle," fj bok, " return," ^ gak, "learn," $f ngang, ''hard," ^ zung, ''follow," glj bit, ''other," ^ gun, "herd," i§ ngu, "meet," ^ deng, " go up," have the following correlates in the TONES. 83 surd series, viz. : ^ 2^uny '' to divide " (Hebrew hin, Latin fimh), K ?^?/>?, " revolve," " turn," English ^?«v?, :|t: 2^ok> ^' north,'' ''back," ^ leak, "teach," ^ liong, ''hard," "steel," gj tsnncj, "let it be that," glj pit, "difference," ^ kun, "a body of troops," ^g Av^, "meet with," g ^(?/^^, "go up." But it was not enough for language to add the surd letters to its acquisitions. The syllabary was still too contracted. Words and ideas continued to multiply, and there was a scarcity of syllables to express them. The age of suffixes and prefixes had not yet arrived. It was too soon to think of dissjdlables or polysyllables, of a prefixed s or an inserted r. Language in this time of need seized for the required service those flitting musical intonations of human speech which the orator uses to express decision, sarcasm, doubt, and interrogation. At this time there were in the Chinese vocabulary two great groups of words. Those ending with ng^ n, m, and the vowels, formed one group, which we will call long in quantity. Those terminating in g, dy hf or k, t, p, formed another, in which the sound is shortened by the action of the final letters. They check the breath and bring the utterance to an abrupt conclusion. Hence these words become, for the pur- poses of tonic pronunciation, short in quantity. But final letters will drop off, through laziness in enunciation, through imitation of the defects of others, and from the circumstance that, when stress is laid by 84 CHlNA^S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. the speaker on some one element of sound, the other elements will suffer. What did language do ? She did not resist change ? This she never does. She allowed new laws to enter, so that the inevitable changes might be kept under control. A third group of words was formed out of contributions from the other two. By the ancient poetry we learn that 3,000 years ago the words that could rhyme with each other formed three groups, which did not encroach on each other's limits. The new group was mainly composed of what is now called the Shang sheng tone class or second tone. The third, or K'ii sheng, was subsequently formed. The numerals were then pronounced yit, ni, sam, sat, ngo, lok, sit, pat^ kit J zhip. Of these, sam, " three,'* was in the long tone, now become the first tone ; ngo, '' five," and I'll, " nine," in the new, or second tone ; ni, '' two," doubtful; and the rest in the short tone. Of the five elements, kim, '' metal," was first, mok, " wood," last, and ski, " water," ka, " fire," t'o, " earth," all in the newly-formed tone class. Fifteen hundred years passed away, and the Hindoo Buddhists were in China teaching the religion and sciences of India. The Chinese had never thought about the distinction between tones and letters, and when Bengal and Panjab pandits told them that sound was capable of analysis, and that tones must be distinguished from vowels and consonants, they listened incredulously. But the claims of the alpha- GROWTH OF THE TONE SYSTEM. 85 betical analysis were gradually allowed, and emperors appointed commissions to settle the sounds and con- struct dictionaries. Imperial pride condescended to learn the tone distinctions in a flattering sentence constructed by a courtier, which exemplified them in their order. 5c "? S ® ^^^^^ ^^^ shing chity *' Heaven's son is holy and wise." The passage of 1,500 years had seen a new tone formed, the K'ii sheng. It consists of contributions from the second and fourth. Poetry at this time was made according to new laws. Not only the rhyming words were brought into subjection to the tones in groups of four ; but all the words of each line were made to conform to a complex harmonic scale, in the construction of which the tones formed the chief element. Another 1,500 years has passed away, and we now find that still greater changes have taken place than in the preceding period. The first tone class has been split in two. The old sonant initials have been ex- pelled, and their place supplied by surds and aspirates. The words of the fourth tone class, after losing all their final letters, have been distributed among the other classes, and the Chinese modern language has become more changed from the old type than any member of the monosyllabic family.^ ^ For a detailed account of these changes, see Mandarin Grammar, Part I. The principal step I have made in advance in the Chinese part 86 china's place in philology. There have been three great periods of 1,500 years each. The first saw the earliest formation of the surd and aspirate series, with that of a triple tone system. The second witnessed an extensive dropping of the final letters /e, t, p, and ng, and the growth of the tone system ending in the quadruple formation of the dictionaries. The third period, perhaps the most revolutionary of all, saw the sonant initials, and the finals Jc, f, p, nij for ever dismissed, one of the primeval tone groups completely broken up, and the syllabic spelling of the Hindoo Buddhists thrown into chaotic confusion. All this may be taken as proof of the primitive character of the Chinese language. Had it inherited from the Turanian, Indo-European, or Semitic families, any of their peculiar tendencies to polysyllabic forma- tion, it would have had, historically, a very difierent development. But being itself of the first descent from the primeval mother of human speech, we can trace in it no later elements. Not the Egyptian nor the Hebrew nor the Sanscrit can compare with the Chinese in antiquity of type. They all have a more complex syllabary, and introduce appendages to the roots, which constitute an evidence of the comparative recency of their formation. of the investigation since the publication of that •work, has been in the detection of the law by which the surd series has been regularly formed from the sonants, as illustrated above. SYNTAX. 87 If with these views alone before me, I should be inclined greatly to lengthen Chinese chronology ; but the comparison of the ancient civilizations of China and Western Asia compels me to reduce the epoch of the commencement of Chinese isolation to very nearly that of accepted history. The similarity between old Chinese life and that depicted in the Book of Genesis is so striking and so multiform, that it seems impossible to date the eastern migration of the Chinese earlier than a few centuries, at the most ten, before the time of Abraham. The laws of position in Chinese sentences are the same with those already given as belonging to the natural and primeval speech of man. The actor is mentioned before the action, and the verb before its object. The adjective precedes the substantive, and the specific noun the genus to which it belongs. The adverb precedes the verb, and the attribute the substance to which it is attached. The subject is first mentioned, then the copula, and lastly the pre- dicate. The only peculiarity to be here mentioned as not of natural and primeval growth is, that locative auxiliaries are made suffixes and not prefixes. '' In a city," is more natural than " city in." The Chinese, however, prefer in their ancient and modern language to say the latter. Our phrase, '' the world," is with them 5c T*" " heaven under." These locative post- positions are best explained as substantives. Hia is 88 CHINA^S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. " that which is below." The original force of such words was verbal. ** To go down/' is also hia. As in the Turanian languages, so in Chinese, the verb became strongly substantival. Act became action. It is indeed the same in English. " Act," is a verb and a noun, and the mind learns to abstract the act from the actor, and look at it by itself. It is then spoken of as any other noun. Thus, c'heng net is translated *' the city's interior" or **in the city." The word nei is nip, to *' enter," the j9 being dropped. The modern form is ju. That which is entered is the interior. The language forming faculty performs the necessary transformation, and applies the name of the act enter to the inside of a city or house. It then becomes a locative suffix. All Chinese suffixes of this sort were originally verbs. So the other locatives shang, ** above," hia, "below," t'sien, "before," heu, "behind," etc., were aU verbs originally. As such their places would, before they assumed the locative character, be before their nouns. The germ of the Turanian and Indo-European sys- tem of declension appears here for the first time. What the Chinese did for the locative, the ancient communities, who founded those types of language, proceeded to do for the instrumental, ablative, and dative cases. All the case suffixes, whether locative, instrumental, or dative, were simply verbs robbed of ORIGIN OF THE POSSESSIVE CASE. 89 their activity and placed after nouns as signs of locality, direction, instrumentality, and so on, in order to facilitate the more speedy and convenient allocation of the objects of thought in the categories of space and time. The Chinese has also a sort of possessive case, the history of which is simple. In the earliest Chinese the possessive case was included in the law by which species precedes genus, subject precedes attribute, and the particular notion goes before the general notion. " Man's body *' was jen shen. Soon one of the demon- stratives, tij was used as a connective — ^ ^ 5 @ Nin ti ngi moky ''men's ears and eyes.'* There was originally no possessive force in this connective, an- ciently ^ tl, now 65 ti. The possessive force was conveyed in the order of the words, in accordance with what may be regarded as a law in the primeval lan- guage from which the Chinese was derived. A hiatus is felt in the modern language if Wo d'hai sh'ij " my duties," is said for Wo ti c*hai ski. The Tibetian would perceive a similar hiatus. The remedy is found in the introduction of the particle ti. In the Shanghai dialect the particle used to fill the hiatus is ko. In Tibetan ki is employed. In Fu kien province, as in the Amoy dialect, e is the word. In all these cases the possessive force would be acquired subsequently. The origin of the possessive was simply a want felt, to make the sentence square, a rhythmical feeling; which is not 90 china's place in philology. contented until the laws of proportion are obeyed in language. It is the same feeling which prompts us to say " a long and happy reign," rather than '' a happy and long reign/' and which lies at the foundation of prosody. The order of verbs, when they represent two or more consecutive actions, is in Chinese that of time. This principle would be adopted from the primeval type. Thus, primeval man would say without any inversion, " Sit down eat food," in the language of command or of narration. The word down would be a verb, and thus three verbs would stand in juxtaposition before the solitary substantive food. The modern Chinese says Tso hia &lii faUy "sit down eat rice." The Semites were the first to introduce a conjunction and, as in Gen. xviii. 2, " And he lifted up eyes his, and saw, and behold three men standing by him, and [he] saw and ran to meet them." The words lifted, saw, behold, ran, are all introduced by and. The prepositions "by," 7^ ngal, and 7 le, " to," are originally verbs, the one meaning " to ascend," and the other " motion towards." The whole sentence thus consists of nouns, pronouns, and verbs, and the order in which the verbs stand is that of the time in which the actions symbolized by them took place. Not one of them is put out of its natural position. The order of time is the basis of the position of POSITION OF VERBS. 91 verbs in all languages. But it was subject to frequent inversion in the Hebrew, as in Gen. xx. 6, " And said, Sarah, laugh made to me God," for " Sarah said, God has made me laugh." The dative participle le before me is redundant. The verb laugh is placed before the verb make, and both stand before their nominatives. Such inversions do not appear in the Chinese lan- guage, which is unimaginative. The popular instinct is satisfied when it describes events in the order in which they took place, and could take no pleasure in those bold transpositions which delighted the Semite race. CHAPTER YI. The Semitic System Older than the Turanian ; Younger than THE Chinese. — Triliteral Roots.— Insertions. — Suffixes. — Prefixes. — Growth of Inflexions. — Sex. — Personifications. — Syntax. — The Verb placed First. — Post-position of Adjec- tive AND OF Genitive. — Post-position of Genitive borrowed by European Languages. — Semitic Relative and European Rela- tive compared with the Chinese and Turanian Equivalent. There is no good reason to doubt tlie correctness of those views by wbich. Gesenius and other Semitic philologists were led to seek affinities between the Indo-European system and that which formed the more peculiar object of their researches. The number of common roots found in these two systems is indeed very great. Thus, among the numerals, Hhady '* one," in Chaldee seems to agree with the Greek heis, e*?, " one," the Latin solus, and with the third among the common Chinese roots tan, yidy kit, all meaning "alone," or "one." The Chaldee shete, "two," becomes in the ordinal for thinyana, " second." The original dental initial t resumes its place instead of the favourite Hebrew sibilant sh, and points to an old connexion with duo. The very law which frequently changed t THE SEMITIC FAMILY OLDER THAN THE TURANIAN. 93 and d to sh or s or is in Hebrew, prevailed in the Greek when tUy "thou," became cru, and still operates in German when tide becomes zeit. Where there are roots in common, there will also be found laws of change in common. But this is anticipating. Our task of comparison must for the present be rather limited to the linguistic systems of Eastern Asia. The Semitic family has older features than the Turanian, for in the progress towards a polys3dlabic formation it has not gone far beyond the dissyllabic root. In the Turanian languages, words of four or five syllables are not uncommon. Another mark of superior antiquity in the Semitic system is the absence of case suffixes in the nouns and of temporal and model suffixes in the verbs. The earliest Semites bent their energy, unconsciously but surely, to the formation of a system of speech in which as much as possible should be done by prefixes, while the Turanians directed their language-forming power to the develop- ment of suffixes. Now, since the Semites never pre- fixed more than one syllable, while the Turanian instinct, by the creation of the polysyllabic suffix, has caused the upgrowth of immense lingual variety in the speech of more than half the area of Europe and Asia, the Semitic type must be regarded as less developed, and therefore more primitive, than the Turanian. "When it is remembered that Mongol, Greek, and Sanscrit case suffixes are metamorphosed pronouns and 94 china's place in philology. verbs put after instead of before their nouns, it must be admitted that the language-sj^'stems to which they belong are of recent origin. But where, as in Semitic speech it happens, the verb, which is required to do the duty of a case particle, becomes a preposition, and stands before its noun, we feel ourselves to be in the midst of speakers who retain closely the tradition of the earth's primeval language. No one will object to the statement that the Arabs have more primeval characteristics than the Greeks. Their life, their customs, and their modes of thinking, bear the stamp of immense antiquity ; and as is their life so is their language. Every language carries on it the impress of the genius of the people that formed it. If the Chinese type is the most conservative among families of languages, the Semitic comes next to it. It never went far beyond the primitive model transmitted by '' the earth's gray fathers." The date of the formation of the Semitic type being thus shown to be older than that of the Aryan and Turanian families, it must now be proved that it is more recent than the Chinese, and that its origination constitutes the second great step in the progress of language. The most obvious point of contrast is in the triliteral roots. The ancient Chinese said for " happiness," ;9oA, a root which has the connected meanings, *' rich " and " vast." In Sanscrit we find hhagay " good fortune," TRILITERAL ROOTS DERIVED FROM MONOSYLLABLES. 95 in Latin fortuna^ in Greek ttXovto';, " rich," in Per- sian bakJtty *' rich," in Mongol hoijiuy " happiness," in Russian hogatie, ''rich." The confusion between riches and happiness is easily accounted for. Among what people is it not common to make wealth the measure of happiness? In Hebrew the root occurs in harachy "to bless." Here we have a triliteral root brk. The vowels were not written by the early Phoeni- cians and Hebrews. We have, therefore, only the consonants to consider. An r has been inserted. There is in this nothing uncommon. The diflference of an inserted r in the English word world as compared with the German Welty does not render doubtful the identification of these words. There is a root very widely spread in most languages. It is our English verb to cut. It is in Chinese kixt ^J, Latin ccedo, Mongol hadomoiy Japanese katana, " a sword," Tamul kattiy " a knife." Gesenius says ^ that the syllable gad has in Hebrew the notion of cutting in common with gaZy as in gazaz, from which it is derived by the loss of the sibilant ; but on the other hand it may be traced still farther to the harder syllables KatSy Kashy Kas, Ifhats, Uhaz, and, the sibi- lant disappearing, Katy Kady Hhafy Shad. All these syllables have the sense of cutting. They appear as roots in the forms GazaZy KatsatSy HhatsatSy Kadadj Hhadad. To these may be added Gadali and Gadang ^ Lexicon Manuale, under Gadad. 96 china's place in philology. When this great philologist proceeded to compare with the large family of words here cited the Latin ccBclo and scindo, the Greek cr')(^L^a), the Persian chidan and khudan, and the English cuty it is evident that he regarded the triliteral form as the formal root, and the biliteral as the real. He was manifestly right in this, as the examples now given from the eastern Asiatic languages sufficiently show. But there can be but little doubt that he was wrong in assuming the priority of the s final to the t, and of the k initial to the g} The Chinese syllabary shows that a sibilant fi.nal to a root syllable is an innovation, and the history of the changes of letters in that language renders it probable that the whole surd series is derived from the sonant. Hence we learn that the root gad changed its initial to the strong aspirate Hh or to the pure surd letter k. The final d became ^ or s or sh or ts. We need not be surprised if we often meet with an interchange between the dental t and the sibilant s. This may be illustrated by the second personal pronoun in t. This form for the second person does not occur in any families but the Semitic, the Indo-European, and the Tartar branch of the Turanian. It is firmly fixed in all these. The Mongols take the s form, chH or fsi, as do the Manchus when they say si, and the Turks when they say sen. The Greek av has followed them. The Sanscrit tuam, ^ Under tlie word D^^P^ shcnarjim^ " two," Gcsenius states that the primary form seems to be ^JH, thus admitting the priority of the t sound. PREFIX SIBILANTS. 97 Persian tii and to, Latin tu, German du, English. thoUj agree with the Hebrew atta, Arabic anty and Egyptian entok in preferring t. We also learn that the first speakers of the Semitic languages, in forcing the roots to assume a triliteral form, added as a third letter the consonants ng and h, or doubled the final letter when it happened to be d, ts, or z. There were similar laws of change attendant on the other letters of the Semitic alphabet where they occur. The second k, for instance, was added in mat ha q, " was sweet," connected with the Sanscrit madhu, "honey." I now give examples to show that the phenomenon of a sibilant prefix, so common in the Sanscrit, and in the European languages, is also a favourite way of modifying the sound of a root among the Semites. The word sapJiak, "strike," is used^ in the causative form in the sense of " strike a covenant," which is in Latin pejjigit fcediis, or in the completed form j^actum. In Chinese jjV/A- is " to strike," and hang, in the modern form p'ing, is a " proof," " evidence." In the verb sapJialc, " to strike," " to punish," there is a variation in the sibilant initial, mmecli being used for }>in. The Hebrews also said for to " cleave," to " open," hakang, hakar, which meanings are expressed in Chinese by 2)^ik. ^lay it not be regarded as probable that 5 was prefixed to the biliteral root in p, k, just as we say ^ Gesenius, Lex. Man. in voc. Sapliek. 7 98 china's place in philology. smeltf and the Germans schmelzeriy for to melt ? If so, then tsakhaq, "laugh," may be derived from kak, the root syllable of cachination, the German Kichern, and the Greek Ka')((i^o). So shakab, "recline," from kub, the root of cubo, and /cvtttco, Mongol hebt^emoi, " lie down." So again, sagab, "to be high," from gab in gibeah, " a hill," and gabahh, " to be high." The word sabar, " to hope," derived from bar, a root meaning " to pierce," " scrutinize," as in the preposition per, and the verbs pierce, bore, may be compared with the Latin spero, " to hope." Tsadik, " just," will then be the same with the Greek SUaco'^ and the Latin rectiis, and agrees still more nearly with our own straight. By these and similar processes the primitive biliteral roots have become triliteral, and it was thus that the Semites pointed out the path of change to the more youthful Indo-Europeans. Finding among the two families similar laws of change, we assign to the Semitic system, on account of its more simple syllabary, a higher antiquity than to the Indo-European ; and so, when we compare the Semitic system with the Chinese, we must call the Chinese the older, because its roots are in a more rudimentary and primitive form. The Chinese ch'if " straight," is in the oldest ascer- tainable pronunciation dik. The Tamul-speaking people say takuti, and the Mongols t'egshi. The Greeks used the root dik. The Latins changed it to rck. The English and Arabs prefixed s, and the Hebrews ts. EGYPTIAN SYLLABLE-EXAMPLES. 99 That the Hamitic and Semitic languages were closely connected is now generally admitted. Egyptian words show signs of a more modern form than corresponding Chinese words. I select a few examples^ from "Egypt's Place in Universal History.'* CHINESE. OLD. NEW. MEANING. EGYPTIAN. mo ma hemp hma mo wu is not m or am pui ban fei p'an fly to sin, offend pai, pui ban put bak kit pu pe hi not white rejoice bu ubex haa pak pei carry fa, fai The tendency to assume a dissyllabic form is manifest in these words. The language of Ancient Egypt be- longs to a newer formation than the Chinese. When the structure of the Hebrew conjugations, the syllabic suffixes to express the dual and plural, and the pronominal suffixes to nouns, are examined, the advance of the Semitic system from the primeval monosyllabism towards the polysyllabic form becomes still more clear. For example, n is prefixed to make a passive and hith to form a middle voice. The prefix h makes the verb causative, as does the insertion of ^ These examples have been kindly corrected for me by a distinguished Egyptologist. 100 china's place in philology. go and got in Mongol. The root of the verb to came is in Chinese ko or kok, and this, as h grows out of k, may be the parent of both these forms. The root thus becomes lengthened into four or five letters and two or three syllables. The extensive use of /, r, 5, and ts, as finals to the monosyllabic or biliteral root is another mark of more recent formation. These peculiar finals, entirely un- known in the ancient Chinese vocabulary, occur abun- dantly in the Hebrew, Turanian, and Indo-European syllabaries. The Chinese has /, but not r, in its alphabet, and the Japanese r, but not /. In modern Chinese r is struggling for recognition. In Mongol and Tamil / and r are fully developed, as in the Semitic and European systems.^ They occur either as initials or as finals. The same is true of the sibilants 5, ts^ and sh. To the Semitic stock, therefore, should be assigned the honour of developing the syllabary of human speech in this direction. It was this system that first distinguished between I and r as initials, and added them, with s, sh, z, fs, to the list of final con- sonants. From them the Turanians took them during their ancient residence in South-western Asia, but subsequently to the time when they sent away the Japanese offshoot, and left it to pursue an independent existence in the far east of Asia ; for the inhabitants of that island- empire are very deficient in this part of * Not as initials in Tamil. GENDER. 101 their syllabary, and their language seems to be the oldest of the three Turanian systems. The vowels being represented by three letters in the earliest Semitic (that is, the Phoenician) alphabet, it is probable that when the ancestors of the Semites left the primeval stem of language, the vowels a, i, ti, were sufficient for the needs of human speech at that time. Thus much for the Semitic syllabary. Another mark of advance to be now noted is the growth of the Semitic inflexions. Imagination was always powerful among the men of this race. It gave to the Old Testament in its poetical portions their metaphorical imagery, brilliant description, and rapid movement. This same gift was their inheritance long before the days of the prophets, at an earlier time during the formation of their langruaofes. We see its efiects in the attribution of sex to the lifeless objects of nature., Cedar, gem, hunch of grapes, death, enemy, hook, were masculine. Pillar, egg, castle, intellect, year, slee^j, were feminine. Some words, such as earth, fire, were masculine or feminine. The Chinese and Turanian languages know nothing of these distinctions, and hence we infer that this characteristic of the Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin tongues has been derived from the influence of the earlier Semitic type. The feminine was marked frequently by a special suffix, as by h, or th in Hebrew, and by a in Greek and Latin. 102 CHINA^S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. Among tlie personal pronouns, ani, the first, was the common property of the Hebrew man and woman, but in the second person a distinction commenced, and was also maintained in the third. In the verb also, when woman or any feminine objects were spoken to or spoken of, a special suflB.x was used. But in this the Indo-European system did not follow the Semitic ex- ample, preferring to express the distinctions of person by the pronominal suffixes, without giving attention to sex. The Semitic languages gain little by this laborious system of conjugating according to gender, and it has, therefore, nearly lost its place in language. The predisposition of the human mind for poetical and rhythmical expression leads to the introduction into language of many laws, which, on account of their burdensome nature, must ultimately be given up, and cannot be expected to continue their existence in newly formed linguistic families. To such laws the Semitic conjugation by gender must be referred. The dis- tinction of gender in pronouns has lived for a longer period, having lasted from the commencement of the Semitic age down to the modern English, the newest and freest form of Indo-European speech, which, while rejecting the distinction of gender in inanimate objects, has retained it in the personal pronouns he^ she, it. One of the most striking phenomena in Semitic speech, the result, like the genders of nouns, of bold- ness in imagination, is the inversion noticeable in the POST-POSITION OF THE NOMINATIVE. 103 order of words. In the first verse of Genesis we read BresJiith hara Elohim eth hashshamayim ve eth ha-aretz. " In the beginning created God the heavens and the earth." "Why is the verb placed before its nominative ? It is in consequence of a law of inversion which it pleased the imaginative faculty to introduce. It was rendered possible by the previous formation of an objective case. The prefix eth being used to mark the object of the verb's action, there can be no con- fusion between the nominative and accusative, and it is, therefore, at the option of the speaker to place the actor before or after the verb, as he pleases. Guided by a poetic instinct, the Semite usually preferred to mention the verb before the actor. In so doing he departed from the old primeval law of human speech, still remaining in the Chinese and Turanian systems, and allowed the imagination to triumph over the logical faculty, according to which the nominative, as the first in nature and time, precedes its verb. Another instance of the effect of inversion is seen in examples where the verb stands first, the nomina- tive comes last, and the object is between them. Ki Yehiaka Yehova, " For shall bring thee Jehovah," instead of, "For Jehovah shall bring thee." This order is rendered possible by the object ka^ " thee," the pro- nominal suffix to the verb, being always accusative, so that there can be no confusion between actor and object. 104 china's place in philology. The laws by wliich. tlie adjective follows the substan- tive, and the demonstrative pronoun its noun, are also caused by this tendency to inversion. The article came into existence ojDportunely to allow of this being conveniently done. The sentence, " This good land," is in Hebrew, Sa-aretz hattohah hazzoth. Ha, the definite article, is used three times. Tohah^ "good," follows aretZj " the earth," and zoth, " this," comes last. This law also meets us in the Malay and Polynesian languages, where, however, the article is wanting. A more important inversion perhaps than the pre- ceding is what may be called the post-position of the genitive, as in the Arabic zill Allah, " the shadow of Allah." The natural order is ''Allah's shadow," as in all the languages east of Persia (including the Sanscrit), excepting the East Himalaic, Malay, and Polynesian systems. Our primeval ancestors, there can be little doubt, spoke of the possessor first, and then what he possessed. The Semitic imagination first seized the name of the object possessed and then that of the possessor. This caused what is called the ''construct state." The first word had its vowel shortened, and the plural termination appeared in a clipped form. Thus, Dn^l devarim, became ''^11 cUvrey in the phrase divre hangam QJ^Jl ^^^1 " words of the people." When in Greek we find the post-position of the genitive well established, as in ava^ avSpwv, "king of men," and also remember the contiguity of the Greek POST-POSITION OF THE GENITIVE. 105 and Semitic areas and the ancient intermixing of the Phoenicians with the Hellenic race, it seems quite a natural supposition that the Greeks derived it from the Semites. The near neighbourhood of the Assyrian empire and civilization would aid powerfully in the introduction into the Greek language of this and other Semite idioms. The same strong and long-continued Semite influence caused its entrance into the Persian as in Mushk-i Kliotetiy " musk of Khoten." In Enorlish the two modes of arran(?ement are both in use, and this, as in other European tongues, adds much to the freedom, fluency, and variety which cha- racterize modern speech. Thus the Shorter Catechism commences, " What is the chief end of man ? " and says in the answer, '' Man's chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever.'' If there had been any difference in intelligibility or propriety of use between " man's chief end," and the " chief end of man," a preference would have been shown here for one of these modes of speaking, to the exclusion of the other. In the English of the nineteenth century there are still no certain signs indicating that the Semitic mode of speech is coming near the end of its reign; and yet it is possible that the post-position of the genitive may pass into an archaism after no very long time. The Greeks said uio? ©eov, for " Son of God." The Latins rather preferred to say Dei fiUus. The Sanscrit-speaking Ariaus could not transpose their 106 china's place in philology. genitive, thus showing that they were under strong Turanian influence, and showed very little sign of Semite connexion. Of the remarkable inversion of order, which in the Turanian and Indo-European families led to the system of case suffixes, there is scarcely any trace in the Hebrew, except in the suffix ah, expressing motion towards a place. But we do not know what this ah was. In the case suffixes of the Sanscrit and Grreek we find, or think we ought to find, metamorphosed demonstratives placed after their nouns. Perhaps we should rather say verbs metamorphosed. Looking for an old verbal equivalent to this suffix, we find the Chinese hiang |^J hung, hung, "towards." One of the greatest improvements in language due to the influence of the Semitic mind is the introduction of the relative pronoun. This pronoun is originally formed from the interrogative or demonstrative. In English the demonstrative that has acquired a relative force, and so it may be said of the interrogative who. In Hebrew, the relative pronoun ^^X asher, is not so easily accounted for. We find in Chinese an inter- rogative zhok, "who?'' which appears in the modern form as 8hui, after dropping its final and changing its zh to 8h. We also have s/, " this," and zhi, " this," both old words; ^hat, "what?" a dialect word; and s>hen, "what," or, in an older form, zhim, a Mandarin word. Gesenius prefers to derive a^her from the ORIGIN OF THE RELATIVE. 107 primitive demonstrative in s, in Sanscrit sa, sas, English so, she, German sie, and finds the final r in our words there, der, er, etc. The old word ^ si, " this," and its equivalent ]|{j t'si, " this," show that the ancient Chinese had the same sibilant demonstrative. But the Hebrew sh has in some words the value t in cognate dialects. Thus, D^ sham, "there," was tarn in Chaldee, Latin turn. Our word asher may therefore be a dis- guised form of the demonstrative in d, used in so many languages and dialects^ Indo-European and Chinese. Thus we have in old Chinese dl, " this," and the same in Tibetan, equivalent to the German der, die^ das, and the English tJiis and that. In Chaldee we find da min da, " this from that," reminding us of the Tibetan di, "this," and Malay dia, "he." We also meet with di in Chaldee for " who," " which," " that," and as a sign to connect a genitive with its prefixed nominative. The relative is a device for continuing a description without coming to a full stop, and it allows the speaker to proceed without being compelled to commence again with a repetition of the noun. Hence the demon- strative pronoun is taken for this service as the repre- sentative of the noun, and as most suited to undergo the change in meaning which is required by its new position. The Hebrews often omitted the relative, an indication that in the early stage their language was without it. 17 C^^-73 kol yesh lo, " all was his," that 108 china's place in philology. is, "all that was Ms." They afterwards introduced asher to fill the gap, and make the sentence entirely coherent. The device was successful. They used for this object an obsolete demonstrative, asher , not needed for any other purpose. When the Semites introduced the relative, it was in accordance with the genius of their language, which seizes on the central idea and then describes it in detail. The second verse of the second chapter of Genesis reads, if translated according to the Hebrew order, " And finished God on day the seventh work his which he did, and he rested on day the seventh from all work his which he did." The emphatic verbs finish and 7^est stand first. Day precedes its adjective, seventh. Work precedes the relative clause describing it. The action if a verb and the nominative if a noun must in all cases stand out in their clear individuality first. Then the particulars follow, whether expressed by adjectives, by pronouns, or by the relative clause. Such was the mode of constructing sentences which was most agreeable to the Semitic imagination. The eastern Asiatic languages have been content to be guided by the logical faculty. The old Chinese would say, "Seventh day, God's work being completed, then he rested."^ Here the ^ ^^ B ± * X ^ :^ H 1> ^'^'"'^ '"■'^ ^^i^'^^ff i' ^0^9 tsiun nai kH sik, " Seventh day Supreme Ruler work completed then SEMITIC AND CHINESE RELATIVE COMPARED. 109 time is put first, because it is (viewed graramaticall}^) a subordinate circumstance. The nominative stands first because the actor in the order of nature exists before the act. The verbs completed and rented take the order of time, and one nominative, God^ serves for both. The order of nature allows of brief description. If this order is broken in upon, the penalty must be paid in tautologies and circumlocution. The contents of every relative clause are capable of being inserted as a subordinate clause in the principal sentence under the control of the nominative to that sentence. This insertion is what the Chinese make use of instead of a relative clause. The Mongol reads ^' God," uheron uUeduhsen uilesi, " self-done work," jlrgogan edure t^cgimjcgcd, " sixth day being finished," dolodogar edicre, ^' on the seventh day," uheron uileduksen uiles eclie, '' self-done work from," amorahaiy "rested."^ Here the principal verb, rested, stands last, according to the invariable law of the Turanian languages. The nominative, God, stands first, ruling the subordinate and the principal clause. This is the fixed order of clauses in Chinese and in the Turanian system. What in Hebrew would be a relative clause is here constructed in immediate connexion with stopped rested." From Translation of the Scriptures bj Medliurst and others into Chinese. 1 From the Translation of the Scriptures into Mongolian, by Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass. 110 china's place IX PHILOLOGY. the nominative by means of the possessive suffix attached to the reflexive pronoun self. The influence of Semite speech appears to have been less on Sanscrit than on the other Indo-European tongues. The post-position of the genitive is entirely foreign to Indian grammar, and it seems to make but sparing use of the relative. The Hindoos did not commonly by its means construct a new subordinate clause after the principal sentence. They placed it as a Chinese or Mongol would do in a clause by itself before the chief sentence. They were fond of antithesis, and introduced a demonstrative he to correspond with the relative. In Williams' Sanscrit Grammar, the following example is given. " What you have promised, that abide by." Yaf pratijndta?}i tat pd/ai/a. The Chinese would say in their modern language, tsen mo sliico, tsen mo king, *'how speak," "how do," meaning, " as you have spoken so do." Here, tsen mo is an interrogative, "how ?" The Sanscrit yad^ yah, is simply an old disused interrogative " who ?" " what ?" employed to perform the simpler duties of the relative according to the limited Hindoo conception of them. It is to the European languages that we must look for the examples of the full development of the relative, as a main help to the attainment of that fluency in narra- tive and accuracy in description for which they are distinguished. CHAPTER YII. The Himalaic Languages Younger than the Chinese; Older than THE Turanian. — Eastern Himalaic Branch. — Siamese Phonal System. — Cochin-Chinese Tones. — Chinese Natural Tones. — Vocabulary. — Syntax. — Western Himalaic Branch, — Tibetan Phonal System. — Tibetan and Hebrew Common "Words. — Tibe- tan Tones. — Post-Position of Case Particles. — Deritatuves. — Tibetan Verb. — Antiquity of the Tibetan Type. Ox approaching the Himahaic languages on the western side, we find ourselves in contact with a system of case suffixes for the first time. For these we look in vain in the Semitic family, and in Chinese they are limited to the locative case. The Tibetan race connects itself by monosyllabic structure and tones, as well as by a larofe number of identical words, with the Chinese. But by its system of case particles it is seen to approach to the Tartar and Indian languages. The Tibetan belongs to a system younger than the Chinese, because it places the substantive before the adjective, and the verb at the end of the sentence. In the same way it may be shown to be older than the Turanian family, because, thouofh it strongly resembles that system in placing the case particles after their nouns, and the verbs at the end of the sentence, yet its monosyllabic character and system of tonic pronunciation cause it to approximate to the Chinese. 112 china's place in philology. The existence of the case suffixes in the Tibetan language, and the circumstance that the verb is there uniformly found at the end of the sentence, are suffi- cient to justify us in ascribing to the Himalaic family to which it belongs a later origin than to the Semitic. The third great step in the development of human language was made, therefore, in the formation of this family. At the same time it must be kept in view that the Eastern and Western Himalaic languages are diverse in several important respects. The Cochin- Chinese and Siamese languages have an order like and yet not like the Chinese in the combination of the prepositions with the nouns. All the case auxiliaries are prefixed, whether locative, instrumental, dative, or ablative. In the Chinese the locative auxiliaries follow, and the rest precede their nouns. In the Tibetan they are all suffixes. The Eastern and Western branches of the Himalaic family thus appear to differ in character very materially, and a division is rendered inevitable. Yet their common tonic pronunciation, and their advance beyond the Chinese in the extended capacity of their syllabaries, may still be regarded as furnishing sufficient ground for retaining them in connexion as branches of one family. In the Cochin- Chinese and Siamese languages, which are the chief members of the Eastern Himalaic branch, an alphabetic series and syllabary exist, much re- SIAMESE PHONAL SYSTEM. 113 sembling the Chinese. The words are monosjdlabic. The finals are in Cochin- Chinese, besides the vowels, k, t, p, ng, nh, n, m, and ch. Of these nh is a variation from ng and ch from k. An eflPort has been made to throw ofi" some of these finals. We find nhoty '' day," the Chinese nyit, also spelled ngai^ where the t is lost. There is a limited use of r and / after the initials h and t. Thus, iron, blon, trot, blot, all mean "perfect," " whole," and are the same with the Chinese ^ t'siuen, formerly pronounced zien and dzien. In exchange for dz, dj, ch, ts, the Cochin- Chinese introduced gradually the initials tr and bl. They also developed the modern letters r and / out of the old /. The Siamese have done the same, and have also added /, as the modern Chinese have done, to the old alphabetic elements. No other member of the Himalaic fiimily has the letter/. The area of this letter is also limited among the Tura- nian languages to Japan, Manchuria, and Turkestan. The Siamese have no sh, but they have, like all the members of the Himalaic family, an abundant supply of aspirated surds. Thus, k, t, and p, with an aspirate, are extremely common. These aspirated mutes exist in certain localities in Europe, and constitute a main peculiarity in the colloquial Irish pronunciation of the English language, but it is only in the speech of Eastern Asia that they have been made to take the part of distinct letters. From Jones's ''Grammatical Notices of the Siamese Language," it would appear that 114 china's place in philology. there lias been no change in the finals : hy d, b, ng, n, m, rule undisturbed as the favourite consonants for termin- ating all closed syllables. Perhaps d and b, which come in place of t and p, are of even greater antiquity than these last. They may be the vestiges of an era when the surds k, t, p, were still unknown as initials or finals, and when in the primeval alphabet, as now in the Tartar languages, the aspirates and sonants were the only representatives of the triple series known as gutturals, dentals, and labials. The tones are in the Siamese phonal system closely intertwined with the syllabary. The letters are divided into three series, high, middle, and low. The aspirates k'y P, p\ s, /, h, c'h, are pronounced in the upper and lower series, that is, for example, in a high and low do. The surds and sonants k, chy t, p, d, b, are in the middle series, e.g.^ in the key of sol. The remainder, ng, n, m, h >'f ^^'j y> ^re in the lower do. The words being arranged on a scale with a triple pitch, of which the two intervals, taken together, vary from, perhaps, a half to an entire octave, the inflexions and even-tones, five in number, still remain to be applied to them. These consist of a slow even- tone, a circumflex, which is a curve of the voice, first down and then up, a slow falling, a quick rising, and a slow rising inflexion.^ The English and French interrog- ative tone is the same as what is here called the quick ^ See Grammatica Lingua) Tai, by Bishop Pallegoix. COCHIN-CHINESE TONES. 115 rising inflexion. In the sentence, " What ! not obey me?" the tone of what is the quick rising inflexion, and that of obey is not unfrequently the slow falling circumflex. The Cochin- Chinese tones are also arranged on a triple pitch, which we may again think of as upper dOy sol, and lower do, remembering, however, that the breadth of the intervals and the general pitch of the voice depend on the habit of the individual and the state of his feelings. The tones in this language are like the Chinese, and are not distributed among aspirates and non-aspirates, as are the Siamese and Tibetan, but are themselves set in sol, and the lower and upper do. COCHIN-CniXESE TONES.^ NATURAL CHARACTER. MUSICAL NOTATION. ENGLISH EaUIVALENT. 1. quick even upper do monotone 2. quick rising sol, si interroo^ative 3. falling and rising (^^'■J^"^- I flex sol, fa, la satirical circumflex 4. slow even sol monotone 5. quick falling fa, mi interrogative 6. slow falling lower do ^tone of remonstrance [tone of decision This system differs from the Chinese only in having a triple pitch, while the tones of Chinese dialects are, Prof, des Michels, " Sur les Intonations chez Ics Annamites." 1869. 116 china's place in philology. perhaps, usually content with a double key. The Chinese, also, often use the other circumflex, namely, that which is bent first upward and then downward. The Chinese, as having a greater variety of dialects, have, of course, a fuller development of tones than the sister races can be expected to possess. They have the quick and slow even-tone, the quick and slow rising inflexion, the quick and slow falling inflexion, and the circumflex of two kinds, first rising and then falling, or first falling and then rising, and each of these in slow or quick time. They may be represented by straight and curved lines, thus : — CHINESE NATURAL TONES. ■ Even stroke quick and slow monotone i Down stroke, straight \^^ .^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^-^^ { or curved ^ ^ ° (Up stroke, straight or _^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^.^. ^^-^^ ( curved -^ ^ ° Curve down and up '^ ' \ ^ quick and slow falling circumflex Curve up and down ( ^ /' ^ quick and slow rising circumflex Each of these may be placed in a higher or lower pitch, and perhaps there may be an intermediate or triple pitch in some cases.^ Each dialect selects from this set of tones as many as it requires. The least number of tones that any dialect ' The intervals may be do, mi, sol, or mi, la, do, and for the double pitch do, sol, or la, do, which last is the interval in Peking for ordinary- voices. EASTERN HIMALAIC VOCABULARY. 117 in China is known to use is four, as the Pekinese ; and the greatest nine, as in the Hok lo patois^ in Canton province. The waves of the voice in these inflexions are better represented by curved lines than by the musical scale of modern Europe, because the sound of the inflexion is continuous and not broken up into quavers and crotchets. But to convey a correct idea of the vari- ation in j92Yc^ noticeable in tonic elocution, reference to the musical scale is highly useful. The vocabulary of the eastern Himalaic languages^ is in many respects like the Chinese. ^ English Chinese Cochin-Chinese Greek, Latin fish honey earth clothing mother breath ngud mid ka mot da dat terra wei ao vestis mo me fJ-wvp k'ui k'oi halitus English two three four five six fire fowl head Chinese Siamese shong sam song sam si si ngu ha lok hok hwa fai koi kai du how In Siamese h takes the place of the Chinese I and d. The Siamese / corresponds to the Chinese h, as in Chinese hit, "blood," Siamese liiit ; Chinese hivang, " yellow," Siamese leuang ; Chinese hung, " rainbow," Siamese lung. The modern Chinese h corresponds to an older k, and will bear comparison with our western 118 china's place in philology. cruor, cnidelis, gore, clot} So hivang, " yellow," may be compared with our crocus. The word for "rainbow/' hungi is doubtless a variant of hong, *' a bow." The ng final of Chinese words sometimes corresponds to our western m. So here the Persian kemdn and Greek KafjiTTTQ), " to bend," are derived from the same root. The Siamese pronouns Jen, *' I," meung, " thou," and k'ea, *'he," may be compared with the Chinese nga, " I," the Hainan, Kwangsi, and Kweicheu aboriginal word mu, " thou," and the Chinese gi, " he." The extension of the second personal pronoun mu over the area occupied by the Blue and White Miau of South China, the Hainan islanders and the Shan tribes of Burmah and Siam,^ helps materially to connect these scattered dialects, stretching from the Gulf of Siam, N. latitude 14°, to Kweicheu in China, N. latitude 26°, into one system. The "Western Himalaic languages, including the speech of the Lo lo in the Chinese province of Kweicheu, the Burmese and the Tibetians, do not appear to have this pronoun. They use instead of it for our thou, in the Lo lo dialect, kai, and in Tibetan, k'yed. ^ These words all branch from the primeval root kit, " coagulate," "join together." Hence our kith, catena, and the Chinese kit, "tie," and giyi, "near." 2 See Bishop Bigandet's comparative vocabulary of Shan dialects in Logan's Journal of the Indian Archipelago. LAWS OF POSITION. 119 The Siamese, the T'ung tribe in Kwangsi, the White Miau in Kweicheu, the Li tribe of Hainan, and the Shans, all say for "I " and "my," ku, hau, or k'au. These are all merely variations from the widely spread root nga common to the Chinese and Tibetians, and occurring as ahaniy ego, ich, in Indo-European languages. The third personal pronoun h'^ia, in Chinese gi, has nearly as wide an area. The White Miau of China say kwa for "he," the Tibetians ko. The Japanese say kono for " this." The Latin is hic^ and the English he. As an interrogative, the same root takes the form of " quis ?" " quid ?" " who ?" and " what ?" It is also extensively used in the Turanian and Semitic lan- guages, as in the Mongol k^'en, " who ? " and the Hebrew liu, "he." The laws of position in the Eastern branch of the Himalaic family are very peculiar. In all the dialects, whether those of the Miau aborigines in South-western China,^ or the Li in Hainan, the Cochin- Chinese or the Siamese, the adjective follows the substantive. It is the same in the Western branch. The Chinese, Mon- gols, Turks, and Hindoos, encircling these languages on all sides, place the adjective before the substantive. The Malays only form an exception. The Himalayan races have not then, in the adoption of this inversion, ^ My authorities for Miau dialects are the Chinese works Hing i fu chi, Kwangsi t'uug chi, and for Hainan a manuscript vocabulary by llobcrt Swinhoe, Esq. ]20 china's place in philology. imitated any of their neighbours. Shall we trace this law to Semite influence, or attribute it to their own independent efibrts to effect changes in the primeval type ? Perhaps the latter view may be most favourably received. But an early connexion with the Semites is not unlikely, certainly not impossible. On the other hand, the Eastern branch of this family is, in regard to the position of the locative case parti- cles, older than the oldest of its neighbours. The verbs which mark the cases of nouns are all found before their nouns, and very curiously we see the same principle in operation in the Semitic languages. The Tibetians and Tartars belong to more modern migrations, and at the very commencement of their independent linguistic existence they performed with decision and the most thorough success the feat of transferring the verb to the close of the sentence. This process in- cluded necessarily the post-position of all case particles. There can be no doubt that this Turanian idiom is new, and the Ultra-Indian idiom old. The geographical situation renders this conclusion inevitable. If also it be remembered that the tribes called in the oldest of the Chinese classics, the San Miau,^ were the first known occupants of the Chinese area, it seems difficult to resist the conclusion that the Eastern Himalayan ^ The reign of Shun, b.c. 2255, in the Shu king, included the pacifica- tion of the San Miau, or three aboriginal tribes, among its chief historical events. EASTERN HIMALAIC SYNTAX. 121 races are older than tlie Chinese. For how can it be accounted for that the Chinese should have taken the first step in the post-position of the case particles, and that their southern neighbours should show no trace of a similar phenomenon, except on the supposition that in the early migrations from the west, the Ultra- Indians came first and the Chinese next? Yet they continued uncivilized till Buddhist teachers visited them from India and covered the peninsula with monastic institutions and Hindoo practices and beliefs. This was nearly 2,000 years ago. At about the same time, the light of Chinese ancient culture penetrated also among them, especially in the reign of Han Wu ti, B.C. 100. They never originated, like the Hindoos, a mighty kosmos of the imagination, nor, like the Chinese, a complete practical system of the arts of life. The vast Cambodian temples, with their long colonnades, now hidden in the glades of unfrequented forests, the shining kiosks of modern Bankok, the books of prayers written on the palm leaf, the invoca- tions to Gautama, and the ascetic and convent life, are all Hindoo. The agriculture, the usages of commerce, the mode of government, arc all Chinese. Hence their languages have probably changed more than the Chinese. Speech owes its persistence to civilization. Ancient words are crystallized in litera- ture, even if they are dropped from their place in the familiar intercourse of men. Barbarous idioms alter 122 china's place in philology. rapidly. Laws of grammar, words, sounds, meanings, accents, are in perpetual transition. Hence the novel aspect of much of the vocabulary of these races. Living as separate tribes, the language of each has undergone rapid changes. But through all the principles of grammatical structure and the outline of the phonal system ajDpear to have retained their ancient features. The marks of primeval formation are most remarkable, and their consanguinity to the Chinese type is as un- deniable as is their likeness in lineaments to the common mother from which all languages sprang. We do not meet with any full representative of the Western branch of the Himalayan race till we arrive at Tibet and Burmah, and perhaps the Chinese Lo lo. The Karens are in a half-way position between the two branches. They place the adjective and the demonstrative pronoun after the substantive, and the case particles before the object, whose relations they define. The possessor precedes the object possessed, as in all the Eastern Asiatic languages. They have six tones and a strong attachment for vowel finals. All the consonant finals have been thrown off, except ng. Although in vocabulary they have borrowed much from the Burmese and Tibetan languages,^ they cannot with these laws of position be rightly classed anywhere but in the Eastern branch. What strikes the eye most remarkably in the Tibetan ^ Logan's Journal. TIBETAN PHONAL SYSTEM. 123 syllabary is the prefixed letters. The early speakers of this form of human speech, not having before them the idea of terminations, that happy device made use of by the founders of the polysyllabic languages, bent their strength unconsciously to add letters at the beginnings of the roots. In so doing they remind us of the Semite system, which, in the conjugation of the verb, prefixes n to make a passive, m to make a parti- ciple and an agent, and h to render the verb causative. The favourite prefixes of the Tibetans are g, d, b, h, w, r, I, s. Csoma de Koros says, they are in modern speech seldom heard. Hence this efibrt to" extend the mono- syllabic root at its beginning must be regarded as a failure. The letters thus inefiectually placed at the commencement of the words are k, g, d, b, m, r, /, s, and h. They help to distinguish words having the same sound, and thus in the written Tibetan they serve a useful purpose. Two letters are also added occasionally at the end of the root, namely, s and h. Csoma de Koros says, mi-mams is pronounced as it is written, but when the r is not preceded by a word in close combination it is silent. When these prefixes and suffixes are cleared away from the word, it is reduced to the radical form. Mi is the substantive root man, and nam is the plural suffix. The six consonant finals of the Chinese language occur again in the Tibetan, but with a slight variation. The mute surds k, t, p, all occur in the sonant form 124 china's place in philology. Qf dy h. The Tibetian cannot shape his vocal organs so as to pronounce k^ t, ^;, at the end of a syllable. This peculiarity is more fixed in the Tibetan than in the Siamese, where k^ d, and b occur as finals. In this respect, therefore, the Tibetan has the palm of an- tiquity ; for, as before remarked, there is a strong probability that k, /, and 2^ are newer letters than g, d, and /;, and have been derived from them. The capacity of the Tibetan syllabary is much en- larged by the addition of the finals r, I, s. By the separation of r and /, the Tibetan phonal system is shown to be more modern than the Chinese, which has only /, and to stand on the same footing with the Eastern Himalaic and Semitic systems. E is very abundant in Hebrew as a radical and a suffixed letter, and its extensive use in Tibetan warrants a sus- picion of ancient intercommunication between the two families. The Bod race left Western Asia later than the families lying more to the east, and would naturally remain in contact with a Semite population for a much longer period. In Genesis it is said that the sons of Ham were Cash and Mizraim, and Phut and Canaan. As Cush had eastern and western branches, so may Phut have had also, and he may be the race-father both of the Libyans and of the modern Tibetians, now spread over the whole of Tibet and Bootan in the Himalayas. That section of the armies of Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezekiel as belonging to the TIBETAN AND HEBREW. 125 Phuttian race may have been contributed by the Eastern branch. However this may be, the Bod race and the Semites are, at any rate, alike in their fondness for prefixing various letters to their words, and in adding r and / as suffixes. The Hebrews said gilgal, galgaly for a " wheel/' and giilgoleth, for a " skull," from which comes Golgotha y the Aramaic original of the Latin Calvary in the Gfospels. The Tibetians say kor, "a circle," khory "a wheel." The Chinese have gu, "a ball," and ku, "a garland," "a hoop." To this root the Tibetians added r, the Semites I, and then farther west it took the forms circuhis, kvk\o<^, kvXlvBci). The Sanscrit chakra, "wheel," and chakraioat, "circular," are from the same root, by the common change from k to ch. The Hebrew, ^^^J^ ngagiir, " revolving," 7^^ "revolve," 7llJ^ "round," may be also included, because the primitive value oiaybiy the initial consonant, is ng or g. Among the letters the surd mutes k, t^ p, are very weak. They scarcely fill a page each in the dictionar3\ The first k is the most important. The aspirated forms kh, th, 2^k, k', f, /)*, abound, as do the sonants g, d, h. Much the same law appears to exist in the Hebrew vocabulary. The two ^'s together cover fifty- one pages, while the aspirate heth covers seventy, and g and ng together ninety-seven pages. The surd ty the aspirate th, and the sonant <:/, occupy respectively, 126 china's place in philology. five, forty, and twenty-three pages. The labial series includes,^ and/ together, eighteen, and h seventy pages. Compare these results with the Sanscrit vocabulary, and it will be found that the tables are turned, k and its cognate ch occupy 108 pages, their aspirates eleven, and the sonants g and^ fifty-seven. The dental series, ty df and dh^ has the numbers thirty- one, forty, twelve. The labial series ]), b, and p\ h', has ninety-six, eleven, twenty-one. Here the surds have a clear superiority, and the influence of the aspirates has greatly diminished. These facts reveal the existence of a great general law, according to which the aspirates and surds grew out of the sonants. The older vocabularies, as the old Chinese, the Turanian, the Tibetan, and the Semitic, have a preponderance of senate initials and finals, bf c, d. Then the limits of language were extended to satisfy the ever-increasing wants of the historical races and the advance of civilization, and the aspirates appeared, k\ t\ ])\ h\ //, 6, (/>, /, with the surds /c, t, p, h. These would spring up in some countries contemporaneously. In others, as in the Tibetan and Tartar languages, the aspirates grew into use alone, and the surds slowly followed. This law embraces the celebrated Grimm's law as one of its particulars. The reason why dip, deep, door, are in German taiifen, tief, and TJiiir, is that the English vocabulary is in this respect older than the German, and that the German has advanced one stage farther TIBETAN AND HEBREW COMMON WORDS. 127 than the English in the development of the surd initials. Ky ty p, have grown out of g^ d, and b, just as we have seen r and /, in the Semitic and Himalaic systems, grow out of an original / in the old Chinese. Our English / and th have grown out of a more ancient b and d. Father is in Hebrew ab, in old Chinese bCy in Turkish baba, in Tibetan yab^ in Latin pater, in German Vater. In the older syllabaries it was ba and ab, and here we see another lurking similarity existing between the Tibetan and the Semitic families meeting as they do in the use of ab, yab, " father." It is found with p in some southern Chinese dialects, and in Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin. Modern Chinese agrees with English and German in giving the / sound. New vocabularies have a pre- ponderance of surds, as old vocabularies delight in sonants. Grimm's law is not so much a circular law, as one of perpetual advancement. TABLE OF TIBETAN AND HEBREW COMMON WORDS. TIBETAN. HEBREW. ENGLISH. MISCELLANEOUS. yum em mother lang lakahh receive Greek Xayxdvui. lug rahhel {ewe) sheep log, side tselang rib, side Chinese lok, rib. rum rahham womb rab, exalted rab great ring rahboq long, far Chinese dung. la r to Iha, ffods eloah God, angels langs, vapour, ghost rualih spirit, \vind rogs, friend r^-ang friend 128 china's place in philology. In this list of words common to tlie Tibetan and Semitic vocabularies, the circumstance that r agrees usually with r, and / with /, is itself evidence that the two families grew up together in their early youth. The Tibetan, like the Mongol, Cochin- Chinese, and the Indian languages, has not to this day admitted / into its alphabet ; but sh, which is not used in Mongolia or Japan, has here, as in the Semitic and Chinese languages, a full development. The tones of the Tibetan language are mentioned by Georgi, but no allusion is made to them by De Koros or by Schmidt. They are attached, like the Siamese tones, to the letters of the alphabet in sets, and are, I believe, arranged in a scale of two elevations, as is usually th6 case in Chinese. Dr. Jaeschke, a missionary long resident in Ladak, and who has extended his researches into the various provincial dialects, informs me that the tones are limited to the central provinces. To compensate for the loss in colloquial pronunciation of letters recog- nized in the written language, the Lhasa dialect has introduced (1), an aspiration which may be symbolized by the forms d/i, gh, hh, jli ; (2), a deep tone. The word chang, "beer," sounds high, short, and sharp. The deep tone is a lower slow rising inflexion. By comparing Dr. Jaeschke''s remarks with my own notes on the Lhasa pronunciation, as taken from the lips of a native visiting Peking, I believe it is correct to state TONES OF THE TIBETAN LANGUAGE. 129 that surds are pronounced with the upper quick falling intonation, and sonants with the lower slow rising. Among the sonants, however, there has been a loss of g, j^ r/, h. These are by the Lhasa people pronounced kh, &li^ t^h, ph. The loss thus sustained is compensated for by the lower or deep tone. This change resembles that which takes place in China in passing from the old middle dialect to Mandarin or to the Hakka, when du, " map," becomes Pu with the aspirate. In both countries the sonant is the older, and the aspirate with its special tone the newer form. What caused the tones? I believe Dr. Jaeschke to be right in his view, that it was the loss of letters. When certain initial and final letters, faithfully pre- served in the book language and in the dialects of the western provinces of Tibet, became mute in the neighbourhood of Lhasa, the tones were affixed by an unconscious effort of language to maintain dis- tinctions between words that would be otherwise confounded. This hypothesis of the origin of tones agrees with that advocated long since in my '' Gram- mar of the Chinese Colloquial Language." After the researches of Dr. Jaeschke, which show that the mute letters of the Lhasa dialect and of the written language, are all heard distinctly in the pro- nunciation of some of the frontiers, philologists must regard the written form of the Tibetan, with its 9 130 china's place in thilology. troublesome compound letters, asTaithfuUy representing the old state of the language. A Semitic principle here appears working itself out in a somewhat exaggerated manner. The language made too great an effort to expand itself by prefixes and sufiixes, and is now throwing them off, and gradually assuming the primeval monosyllabic form. The tonic element seems destined to extend itself in Tibetan, as it has done in Chinese. It is now in the Lhasa dialect doing the work which was formerly done by the difference between surd and sonant initials. The syllables kha and ga have assumed tones, and ga has changed to kha, so that they are now separated only by intonation. A native of Lhasa reads kha for ga, and intones the syllable. A subject of great interest in Tibetan is the post- position of the case particles. Excepting the locative case suffixes of the old and new Chinese, there was no earlier family from which the Bod race could borrow this idea. It manifestly originated in the post-position of the verb. For it is more likely that the case particles should take their place after their nouns, as an instance of a general law which drew all the verbs into that position, than that they should first go there themselves, and then draw the other verbs after them. There is little difficulty in con- ceiving the way in which the locative case particles came, in the old Chinese, to occupy a position after POST-POSITION OF CASE PARTICLES. 131 their nouns. They are in fact, as explained in a previous chapter, treated as substantives following other substantives in the relation of the part to the whole. In the phrase tHen hicij " the world," literally "heaven under," the word "under" is viewed as a noun, " that which is under." The possessive particle chi might be inserted, t^ien ch'i Ma, showing that we are quite right in regarding the Chinese post-position of the locative as only an instance of the juxtaposition of substantives. The Chinese language cannot, therefore, explain the great inversion of the Tibetan and Turanian languages, according to which the verb with the case particles comes after the noun. Perhaps the best explanation is found in a general tendency of these races to collect the energy of linguistic expression at the end both of sentences and words. The boldness of the Semite imagination was caused by religious culture, the habit of meditating on the objects of the spiritual sphere, and the possession of the primeval revelation made in the antediluvian period, and handed down from age to age. Hence poetic laws control the language and literature of the Semites. They attribute life to inanimate things, and action to objects that are at rest. They filled the world around them, as they did their grammatical paradigms, with the dis- tinctions of gender. The Tibetians and Tartars are at the opposite pole. They are almost destitute of 132 china's place in philology. imagination. The sun and moon, the river, the stone, the mountain, are to them simply what their names imply— *' A yellow primrose was to him A yellow primrose, and no more." They take the world quietly. Things are to them before action. Personification is to them an absurdity. The effort required to look on the universe as animated with living forces is to them almost impossible. Their books are translated, their alphabets are borrowed, and they have learned the arts of life from their neighbours. They let go with facility the old Turanian religion, and took in the place of it the Buddhistic faith, a creation of the dreaming Hindoo. This pleases them because it teaches inactivitj^. The thought of Nirvana imparts to them consolation, because it consists of unbroken rest. The Tibetians have two substantive verbs, nyug and dody which mean either *'to sit," or "to be." Sitting is being. Races of active intellect do not form substantive verbs thus. In conformity with this predisposition to inactivity, they postpone the place of the verb in a sentence to the end. All the details are carefully completed before action commences. A nation with very little poetry will have an unpoetical language, for the child is father of the man. A language, the work CASE PARTICLES. 133 of a race in its childhood, will be found to resemble the literature which that race achieves in its maturity. So the Mongol and the Tibetian, in intro- ducing the principle of the post-position of the verb, have only done what we might expect from the dullness of their literary development. The case particles in Tibetan are few. There is a possessive, kyij (/i, gyi, hi, and yi. In Chinese dialects occur as possessives, kii at Shanghai, ge and e at Amoy. They are probably identical with the Tibetan and with the demonstrative roots A:/, giy i. An s appended to the possessive particles makes them instrumental, and the sense, *' by means of," *' by the use of,'' is thus conveyed. Among the dative case suffixes the commonest, la, may be the Semitic le, used as a dative prefix. The Tibetians may have borrowed it at some ancient period of contact, before the Persian race separated them from the Semite area, and before they migrated to their present locality. The case suffixes, expressive of motion towards, tit and du, as in lag-tn, " into the hand," Bod-dii, ** into Tibet," are probably the Chinese to, in Mandarin taic, " towards," " to." The Mongol corresponding case suffix is de. After a vowel ru is used by the Tibetians for ta and du. This I incline to think is changed from du. Thus, ring, "long," is in Old Chinese dung, in Mandarin c'hang. 134 china's place in philology. The locative suffix in is na or la, and the ablative nas or las. Such is the beginning of the declension of nouns, which expanded itself somewhat in the Turanian languages, and grew to its fullest dimensions in the Sanscrit. We have also in Tibetan the rudiments of the system of derivatives. The following forms are in use : Monosyllabic Suffixes: pa, ba, ma, po, bo, mo, ka, k'a, ga, nga, ge, nge, ni, p'o, mo, bu, hu, gu, ngu, nu. Dissyllabic Suffixes : papa, pama, papo, parao, bapa, bapo, bama, barao. Closed-syllable Suffixes : ebig, zhig, chag, dag, nams. The various significations of these suffixes are as follows : Flural Suffixes : chag, dag, nam. Diminutives : gu, ngu, nu, bu, hu. Masculine: po, bo, pa, papa, papo. Feminine: ma, mo, pama, pamo. Agents or Verbal Substantives : po, ba {masc. or fern.). It is the tonic pronunciation which prevents derived words from becoming dissyllables and polysyllables. The inflexions attached to the root and the suffixes have a tendency to check the consolidation of the syllables into a unit3^ Yet this is in time overcome. In the Peking pronunciation of Chinese a suffix very frequently loses its tone and becomes de facto a part of the word which precedes it. ^ The verb forms its infinitive by appending /• to pa ^ Mandarin Grammar. THE TIBETAN VERB. 135 or ha, as hyed par (pronounced ched par), "to do." Byed pa is either a present participle or a verbal noun, *' doing." Byed alone is an indicative present, '* he does." In many cases verbs are placed in the indicative present by adding byed, "do," as an auxiliary, as in za par hyed, " he eats," gro par hyed (pronounced t'o par ched), " he walks." Other auxiliaries, zhin pa, lidug^ snang, are used with the same force. Verbs are made preterite by affixing s. An auxiliary verb, Iidug pa, "was," placed after a verb, changes it to the imperfect tense, as hong hdug 2)(i} " he was coming." The future adds hgyur. In the form for the imperative we meet curiously with a Semitic peculiarity. The vowel « or e is changed to o. Za, " he eats," becomes zo, " eat." Sel, "he cures," becomes sol, "cure." In the Hebrew paradigm, katal, "he killed," becomes in the imperative ktol', and sahah, "he surrounded," becomes soh. To a change like this there is no parallel in Chinese or Mongol, and it is difficult to conceive any explanation but that of ancient Semitic connexion. A precative is formed by the suffix chig, zhig, or shig. This may be the Chinese root sik, "give," or shung, " reward." The Mongols in their imperative add a verb "to give" just in this way, — T''a naded helji ug, "you me for speak give," that is, "be kind enough to speak for me." 136 CHINA S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. The conditional suffix na is undoubtedly derived from the root nak, which now appears in Chinese as jo and jUf "if." Thus, hyed na, "if you do." The changes in the prefixes of the Tibetan verb are due to a principle which was also at work, as before noticed, in the formation of the verb. To " call " is hgur/s, in the indicative present, bkug in the preterite, dgiig in the future, and k'ug in the imperative. The Chinese root is kok, " call," in Greek KaXeco, in English call. The prefix h frequently marks the present, b the preterite or future, and d or g the future. Another principle, to which attention should be drawn, is the change, with the moods and tenses, from sonant to surd and from aspirate to sonant, e.g. from g to k and from k* to g. TIBETAN. CHINESE. Present. Fret. Future. Imper. Ne%u. Old. ht'ags btags btag t'og cbi tek htogs btags gdags t'ogs hbigs P'ig dbig p'ig p'iau p*ok hbyed p'ye dbye p'ye ht'sog btsogs btsog tsog siau sok hdzem bzem gzem zem hgegs bkag dgag kie kak hgebs ^ bkab dgab k'ob kai kap INDO-EUROPEAN. texo Saxon tig, a tie prick TrpoTTO), irpayfjLa seco, section schamen, shame check uvtrro}, Heb. kafar SENSE. weave tie pierce do cut shame hinder cover ^ This is a widely-extended root. The Chinese kap means " head," "covering," "coat of mail/' and "to cover." The Tibetan has k^ob, "a covering," and mgo, "head." The Western languages have caput, Saiipty head, Ki I TV oi' CHAPTER VIII. The Triple-Branched Turanian Family : Japanese, Dravidian, AND Tartar. — First, the Japanese. — Japanese Syllabic Alphabet. — Common Eoots in Japanese. — Formation of Com- pounds. — Case Particles. We now pass the boundary between the mono- sj^llabic and polysyllabic languages. The dividing line is a sharp one, which the traveller crosses from, the region of tone sj^steras and carefully-pronounced inflexions of the voice to the freedom of polysyllabic speech. He suddenly finds that he is where tonic laws have been thrown away, and all accented and inflected elocution has been transferred from the region of the syllabary and the vocabulary to that of the passions and the will. It is but a short distance from the Chinese city to the Mongol en- campment, but the change of scenery is great. An agricultural plain, studded with villages and clumps of trees, with all the signs of industry, is left at the foot of the chain of mountains, alonof which the Great Wall is built. These mountains must be ascended, and at the height of 2,000 feet commences the table- land, which has received the name of "the land of 140 china's place in philology. grass." Field labour suddenly comes to a termination, and everywhere are seen the marks of pastoral occu- pations. It is the land of the roaming deer, the patient camel, the vigorous ox, of tents and fleecy flocks, and droves of ponies ; of vast plains without trees, and a limitless horizon, only varied by the undulations which this immense prairie has retained from the far distant time when it formed part of the bottom of the primeval ocean. Such is nature's own well-defined line of separation between the mono- syllabic and polysyllabic languages. But it is necessary to begin with an older stock than the Tartar. The Mongol and the Turk are much nearer to the Western type of language than are the far-ofi* Japanese, nor apparently can the Indian Tamul compete successfully with the Japanese and the Corean for the prize of superior antiquity. In looking at the Japanese alphabet, with its forty- seven syllables, generally terminating with a vowel, we remark at once several limitations. The letters r and / are not separated. The Japanese use r, and the Chinese /, and these letters are employed only to commence a syllable. In Mongol both are used at the commencement and close of syllables. The Dra- vidian languages have a very full development of r and I. As a child whose mother-tongue is English learns to distinguish the other letters first, and r and / last, so it is in the comparative chronology of Ian- JAPANESE LANGUAGE. 141 guages. The distinction between r and / is a sio-n of late formation. Judged by this test, the Japanese and Chinese are older than their Western neighbours. The word mid^ " honey," has final d in old Chinese, and in the Sanscrit it is madhu. In Hebrew we find mathak\ "was sweet," doubtless the same word, and here the final k is a Semitic addition. The Greeks had a wine called fxedv, "mead." The Turks and Mongols use / final, and change the initial ni to h, saying hal The Japanese have mits, and the Tamul madu. The Greeks and Latins appear to have followed the Turanians in the use of the final /, as in mel, jieXi, "honey," jjuekiaaa, "bee." Here the Greek is more under Turanian influence than either the Sanscrit or Germanic branches of the Indo-European famil5\ Also, the Tamul and Japanese both appear to be older than the Tartar subdivision of the Turanian family. Take another example. The Mongol gol, " river," is in Japanese kaica, in modern Chinese ho, and in old Chinese ga. The addition of / seems to have been made after the separation of the Tartar and Japanese races. The word for croiv, Kopa^, in Latin corvus, is in Sanscrit kdha or Ixarada. The Mongol is k'erhje, and the Japanese karasi. The Chinese have kwa, in the modern compound laukwa^ "crow," where lau means "old." The Chinese and Sanscrit forms indicate that r is an addition to the primeval root. The Hebrew form is Ty^, where ayiuy 142 china's place in philology. as very frequently happens, represents k or g, and the word may read goreh. The r medial connects the Hebrew, second Sanscrit, Mongol, and Japanese forms in one group. The last addition, h in Hebrew, v in Latin, ks in Greek, h in German {KrdJie), d in Sanscrit, ye in Mongol, si in Japanese, must, from its varietj^, have been made after the separation of the races. Thus, the Japanese, although to the east of China, are connected more closely with the Western than with the Chinese system. It may also be inferred that the Japanese brought r with them in their migration eastward, and the question then arises, whether the initial r of Western languages is older or younger than the Chinese /, to which it corresponds? The Old Chinese luty "musical tubes in definite lengths, used for regulating weights and measures," agrees in idea with the Greek pvd/ji6<; ; and the Latin ritns of the same group corresponds to the Chinese li or lit, *' ceremony." As I is easier for young children to utter than r (mothers tell me that they can say / a year and a half sooner than r), the palm of priority in the history of language should be accorded to / in this case ; and thus the bulk of Western roots com- mencing with an initial r may with probability be supposed to have taken it in exchange for a more ancient /. Another peculiarity in the Japanese syllabary is, that the aspirates are wanting. If words cross the JAPANESE SYLLABIC ALPHABET. 143 sea to Japan, whether Chinese or Mongol, the aspirated letters, k\ V , p\ become simple surds, namely, k, t, and hy or /. Insulation seems to be the cause of this change. The absence of sh, ch, zh, and J from the syllabary, gives it a very defective appearance, but this is one of the characteristics of some of the most important Turanian languages, and helps to establish the near kinship existing between them and the Japanese. Perhaps it should rather be said that these letters are used to a small extent. In Hepburn's very valuable Japanese Dictionary the syllables si, tsi, chi\ are written ski, chi, ji ; but this mode of writing, though doubtless convenient in some respects, is probably not so accurately descriptive of the real sound as the Dutch spelling. In explanation of the want of sh and its cognate letters, it may be men- tioned that in the Mongol and Tamul languages they are not found. The Mongol has indeed occasionally an shy but it is only, like the same letter in Japanese, a modification of si. So the Mongol ch^ is in fact a modified ts^, and j is a disguised d, as will be shown. The surds and sonants are by the Japanese con- sidered as so closely allied, that a short double stroke on the right hand is used to change h, t, and s\ into g, d, and 2. The letters /, h, p, are considered as one sound under three modifications. The double stroke denotes h, and a small circle p. Thus hamiy " god," 144 china's place in philology. " spirit," becomes garni, in the combination onna garni , '' a goddess." Here it is on account of a word pre- ceding it that /r becomes g. That k and g were originally one letter seems likely also because the sounds of the Chinese language are by the Japanese written with extreme irregularity. Thus k and g and other pairs of cognate letters, carefully kept separate in Chinese dictionaries, are in the Japanese transcrip- tion much intermixed. The Chinese sm, " heart," is spelt sin or zin ; and zhinj "spirit," ''divinity," "the genii," " marvellous," is in Japanese spelt sin or sm, as in zin riki, " marvellous strength " (in the native language, " kami no chikara ") ; while Japan is called si7i koku, " kingdom of the genii " (in the native language, " kami no kuni "). This tendency to an interchange of surds and so- nants is probably due to the recent appearance of either the surds or the sonants. In the S3^11abary, it is the surd series that holds the place of honour, and it is therefore likely to be the older. When the Japanese, nearly 2,000 years ago, invented their alpha- bet, or rather borrowed it from China, they made no provision for g, d, h, or z. This was a later addition, dating from the time when Corean, Chinese, and Hindoo Buddhists propagated their religion in Japan. As an auxiliary proof, it may be mentioned that the Mongol egmlCy " door," appears in Japanese as kado ; yek^Cy "great," as ikai; maihan, "a tent," as makuyaj JAPANESE SYLLABIC ALPHABET. 145 though this word may be directly derived from the Chinese {mUj in the old form) mok, "a tent,'* in Japanese mal'u, a ^' curtain."^ Why should /»: always occur? It is very likely that there was at that time no i^'yd (Welsh " food "). Padivu, " stooping," " lying near the ground," 2m- dukkam, "servility." Manchu hudiin, "vile." Mongol begen or hogen, "low" {g is apparently part of the suffix, and d is probably dropped). Japanese Jtikui, bikul, "low." Chinese joe/, j^h pi^h "low." Indo- European bottom, base, j^dOo^. Pal, "many," palam, "force," "strength," "fruit," "result," "profit," palan, "profit," "fruit." Japanese batasJita, " to result," hodoshi, bodosi, " to give," "bestow." Mongol butogehii, "fulfil." Chinese pei, pi, pid, "add to," "give," "annex to," "benefit," "assist." Indo-European fnictus, fruit, fortis, abundo. PaReii/a, " old," " decayed," p)aneimei, " oldness," "decay." Japanese /yevoLTo^ " let it not be," is evidently connected with the same root. The two Chinese words are probably one in origin. In prohibitions they preferred the final t or d. In the denial of existence they chose the final ng.^ Another Chinese root is j?/, |;«^, in Mandarin fei, pu, used to exj)ress contradiction, as in pu hau, " it is not good," pu laiy " he does not come." The Mongols say, boso, *^it is not so," in the eastern dialect, hishi. In Europe this root appears in the Latin j^er^o and perdo, perfidus and jwrjuria, in all w^hich the prefix per has the sense of destruction or badness. It is also our own word had. As a transitive verb it is in Chinese " to destroy " (fci) ; as a neuter, it is the substantive verb negatived; as an adjective, it denotes moral badness (fei lui, ''bad people") ; as an adverb, it is^j'?^ "not." The formation of the tenses preceded that of the personal endings. Thus, in the Tamil the form sey- gind-en, " I do," has for the mark of present time (gir) gind, and for the first person singular en. The first person singular in the aorist tense is sey-v-en, " I did." The perfect is sey-d-en, " I have done." In the older Turanian types, represented by dialects bordering on China, the personal endings do not occur. Thus, in * Mong, in Mandarin tvavg, is used for "to die" or "be destroyed." It is the Latin morior, Sanscrit wmra, Persian mardan. TENSE FORMATION. 189 the eastern Mongol, ''I kill," "tliou killest," ''lie kills," are expressed by bi alana, &lii alana^ Pere alana, while in Buriat-Mongol, spoken on the shores of the Baikal Sea, alanapy alanas, alana are used, where 2> is hiy " I,'' and s is c7i/, " thou." The distinction of masculine, feminine, and neuter is found in the personal endings of all the Dravidian dialects. Thus, in Tamil the third person singular of the perfect indicative is, masculine sey-d-dn^ feminine sey-cl'dly neuter scy-d-adu. This peculiarity, being unknown in the languages of Tartary and Siberia, is best referred for its origin to ancient juxtaposition with Semite or Indo-European races. If traces of Semite influence occur in Dravidian speech, it may have been from the neighbourhood of some early people of that descent in Persia. The Cushite settle- ments stretched eastward along the sea-coast from Arabia to the mouths of the Indus, ^ and the language of the Cushites difiered but little from that of the Semites. In Coptic and other Hamitic languages the distinction of masculine and feminine is still found in the personal endings of verbs.^ When it is also remembered what striking indications of Semite in- ^ Compare the geographical names, Cutch, in the Gulf of Kutch, near Bombay ; Gujerat ; Katsh, the name of a Tibetan province ; the Vale of " Cashmere," etc. 2 Reise dcr Novara. Linguistischer Thcil. In old Egyptian, t marked the feminine. A neuter gender was unknown to Semitic or Ilamitic grammar. The Arians probably introduced this distinction into language. 190 china's place in philology. fluence are observable in the Tibetan language, it seems fair to conclude that the races which occupied the Persian area immediately before the Arian, being partly Semite and partly Cushite, imparted Semite elements to the Dra vidian languages. The Dravidian tense marks are, present ginchi, giru, in Tamil ; ta, te, in Kannada ; chUy tu, in Telugu. Perfect f, d, and i. Future L Aorist h, v, pp. On the origin of the marks for the present no light is thrown by reference to the Turkish ar or ur, as in korhanim, korkarsen, korkar, "I fear," "thou fearest," "he fears," where um and sen denote the first and second persons and kork is the root ; nor to the Mongol moi, nUf na?nas, in hi ahomoi, "I take," t'a ahomoi, ''you take," t'ere abomoi, " he takes," in the eastern collo- quial Mongol abana, and in old books ahonam. The forms for past time are, on the other hand, remarkably similar to those found in the connected languages. The Turkish preterite inserts d, as in korkdiim, "I have feared," where m is the first pro- noun — our own me. The Mongol gerunds have among them a form in d, which may easily have originated the indicative preterite in d. For example, in the eastern Mongol, no^jin moran onad jidan beriji iheu hashigaran oroba, '^ the chief, mounted on his horse, and holding his spear, entered his great court- yard." JVof/in is "any chief." Moran is the second accusative of ?nori, "horse," and as such bears a possessive signification. TURANIAN GERUNDS. 191 Onihu is "to ride/' Its gerunds are oyiad, onamarif onaji, which may be used in succession in a sentence composed of several clauses like the preceding. Jidan is the second accusative of fid, "spear." Berihu is "to grasp with the hand," — the Chinese pa. Iheii, " great/' is the Japanese okii, " great." Hashigar is " a palisaded enclosure." Oroha is the past indicative of orohUy " to enter." The form in d resembles our English participial form in ed, which agrees with the past tense indicative, as in, "he was mounted on his own horse," or, " he mounted his own horse." The Latin equitatuSy or equo vectus, " mounted on a horse," are also equivalent. So is the Sanscrit participle in ta, as patita, "fallen," from pat, "fall." The third Mongol gerund in ji appears to be the same wide-spread form disguised by phonetic change, for the Mongol j has d for its etymological equivalent. The Japanese gerund in te nearly agrees in form and use with the Mongol. I take an example from Hoffmann: Te wo aghetefito ico manekiyuhu, "elevating his hand, he calls the people by signs." Te is " hand." Wo is the accusative case suffix. Aghete is the gerund of aghe, "lift up," the Chinese gu or kii, and Greek iryeipo). The Turanian prefixed vowel has, if this identification be correct, been retained by the Greeks from that time in hoar antiquity when the forefathers of the Japanese were next-door neighbours to the world-famous Hellenes. Fito ico is " man " or " men," 192 china's place in philology. in the accusative, and manekiyuhu is a compound verb, consisting of manclci, " to beckon," and yuhu^ ** lie calls." Hoffmann remarks that the suffix te means "at the time of," or '' by means of," and is locative, modal, or instrumental.^ The Japanese past tense takes the suffix ta, as in watal'iisiga mita, '' I have seen," where watakusiga means '' I," and has the honour perhaps of being the longest word in the world in use for that pronoun. Mita is the past of mi, "see," connected with the Chinese mok^ " eye." I suppose that, as in English, the past tense is of later formation than the gerund form and founded upon it. So in Greek, the participle \elircov preceded the imperfect or aorist eXiTTov, and both are later than the Mongol infinitive or participle in n, with which they are connected by a distant relationship. So also i/SovXevcra, " I coun- selled," and iffoukevOrjv, " I was advised," may be viewed as more recent forms, founded on the older l3ov\ei)(Ta<; and Pov\eu9€L<;. The Indo-European past tense in s, d, and n, is based on the participle, and this again upon the Turanian gerund. The Turanian intellect nominalizes the verb. Every verb is looked at as a substantive, and hence those parts of the conjugation which were first formed approach in their nature to the substantive. The Turanian in describing a succession of events gave to his verbs the forms of gerunds, and added to them, when needed, the case 1 Grammairc Japouaise, p. 177. PAST TENSE. 193 suffixes. Thus, eacli clause was a substantive. Yet, by the nature of tlie case, tbey retained a verbal energ}'. Time was an inherent element which was inseparable. The union of verb and noun in one word thus originated the participle of both the Turanian and Indo-European families. Then from this were derived certain indicative forms denoting past time. The origin of the past tense and past participle in d may be looked for, perhaps, in the ancient Chinese pronoun ti^ " him," Mandarin chi. This word is used as a preposition, '^ to a place," and as a possessive particle. I take an example from M. Julien's Syntaxe Nouvelle de la Langue Chinoise : Kwo chi kiun, " the kingdom's prince." The Mongol use of the suffix de in the sense of '' towards a place " is parallel. In the dialects of China the same word is used in the same way as the Mongol gerund. Tsu ts'i ping, tang tsang k'i tse,^ " he has become a soldier and gone to fight." Tsic is to " do," " be," " act as," old form sale, in Tamil scf/, ''do." Ts'i is the common sign of the possessive, here used as a mark of the gerund. Ping is " soldier." Tang tsang is a compound verb, "to fight." KU is '' to go," and is put in the past by the last word tse, a particle fixing past time. In M. Julien's examples of the use of clii^^ may be seen, Wei shu slicng chi, " only millet grows," said of the barbarians of Tartary, whose country will not grow rice or wheat. 1 Shanghai Grammar, \ 252. ^ Syntaxe Nouvelle, p. 75. 13 194 china's place in philology. At present the northern boundary of wheat cultivation passes at about 200 miles to the north of Peking. The word chi is here, says M. Julien, without signifi- cation. But may there not be here the commencement of a gerund formation like that seen in compounds formed with, the word cho in Mandarin ? Thus, in Wo chan cho ti ski heu, "while I was standing," ICO is '' I." Chan is '' stand." Cho makes it a gerund. Ti is the possessive sign to the verb-noun, chan cho. Shi heu is a compound noun meaning ''hour," "time." Looking at the use of chi in this way, and keeping in mind the Shanghai usage above adduced, the history of the gerund formation in d would become clear. The root ti appears in old Chinese literature, (1) with the meanings " this," "him," "towards," "go towards"; (2) with the pos- sessive sense, thus becoming a mere auxiliary particle ; (3) with a gerund-like signification, which comes out more distinctly in the dialects.^ The other Dravidian perfect in i and the aorist in h 01 V are interesting from their striking resemblance to the Latin perfect in uif vi, and imperfect in bam. In Mongol the ordinary past tense ends in ba when the root has a or o, and beu when the root has e or i, e.g., yababa, " he went," hckbeu, " he said." The ^ If this is not the true origin of the Mongol gerund in d and ju, it may be possible to find it in the Chinese Mandarin gerand cho, meaning originally " to hit the mark," "strike," "take fire," etc. CONDITIONAL TENSE. 195 form in ha differs in nothing from tlie Latin imperfect, except that the Latin has proceeded to affix the mark of the personal pronoun, a stage which the older Mongol dialects have not reached. The Buriat- Mongols, however, have added /;, s, f, to the three persons, thus making the identification complete. The Turkish and Persian languages, which have always been neighbours, both have m for the first person, as in the Persian imperfect budam, budi, bud, " I was," "thou wast," "he was," corresponding in Turkish to boldiniy boidung, boldi. The Manchus also have a past tense in bi. In Japanese ba is used to serve as a suffix to the verb in a subordinate clause with the sense "when,'' or "as." This appears to be the same as the Mongol conditional suffix bel. Hoffmann gives the example : 7/ama no ne kumo tsigit'etaraha yagate fare, " should the clouds on the top of the mountain be dispersed, it becomes forthwith clear." Here no is the possessive, yama is " mountain," ne is " the summit," kumo is " cloud," tsigiretara is " disperse," yagate is "forthwith," and /are is "becomes clear." Ba is " should " or " if." As to the origin of ha and bel as conditional suffixes, or as signs of the imperfect indicative, there is perhaps nothing more probable than an ancient connexion with the Chinese pi, " to compare," and pei^ " to give." The lost d of the latter of these words is recovered by comparing the Shanghai form p)'^^'' ^o^' P^i "^ith the 196 china's place in philology. Japanese hodohoshi, " to give " (N.B. Japanese h = p or b). The Japanese for "compare" is haiszru, *'to matcli/' " equal." The Chinese, as at Shanghai, use both words in compounds, as in swig peh la ngu, "present it to me," literally " present give to me " ; slang pi, "mutually compare." The Tamil has these words with or without an initial o. Thus, opjyanei is "simile," "parable," j;o/, "like as," oppdri, "comparison," oppiy " give," 2^oli or oppu, " likeness," " congruity," polii or op2)u, " to be lilvc," " resemble," oppumei, " similitude," oppuvi, "to give," "deliver." The Chinese has also the aspirated words p't, " a comparison," j;'6^/, " to match," " correspond to," and 2^1, " a match," where the root is in all cases j;//^. In the Indo-European languages, the Hussian has 2)OcIohief "resemblance," and iipodohleniej "comparison," where the prefixed u is curiously like the in the Tamil forms. The English has j;a?r, and the Latin ixir, "equal," and comparo, " to compare." The Latin parOy " prepare," is the Chinese hidy "prepare," in Mandarin pei. In Chinese there are also other members of this numerous family, namely, j;/, " he," and pity " other," already adduced in a previous chapter. The explanation now proposed of the conditional and past tense suffix in h is, that its original meaning was " resemble " and " give," and that it was appended as a verb, in juxtaposition with a preceding verb, as in the modern eastern Mongol helji og, " speak for me/' PAST TENSE. 197 where og means ^' give," and hclji is the gerund of of helhuy "to speak." In Japanese and Mongol it became suppositive, and in Dravidian and Mongol preterite. In this state it passed over into the Latin, when the ancestors of the Romans were still in Asia, and in close connexion with the Turanians. "What is given is passed over to another. The very word 2)ast means transferred. Bopp has derived the Latin imperfect from the substantive verb fiii^ forCy but there is this objection to that view. The same suffix for the past tense exists in Dravidian languages which have not this substantive verb. The substantive verb in h first comes into view in the Tartar languages. The older branches of the Turanian family, the Japanese and Dravidian, have it not, nor do they contain any traces of the first personal pronoun in m^ which is always found in the company of the substantive verb in h. The other Dravidian past in / — as in the Kannada aorist uv and in the Tamil perfect in / — resembles the Latin ui and vi. in docui and amam. Though it does not appear in the verb paradigms of the Mongol and Japanese languages, there is no diffi- culty in finding it in Chinese. It is the word /, *' already." By analogy the old form of this word may have been i or ici. The Latin, Sanscrit, and Tamil v is the equivalent of the Chinese w. The word /, "already," is in Chinese used in the sense 198 china's place in philology. "past and gone" (lower second tone), and perhaps originated the final particle ?', for which it is sometimes used.^ It differs in nothing from the third personal pronoun /, except in tone : a quality which, as has been shown, may be treated as having been non- existent 4,000 years ago. The same word also means ''other," "different." Hence the fundamental idea of it is " difference," in space, in person, or in time. Combined with jcUj " man," it means " a man of another country," " a barbarian " (lower first tone). It is a noun, "difference," in the sentence, ta thing siau i, "great similarity and small difference." In i ti, " a different place," it is an adjective (lower third tone). As an adverb it means "again," and as such it is the word pronounced in Mandarin yen, but in the Shanghai dialect f/i (lower third tone). As the third personal pronoun (upper first tone), it is still used in the south-eastern dialects. The Dravidian future in i or e is evidently identical with the Mongol future in i/a, and these forms together constitute an old type from which the Latin future in e and ie, as in regain, reges, and audiam, audies, may have been formed. Its origin may perhaps be discovered in the Chinese yau, which takes the old form o/r, "wish," "desire." It is a common sign of the future in Mandarin- Chinese. The k was early ^ For an example of the use of i, " already," as a final particle in a predicative sentence, vide Syntaxe Nouvelle of M. Julien, p. 186. FUTURE TENSE. 199 lost in the colloquial language. The corresponding western word is volo, icollen^ ivillj ^ovXofiac, and perhaps wish} That this identification is not unlikely to be correct may be shown by reference to the other Chinese signs of the future. Tsiang (old form siung) contains in it the sya^ which is the Sanscrit sign of the future, and the s of the Greek and Latin future, as in ^ovXevcTco, '' I will advise," OovXevawVy " about to give counsel," and ero, " I will be " (r for s). Another sign of the future in Chinese is pit, in Mandarin pi. It means " certainty," " certainly." ^' It will certainly be so." The word is the same with the Latin Jides, the Greek Tr/crrt?, and the Hebrew HtO^ hata, ''he ' T T trusted." This I suppose to be the source of the Latin future in bo, bis, bit, where bi marks the tense and 0, s, t, the person, as in amabo, '* I shall love." This affords a more natural explanation of the future tense formation than to derive it in the manner of Bopp from the substantive verb, fiiisse, futurus, etc. The Latin future in r, as ero, amavero, etc., is coin- cident in a curious way with the Manchu future in ra, re, which again strikingly resembles the Mongol supine in ra, re. A supine is a sort of infinitive put in future time, and hence in English the supine and the infinitive are not distinguished. The Mongols use ^ Compare wash^ in Chinese og, Mongol ogahu. Sh is a •western equivalent for the old Chinese final g or k. In German, the inserted n in ivunschen, "to wish," causes a difficulty in the identification. 200 china's place in philology. for the future both the present tense in moi or ne^ and also the infinitive in hu. Thus, in Turanian gram- mar there is not a little mutual interchange between the present, the future, the supine, and the infinitive. Hence it should be regarded as open for consideration, whether (if yau, '* wish," is not satisfactory) the Chinese substantive verb wei^ " to be," " to do," and in the third tone "for," "for the sake of," may not be the source of the Mongol future in ya, and so of the Dravidian and Latin forms already adduced. This verb exists in Mongol in nile, " an act,*' and ui/edhUf " to do " ; and is probably the root of our western anif was, icerden, est, esse, Sanscrit asti, Tamil iru, " to be," Japanese iru, orii, " to be," " to dwell." The syntax of the Dravidian languages is similar to that of Tartar and Japanese speech. This will be understood from some examples of Tamil sentences, taken from Pope's Handbook. " Open the door " is kadavii tira, where liadavu is the Mongol cgude (or in modern vernacular ude) and the Japanese hido, " door." The Chinese equivalent is gud, in Mandarin hu. The verb tira, " to open," stands last. So in Mongol ude nehe, " open the door," where nehe is the Greek avocye. An example of the participial construction is the following : ndji paditia pddam, " the lesson which I have learned." Nan is "I." Paditta is the past parti- ciple of jjadi, " to learn." Pddam is a verbal noun from the same root. Compare in Mongol hi omsiJiu ne ■ DRAVIDIAN SYNTAX. 201 bichi(jy ''the book I am reading.'' Here omsihn is the infinitive or present participle "reading." It is in the possessive case, with ne to connect it with the following noun, " book." The past participle would be omsisen, the other words remaining the same, and the meaning woidd be, " the books which I have read." The Chinese construction is similar, wo nien ti shi(, '' the book I am reading," or " which I have read." Here ti is the possessive (the verb nieti, '' read," being treated as a noun), and corresponds exactly to the Tamil td. The gerund construction will be perceived from the following instance : nadandu wanddui " walking he came," Mongol yahaju irehe. As j takes the place of d, the suffix ju is the same as the Tamil du and the Japanese te. The Chinese has the same order, tseu lai. The Indo-European languages invert the order, as in rfkOe, ^eircovy ''he came seein":," rediit videns. Another example is liettii wasittu emidindny " hearing, reading, he wrote." We should say, " he heard, read, and wrote." The Mongol would use one gerund in d, another in jiiy and then close with the indicative. There can be little doubt in regard to the pro- bability that the order of verbs in this Turanian construction rests on the older law ruling the order of verbs in Chinese, viz., that of succession in time. Hearing and reading precede writing. Walking pre- 202 china's place in philology. cedes coming. After the Turanian period, when an indicative was fulty formed, it was possible to transgress this order. The rich Indo-European verb paradigms allowed of verbs being easily distinguished from each other, and language was no longer obliged, in the interest of clearness, to maintain a strict adherence to the order of time in the arrangement of her verbs. A more complex example from Mongol will illustrate the syntax of an expanded sentence : Pere mande helsen ne uge hi marpasetij "the words that he said to me I have forgotten." T'ere is ''he." Mande is "to me." Helsen is the past participle of helhUy "to speak." It has the possessive particle ne. Uge is words. Bi mart'asen is, "I have forgotten,'" the participle being used as an indicative in the colloquial language. In the book language it would receive after it the substantive verb in the indicative, to complete its expression. The construction, with the participle, is here seen performing the duty afterwards assigned to the relative pronoun. Helsen ne uge is a relative clause. This was, in the early state of language, rendered possible by the fact, that the verb was viewed predominantly by the Turanian mind as a substantive ; and, as such, the office of finding room in a sentence for the relative clauses of western languages was considered to belong to it in one of its cases, viz., the possessive. But the more lively DRA VIDIAN SYNTAX. 203 and energetic attributes of Semite language had. in this respect greater influence on the Indo-European mind. The relative pronoun became the hinge on which the clauses of compound sentences could con- veniently turn, and the honour of accomplishing this duty was no longer assigned to the verb in the possessive. f L I P, R A U Y UNJ V KlfSl'^^• ()|- CAlJroiC.NlA. CHAPTER X. Third Division of the Turanian System. — Mongol as a Type of Tartar Languages. — An Old Turania in "Western Asia. — The Tartar Turanians come nearest to the Indo-Europeans. — System of Sound. — S and / for SH and D. — CS for S. — Final NG dropped. — No F. — Seven Vowels. — Tone. — Acci- dence. — Substantive Verb and First Personal Pronoun. — Mongol Declension. — Pronouns. — The Mongol Verb Conju- gation. — A Mongol Verb. — Adverbial Suffixes. — Mongol Syntax. The great antiquity of the Mongolian type of language is manifest from its being found in several of its leading features in the Dravidian area. The historical events which have separated the branches of the great Turanian family furnish to us an approxi- mate chronology for the early stages of Turanian development. They point to a period anterior to the dispersion of the Indo-European families, when there was a primitive Turania in Western Asia, from which the Japanese, Dravidian, and Tartar races proceeded. This time cannot be later than 2,000 years before the Christian era. At that time the Turanian verb had already its gerund, its past participle, and its TARTAR TURANIANS NEAREST TO INDO-EUROPEANS. 205 three indicative tenses, a scale of case suffixes, several polysyllabic derivatives, and a common syntax. The suffixes were attached more loosely to the root than in the Indo-European sj'^stem. It could not have been otherwise. For the Turanian type stands mid- way between the monosyllable of China and the richly elaborated polysyllabism of modern Europe. The difference between the agglutinated and inflected lan- guages is simply a question of lower and higher development. Linguistic types come one out of another, like orders in architecture, or ages in geology. The Indo-European sj^stem rests on the Semitic and Turanian systems, as they do on the Chinese, and as the Chinese does upon the primitive speech of Western Asia. The special interest of the Mongolian type consists in the fact that it comes nearest of all the three Turanian branches to the Indo-European. As Iran and Turan stood opposite to each other with hostile front, but in close contiguity, in ancient Persian remembrance, so Arian and Turanian speech, in many respects varying, stand to each other in the closest proximity. Their remarkable resemblance consists mainly in the formation of tenses by suffixes and in the extensive use of the same substantive verbs and personal pronouns. The verb " to be," the first personal pronoun in m or h, and the second and third in .s or f, are as widely extended in Tartary as they are 206 china's place in philology. in Europe, and they form an incontrovertible argument for common origin in language, race, and ideas. The same mental constitution which led the Tartar tribes to develope these roots in a declined and conjugated form, as the convenient expression of their ideas of existence and personality, led the Indo-European races to adopt them for the same use, instead of the more ancient substantive verbs and pronouns found in the Semitic, the Chinese, and the older Turanian lan- guages. That the Fins, Manchus, Mongols, and Turks should have borrowed this striking feature from the Indo-Europeans seems very improbable. It is worked thoroughly into the texture of their languages, and has nothing of the appearance of a foreign element. The Mongol and other Tartar languages have suf- fered less from phonetic decay than the Japanese and Dravidian branches of the same familj^, which have been exposed to the enervating effects of mild or hot climates. Hence there is found here a greater variety of sounds. Thus, the syllabary includes ng, n, m, g, d, b, I, r, s, among the finals. Of these, the last three are beyond the capacity of the Chinese vocal system, and they must be regarded as new. Thus, gol, "river," is formed by appending / to the Chinese root ga, in Mandarin ho. T'os, "opposite," is formed by dropping d in the old Chinese tod, " opposite," Mandarin tut, and adding s. The Tamil has edir, "to oppose." SYSTEM OF SOUND. 207 The Indo-European languages allow any letter to end a syllable. Thus, in English, in addition to the nine consonants by which the Mongols can close syllables, we have /, v, k, t, p, ch, dj, z, sh, and the surd and sonant th. This is an unmistakable proof of the advance in freedom which language has now made. In the Mongolic stage it had added three finals to the Chinese and Himalaic phonology. In Sanscrit the finals are ng, n, m, h, f, d, s, r ; difiering very slightly from the Mongol. In Latin, when we have repeated hand, aut, in, hie, colUs^ clam, f rater, muUiphx, we seem to have exhausted the capacities of the syllabary, and have only eight final consonants, d, t, n, k, s, m, r, x, of which the last, x, is a compound of two others, k and s. It is only in the Gothic and Sclavonic speech that language assumed the power of ending syllables with whatever consonants it pleased. Among these two, the Gothic has more freedom than the Sclavonic, and probably there is no language in the world that can compare in this respect with the English. This, however, is a distinction which has been acquired only after long and patient waiting. Language passed from the monosyllabic stage into the Turanian, from this to the early or southern Indo-European type, and from that to the later or northern type of the same family, before venturing on so great a leap. In Semitic phonology, on the other hand, language, with characteristic boldness, claimed the privilege at 208 china's place in philology. a most ancient period of using as finals the sibilants and liquids, in addition to the mutes and nasals which were the finals of the primeval monosyllable. The unaspirated surds A-, t, p, do not exist in Mongol or Manchu. These letters, as written by De Castren and Schmidt in their Grammars, represent aspirated surds. ^ They appear to have grown out of the sonants. Thus, t'ologai, '^ head," is in Chinese du, Mandarin Peu. So also t'ohf *'for," "on behalf of," is in Chinese t'ek and dak, in Mandarin tH and tai, " instead of." The aspirated k has in the eastern Mongol, which is that spoken in the neighbourhood of Peking, become hy but k' is retained by the western and northern Mongols. The want of sh in Mongol, or at least its very sparing use, reminds the student of the Greek and Latin languages, which also lack this consonant. The coin- cidence can scarcely be regarded as accidental when the many remarkable resemblances in words between the Tartar languages and the Greek and Latin are kept in view. In Mongol kHnnun or humun, *'man," ere, "male," nehemoi, "to open," gar, "hand," dalai, "the sea," chur, "horn," sara, "moon," nom, "sacred book," may be compared with ]iO)no^ "man," vir, apprjv, "male," avoi'yco, "to open," %e//3, "hand," OdXaaaa, 1 "Wliat the rule is in Turkish I cannot in Peking learn with certainty. The influence of Arabic and Persian may have led to a change of the aspirates to the pure surds. CHINESE B AND T REPRESENTED IN MONGOL BY J. 209 "sea," chuVy "ivory," crekrjvr), " moon," z;6yL609, "law." It is probable, therefore, that at some distant epoch a strong Turanian influence was exerted specially upon the Grreek and Latin sections of the Indo-European family, subsequent to the separation of the Indo- Persian tribes from the common Aryan stock. The Chinese d and t, in Mandarin often chy is in Mongol represented by j. Thus, ti^ " t j point to," diy "to rule," "to cure," tok, "candle, "to shine," tiy " decree," are in Mongol jahu, " to point," jmahu, "to rule," "correct," "cure,">/, "candle," "lamp," jerlig, " decree." In Greek and Latin the corre- sponding words are heUvvybi, indicOy rego, luceo, luXy lex. The law regulating these correspondences is, that words commencing with d and / in the Latin are found to agree in meaning with words whose initial is in modern Chinese c//, in Mongol j, and in old Chinese and Mongol d. As in the registered old sounds of the Chinese tonic dictionaries, dating from A.u. 400, some of these words are spelt with ty it may ' be reasoned that, as before stated, the old Chinese t probably came out of a more ancient dy for then it will not be surprising that I should be the Latin equivalent. The letters / and d have a known afiinity for each other, and appear to be related, as son to mother. L has grown out of d, and so also has r, and thus has been caused an expansion of the alphabet in Sanscrit, in the Semitic family, and probably in 14 210 CHINA S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. other ancient systems. This will be seen by the following example. PRIMITIVE IDEA, "TO POINT," BIK. CHINESE. SIGNIFICATION MONGOL. SANSCRIT, GREEK, LATIN. GER., ENO. ti, chi point jahu tilKVVjXl zeichnen. dik, ti lead daksha dexter token. di, da to rule jasahu dakshinat duco di, da to cure jasahu dux tok, tu oversee ejelehu digitus tu, chu lord ejen rajah rex le, li reason xSyos, lex reason. le, li to rule raj rego Recht. ti decree jerlig decet law. ti will h'lKaios dik, chi straight riju rectus straight. A final k OT g appears to have been lost from all the Chinese words where it is not marked in this list. In the Mongol eJeUf "lord/' n final is not part of the root. It disappears in declension, as in the plural ej'id, and in the verb ejelehu, "to rule." In the Sanscrit dalxsha, "right (hand)," dalshhidt, "south- ward," the double letter ksh has taken the place of k. The influence of religious ideas connected with the worship of light is perceptible in the east being regarded as the front and the south as the right. As in common roots the Indo-European r corresponds to the Chinese /, and the Indo-European I and d to the Chinese ch^ the transition from d to /, observable in CH FOR S. FINAL NG DROPPED. 211 the Chinese examples now given, must in all proba- bility have taken place at a time anterior to the separation of the races, and when the forefathers of the Chinese and Indo-Europeans still spoke one lan- guage. The primeval root dig became doubled by the change of ^ to / ; and while dig and lig both remained in Chinese, they originated in the Indo-European languages two sets of derived words, one set with the initials d or /, and the other with an initial r. In the English example straight^ s is prefixed to the root and r is inserted after the initial f. The same root occurs in the Semitic languages with the sibilant pre- fixed, as in the Hebrew tsadik, "just," Arabic sadik. The Mongol aspirated ts or ch is found to be the Chinese s, sh, ts, or fs. Thus, the words c'hitgtir, '^ a demon,^' c^/iasa, " snow," c'ho/wm, " accurately," *' altogether," c'/iag, " time," c^hilagon, " stone," are in Chinese sut, stnj, " an evil spirit," " to exercise demo- niacal influence," sit, "snow," sik, "all," "thoroughly," shiy **time," "hour," skig, "stone." The equivalent in Indo-European is .s or sh, as in &hadaho, " to be satisfied," satis ; &hilagon, " a stone," saxnm ; ch^i, " thou," ov. The change from c'Ji to t\ in c'hi, " thou," Va, " ye," is parallel to the change from the Greek av to the Latin tu, " thou." The final ng of many Chinese words is dropped in Mongol. Thus, soJaraho, "to become weak," lo, " dragon," gerel, " light," are the Chinese sung, 212 china's place in philology. "loosen," lung, "dragon/* kengy kivang, "light." The same tendency perhaps lurks in the Sanscrit Hdhu, " the demon of eclipses," and the Latin gloria, where an I has crept in after the initial. The Japanese and Tamil agree with the Mongol in dropping ng final, as in the Japanese ahari, "light." The word morningj Morgen, may be derived from the Chinese mang, " bright," in Mandarin ming, through the Mongol maragat'a, " to-morrow," spelled in books managar. Other common forms are magat'ara, maragasi. They all mean "to-morrow." There is a verb manahu, "to shine," " ascend like the sun." The want of / in Mongol suggests a close connexion in this part of the Turanian sound system with the Sanscrit and Greek. Its place is supplied by b. The vowels are seven. They are called by Schmidt a, e, iy 0, u, o, ii. These values answer for the western and northern dialects ; but for the eastern Mongol, spoken in the neigbourhood of Peking, and which has not been described by the Russian and German gram- marians, the values are rather a, e, i, 6, o, o and u or ii. The fourth is the English o in fond, the fifth and sixth are divided by tone, and the sound is the English o in bone. The seventh is sometimes the English oo in tool., and sometimes the French u. The distinction between the fifth and sixth vowels cannot be described in any other way than as a variation in pitch, the fifth being lower than the sixth. The eastern Mongol A MONGOL TONE. 213 bears evident marks of being the most ancient of the dialects. It has no traces of the personal endings in the conjugation of verbs which occur in the Buriat dialect. This double tone, therefore, of the east Mongol syllabary must be regarded as a link of con- nexion with the Chinese and Himalaic systems. In learning the Chinese language the foreign student meets with the tones in the individual words to which they are attached. In the Tibetan, Siamese, and east Mongol, he meets with them in the syllabary. It is the same thing. If the Tibetan and Siamese were written with a separate character, half ideographic and half phonetic, for each word, the tone mark would be attached to the character in some such way as that in use among the Chinese. The difference between the fifth and sixth vowels of the Mongol syllabary would be expressed by saying that all words enunciated with the fifth vowel are in one tone class, and all words enunciated with the sixth vowel are in another. The existence of this double tone harmonizes with the view that the Mongol language rests on the Chinese as its basis. If a language came between them, it must have had a tone system, which would occupy a midway position between the Chinese system of tones and that of which the last vestiges are now slowly disappearing in the oldest and most easterly of the Mongol dialects. In the study of the Tartar languages, and the 214 china's place in philology. dialects and languages of the same stock in European and Asiatic E-ussia, tlie occurrence of the substantive verb to be, and the first personal pronoun in m or b, is the most striking of all signs of kindred with the Indo-European family. The verb buhu, " to be," has a present boi, an imperfect bokii, a perfect buloge, a conditional bugesii, a potential boija and biibeja (?), three gerunds burun^ bured (?), bucjoHe le, and two infinitives biihUj buhwei. The root a, found in our auxiliary verb am, are, artj is also mixed with the auxiliary to be in a way resembling that to which we are accustomed in English. The parts are, a present amoi, an imperfect abai, a future aho or ayo, a conditional abasu, a potential amoija, a precative at'ogai, an imperative plural akt'on, two infinitives aho and ahivei, three gerunds aju, agad, and afalttf a participle of agency akc'hif and a past participle ak'san. The first of these, bu, is the Sanscrit bhu, in the infinitive bhavittwi, *^to be," or "become"; the Persian budan, ^' to be " ; the English be ; and in the Turkish bolmakj "become." In the Tartar languages the con- nexion of this root with the ordinary word for /, in Mongol bi, in Turkish ben, in eastern Turkish 7)ien, in Manchu bi, is manifest. The possessive of bi, " I," is manai, " mine." Thus, then, the English me in the accusative is the Mongol bi in the nominative, while the English possessive mine is the Mongol possessive SUBSTANTIVE VERB AND FIRST PERSONAL PRONOUN. 215 manaiy in the book form minu. It appears then that the English me and he are the same word, and that that in which the Mongol differs, namely, the con- vertibility of h and m, is derived from some Turanian language, the parent of the present Tartar languages. In the Indo-European family, m is appropriated to the pronoun and h to the verb. Hence their identification is not at first view obvious. In the Tartar languages, where h is used for the verb, and m and h are both in free use for the pronoun, the identification does not admit of doubt. The question then arises, what is the origin of the verb to he and the personal pronoun me? We have in Mongol and Manchu the word heye, *' body," in Japanese mi. This Japanese term signifies both "self" and "body." "We have also in Chinese mut (Mandarin wa) meaning "a thing." The Sanscrit matra, "matter in the abstract," and Latin materies, are by some derived from the word meaning "mother," in Sanscrit 7ndtd, in Latin mater. Further, we have in Mongol muUi " it is so," a strong affirmative, and in Hebrew ambiy " certain." The Mongol and Japanese substantives furnish the ideas of self. The Chinese, Sanscrit, and Latin substantives contribute the notion of substance. The Hebrew and Mongol verbs add the conception of certainty. Why may not these ideas have met in the formation of one pronominal and substantive root, destined to pervade the languages of mankind from 216 china's place in philology. Mancliuria to Portugal, and from Calcutta to Finland ? That this root is not used in the Semitic, Dravidian, Tibetan, Chinese, or Japanese languages, either as a substantive verb or personal pronoun, affords a strong presumption that it was not originally either the one or the other. If this hypothesis be correct, the com- bination of ideas, which resulted in the growth of the substantive verb in b and the first personal pronoun in m, must have taken place in the language which originated the present Tartar dialects. The locality of this language was probably Western Asia, or Persia, or Bucharia, for only in one of these countries could it be in such convenient contiguity to the Aryan race as to allow of the engrafting of this fruitful germ into the mother-speech of that famity. The other auxiliary verb amoiy I suppose to be the Chinese tvei, " to do," " to be." This was, as we learn from the rhymes of the Shi king, anciently called wa. In Sanscrit it appears with a suffix s, which is retained in our was and ivere, in the last of which s is repre- sented by r. The present amoi seems to be formed from the root a by the addition of hoi^ the present tense of the substantive verb in i, with b altered to m. The imperfect abai cannot be derived in the same way, because, as before stated in the foregoing chapter, the Dravidian languages have this tense form, while they are without the substantive verb in b. We SUBSTANTIVE VERB. 217 may refer it rather to a Chinese root, pet or hed^ *' to give." The form in M and that in hge may perhaps be derived from the Semitic le. The word le, or al, means "towards," "to," "into," and is used to mark the dative case. The form el, with a vowel prefix, gives in a more marked manner the proper and physical sense; and that with a short vowel suffix, le, is used for borrowed and metaphysical senses.^ The Tibetan language has la for a dative case suffix. In the Shanghai dialect the same word is used as a dative case prefix, and with the force of a substantive verb in the locative, as in the sentence, I la a U, " where is he?" literally, "he at what place." Here the word la, translated by " at," has the force of " is at," that is, it is a substantive verb in the locative case. Its Mandarin representative is tsai, anciently ze. The Mongol imperfect in lai and preterite in log a may have been formed from the Semitic le and Shanghai la, by the intervention of a gerund usage, or, in other words, a predominant use of the verb as a substantive. For " he has come back " the Chinese say htvei lai liaUy literally " return, come, finished." Three verbs are here in juxtaposition. Kwei, " return," is a gerund, and is translated into English by the present participle " returning." Lai, "come," is indicative, and is made past by the addition of the auxiliary liau, " past," ^ Gesenius' Lexicon Hebraicum. 218 china's place in philology. "finished," whicli is a modern particle, formed from a verb, liau, '* to destroy." The Mongol would say hairebe, " he returned," or haireji irebe, " returning he came." Put le in place of the gerund suffix //, and the sense will be, " in returning he came." Then drop the last verb, " came," and the form in le or loga becomes a past indicative. So in modern Mongol, as spoken in Peking, sentences such as the following are in constant use. — T'ere nidenen jil yabajiy " he left last year," literally, "he last year left." The gerund form in ji is here used as a past indicative tense. It ought to be yababa. It is ungrammatical. ^ But language is always busied in making new forms, successfully or unsuccessfully. If the Mongol lan- guage needed a past indicative, it might easily be made from the gerund in ji or ju in this way. So we may suppose the preterite in loga, colloquially called laij to have been formed. This is in harmony with the general principle, that tense and mood suffixes in the Turanian and Indo-European languages have been all formed from verbs viewed as nouns and used as gerunds. When gerunds, participles, and infinitives had been formed, they became indicative in past, present, or future time by the simple process of drop- ping the following verb. This principle of tense and mood formation is at the opposite pole to that which exists in the Semitic languages. Thus, VHl ^^J? DKI * The full form would add ic^Mbcy " went," after the gerund yabaji. SUBSTANTIVE VERBS. 219 zoth asH viJtheyu, "this do ye, and live." Here an imperative is used in both cases. To the Semite mind each verb was instinct with its own energy. He struoforled to secure to each verb in a sentence its full activity, and therefore he connected them by the con- junction and. This device allowed them each to be indicative. This vital character of the verb has been usually retained in the English version of the Scrip- tures, as in the same example, ^' This do, and live ; for I fear God." (Gen. xlii. 18.) Luther has altered the Semitic mode of expression. He translates, Wollt ihr leben, so thiit also ; denn ich fur elite Gott, " Would you live, then so do ; for I fear God," He has two clauses, of which the conditional contains two verbs, ivollt and leheUi the latter with a Turanian suffix ; and the affirmative one verb in the imperative. Compare this with the Septuagint rendering, Tovro Troirjaare koX ^TjaiaOe, tov Oeov yap iyo) ^o^ovfiat,, " This do ye, and ye shall live ; for I fear God." The imperative and future are here employed. The Greek is only second to the English in its capability of imitating the freedom and energy of the Semitic verb. How different is the Mongol — T'a her amifo haihwain t'ola egoni weiladoJxH'o)i hetnebesu, bi ber Borhan ec^he aiijomoiy " Ye, for the sake of life, should do this. I fear God." Ber is a particle which marks the nominative t^a^ "ye." ArnWo is " living," t^o being equivalent to the English suffix ing in living. ToUa^ "for," governs the infinitive 220 china's place in philology. haihUj " to have," " to be," in the genitive. Egoni is " it," the final i marking the accusative. WeiladokH'on is the plural imperative of iveiledehu, " to do." Heme' besu is the conditional mood of hemehUj *' to say," here used as a particle. Biy ber, " I." Borhan, " Buddha," is the term used for God in the Mongol version of the Scriptures. Aiyomoi is the present indicative of aiyohUy '' to fear," governing the noun Borhan by the intervention of ec'hey " from." The Latin vereor, *' to fear," which is the same word, sometimes governs the genitive. The Greek alSiofiac, " to fear," " reverence," "■ be ashamed," retains the old final d, which has been changed into r in the Latin vereor. The Chinese tvei, '* to fear," and the Mongol aiyomoi, have both lost the final d. Beside the verb huhu,^ *' be," there are also two im- portant auxiliaries, baihu, *'have," and boUiu, "become," " arrive at perfection." Bolhu seems to come from bolai, the imperfect of buhu, by simply treating it as a root and adding to it the usual suffixes. Thus, bu is " be "; bol is " arrived at being." In a similar way, werden, "to become," seems to be derived from war, ware, by appending d, the sign of the past, which would give it the sense " already come into being." To werd was added the infinitive suffix en, and with it all the suffixes usual in the paradigm. Add to bol the causative ga, and we have bolgahu, " cause to become." Perhaps baihu, " to have," used to assert positive FIRST PERSONAL PRONOUN. 221 existence, is formed in a like way from tlie past tense, ahai^ of ahOj "to be." But it may also possibly be connected with, the Chinese verb po, or ^;o/:, " to hold," " hold in the arms or hands," etc. On following the substantive verb root in b into the pronoun, we find it used in some parts only of the declension. As in English, I and vne combine to make up the declension, so in Mongol hi and minu form the nominative and genitive singular, while na, another root, forms the dative naclecl^ the ablative nadas, the instrumental nadavy the comitative nadaky and the substitutionary nadafa. The root nad or na I believe to be the Chinese nr/a, in Mandarin wo, and to be identical with the western egOj aham, ich, /, and the Hebrew anochi. The Tamil uses this root throughout its declension, as nominative ndn^ "I," accusative ennei, instrumental cnndl, dative enaJiku, ablative ennil, genitive en, locative ennil. The Tungus and Turkish use the root b or m throughout the declension. The Mongol plural blda, *•' we," is carried through all the cases. The root na does not appear at all in the plural. The suffix da occurs also in the plural of nouns not infrequently. The Turkish plural is biz^ "we," where z, we can scarcely doubt, is a changed form of d, as we have found the Mongol j to be derived regularly from d. The same plural occurs in the Hebrew aboth, " fathers," from ab^ " father." 222 china's place in philology. But t in the Indo-European languages occurs not seldom for a more recent s. The Latin tUf " thou," is older than the Greek av, as we learn from the fact that the Sanscrit, German, Armenian, Sclavonic, and Zend (Bopp, § 340), all use d or t as the initial letter of this pronoun. "We may, therefore, suppose that the original of the Indo-European plural in s is perhaps the Turanian and Semitic d and th. On looking for its archetype in the Chinese vocabulary, we find it in the word ta, ''many," in Mandarin to, and also in the demonstrative in t. The Japanese plural suffix domo is possibly the same. Should this hypothesis of the origin of the Indo-European plural in s be incorrect, the Mongols still have a plural in s, lost from the colloquial language, but retained in books ; and of this plural in s it may be found difficult to explain the existence in both the families without supposing an ancient connexion. I will now place in succession those grammatical suffixes, used by the Mongols, which seem to find their prototypes in the Chinese vocabulary, and re- appear in the Indo-European system of accidence and derivation. The old Mongol nominative in ano, rno, lost from the colloquial, is the Chinese and Indo-European pro- noun i or hif " he," " she," or " it " ; Shanghai and Amoy dialects i, "he"; Latin is, ea, id, ille, iste; English it; Persian o, "he," in, "this," an, "that." MONGOL DECLENSION. 223 The Persian accusative is ora, ''him." This r, with the Latin / in ille^ seems to be taken from an older Turanian form, which appears in Japanese as are and in Turkish as ol. The Tamil has masculine ivan and avany feminine ival and aval. As v represents w, these are only the lengthened forms of the Mongol ano^ ino. Many Mongol words ending in n consist of a root and a pronominal suffix iuo, shortened into Uy as moriti, '* horse," from the Chinese mo, '^ horse." The Mongol book genitive in in, u, and on may have been formed from the same pronoun, just as the Indo-European genitive in sija, s, is, was originally the third personal pronoun sa (Bopp, § 134 and § 194). How this took place we see plainly enough in Chinese. Thus, the sentence " My house " in primeval speech would be "I that house." The old Chinese has 7iga hung, " my house," or nga ti hung, where ti is the old pronoun '' that," '' it," called in Mandarin cM. The natives of Amoy say Giva e &lm, where gica is "I," e is the sign of the possessive, and &lm is "house." In this instance the possessive mark is obviously our pronoun. The Shanghai people say Ngn ku vang tsz, literally, "I that house." In that dialect ku is ''that." The Northern Chinese say TFo ti fang ts'i. The old initial ng is lost from the pronoun " I." The third personal pronoun in t appears as a possessive auxiliary, and the soft v of Shanghai, representing the more ancient h, is replaced by the modern /. They also 224 china's place in philology. say, when speaking somewhat loosely, Wo die ko fang ts'if " I this house," where che ko is demonstrative " this," but also contains in itself the germ of a possessive case. Thus, in Chinese dialects the third personal pronouns in ?', in k, and in t, are all used. The other demonstratives in na and t^a may also be expected to occur as genitive suffixes. Thus, the Japanese use no. The Turkish has ning. The Mongols, as before remarked, use 7iu in the personal pronouns. The German has a possessive meiti, our own mine. The n may be explained in the same manner. The dative suffix dor, de, "to," "in," "by," "at," is the Chinese old demonstrative pronoun ti, Mandarin ch'i, which is also the probable parent of the gerunds in Ju and d, as explained on a former page. Just so Bopp traces dative suffixes in Indo-European languages to demonstrative pronouns (§ 164). But as to and ti, in Mandarin tau and c/ii, are both words meaning " to," " arrive at," the root ti, in its first sense demonstrative, will in its second sense have become a verb, and then, thirdly, it may have been taken by the Mongols to form a dative. So the demonstrative i in western languages is also a verb " to go," and then a dative, as in rcgi, "to a king," irathl, " to a boy." The accusative suffix in /, gi, is formed in a similar manner from the Chinese pronoun gi, " he." Compare the accusative te, thee, me, dick, mich. SUFFIXES. 225 The instrumental suffixes hcVj yar, affixed to nouns to mark the thing by which an act is accomplished, are the Chinese verbs ^m, ''take hold of," "handle," and h yX " ^0 take." Both these verbs were probably formed from demonstratives. P/, '' that," would originate pa ; and ?, "he," would give existence to «, "take," "by means of." What more natural for primitive man, when alreadj^ furnished with demon- strative pronouns, than to use them in describing both motion toivarcls the positions indicated, and action with or hj ?neans of the objects spoken of. So Bopp identifies the Sanscrit instrumental a with the pro- nominal stem d and with the preposition a, "to," "into," "reach to," sprung from the same demon- strative. (§ 158.) The second instrumental, or, as De Castren calls it, comitative case suffix in loga, appears to be connected with the Chinese dunff, "with," in Mandarin t'nng, and lung, " collect," " meet in one place." The Chinese final np is usually omitted in Mongol. Here g seems to have taken its place. The ablative suffix e'che has for its etymological equivalent se, which resembles the Chinese g dzi, "from," in Mandarin ts'i. The Chinese term also means "self." The prefix t is probably not primeval. The old form in all words commencing in ts is dis- covered by dropping t. This word thus seems to be the same with the Latin se, "self." 15 226 china's place in philology. The adjective suffix Po is probably the demonstrative in t aspirated. Thus aWet'o, " golden," corresponds to the Chinese Mandarin kin ti, where kin is " gold," and ti is the unaspirated demonstrative in t, here used as a termination imparting to the substantive "gold" an adjective character. So also the older Chinese lai che^ "he who comes," is formed of laiy "come," and che, the unaspirated demonstrative in t, pronounced anciently te. The Japanese form their adjectives in the same way. Thus, they say for " golden," kin no, using the genitive suffix, which, as already explained, is the demonstrative in n. Thus, we see the adjective, the present participle, and the possessive pronoun, all proceeding from the same stem, and in the first stages of language- formation indistinguishable from each other. The demonstrative pronouns pervading all the European and Asiatic families of languages may be ob- served to play just as important a part in the building up of the Turanian grammatical system as they have been shown to do in that of the Indo-European famil3\ The adjective suffix in hi seems to be formed from the Chinese third personal pronoun gi. Thus, dorahiy " that which is below," English doivn. The diminutive suffix hen, han, attached to adjectives, is probably the Chinese ngan, found in the Shanghai dialect in the sense of " a little." Thus, holahan, "somewhat distant." The original sense is "an eye," "a small aperture," hence "a very little." PRONOUNS. 227 The intensitivc h, inserted to increase the force of the quality described, as in &hah &liagan^ "exceedingly white," ah addi^ "exactly the same," hah hara^ "very black," is perhaps hit, " to add," in Chinese pel, " to double," in Anglo-Saxon hotan, " add," English hoth. In their declension the pronouns are like the nouns, but there are some differences. * The personal pronouns have an inserted m in the dative and accusative of c'ki, " you," as in chimadorj " to you," cliimei, " j^ou " (objective). This may be the dative hi, of tihi and ^ihi. As already seen, the Chinese have a verb iwt, " to give," and pa, " to take hold of." These roots formed dative and instrumental suffixes in Latin and Sanscrit. Perhaps this suffixed m may, however, be more correctly identified with the demonstrative root ma, used interrogatively in Chinese and Hebrew. The occurrence of the second personal pronoun Va, " you," in Mongol, points to Semitic juxtaposition in ancient times. The existence of a Semitic element in Mongol is not impossible. Compare the Hebrew rah, " many," with the Mongol airihen, " many." The Hebrew pronoun atta, " thou," feminine at, has a plural masculine attem, and a plural feminine at ten. The first syllable, at, is said to be a demonstrative prefix, and stands for an, found in the kindred dialects and in the Egyptian. The principal letter is t. In the Indo-European languages it appears as t, d, and s. 228 china's place in philology. In the Mongol and other Tartar languages it is s (or c'h for s) in the singular, and t aspirated or s in the plural. The Turkish and Manchu prefer s in the singular and plural. The Mongol has t' in the plural. The same law which softened t into s in the Greek operated in the neighbour dialect of the Tartars, at some ancient period when the areas of the Greek and Tartar races were contiguous. The vowel a of the Mongol plural in t'a, " ye," is very suggestive of a connexion with the Greek and Latin neuter plural in a, e.g., in saxa, " stones," ea, " these." The distinction of gender, a Semite peculiarity, was borrowed by the Indo-Europeans subsequently to the time when they became dissociated from the ancestors of the Tartars. The neuter would precede in time the masculine and feminine forms, and this Mongol plural in a may be a very old linguistic relic. It is probably the demon- strative pronoun a. As the second person in t is not found in any part of Europe and Asia, except in the Semite Indo-European and Tartar areas, it need not be regarded as a primeval word, belonging to the world's first language. It may be borrowed from the demonstratives. The true primeval pronoun of the second person is the Chinese ni or nu, found in Sanscrit, Latin, and English, in the forms i/ui/am, vos, and ye, you. Here it is assumed that n has been prefixed in Chinese to the original vowel ?*, which I suppose to have been appropriated to the second MONGOL PRONOUNS. 229 person. The vowels may be imagined to have been distributed in the following manner. FiBST Person. U Second Pehson. Thied Person. The root of the first person was a. This became in Chinese and Sanscrit, by prefixing certain elements, nga and aliam. The Sanscrit-speaking race prefixed first h (for ng)^ and then a, and afterwards added m. The root of the second person was /. The Chinese prefixed n. The Sanscrit appended yam. The root of the third person was Uy which appears in the Chinese e, the Turkish o/, the old Latin ollus, the later ille, is. The Chinese use for "this" and "that," t's'i, pi, or more recently c/ie, na. The Mongols say ene, fere, "this," "that," and yim, t'im, "in this way," "in that way." The Germans use the demonstrative in d for "this," and that commencing with ye for "that." The English in this and in that employ the sonant th Evidently it matters little which of the pronouns is used. The principle running through all is, that some one of the demonstratives shall be used when speaking of near objects, and some other when they are farther removed. 230 china's place in philology. The interrogative pronoun hen is worth comparing with the Sanscrit forms. We find hen, *' who ? " hanasa, "from whence?'* heden, "how many?" hedui, " how many ? " liencdhi^ " whose ? " The Sanscrit has hah, "who?" kati, "how many?" kada, "when?" kat'amy " how ? " The Latin has quotj "how many ? " quisy "who?" quandOy "when?" The Mongol hejej "when?" is formed of the root he and the locative suffix je for de. When the Turks say kaehan for "when?" and kaeJi^ for "how many ?" they disclose the fact that cJi takes the place of d with them, as j does that of d in the Mongol. The ti in the Sanscrit kati and the t in the Latin quot are the Turanian plural in d, and the do of quando and da of kada are the Turanian locative suffix. The adverbial suffixes for time, place, number, and manner, in the Indo-European languages, are vestiges of the old Turanian declension. Quis and kah are the same word as the Mongol hen and the Turkish kih. The Chinese demonstrative gi, "he," and interrogative ki or kuiy " how many ? " are forms of the same root. The oldest is the demonstrative gi. From this sprang the Turanian interrogative Jieny "who?" and the Chinese ki, "how many?" This ki I suppose to have lost a final d, which was the word ta, "many," in Mandarin to. Ki-da became shortened into kid, and the d was afterwards lost. There is an old interrogative koj), " why not ? " in MONGOL PRONOUNS. 231 Mandarin hOy which is compounded of ho^ ''what/' andj9;^ "not." This word, there can be little doubt, has grown up in this way by the running into one of two words originally distinct. The 2^ final is retained in the south-eastern dialects, but is lost from the pro- nunciation of the other parts of China. In Ningpo the deprecative jyu yung, " do not," is heard vong. This is compounded from veh, " not," and yung, " use." Other examples might be adduced from dialects old and new. AVhen the Pekinese say pier for "side," they in so doing run two words into one. The words are ^j/^;^, "side," and uVj "a son," used as a suffix for substantives. The suffix loses its tone and becomes part and parcel of the word to which it is joined. Thus the flowing of the two words into one, here claimed as the origin of /iO/:>, is in harmony with Chinese modern practice. With regard to the assump- tion that a d or t has been lost from the word ki, I think that any one who carefully examines the cha- racters in which it is used as a phonetic symbol, will conclude that it is so. jf^ /r?*, is "a good omen." Here we see the word kit, ± "good luck." ^ ki, is "to cut asunder." Here we see kat, " to cut." ^ ki, " a boundary," " the emperor's domain." Here appears the same root kat, "to cut." That which is cut ofi* receives as its name the name of the action which cuts it ofi". The word ^ kiai, "boundary," has almost certainly the same origin, and has lost t 232 china's place in philology. in the same manner. It means '' that which is cut oflP.'' The Hebrew Ixatsah signifies both to ''cut off" and • to " end." The Mongol hijagar, " boundary," retains the lost cl in the modern j. The phonetic ^ having anciently the same final d, we may then be allowed to regard as identical with the Chinese ki the Mongol heden, and the Latin quot. The origin of the Chinese ki, ''how many?" may thus be seen to resemble that of the German compound wie viel and the English hotv many. Ki, how, wie, quisy TToaoL, are the same word. The Chinese, Mongol, Latin, and Greek forms added da or ta, "many," dropping the vowel, and in the instance of the Greek changing t into s. The Germans appended viel (the Greek ttoXXol), and the English the word many. The source of the interrogative element in the Chinese word is either ^ gi, "he," or ga, "what," jpj", in Mandarin chH and ho. Of these, I suppose the demon- strative to be the earlier, and the interrogative to be formed from it. The Turkish has kanda, "where?" kirn, "who?" kih, " that," " for," " who," kach, " how many ? " kachan, "when?" We learn from these forms that the re in irore and the do in qiiando, "when," are the Turanian locative sufiix dc, " in " a place. The other Turkish form, kani, is probably formed from the root nip, ni, "in," "the inside," as in the Chinese wei tiy " inner land," kung nei, " in the palace." MONGOL ORDINAL NUMERALS. 233 Perhaps the n in the English lohen^ and German wann may have been derived from the same root. The m of Uim may be the Chinese and Semitic inter- rogative ma, '' what ?" Kill reminds us of the Hebrew ^3 ki, ''for," originally a demonstrative. While the cardinal numbers in the Mongol are very different from those of China or of the Indo-European languages, there is in the syllabic addition for the or- dinals a remarkable resemblance. The Chinese prefixes r/e (Mandarin ^/). The Mongol adds f/o^ftr. The Sanscrit adds tiya, the Latin iu8, the Greek ro^, the English th or dy the German te. For example, Chinese de si, Mongol diirebdogar, Sanscrit chaturt'a, Greek rerapro^, English fourth, German vierte. The root of all these forms is the Chinese de, " order," '' degree," found also in the form tit, in Mandarin chi, in the same sense. The Mongols say ded ded yar for " in suc- cession." A ^ or ^ final has been lost in the ordinal. Since r, I, and d are interchangeable letters, we may expect to find the same root in the form rod or lad. Compare in Chinese led, in Mandarin He, " to arrange," ''place in order," the Greek dptO/jLo^ and pvdfMo^, and the Latin ordo, litera (though this may be from lino, " to smear "), the Russian roda, " a class," etc. The Mongol verb consists of root and suffix. In * Compare the Anglo-Saxon form in an, as in niw-an, "lately," amidd-an "amid." — Vernon's Anglo-Saxon Guide, p. 71. 234 china's place in philology. this respect its formation is like that of other Mongol words. They are not compounds consisting of two roots, but of one only, with a servile accompaniment. This servile appendage, however, must originally have been a root having a significance of its own. There was a time in Turanian history when its long suffixes, varying from one syllable in length to four or five, were separate roots, arranged in juxtaposition like the words in Chinese sentences. Before the Dravidian and Japanese branches separated from the Tartar, many verbs had assumed servile appendages, while the right to place roots side by side without servile syllables was still retained. After the separation, the Tartar dialects gave up this privilege, and submitted to the necessity of introducing at least one servile syllable after every verb root, except when used in the imperative mood. Most of the original roots needed to account for the servile syllables in the Mongol conjugation occur in the Chinese vocabulary. They may be arranged in groups thus : — 1. Words suitable to form past tenses are such as hat, " ended," dziny '' to end," " exhaust," tiy ** bring to a standstill," UaUy " decay," " end," mot, '' end," zeng, " already," ivan, *' finished," hang, " pass through," f/i, ''already," tse, "past," ka, ''passed." In Mandarin pa, tsin, cKi, liau, mo, t'seng, tvan, king, i, kwo. 2. Words suitable to be the source of future tense MONGOL CONJUGATION. 235 suffixes, yOy "want," yoky "wish,'* ngetiy "desire," pit, " certainly," tsioncj, siong, " beside," " assist," " lead." In Mandarin yau, yii, yuen, pi, tsiang, siang. 3. "Words suitable to form a conditional mood, kip, "give," t'si, si, "give," shong, "to reward," i^e?', "give," u, "give," 7^?^ "permit," (//A-, " hand to," "present," sung, "to present," "accompany." In Mandarin kei, ki, t's'i, shang, pei, yu, hu, ti, sung. 4. Permissive words are nung, bang, hu, nim. In Mandarin jang, p^ing, hii, Jen. 5. AYords suitable to form gerunds and present participles, ti, old Chinese genitive, also meaning "to," "towards," "him," "it," gi, t'a, ui, "he,"'/iez or nip, "within," (he, "at," le, "within," la, gip, "to," yu, " at." In Mandarin ch'i, chH f'a, i, net, tsai, li, ki, yii. 6. Causal words are, ko, " call," " cause," " instruct " (Mandarin kiau), ski, "use," "one who is used or sent," ling, "command," "cause." 7. Collectives are, dzip, " gather," dzu, " collect." Mandarin tsi, tsii. In addition to this large storehouse of Chinese words, adapted to supply the necessities of the verb formation, the ancestors of the Mongols were also able to borrow from the old Turanian and Semitic vocabu- laries, in those departments where they hapj)ened to be fuller than the Chinese. 236 china's place in philology. A Mongol Yerb. Indicative Present. — Book-forms, abomoi, abon amoi, abonam, " I take.'' From the substantive verb a?noif tbe English am. The suffix n is that of a gerund, and this originates the eastern colloquial abona. Frequentative Present. — Abodag, " I am con- stantly taking." Perhaps from the Chinese dung, "constantly." Mongol &hang. The Latin frequen- tative syllable is ^^, Imperfect. — Alaba, " killed." Suffix ba either from pet, " give," or from bat, " ended " (see chapter on Tamil). Another form for the third person is alaron. This suffix ron can only be derived from some western source. The letter r shows that it is not Chinese. It agrees remarkably with the Latin third person plural of the perfect tense, amaverunt, docuerunt, and with the third person plural middle voice of the Sanscrit potential and precative modes in 7'an. As the Mongol verb does not distinguish persons, this exceptional form must have crept in irregularly at some ancient period from an Indo-European source. Perfect. — BerUoga, "have grasped it." From loga, a post-position meaning "with," "at," Chinese la, Tibetan la, Semitic al, le. Pluperfect. — Bagoksan buloge, "he had come down." From the past participle of bag oho and the preterite of buhu, " to be." MONGOL VERB. 237 Future. — The suffixes sogai^ ho, and ya may be compared with the Greek future in aoi and the Latin in am. Looldng back, the most probable original roots, as found in Chinese, are yok and tsiong, " to wish," and " to lead," respectively. The form in ho is the infinitive, which is probably formed from the third personal pronoun gi. Conditional. — Suffix besii. In colloquial be!. Gem- sihel, "if I repent." Pluperfect conditional ogusen bo/besu, " if I had given," viz., the preterite participle of oghu, " to give," and the conditional of bolhu, " to become." The origin of this mood is probably to be found in the Chinese pet, "give," and pi, "compare." Potential. — Idemoija, " he perhaps eats." Ujisen boija, "he may have seen it." Both these verbs are familiarly used throughout Europe, edo, "eat," video, "see." Baga and bija are common in the eastern Mongol. Ba and bi are the same root ptet, which forms the conditional. Ja for da seems to be the root da, " give," which perhaps lurks in the Chinese dik, " to present," " offer to." Precative and Imperative. — The simple root. Song- sa, "hear." In the first person singular and plural the future in ya is used, as yabiya, "let us go." "Let him go" is yaboge. The suffix ge may be the Chinese ngen, "to desire," or Jio, "permit." Gerunds. — Present in n. Onggac^hi dere gar an yababa, " going out to the boat he went away." The 238 china's place in philology. Greek participle in v, the Latin in ns and nt, the Anglo-Saxon in nd^ the colloquial English in n, and the modern English in ng, have their origin in this Turanian form. The Chinese roots which come nearest to it in sound are yin, " cause," yuen^ ^' cause," nei or nipf " within." I prefer to regard yin as the true root, and identify it with our preposition in, iv. Gerund in ju. Old form du. Chinese pronoun and sign of genitive ti. In Mandarin ch'i. Identical with the English past tense in ed. Gerund in d. Schmidt calls it past, but it is little more a past tense than the gerund in Jic. Probably it is of the same origin. Gerund in 7nan. A colloquial form. JBada idemen irebetfj "after taking food he came." Gerund in tala and sagara. Colloquial sara. They limit the verb in "time." Tala is "until," and sara, " during the time of." Nar onatalei helchibeu, " he conversed till the sun set." Origin, the Chinese to or tan. English to and till. Sara probably originates in the Chinese dze, " at," " to be in," or " at." Example, nder uder ireser haina, " daily he is in the habit of coming." Gerund in ltd. A sort of passive gerund. The future participle passive of western grammar, e.g. amandiis, " deserving to be loved." Examples, hicheltei, " deserving to be w-ritten," ichcltci, " worthy to be gone to," ene chichig njeltci, " this flower is worth seeing." MONGOL VERB. 239 Formation : the / in hichcl is a derivative suffix, form- ing a verbal noun. It may be originally la, " to." The syllable tei is an adjectival suffix, and must be referred to the pronominal root ta, *' that." The Latin dus in amamlus may in the same way be viewed as demonstrative. Supine in ra, re. In Manchu and Latin, re is the infinitive suffix. In English the same preposition, ''to," marks both the infinitive and the supine. We may, therefore, without hesitation, identify the supine of the Mongol written language with the Manchu and Latin infinitive. The colloquial supine in Eastern Mongolia is the infinitive construct in hwei, e.g. vjihwei ichiheu, "he went to see." The INFINITIVE ends in ho, hu, and hwei. The Turanian conception of the verb being intensely sub- stantive, the infinitive is regularly declined as a noun. Origin : the Chinese pronoun gi, Latin hie, English he. The form varies, as in ho or hu, according as the vow^el of the root is a, o, or e, u. It may be called the free infinitive. The form in hwei, or Jioi, is the in- finitive construct, and is used in declension, and as a supine, e.g. Jiokla hicen t^ola garaba, " he is gone out to sell." Here the suffix t'ola, " for the sake of," follows the infinitive in the genitive. Participle. A present in gchi or chi. As yahokchi, " going," " he who goes." It is used profusely for all classes of agents. Origin : demonstrative in s. In 240 china's place in philology. Chinese t's'i, si. In Sanscrit, sah. There is also a past participle in gsan, san. For example, yabasen, " gone," in the book-form yahagsan. Origin : Chinese zeng^ '' already," in Mandarin f-seng or san, " scatter," " separate." For the negative conjugation there is a form in /, as in hoklal ugwei irebeu, " not having sold it he came," that is, "he came without having sold it." There is also a past negative participle in gc, as in iregedei, " he has not come." Mongol Adverb. In the grammar of the Turanian languages, the verb, substantive, adverb, and conjunction, are imperfectly distinguished. It was in the Indo-European system that adverbs and conjunctions first became indeclinable, and the verb began to lose its character as a noun. It was only by gradual steps that the eight parts of speech could arrive at the point of clear separation from each other. Mongol grammar presents us with a multitude of adverbs and conjunctions in the form of nouns and verbs. Much light is thrown by this part of Turanian accidence on the adverbial forms common in European speech. To show this, the following case suffixes of Mongol adverbs will be a sufficient proof. Locative suffix dor, "in," "at." Eastern colloquial de. Endc, " hero," tende, " there.'' As ende is good book Mongol, the colloquial do may be fully as old as MONGOL ADVERB. 241 the ordinary book locative dor, Greek ol/coOc, "at home," 'qcodt, *'iii the morning," evda, ''here." English 1/onder. Suffixes to express motion " towards," dor and de. In Chinese fau and ti. Mandarin c/i'i. Ende, "hither," t*endej "thither," hande, "whither." Here the coinci- dence with the English ther is remarkable. The Anglo-Saxon forms are hiderj pider^ hvider, "hither," "thither," "whither." The old Norse forms are he^ra, pa?6ra, hvert. The old Greeks used he, as in akaSe, "to the sea," ddvarov Be, "to death." In ivddSe, " thither," "hither," we have the locative suffix dor in da, and that of motion towards in Be. In aXXoae, " to another place," a sibilant has taken the place of d. Suffix to express motion from. Mongol ec'he, collo- quial ese. Hanasa, " whence," enese, " hence," tendese, "thence." The book forms are hamigasa, "whither?" Vende e&he, "from thence," ends e&he, "hence." The Manchu has c^hi as the suffix for " from," and the Turkish dan. English whence, hence, thence. Can the English have retained the suffix ce by tradition from an old Turanian language ? This question is difficult to answer, because the Anglo-Saxon forms were hvonan, henan, ponan. It may have been through the Danes, for the old Norse had hva^an, he^an, pci^an, for "whence," "hence," "thence." Latham says, ^ "The ce in ' hence,' * whence,' * thence,' has still to be satis- ^ The English Language, vol. ii., p. 320. 16 242 china's place in philology. factorily explained. The old English is whenn-eSy thenn-es." The old Norse ^an and Greek 6ev being Turanian, may not the English ce be inherited from a Danish dialect, which has not transmitted a literature, and thus also be Turanian ? The Turkish locative suifix dah is the same as the Mongol dor. The Sanscrit atraj "here,'' tatra, 'Hhere," liutra, " there," have nearly the Mongol form. Instead of following Bopp in tracing the origin of the suffix tra to the comparative suffix taken instrumen tally, I would suggest that it is better to see in it a Turanian suffix dovy as now explained. Compare the Latin citray intra, and (without the r) qiiando. The Greeks said evda and ivravOa, " here," and avroOuy " in the place where he was," the old Hindoos kadd, " when ?" taddy "then," and yaddy "when." The Zend had had^Gy "here," the Slavish kogday "when ?" and togda, "then." The Mongol has hejey " when," and this is equivalent to hede. The Greek has oTey tots, " when," " then." The suffix in all these forms may perhaps be traced to one origin. It is ultimately a demonstrative and interro- gative pronoun, and is the same with the Turanian locative in dah and dor. "With the forms whoiy icanm quuniy before us, there seems no reason to look else- where. Bopp, however, finds, as he thinks, in the dd of kadd, a contraction from divdy " by day." ^ Perhaps the forms here, there, dar, thar, hery hvary etc., have ^ Vergleichende Grammatik, § 423. MONGOL ADVERB. this source also. The t may be omitted and the r leK.-^ / i The Sclavonic and Russian gclz/e retains the radical ga, *'what," in the initial g, and the Turanian suffix dor in dge. The suffix appears in podii, *' under," inezhdu, "between." The Greek derivative suffix 8ov, indicat- ing the manner of an action, is probably of the same origin : avacpavSov, " openly/' avToa^^Bov, " near at hand." This Sov is often Sa in Homer, as in OS. III. 221. Ov yap TTco 'idov £5e Oeohs ava(pavBa (piKevuras, 'ris K€lvc{} ava(pai>5a TrapiaTUTO UaWas 'Adi}vri. "From a place" is so frequently in western languages expressed by dan, or equivalent forms, that we are com- pelled to regard the Turkish ablative suffix in dan as in this instance preserving a very important old Tu- ranian type. The Greek iroOev, " whence," corresponds to the Sanscrit kiitas, and we may regard the Sanscrit s as altered from an older n. The Latin has coelitus, which Bopp identifies with srargatas, " from heaven." He also finds in the Sclavonic suffix du, " from," the Armenian ti, and the Gothic thro, variants from the same primary form. The common ancient suffix for "from," in the Anglo- Saxon and German was nana or nan. Latham quotes from Grimm the Old High German hwanana, Old Saxon hicanan, Anglo-Saxon hwonan, all meaning " whence." The equivalents for " thence " and " hence " are simi- larly formed. We find in one of the Dravidian 244 china's place in philology. languages an ablative suffix which may explain this nan. The Malayalim has ilninna for the ablative, as in mala-y-ilninna, *'from the mountain," where mala means ''mountain." We have not the opportunity of examining old types of the Turanian family. We must await the decipherment of Persian cuneiform inscrip- tions for further light on the subject of these remark- able resemblances between the adverbial suffixes of the Turanian and Indo-European languages. The Dra- vidian case suffixes may perhaps be regarded as having been in use for at least two thousand years, for the Tamil writing is based on the Devanagari of the monuments. Hence the Dravidian languages were the first of the Turanian family to be committed to writing out of Persia. They were written before the Japanese or the Mongol. Any Dravidian case suffixes, therefore, which happen to agree in form with those of European languages, may easily be of very great antiquity. Some examples of Mongol syntax will be here given with parallel examples from the Chinese language. Adjectives precede their substantives, and adverbs their verbs. Mongol aWen gerely " golden light," Chinese kin kwang ; Mongol saihan f/aba, " walk carefully," Chinese hau hau er ti tseii ; Mongol hamt^o echinc, "we will go together," Chinese t'ung Ji'ii or / kUcai er &hu. The nominative begins a sentence. Then comes the object of the verb. The verb stands last. Mongol bi teri alaba, "I killed him," Chinese tvo ska liau t'a. MONGOL SYNTAX. 245 The Chinese verb precedes its object. But the Chinese order is not like the Mongol invariable. If an auxili- ary particle be employed, the verb may stand last. Thus pa, " to take hold of," may be used to vary the order. Wo J9fl t^a ska Uau, literally, " I taking him killed finished." This is something like the inaccurate English, *' I took and killed him." Adjectives may stand in the predicate without a substantive verb, and when a comparison is made, they may take a comparative or superlative force without its being necessary to prefix adverbs. Mongol iige higdege sain, " his words are all good," Chinese hica til hau ; Mongol osc^ hugdege t^odorahai, "the letters are all in their right places," Chinese ts'i tii icen Vo. The law of arrangement in the two languages is pre- cisely the same. Mongol hoyer yagomanu dot^ora ene sain, literally, *' two things amidst this good," that is, " of the two things this is the better, Chinese liang gang tung si che ko hau, literally, " two kinds things this one good." The comparative force is conveyed in the same manner in both languages, and that by position. The duplication of words, to give a plural to nouns, and to denote succession in time and place, occurs frequently in Mongol and Chinese. Mongol nig nigcre hamoge ireksen, " one by one all came," Chinese gi ko yi ko in lai Uau. Literally, "one" (numerative), "one" (numerative), "all come finished." The Mongol suffix 246 china's place in philology. ere or cr or ijar^ is frequently appended to nouns and adjectives to make adverbs. It is probably the source from which the Latin adverbs in er, as lihentery in- stanter, have derived their last syllable. Mongol c'hag c'hag wei ivei, *' time after time," " generation after generation.'' Chinese shi s/n tai tai, "age after age," "generation after generation." Compare in Latin qiiis- quis, " whosoever." These and other peculiarities show that a remarkable resemblance exists between the syntax of the Chinese and of the Mongol languages. The Tibetan in placing the adjective after its noun goes away further from the Chinese than does the Mongol. In the conjugation of the verb, and the absence of gender, the Mongol is nearer to the Chinese than the Tibetan, which pre- fers Semitic analogies. Thus in the order of succession perceptible among verbs when standing in juxtaposi- tion, there is a clear likeness to the Chinese. The order is that of time. Mongol t'ere hairejii irelise)i, "he is come back," Chinese t'a hivei lai liau. T^ere, " he," is the same word as t^a with the suffix r.- Kwei, " return," is the same word as haireju, to which r was first affixed, and then ju, the mark of the gerund. Lai, " come," is perhaps the same word as ireksen, the past participle of irchUj " come," here used as a past indicative. CHAPTER XI. Malayo-Polynesian.— The Malay the Type of a Distinct Family. Alphabet and Syllable. — Polynesian Syllable Based on THE OLD Chinese Syllable. — Effect of Marine Climate on the Malayo-Polynesian Syllable. — Continental Okigin of the Polynesians. — Connexion of Siamese and Malay. — Post- Position of the Adjective and Genitive. — Pkonouns. — Case Particles. — Semitic Principles. — CiiIxNese Influence on Polynesia. — Pronouns. — Verbal Directives. — Comparison. — Arithmetic. — American Languages. — Their Mixed Character. — Three Elements of American Population. — Polynesian Civilized Immigration. At the extreme south-east of the continent of Asia the Malay and Polynesian area presses upon that of the Ilimalaic races in the peninsula of Malacca, and meets the Chinese in Formosa. The Malaysian and Polynesian system presents to view some remarkable points of resemblance to the Chinese and Himalaic types. It is on this account that a brief chapter on this system is here introduced. Crawfurd has condemned the opinion of Marsden, "Wilhelra von Humboldt, and Sir S. Ptaffles, that the islands of the Indian Ocean and South Sea, from Madagascar to Easter Island, are peopled by a single race. lie remarks that the population of these islands 248 china's place in philology. consists of brown men with lank hair (Malay), of sooty men with woolly hair, and of brown men with frizzled hair. The first of these three, the Malay race, extends over the Sandwich, the Fejee, the Society, and the Friendly Islands, with the Malayan peninsula and most of the islands of the Asiatic archipelago. The Malay language cannot be regarded as Indo- European, because, as F. Miiller has shown in a criticism on the view held by Bopp, it forms deriva- tives b}^ prefixes, and not by suffixes. From tidory " to sleep," is formed, by means of the prefix per, the word per-tidor-an, **a bed." In the Tagala dialect of the Philippines, from guntin, "shears," is formed, by the insertion of urn, the word g-imi-imtin, "to cut with shears." Max Miiller inclines to regard the Malay as a Tu- ranian language, and as especially allied to the Siamese. But there are some strong objections to this very extended use of the word Turanian. To class the Siamese with the Mongol and Japanese is inconvenient, because it is a monosyllabic language with tones, and like the Chinese places the verb before its object. The word Turanian can be suitably limited to languages which form derivatives by polysyllabic suffixes, make use of case endings, place the verb at the end of the sentence, and have a certain system of rules for the use of vowels. It is better to regard the Malay as the type of a MALAY ALPHABET AND SYLLABLE. 249 separate family, as is done by F. Miiller. The agree- ment between the Malay and the Siamese is indeed remarkable. The adjective follows the substantive, the genitive follows the nominative, and the demonstrative pronoun follows its noun in both languages. The per- sonal pronouns are also alike. But the non-existence of tones in the Malay, its polysyllabic character, and its entirely new series of numerals forbid our classi- fying it as one with any member of the Himalaic family. The alphabet of the Malay family is rich in letters, and in this respect resembles the Himalaic, and old Chinese, except in the want of aspirates. A Dravidian influence is visible in the cerebral series t, d, n. The surd series k, f, p, 5, is found both in the Malay and in the eastern or Polynesian group, but the sonants (/, d, b, of the western branch (the Malay), are wanting in the eastern. There is a resemblance to the triple-branched Turanian system in the use of s and the want of sA, and to the Japanese and Dravidian divisions in the absence of the aspirated forms of k, t, andjt?. The simplicity of the Malayo-Polynesian syllable shows the antiquity of the system to which it belongs. The initial consonant is usually single, and is never followed by another consonant, except sometimes by r. "An initial sp, st, for example, would be impossible. In the western division of these languages, /•:, t, p, ng, w, m 250 china's place in philology. (as in old Chinese), terminate SA'llables. Also s, h, r, and / (which is not true of the old Chinese), are some- times found at the end of syllables. The dissyllabic character of the roots in Malay reminds us of the Semitic sj^stem. " All monosyllabic roots, with the exception of some pronominal stems and particles, are shortened from dissyllables. All words of more than two syllables have become so by phonal additions to the diss341abic base.''^ The possibility of terminating syllables with con- sonants extends eastward to the Caroline Islands. In the dialect of Ponape, sixty degrees east of Penang, and in nearly the same latitude, syllables are closed by consonants, as in the Malay.^ In the East India Islands consonants are allowed to close syllables, and the letters used are the same which close syllables in the Turanian and old Chinese systems. The Polynesian dialects extend south-east from the eastern termination of the Caroline Islands for seventy degrees. Here the syllables are never closed by consonants. The peculiarities in the formation of the syllable in eastern Asia are adhered to in this respect through, about half the longitudinal extent of the immense island group, which reaches from Sumatra to Tahiti. Through the Australian dialects the eastern Asiatic system is still 1 F. Mullcr, p. 324. 2 Grammatical Notes on the Language of Ponape, by L. 11. Gulick, M.D., Missionary on that island. MALAY PHO^'ETIC SYSTEM. 251 adhered to, but the final consonants are limited to ng^ n, m, /, r. Australia then has, by a process of decay, lost the finals k, t, p. In the great cone of islands whose apex is twenty degrees east of Tahiti, and whose base is planted in the one case on the mainland of Australia, in the province of Queensland, and in the other on Ponape, in the Caroline Archipelago, the final consonants have all been lost from the syllable. In the East India Islands the finals k, t, p, are used in addi- tion to those of Australia, and the resemblance to the eastern Asiatic syllable there becomes complete. The same contrast exists in this respect between Malaysia and Polynesia as between Mongolia and Japan. The Japanese, living in a soft and luxurious climate, have dropped the final consonants, which in the cold and bracing climate of the Gobi plateau have been retained by their Mongolian cousins. So, also, the Malay syllable bears the same relation to that of Australia that the old Chinese syllable does to the modern. The Malay system admits k^ t, p, at the end of syllables as well as iig, n, m; and this is also true of the old Chinese system still retained in the dialects of Amoy and Canton. The Australian system, like the modern Mandarin of China, at the end of its syllables only allows nasals or the letter r} In view of these facts, it may be concluded that the old Chinese closed syllable, with the finals /f, ^, j9, 1 F. MuUcr, p. 247. 252 china's place in philology. ng^ n, 7n, lies at the basis of, and was formerly found in, all the languages of Austral- Asia and the South Seas. Further, the additional finals, /, s, there existing, are such as occur in the Himalaic and Turanian systems. The want of final consonants in any of the Oceanic dialects may be accounted for by phonetic decay. They may have been simply dropped, or they may have taken vowels after them, and so become initial consonants to supplemental syllables. In addition to the question of the finals, there is also the question of the initials. Neither the Australian nor the Polynesian dialects have the letters g, d, h. Yet they have sounds something like them, which, after careful consideration, the missionaries and others busied in collecting data respecting the native lan- guages usually agree to write k, t, p. In the Malay region only do the letters occasionally used as a relative, and with the Latin and English relative qui and tvho. In the Turkish personal endings, as they are at present (Davids' Grammar), we find the elements nm, first person ; sen, second person. In the third person of the present tense we find nothing. The syllables urn, un, i, are the marks used in the preterite. 300 china's place in philology. TURKISH PRESENT TENSE. SINGULAK. PLURAL 1. deugurum, I strike. deicguriiz, we strike. 2. deugursen, tliou strikest. deugwrsiz^ you strike. 3. deugur, he strikes. deugurler, they strike. The antiquity of tlie Turkisli is shown in the absence of the initial s and inserted r found in the English equivalent strike. SANSCRIT PRESENT TENSE. SINGULAR. DUAL. PLURAL. 1. karomi, I do kurvah kurmah. 2. karoshi kuruthah kurutha. 3. karoti kurutah kurvanti. Where the original elements are not too much decayed, we see in these two examples the identity of the marks of person. In the first person singular and plural m is the distinguishing mark. It is dropped, however, in the Turkish plural, where the suflB.x iz of hiZj *' we,'' alone remains. In the second person s stands in the Turkish singular and plural. It has changed to P in the Sanscrit plural, reminding us of the Mongol t^a, " ye." In the third person the Sanscrit prefers the demonstrative root ty while the Turkish adopts that in i or o, as in the preterite deugdi, **he struck," where the second d marks past time. The Turkish plural ler is probably formed from o/. TENSE MARKS. 301 ''he," equivalent to the Latin ille. An r is added and the initial o is dropped. The idea of marking past time by a prefixed a in Sanscrit and e in Greek, having no prototype in Turanian languages, may with probability be traced to Semitic influence. The creative power of Semitic grammar is centred on the beginning of the word and sentence, and in Turanian grammar on the end. The vowel in the Semitic past tense is a, as in hara, "he created." The two Sanscrit preterites of hhu, " to become," are ahhavam and hahhuva. Kartmn, "to do," has three preterites, all having the vowel ay viz., akaravam, chakdra (ch for k), akdrsham. I suppose, therefore, that a has in it a past force, and it may be compared with the Chinese g, i, "already," which seems to be the root of Turanian and Indo-European preterites in ii (Tamil), and ui (Latin), ^ since a some- times changes to ^. ^ Bopp regards the augment in a as a privativiim, and views it as an expression of the denial of presence. This view has involved him in some difficulties, and brought him into collision with more than one philologist. For example, how shall we explain the Greek augment in e, wliich bears no likeness to the a of negation ? Bopp says the a in the Sanscrit aug- ment had already lost its negative force, and had become a sign of past time, before it passed into Greek as the augment in c. Buttmann supposes it to be a broken-down form of the consonantal augment, regarding ervTTTov as a shortened form from t^tvtttou. This, however, does not look very probable, and, in respect to Bopp's opinion, it is surely better first to make -wider researches in kindred families of language, in hope of dis- covering the true origin of the augment. To explain it as the a of negation should be only a dernier ressort. 302 china's place ix philology. The Sanscrit future in td is probably connected witb the infinitive in tuniy and the Latin supine in tumj tu, I suppose its origin to be in the preposition to, the mark of the English infinitive, and the Chinese chi, " to a place," in old Chinese tu If this be true, it is also formed ultimately from the demonstrative root in t, if at least that be not rather regarded as itself previously a verb of motion toicards. The Sanscrit future in sya is conveniently referred to the Chinese {jf tsiang, siung, an auxiliary word used in giving a future tense to verbs. It means primarily, " starting from the side of," " side," hence " to lead a division." The Mongols have indeed a future in sogai, used for the first person singular and plural, which may be formed from the old Chinese siky "give," first used as a precative and then as a future. The former etymology is the more probable in appearance. The future participles seem to have connexion with the Turanian conjugation. They are formed with the sufiixes (1) tavya, (2) aniya, (3) ya. Thus, from bJiuj, " to eat," is formed bholitavya, " edible." Bhojcniija, hhojya, mean the same thing. We are strongly inclined here to identify the first of these forms with the Mongol suffix fo, t^ai, t^ei, in heregVei, " necessary," ideWei, "to be eaten," dort'ai, "willing," joJnsfai, "ought to be." The Latin gerund dicendus, "to be said," also bears features of resemblance. In Manchu CONDITIONAL MOOD. 303 the similar form ends in rangga^ e.g., ararangga, *' that which is to be written," from arare, "to write." The form in ya seems to be connected with the future indicative of the Mongol verb, which is formed by the same syllable. The potential in ya may be compared with the Mongol future in ya. The Sanscrit potential has usually the idea of fitness (Williams' Sans. Gram., p. 199), and is sometimes a softened imperative. The Mongol future is also used imperatively, as in yahiya, "let us go." So the Latin potential in e or z, as in amem, " I may love," sis, " thou mayst be," may also be explained. The Sanscrit conditional in sya seems to be identical with the Mongol conditional suffix so, as in holheso, "if it be so." There can be little doubt that it is the Chinese sik, "to give.'* The Latin conditional con- junction 5/ finds also here a convenient etymology, and is then seen to be parallel to our own word if, derived from give. I see no reason why we should not hope to be able at some time to go further back and identify the conditional in s ultimately with the demon- strative in s. Such simple ideas as giving, going, coming, carrying, have attached to them sounds which are like the common demonstratives. Thus, in addition to examples mentioned on a former page, ti is used for "to arrive at a place," "him," "to." Gij) is "to give," and it is also "to arrive at a place." Ded, "this," "that," is also "to carry in the hand." Kity 304 china's place in philology. gid, "he," is perhaps the European verb gad, "to go/' E-ussian chod, Sanscrit gati, " going," gata, " gone." Siy " this," is in old Chinese " to move from one place to another," and in Mongol, under the form ac^hiraho, it means "to carry," and under that of ec^JiUiu "to go." It is also in the West the verb of existence sumy astni, esse. Further, the demonstrative zhi, zhet, "this," may be compared with shed, "to let go," shoot, and such like verbs. Yerb as Substantive. Infinitive. Participles. As the Sanscrit infinitive in turn is apparently formed of the demonstrative in t, and the accusative in m, so in Mongol the infinitive in htc resembles the accusative in gi, and in Turkish the infinitive in mek seems to be formed from the demonstrative in m. The participle in t, as in hodhat, " knowing," is like the Mongol gerund in ged, which in colloquial is pro- nounced ed, thus, medeged or meded, " knowing." The two roots, hudh, mcd, are, there can be little doubt, the same word. The participle in am ana may be compared with the Mongol colloquial gerund in 7nan. This form is not given in Schmidt's Grammar. Its use is parallel to that of the gerunds in ged wadiju. The passive past participle in ta may be compared with the Mongol gerund injii, of which the equivalent old form is du. As the Sanscrit form is often used AUXILIARY VERBS. 305 indicatively as a perfect, so is it with the Mongol. The substantive comes first, and then the indicative. The verb is fundamentally a substantive, and gerunds, participles, and infinitives, lie at the base and constitute the foundation of the Turanian verb, e.g., ocJtogder medeji^ " I knew it yesterday,'* where the Chinese tsoky " yesterday," is seen in the first of the words, and jiy the colloquial form of the gerund/^/, in the second. It may be objected that this Mongol gerund is active, and the Sanscrit form ta, now compared with it, passive. • I would then suggest a comparison with the Mongol adjective in t'Oy Vai^ as in hercgt'eiy ''necessary," morit'aij "possessed of a horse." Bopp states that the passive participial suffix ta forms in Sanscrit possessive adjectives out of substantives, as ^j'«/^Y«s, " gifted with fruit" (§ 835). So in English we say "horned cattle," forming a possessive adjective from "horn," just as the Mongols would say uhiirt'ei, " horned," from ebur or iibiir, " horn." AuxiLiARV Verbs. The substantive verb as, " to be," in English a?u, art, arc, was, appears in Mongol without 5. The root there- fore is a; which means "being," and is also the ultimate root of ahaf)i, the first personal pronoun. The idea of being is derived from that of personality, and the oldest expression of personality is found in this pronoun a. 20 306 china's place in philology. The second Sanscrit auxiliary verb is kri, '* do," karomi, " I do." In Mongol a very common verb is hi, ''do," /wnoi, "I do," or "he does," hibe, "he did," etc. The third Sanscrit auxiliary verb is hhu, "become," " be," bhavitum, " to become," bhava, " become," abhavam, "I was," or "I was becoming." This verb is in its Mongol form distinguished as neuter and causative. The root bu is neuter, "be." The insertion of / makes it equivalent to our word " do," taken intransitively as in bolomoi, " it will do." The past participle bologsen means " completed," and is used as an auxiliary to express the accomplishment of the action of any verb. What proof can be more convincing than the existence of these auxiliary verbs of the essential identity in origin of the Sanscrit and Mongol languages ? But the same proof holds good also for the Turkish m and Tungusic stocks. It is only when we come to the Japanese and Dra vidian branches that this system of identical auxiliary verbs diminishes from three to one. The verb a for existence keeps its place evor3^where. Hence it appears that the original Tartar language, which was split into Turk, ^longol, Manchu, Finnish, etc., immediately preceded the Sanscrit in the linguistic development of the world. Adverbial Suffixes. T in Sanscrit is d in Mongolian. Thus among ADVERBS. 307 the adverbs of place, atray " here/' tatra, " there," correspond to the Mongol endey ''here," t^ende} "there." The suffix in the two languages is identical. J) in Sanscrit is equivalent to j or d in Mongol. Thus kadd, " when ?" is the Mongol hejiije, '' when ?" Ekadd, ''once," is in Mongol nigodaga or nigodd, "once," from nig, " one." Tadd, "then," is in Mongol t'edmle, " then." The suffix rat in suryavat, " like the sun," from suri/a, " sun," may possibly be the Mongol adeli, "like." The initial v was originally not consonantal. The Latin is idem. V Negative Adverbs. The negative na, ne, nehi, is derived from the same source as the Japanese negative. That source will have been some Turanian language in South-western Asia. The negative md is found in Chinese, in the Tartar languages, in Tibetan, and in the Semitic family. It is used over nearly the whole of Asia, but, except in Greek, is little employed in Europe. Time, Manner, Co:mparison, Place. Adf/a, "to-day," "now," may be compared with the Mongol edoge, "now." Ecam, eva, "so," "thus," are suggestive of identity with the Mongol i/i}n, "thus," " so." Kica, " where," is the Mongol Jiamiga, ^ The Mongol e is the same in sound as the Sanscrit a. 308 china's place in philology. Prepositions. The absence of prepositions to mark the relations of nouns is peculiar, among the Indo-European languages, to the Sanscrit branch. The Romans used ''in,'' ''ex," " ab," etc., as the English now use "from," "in," "to," etc. It is a specialty of the Sanscrit, and of the triple- branched Turanian system, to employ case suffixes instead of the more ancient prepositions found in the Chinese, the Semitic, and the Himalaic systems. The Greeks, loving freedom, early threw off the yoke of this Turanian law. The speakers of Sanskrit never did so. In Homer the adverbial case suffixes are used with the prepositions. In later Greek the adverbial case suffixes are not found. They have given place to prepositions, as afterwards the cases of nouns also became needless over much of the European area, and were exchanged for the primeval prepositions which seem to be ever engaged in recovering their long lost dominion. In Sanscrit the prepositions are only used in compounds as inseparable prefixes, and here the nearest Turanian type to which in this respect it can be compared is the Dravidian. Compounds. When in Sanscrit words are compounded, con- nective letters are not used, and the resulting whole is treated as a single word. Thus, for " moonlight " chandraprahha is used. In Mongol ifwoidd be saranu SAKSCRIT COMPOUNDS. 309 gerelj where nu is the genitive case. The Tartar languages have an aversion to naked compounds, and prefer to introduce, as here, the genitive suffix. This I believe to be a comparatively modern tendency. The Sanscrit acts here according to the true ancient principle for the compounding of words by simple juxtaposition, as found in Chinese. The Tartar lan- guages appear to have acquired the habit of inserting case suffixes, and other particles, between words which would otherwise coalesce into compounds, since they were separated from the Japanese and Dravidian branches. Hence, in regard to the way of forming compounds, the Hindoo principle must be compared with that existing in older stems, c.g.y in Chinese yiie Hang, " moon light." In Japanese and the Dravidian languages the crude forms or roots are likewise placed side by side without connecting particles. Japanese tsuhi akaray " moon light." In the Greek and Latin languages, as in liince lumens the genitive suffix is, as in Mongol, carefully inserted. Hence the Tartar race remained in juxtaposition with the forefathers of the Greeks and Latins later than the time when the speakers of the Sanscrit and Dravidian idioms were in a position to exercise an influence upon each other. The compound gurusishijau means '' master and scholar." There is no conjunction. An is the sign of the dual. Guru, " teacher," and sishya, '' scholar," are co-ordinate nouns — roots standing together without 310 china's place in philology. connective, as hakshi, *' teacher," shahiy "scholar," might do in Mongol. But the Mongol is without the dual mark, unless Jioyol, *' the two," be added, as is sometimes done. The want of a conjunction is in accordance with the custom in all eastern Asiatic languages. In the compound maranavyddhisolidh, marana is " death," vyddhi is '' sickness," and sohdh is " sorrow." These three nouns are written together without a conjunction, forming one huge word, which in Sanscrit syntax is treated as a single substantive. It may be compared with the Chinese sheng laii ping si, '* birth, old age, sickness, and death," in Mongol thirehUy ot^olhu, ohc^hinhiiy uhuhu. The four Chinese substan- tives become in the Tartar idiom four infinitives. How thoroughly they are regarded as substantives appears from the fact, that in the Buddhistic language common in Mongolia they are known as the clurhen dalaiy " four seas." The addition of the connecting conjunction in more western languages is proof of the influence of Semitic grammar. The aggregation of substantives without conjunctions is a circumstance in Sanscrit which shows how completely that language rests, in regard to its linguistic principles, on the speech of more eastern races. The resemblance may be noticed in all sorts of compounds. In this part of grammar Sanscrit looks SANSCRIT COMPOUNDS. 311 like an old Mongol using but sparingly its apparatus of case particles. E.g., svarga gafa, '' gone to heaven," svargang gd, " the Ganges of heaven." In Mongol T'engri dor garahsan, Tengrin Gangga murun, where dor and n are locative and possessive. In Chinese, ancient or modern, the position of the verb, as standing before its noun, weakens the resemblance to Sanscrit, and throws into more prominent relief the essential identity of Sanscrit and Turanian syntax. The Sanscrit inanda gata, ''going slowly," is in Chinese man Ueu, and in Mongol odan yabahu. In the last two of these languages this compound may take a genitive suffix and another noun, for instance, man, after it. The Sanscrit form is an adjective, of which the syntax is the same as if it were simple. When such compounds occur as rdjagdmin, "that which goes to the king " {e.g,, revenue), raja guru, ''king's instructor"; rajalnda, "king's family," from kuJa, " family," " caste," the Chinese liia or ho, " house," " family " ; rdjagUna, " regicide," from ghnat, " killing " ; rdjadanda, " punishment by a king," from daiida, " punishment ; " Chinese analogy seems to require that the relation should in all cases be regarded as possessive. Even where the English rendering re- quires from or hg, as if the relation were ablative or instrumental, it is better to hold to the simplicity of primeval grammar, and explain all such instances on the principle of possessive dependence. Thus, 312 china's place in philology. "punishment by a king" is also rendered by "king's punishment," without much forcing. By regarding the relation as possessive in all cases where in a compound the second noun depends upon the first, the analogy with Chinese grammar becomes perfect. Thus, loang ts'i, "king's son," wan(/ tsung, " king's family," ivang fa^ " punishment by the king," wang ki, " land appropriated to the use of the king." The same law rules in all the languages from the Hindoo area eastward to the Japanese Islands, except in the eastern Himalaic and Malay region, where the Semitic inversion, which transposes the genitive, holds sway. The true reason why this inversion is impossible in Sanscrit is, that this language is in fact controlled by the same laws of position as the Turanian idioms. The modern Pekinese speaks of fu fii Ua, for " husband and wife." Here fu, " husband," takes one intonation, and fu, " wife," another, while Ua is a contraction for Hang, " two," and corresponds to the dual suffix, which would by the Sanscrit grammarian be placed here. Could analogy be closer ? But com- pare the words themselves ; fu, " husband," is hharu, fu, "wife," is bhdryd^ and in Greek Troct? is "husband." The proof of original connexion in language thus becomes still more clear. Examples may easily be collected from Mongol to show that the inserted particles are often omitted, and LAWS OF POSITION. 313 that the analogy thus brought to view may also be extended to the use of dual and plural suffixes. Thus c^has c^hagaUf means " white as snow." If written in full, met^a or adeli would be added after &has, " snow." This is exactly the Chinese siuet bak, " white as snow," and the Sanscrit himasifala, " ice-cold." So also echige ehe hohjogoJa, " the father and mother both." The resemblance to Chinese and Turanian idiom is carried also into what are called the relative com- pounds. Thus in maliddhanah lyurnsliah^ " a man who has great wealth," malia is "great," dhanah is an adjectival form of dhanain, " wealth." Native Sanscrit authors explain this usage as equivalent to the employ- ment of the relative in the genitive case.^ "With this may be compared in Chinese a sentence such as ta hio wen ch'i shi, " a scholar who has great learning," con- sisting of ta, "great," Jiio-wen, ("learning and heard") "learning," ch'i, the possessive particle, sJii, "scholar." In Mandarin the possessive ti is also used after adjectives, as in Jiau ti, "good." Compare also the Mongol yche gahiga t^ai hnmun, or ychcu gabiyan humun, " a man who has great merit." Gabiya, " merit," is here made into an adjective by the suffix t^ai, which thus corresponds to the Sanscrit adjective suffix h. Laws of Position. In the Sanscrit and the Turanian languages, the ^ "Williams' Sanscrit Grammar, p. 166. 314 china's place in philology. laws of position are the same in several of the most important particulars. If we take the sentence, " And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites," in Jud. iii. 5, we find the Hebrew order the same with the English. The San- scrit and Mongol both read, " Israel people Canaanites among dwelt.' ' The Chinese would be " Israel people at Canaanite people midst lived," or '^ Israel people lived Canaanite people among." Thus the translators of the scriptures at Calcutta (edition 1852) have adopted an order for the words exactly agreeing with the Mongol. Another example is, " Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Ilazor " (Jud. iv. 2). As before, the Semitic order is as in English. The Sanscrit reads Hatsora- nivdsinah l^indniyardjasya ydvinasya haste. Here nivd- shiah is an adjective, "residing in." Itdja is "king." Sya is the possessive suffix. Haste is "hand" in the locative. Omitting the word "hand" and the possessive case preceding it, the Sanscrit reads, " Hazor residing Canaanite king's Jabin." The Mongol reads, " Hazor in ruling Canaanites' Jabin king," Hajor for ejelegsan Hanayan t'auu Jabin hagan. The translators have adopted in Calcutta the same order nearly as those who performed their work on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal in Siberia. The Mongol introduces the case suffix after Hazor, and gives the name Jabin before his title. These are the variations ; otherwise LAWS OF POSITION. 315 the laws of position are identical. T'anu is the genitive plurah Hence the Sanscrit language has peculiar laws. The Greek and English both have the Hebrew order. In this part of grammar the Sanscrit is cut off from its proper relationship, and bears no close resemblance to any western language. It is in agreement with the eastern idiom of the Asiatic continent, with that of China and Japan, ^Mongolia, and Dravidia. This general agreement in syntax between the Sanscrit and Turanian types is subject to numberless exceptions. To make this plain, I here give two sentences out of the Hitopadesa, taken from Williams* Grammar. Asti, " there is," gautamasya munes tapo- vane, '' in the sage Gautama's grove of penance," Mahdtapd ndma munih, "3, sage named Mahatapah." Tena, '' by him," dsramasannidhdne, " in the neigh- bourhood of his hermitage," mushiJia sdvohah, ''a young mouse," kdka mukhdd hhrashto^ " fallen from the mouth of a crow," dn's/itah, " was seen." Turanian syntax would require the verb asti, " there is," to be at the end of the first sentence, and the descriptive clause, "crow's mouth from fallen," to precede the noun " mouse little one," to which it refers. These two things excepted, the laws of arrangement are Turanian, as in " Gautama sage's penance garden in," " a Mahatapah named sage," '' hermitage neigh- bourhood in," " mouse's little one," " crow mouth from 316 china's place in philology. fallen/* and the position of tlie verb '' was seen " at the end of the second sentence. The resemblance is still closer, inasmuch as drishtah is a participle used mdicatively, which is a common phenomenon in Mongol grammar. Judged by syntax alone, Sanscrit and Mongol are sisters, just as Hebrew, Greek, and English, if tested in the same waj^, might, though the similarity is somewhat less close, also be called sisters. It was after the separation of the Chinese from the primitive stock, that the great Turanian inversion occurred, which placed the verb last, and thus originated the declension of nouns. The Turanians remained long enough in the west to bring with them in their wanderings the declension of substantives, the conjugation of verbs, and a syntax which places them in a midway position between China and the western world. And then the Sanscrit, the most easterly member of the Indo-European family, by its peculiar syntax, its principle of agglutination in compounds and its use of the participle, conveniently occupies the interval between Turania and Europe. A word upon the Zend. The absence of the Turanian order in Zend syntax is a sure indication of Semitic influence. Bopp gives the following sentence in Zend. Staumi, "I praise," maig'emcha, "the clouds," varemcha, ** and rain," ya te kehr pern, *' which thy body," vak'sayato, '' make to grow," haresnus j^^^Y/ gairinanm, ZEND SYNTAX. 317 " on the heights of the mountains." Here gairiy the Sanscrit giri, and Mongol agola^ "mountain," occurs last, after its nominative. This is Semitic order, which is also prominent in the whole sentence. The Zend, in fact, has an accidence and vocabulary like the Sanscrit, but a sj^ntax Kke the Hebrew. As in the modern Persian, Semitic words had also pushed their way into the Zend. Thus athr^ "fire," is the Hebrew esh by the common change which takes place between sh and t. A few Zend words with old Chinese and Mongol equivalents are here appended. " Bad," Zend eghey Chinese ah. " Flesh," Zend machshe, Mongol maha, Persian maso. Not," Zend 7na, Mongol hishi, hu, Chinese mo. Ear," Zend goshtCy Chinese ngiy Sanscrit ghosha, Persian gosh. CHAPTER XIII. European Languages. — Latest and Grandest Development op Language. — The Alphabet. — Common Radical Syllabary of Chinese and European Languages. — European Radical Syl- labary. — The European "Word. — Semite Influence seen in Conjugational Vowel Changes, in Doubled Consonants, in Masculine and Feminine Terminations, and in Dual and Plural Numbers. — Turanian Influence seen in Moods and Tenses, and in Compounds. — European Syntax. — Chinese Element. — Semitic and Turanian Elements. — Greek. — Tones in Chinese are Accents in Greek. — Common "Words in Greek AND Mongol. — Latin. — Resemblance of Latin Gerund and Supine to those x)f Tartar Languages. — List of Roots Com- mon TO Latin, Chinese, and Mongol. — Latin Syntax more Turanian than the Greek. — Roman Family Relationships Suggestive of Connexion with Eastern Ideas. — Resemblance BETWEEN Roman and Old Chinese Religious Beliefs. — Russian : The Best New Type of the Sclavonic Family.— Full Alpha- bet. — Abounds in Prefixes to Roots. — Examples of Syntax. — Anglo-Saxon. — The Syntax Turanian. — Anglo-Saxon and German have more of the Turanian Element than is seen IN THE English. — English Returns to Chinese and Primeval Syntax. — Cause of these Variations. — Resemblance of Anglo-Saxon Poetry to that of the Mongols. — Alliteration : Exchanged for Rhyme ; Cause of this Change. — English. — List of Common Words, Chinese and English. Old as are the European languages, evidenced by an unbroken series of literary works, dating from about the ninth century before Christ, they bear in their structure the marks of youth, if compared with the INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. 319 Turanian and Semitic families. Principles of grammar seem to have been early borrowed from both these families, and incorporated in European speech at a time when language was still plastic. Destined them- selves to be the dominant powers in the world's history, from the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, they were before that epoch living as independent nations, occa- sionally subject to the Semitic rulers who from time to time were able to reduce some of the nearer among them under their sway. Semitic and Turanian con- quest at a very ancient date would impart Semitic and Turanian elements to the language of the conquered, and when these nations themselves invaded regions occupied previously by Semite and Turanian peoples, similar results would ensue. The Indo-EurojDean S3^stem, with the Chinese, Semitic, and Turanian, would each branch directly out of the primeval trunk of language. Each would develope its special characteristics with a varying rate of rapidity. Civilization, the invention of writing, maturity in arts, and in political institutions, would soon harden the Chinese and the Semitic families into a distinctive moulded form. The Turanian and Indo- European would take a longer time to harden, and in them the language-forming power would continue for a longer period. They would remain in a plastic state till the polj'syllable and the paradigms of substantive and verb forms were completed. 320 china's place in philology. Rapidity of change in language is in proportion to the civilization of the people speaking it. In early times languages changed more quickly than now. Not many centuries would be required for the primeval development of the existing families. But once formed they would last for thousands of j^ears. Yet there is a sense in which they may be said to stand in chrono- logical succession. As in geology it has been shown that the lesser ranges of mountains were first elevated and the highest last, so it has been in the history of language. Mono- syllabic speech preceded the dissjdlable, as the dis- syllable preceded the polysyllable. The Alps, Andes, and Himalayas, were not thrown up till the lesser mountain systems were complete. They are more aspiring, they pierce the region of the clouds, they possess a greater variety of vegetation, present to the eye richer landscapes, originate larger rivers, and pro- mote the fertility of wider tracts of land than lesser mountain chains. So it has been with the Indo- European languages. They have aimed high in thouo^ht, enlarged the field of poetic feeling, advanced scientific inquiry, and led the human race forward on the path of civilized progress to an unequalled degree. The greatest thinkers in philosophy, the creative intellects of science, the most noteworthy conquerors and legislators, have been those whose speech was Indo-European. EUROPEAN LANGUAGES RECENT. 321 As the cause of the greater elevation and magnitude of the more recent mountain chains may be probably referred to the increased thickness of the earth's crust, and the consequent increased pressure on the liquid materials beneath, so the richness in forms and in capability for expressing human thought which marks the Indo-European languages, is due to the united action of the older linguistic families upon this last and noblest creation of the language-forming power. It is necessary, therefore, to review briefly the traces presented to view in European languages of the presence in a long distant time of strong Turanian and Semitic influence. The German, Russian, French, and English of the present day are descended from older forms of speech, which assumed their peculiar shape under this double formative influence. The Alphabet. ^' The broad a in father belongs to all languages. It has been replaced in modern Chinese by o. In western vocabularies it occupies less space in those which are modern than in those which are ancient. Hence it abounds in Hebrew and Sanscrit. It has become u in some Chinese words, as mfu, inn, " father," "mother," from the primeval ba, ma. It belongs to the pronouns, and represents the first person. As a suffix it is common in Greek and Sanscrit, as in the Greek names 21 322 china's place in philology. of the PiiOGiiiciarL letters. Bethy caph^ teth, etc., became beta, kappa^ theta, etc. In the inevitable softening down of language the consonantal finals t, p, took after them in Greek the vowel a, A has become in Hebrew, so that /o, "not," is written X7, with aleph. In Tamil, Japanese, and Mongol, a is much prefixed to roots, as in Japanese amCy " rain," Tamil mazhei, Latin macleo^ " moisten." The short a of Sanscrit is understood whenever no vowel mark is used. This is an indication of the extensive ancient use of this vowel. The consonant b was the old representative of the Chinese p and / in the lower or sonant series. It is interchanged with m, as in Persian and Mongol bo)V?i, "rain," Japanese ame, Hebrew mai/im, "water," Hebrew matar, " it rained." Also Mongol bi, "I," Turanian min, Latin me, mihi. Also bal, "honey," Latin mel. It is sometimes used in Greek for w, as in (BovXofjLai, " I wish," Latin volo, velle. In Sanscrit it also took an aspirate occasionally like d and g, as it probably did in old Chinese in the first sonant tone, which in Mandarin has become aspirated p, CH. The compound letter ch is the modern equivalent of t in the eastern Asiatic languages, and of A; in the THE ALPHABET. 323 Indo-European. In modern Chinese we also see ch originated from k, when standing before the letters u and i. All Chinese words in ch not thus formed recently from ky are derived from t or cly according as they belong to the surd or sonant series. The Sanscrit ch, aspirated and unaspirated, are both from k. The Tibetan ch, ch\ is from s or 8h. The Mongol ch aspirated is from Vs, and this again from s or s/?, as c'hag, " time," Chinese zhi, c^hilagon, " stone," Chinese zhiag. The same thing occurs in Fuhkien, where shui, " water," is chiii, also in Tibetan, as &hu, " water," c'hi, " die," Chinese si. Perhaps a part of the Chinese words in sh formerly had c^h for sh. The guttural ch, as in loch, '* a lake," in Europe, represents k in Chinese. Thus wcchseln, "to change," may be seen to agree with the Chinese i/ik, *' to change." The Turkish ch corresponds to the Mongol d. Thus kach, ''how many," is in Mongol hcden. The Chinese ch is also found to be J in Mongol, both having sprung out of an older d or t. The Japanese ch is in Mongol s, and is, strictly speaking, tsi. D. The letter d is in old Chinese the equivalent of the modern ch in the lower series, and of the modern Mongol j. Compare the Sanscrit kadd, " when ?" Mongol hcjiije. The lost final d of many Chinese roots is recovered 324 china's place in philology. in Japanese, as kudari, " to descend," in Chinese hia, ge, Kara, sadzki, "to receive," ^ sheu, zhud. D is often interchangeable with /, as in lacryma^ hcLKpvoVy "tear," longus, "long," Chinese ^ dung, " long." D sometimes becomes t in western languages, as Chinese da, " earth," Latin tei^ra. Dj takes the place of g in the Shanghai dialect before the vowels i, u. The same occurs in English, as in " bridge," from " brig," and several other words where g is final. The vowel e in " then," " there," is derived in Chinese from j/a, and is scarcely used except as a modern final. In Mono-ol e is classed with u and u as female, while a, 0, are male. These terms mean that when the root has, for instance, e for its vowel, the vowel of the added syllables shall be of the same class. The Monsfol e is now enunciated as the Sanscrit short a, but in Hindoo words whose sound is transferred, as in Ganges, a is used by the Mongols for the short a ; thus they write Gangga (not Gengge). The European e is usually the Chinese /, as in yit, "one," Sclavonic ycdin, Chinese nyit, "hot," Scotch het, German heiss. The English e, as in he, see, me, we all pronounce in THE ALPHABET. 325. open syllables with tlie sound i. The modern Chinese medial f, as in p^ei, " to be fit for," " to match," is found in European languages to be i, as in fit. But in this case the old form in Chinese is usually p^it. The Chinese i has changed to e, while the English e has changed to i. The Sanscrit e is found late in the series of vowels, forming with o a supplement to the three chief vowels, tty if u. Similarly, the Greeks adopting the three leading vowels of the Phoenician alphabet a, iiy i, aleph, rav, yod^ proceeded to apply an aspirate he to represent the vowel ^, as they used a guttural sign ayin for the vowel o. The Semites were content with three vowels. The Indo-Europeans needed five. The Greeks did with the Semitic alphabet in the west what the inventors of the Devanagari did in the east. They took the chief vowels as they found them, and used new signs for vowels not represented. That at both ends of the Semitic area, which once probably reached from the Mediterranean to the Indus, the three letters aleph y vaVy and yody should have been regarded as vowels, may be appealed to in proof that they were not originally consonantal signs, as some grammarians maintain, but true vowels. R -F is a new letter in Chinese. It proceeds from h, py and p^. It is wanting in Mongol and Tamil, as it is 326 china's place in philology. also in Sanscrit. In Greek it crept in as an aspirated J), gliding afterwards into , pronounced like the Latin /. The Latin / came from p, as did the English. The Semitic / probably also came from p. One sign £ is used for p and / in Hebrew, and the Greeks, adopting the Phoenician alphabet, used the same sign for the value jo, which shows that at about the time B.C. 1000, this was its usual force. F is inserted in a few German words after a radical initial j?, as in pflegen {jpledge^ 2ngmis). In Japanese / is used for h when standing before ii, and proceeds ultimately from p, h. G. The letter g is the old form of the modern k and ¥ in the lower series. In Mongol the old Chinese g is found as g or h, e.g. hwun delehu, "to honour," from Chinese king. In Hebrew and in European alphabets, it precedes the corresponding surd letter k. In Latin g changed to dj before e^ and this again became zh in French. The Mongol g sometimes corresponds to the Sanscrit k and the Greek ;t^, as in gaVy kara, %et)o, but also to the Sanscrit g and gh. The Persian g sometimes corresponds to the Chinese ni, as in gao, " cow," gosk, ** meat," ** flesh," " ear," as does the Greek in yvvj], " woman," if compared with •^ nio. An initial g is often dropped, as in if from give, and THE ALPHABET. 327 in the Piatt Deutsch, where gewesen, " been/' becomes 1/evesen. H. The Chinese h seems to be a modern letter formed from ky k\ and g. For example, ^ hi, "joy," Latin gaudium. The final d is recovered from the phonetic, ^ kitj "luck," forming the upper part of the character. The Japanese h represents p ot b. The Mongol h represents k, k\ g. In Greek it stands for s. In Latin it corresponds to the Chinese k and g, as hie, " this," Chinese ^ gi. The same is true in German and English, as kok ^, "high," hoch, "high." In the old middle dialect of China, as still spoken in the Sucheu and Hangcheu region, h is subdivided into a strong and weak aspirate. In the Mandarin dialect of north and west China, it coincides with s when it precedes i and ii. In Zend and Persian, h occurs for s in hapfa, " seven," etc. The Semitic Jieth, the Scotch ch in loch, is not used in the eastern Asiatic languages. The Semitic heth and he both correspond to g, and probably derived their origin from that letter. / is one of the three primitive vowels. In modern Chinese it sometimes becomes wei. This we learn from the Japanese, who call wei, " a seat," /. It is a prefix in Japanese and Tamil, as in iku, " how many," from 328 china's place in philology. ki^ " how many ? " The changes of vowels are too rapid to allow any general correspondence to be traced between the Chinese i and the European equivalent, or vice versa, J. The Chinese modern / is from ni, the Mongol from d. The Chinese j is s/^, the Mongol is dj. The Sanscrit j is dj, and is derived from g, as ch from k. The Latin j was y, and sometimes dj\ and has changed into zh in French, and into dj in English. The Mongol tjihn, '* to see," jirehe, " heart," are the Latin videre and the Persian dili. The Semitic 7j is pronounced j by Europeans, as in Jehovah. The Sanscrit yiij, ''join," in Chinese yok, is in Latin jung, and in Greek t^evy, where dz is the Greek eqi;ivalent of dj. The Greeks could not pronounce ch or sh. The Arabic j, pro- nounced djy is altered from an older g, as in jahannani, from Gehenna, "hell," just as dj has replaced g in the English words gender, genitive, etc., derived through the French from the Latin. Thus it appears that dj is primitive in no alphabet, but, like/ and ch, is of recent origin, and was perhaps quite unknown in the early languages of the world. In modern Chinese, k before i and ii has changed to ch. In the European languages, k changes to ch before THE ALPHABET. 329 all vowels, except o and u. In ancient Chinese, k changed to 7^, but was also itself changed from g. There are not wanting indications that the true primeval source of h was g. The original of the Hebrew '•5, U, "for," "that," and H^, /.o, "thus," is found in the Chinese ^ ^/, "he." The Sanscrit h corresponds to the Mongol ^, as kara, " hand," Mongol gar. The Japanese k also corresponds to the Mongol ^, as in kado, " gate," Mongol egiide, Chinese hu^ gud. In Sanscrit, s occurs for A;, as in sataj " a hundred," as compared with centum. The Chinese change from k to h exists in Mongol, where the Sanscrit kat'ara, " hard," is found hat'o, Japanese kataku ; and in Europe, where collis became "hill," and collum^ "neck," hah. These two words are in Chinese ngoky " hill," and kang^ " neck," where the old finals both appear. In E/Ussian, ch occurs commonly for k, as in chistiyey "pure," eastus, the Chinese kit, "pure," "clean." In Tamil, the old k appears for the Chinese and Mongol h, as in kanimei, "darkness," Mongol harangwei, Chinese hek. Kt appears as initial in the Greek Krelvco, "kill." Here the intermediate vowel has been dropped. The Hebrew is katal, " he killed," and the true root is katy " to cut." The aspirated form of k appears in Sanscrit, Chinese, the Himalaic languages, in Corean, and in Mongol and Turkish. Pronounced as the k and h in the word 330 china's place in philology. inkhorny but brouglit closer together. In Eastern Asia the aspirated and unaspirated k are separate letters. In Europe, on the other hand, if k is aspirated, it is the consequence of local or individual habit, and embraces all the instances. In the province where card is called k'ard, cold will also be called k'old, and so on. Z. The Latin / is found in Chinese usually as ch, coming down from an older d, as in -^ ch'ang, "long," old sound dung^ Latin longiis. So the Hebrew I, as in lakach, "to take,'' Greek Xay'^avw, seems to be found in the Chinese t, as in tek, "to get." Compare also ^3^, "clothe," "put on," with the Mongol dehel, "clothes." The frequent change of d to I perhaps indicates that the true origin of the letter is d. It is sometimes changed to n, as in the Mongol nogon, " green," Chinese lok, and the Latin nemiis, " grove," Chinese Hfu, Hebrew lo, " not," non, na. L is frequently inserted after an initial k, f^ p, g, dy b, as in flat, ^^l^dge, black, as compared with pat hi a, pactum, and the Sanscrit bahula, " black," and the Chinese bed, "spread out," bang, "pledge," mek, "black." If / occurs after an initial s in European languages it is radical, and the s not so. Thus, sloe, "a wild plum," is in Chinese li, "plum," and slachten, slay are in Chinese lok, " kill." ^ ^ Slip, Latin labor, lapsus, German schleifen. THE ALPHABET. 331 Sometimes a connecting vowel is introduced between the initial and the inserted /, as in Kokvirrco, " hide," "cover," Sanscrit htb, Chinese kap. For caput, "head," the Russians have glava and golova. The insertion of / is common in some of the Himalaic languages, in Semitic, and in Indo-European lan- guages. It is avoided in Chinese and the triple- branched Turanian system. Hence in comparing roots it must be omitted from the European word before the Chinese or Mongol equivalent can be found. X is a favourite suffix in Turanian words, and a common third letter in Semitic triliteral roots ; as in Mongol gol, "river," Chinese ga. Hebrew /-3]^, 71 gaga I, " revolved," from a biliteral root gak, which appears in circulus, circle, kvkXo^, etc. L is sometimes inserted between the final consonant and the preceding vowel, as in our word old, Mongol ot'olju, " old," Latin vetus. It then sometimes takes a vowel, as in the Russian zoloto, " gold," where s is g. In the Cochin- Chinese and Siamese languages / takes the place of h. So also in the Malayo-Polynesian.^ The Chinese I is usually r in the west, as rota, "wheel," Chinese hit, "a round thing." M, The letter m in Chinese corresponds to the m of western languages, as in 7nel, "honey," Chinese mit ; ^ Thus, lima^ "five," may agree with the Hebrew hhamesh. 332 china's place in philology. mileSy "soldier," Chinese mo, "military." The final rn of some European roots is represented by ng in Chinese, as KdfjbiTTWy " bend," Chinese ^ kunrjy " bow," " to bow." The Hebrew final m seems to correspond in the same manner to the Chinese final ng, as ram, " high," Chinese lung. The Greek m sometimes corresponds to the Mongol b and the Chinese p, as fiaKapio^, " blessed," Mongol hoymt'o, " happy," Chinese ^joA*, " happiness." The Chinese m occasionally agrees with the English h, as in hlack, Grreek fjuiXa^;, Chinese 7uek, " ink," Mongol behe. Final m has in modern Chinese become n. The letter « is frequently interchanged with t as in eh, tSto?, "one," nuus, Chinese ?/it, "one." Final n in Chinese corresponds to final n in the west. Fundo, to " found," may be compared with the Chinese ;z|i pen, " root," "foundation." Chinese lun, " wheel," English '* round," Chinese tan, " that which is stretched out," Latin tendo, " stretch." Final n is often dropped in Tamil, as in kuzhal, " tube," Chinese kwan ; Tamil kuri, kol, " stick," Chinese kan ; Tamil tdl, " sheet of paper," Chinese tan. The Tamil n final sometimes represents the Chinese t final, as in tan, " stand," Chinese dat, Indo-European stan, stad. THE ALPHABET. 333 "What we write ng is a separate letter related to k and Qj as n is to t and d. It is initial in Chinese and Tibetan. The Chinese initial ng is apt to be omitted, as in wo, " Ij" formerly nga. The final is also often dropped, as in kicang, " light," Mongol gerel, Japanese akari, Latin gloria. So also neng, " able," Tibetan nupo, " one who is able." In Latin roots 7ig often replaces the final Z:, as in pingo, pi)ixi, ]pictumj ^^r/^p^o, 2^epWh etc. What we write ?»', is in Sanscrit and old Chinese regarded as a distinct letter belonging to the cJi and j series. It has changed in modern Chinese to j. In Turkish and Mongol it is found as k^ or g. For example, nin, "man," Turkish k'lshi, Mongol humtm, nij " two," Turkish ik'i, niok, *' flesh," Turkish gosh^ ni, " ear," Turkish gosh, niok, ''if," Turkish eger. The European dvi]p, and homo, " man," seem to belong to this little laiot of words. Compare also gleich, "like,'* "if," gracilis, "tender," jvvrj, "woman," yaXa, "milk," with the Chinese m'ok, "like," "if," niok, "weak," " tender," niu, " woman," niu, " milk." The Chinese n, ng, and ni, are on the whole usually found k, g, h, in Tartar and European languages. Compare ngu, " cow," Mongol iiher, Latin vacca, German kuh. Nga, " I," ego, niiien, " origin," 761/09, genus. Ngan, " eye," oculus. Some examples exist of n unaltered, as nehmen, 334 china's place in philology. nimm, " take," Chinese ninij " carry," " burden," " responsibility," in modern Chinese Jen. For the Hebrew ai/in see o. 0. The letter o, like the other vowels, is often prefixed to roots. Chinese t'i, " tooth," 6Soi><;, 6S6vto<;, dens. Compare in Malay orang, " man," with the Poljmesian rang, *' man," and the Chinese lang, " man." The Japanese say obui, " carry on the back," Chinese pei. In Turanian languages the prefixed vowel is the same as that of the root syllable. Mongol olos, " people," \a6<;, leute. So in Chinese the colloquial word for " elder brother," is aha, where the prefixed vowel takes its quality from that of the root ka, the old word for "brother." This is a very old law of change, for it appears also in the Semitic ahh, ''brother," abj ''father." In the triangle of the three primeval vowels a, i, w, the letter o stands between a and u, and is liable to change into either of these vowels, or into the inter- mediate values 0, e, and the o in *' gone." The old Chinese o has become « in the modern language. The modern Chinese o has come out of a. The Mongol o has in the eastern dialect the values d and the o in " gone." The Chinese o is usually the o in " go." The old Chinese o agrees with the European o, as in THE ALPHABET. 335 rota, rofaiion, Chinese Jon, " wheel," '' revolve/* lot, " anything round," now changed to hin, lu. The Greek letter o was taken from the Phoenician ayin, of which the old sound was ng and g. Thus n^J^, '' he sang," " he answered," " he spoke," is by Gfesenius identified with cano, " I sing," but may as probably be compared with the Chinese "^ ngen, "words," "to speak." So DM "congregate," must have been anciently pronounced gamam. It is identified by the same grammarian with the root in o^, "happiness." 8. The letter s is freely introduced as a prefix before the radical initials k, t, p, /, m, n. Thus, small is the same word as minns, fjiLKp6<;, and the Chinese mi^ "little." It sometimes comes in place of e, as squire from equerry, the Latin equites. In Sanscrit and Zend s stands for k, as in the old name 3Iassagetae, where Massa is Ma/id, or magnus, " the great Getae." In Latin s final stands for t, as in 2^atwr, passus. In Russian s final stands for A-, as in sosat, " to suck." In German it represents t^ as in beissen, " to bite." THE ALrHABET. 339 In Hebrew both samech and sin (having each the vakie s) interchange with t. Thus, DDS, i)^^^^^^ '' diffuse," is in Arabic hasat. The older form is t. The Chinese s corresponds to that of Europe in words such as su, in hait sii, " to tell," old form sok, as compared with sagen, say. So also Chinese sat, " scatter," " sow," Latin scro, satus. This root is in Persian zed, as in ghemzeda, " heaviness-dispelling." So also Chinese sok, English seek. Sometimes the European s is recognized in the Chinese ^.s or t^s. Thus sot, " a drunkard," is tsui or tsot, " intoxicated." The Chinese s becomes t in Cochin- Chinese, and generally in the Eastern Himalaic and Malay system. SR. This sound was not employed by the Greeks and Eomans, and they did not, therefore, need an alpha- betic sign to represent it. In the Turanian languages it is also very sparingly used. As it is fully developed in the Chinese, Semitic, and Himalaic families, the cause of its non-appearance in Greek and Latin may be probably traced to Turanian influence. It has struggled back into existence in the French, where it appears as the representative of the Latin k, as in calor, French chaleur. The Chinese sh is sh in Teutonic, Sanscrit, and Sclavonic languages, and s in Greek, Latin, and 340 CHINA S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. Mongol. Thus, schiessen, "to shoot," is the old Chinese shet, "an arrow." ^, ^, and ^, in Mandarin, sh'i, she, she, and meaning " arrow," " shed," " let go." How many summers and winters have passed since the ancestors of the Teutons and of the Chinese parted from each other, each with their vocabulary of common words, such as to shed, to shoot, a shed, etc. ? It is mar- vellous that, after so many ages, Time's defacing fingers have not yet destroyed the traces of original identity. The German sch is often softened down from sk, as in schreihen, the equivalent of scribo and 'ypd, %, to the alphabet, proceeded to give this letter its position on the supposition that it is modified from s, they were mistaken. It is, in fact, formed by inserting s after k. Thus, ^rjpo^;, " dry," is convertible with a-^epo'^, a/ci]p6(;, and ')(epo-o<^, all meaning "dry." In a similar way i/r, ^?,s/, is formed from 2^ by inserting s, and in Hebrew ts from t in the same manner. Thus, -^vxv, " the breath," '' soul," is the Chinese ^'aA', "the corporeal soul," which is distinct from the hwun or gun, " the immaterial soul." This last word by interchange of final n with final p becomes gut, and may be identified with hcei or ket, " ghost," " geist." So also '\\rvxpo'=i, " cold," is the Latin fn'gidus, r being inserted in place of s in the more western form. ' The Chinese and Tibetan are like the Semitic family in not taking s after k or 7;, but only after t, Y. The letter y is i viewed as a consonant. Yowel initials have a tendency to assume a consonantal form. Of the three prime vowels, i takes y, n takes w, and a takes either y, as in the Tibetan yah, "father," from the 348 china's place in philology. Semitic ah, or it\ as in the Chinese wan, '' bend," " circle," when compared with annus, " a year," or ng, as in Mandarin ngan, "rest," from a)i, the old form. The Chinese y isj in Latin, as ?/iIi, "to throw," Jacio, English jerk. In Greek it agrees with the unaspirated i, as tSto?, " alone," Chinese yit, " one." Here, too, we see the probable origin of idem, "the same," "identical." It is the Mongol adeli, "same," and the Chinese yit, "one." The vowel o also is apt to take y before it. The Mongol ogahu, " wash," is in Chinese yok. The Chinese y and Latin j are in Sanscrit y and in Greek f. This makes some confusion, for one of the most common values of j is d -\- zli, and it is formed from an older d with zh inserted, as Jupiter from Din. In ^Sei;9, a dialectic form of Zev^^, the sibilant is placed before the initial d, instead of after. Hence j in Latin and s in Greek sometimes come from d, and at other times from y. In German j has the value y. In English y is used as in yoke, German joch, except in words of Latin derivation, 2i^ juvenile, which in Chinese is yen, old form yu or u. Z. The letter % may be connected with s, d, y, t, or k. Old Chinese words in z (that is, in the sonant series of s) have now become s. THE ALPHABET. 349 In the Hebrew vocabulary words witb samech, tsade, and s/iin sometimes take zayin. Thus, zur, sur, are both used for *' to return." In Hebrew the occasional origin of z from d, like that of s, is, s/i, from d and t, may be shown by examples. Thus, KD, baza, " cut in two," is by Gesenius compared with the Sanscrit hhidh, "to cut." Compare also the Greek pi^a, " root," with radix. In Tibetan zang, "copper," zah, "deep," zar, "fork," seem to be allied with the Chinese dung, "copper," the European deej), and the Chinese t'a, "fork." The connexion of z with y has been already noticed in speaking of the Greek zcta under y. In German t has become z, and is then pronounced ts. In Russian final k in a root often becomes z, as in lizat, " to lick," German leclien. The letter zh is otherwise written j, as in the French jamais, jour. In Chinese it has grown from an older ni. It must be looked for in European vocabularies as n, h, h, etc., as stated under /. Common Radical Syllabary. The common roots of the Chinese and European languages consist of monosyllables. That all roots are monosyllabic was known by philologists as the result of the comparison made, in the first half of the present century, of European languages with those of AVestern 350 china's place in philology. Asia and India. But when the roots of European speech are compared with those of China, they assume a definite shape, at the knowledge of which philologists, while they hesitated to cross in their researches the Imaus and the Himalayas, could scarcely arrive. Roots may be first arranged in two groups, those which end in vowels and those which end in con- sonants. Among examples of the first are words such as (7, used as "I," and as a verb " to be," ha, " father," ma, " mother." Of the second are had, " divide," "other," A:a5, "cover," "head," nig, "hide," "black," dak, " cover," bang, " strike," " noise of slamming," kan, "tube," "straight stick," o)n, "dark," "shade." All the vowels interchange, but the chief lines of distinction are between a, i, u. Thus we have among the open syllables a triple division made by these primary vowels. The closed syllables in ultimate roots are chiefly formed by the six consonants g, d, b, ng, n, m. The initials are the three vowels, the six consonants just mentioned, with /, z, and zh. The syllabary, with these elements, would consist of, (1) three vowels ; (2) eighteen biliteral syllables with consonant finals ; (3) twenty-seven biliteral combin- ations with vowel finals ; (4) 162 triliteral combinations with consonant initials, vowel medials, and consonant finals. In all there would, with these elements, be 210 combinations. COMMON RADICAL SYLLABARY. 351 This is the smallest number of syllables that we can allow for the common syllabary, unless we also eliminate /, by deducing it from d. If we add to the initials k^ t, p, s, z, iv, y, there will be twenty-one more biliteral combinations, and 126 more triliteral. In all 357. These are perhaps the most probable and convenient limits for the common syllabary. It would be unwise to extend the finals by adding k^ t, I), for although in European roots the difference between k, f, p, and (/, d, h, is recognized, it is not so in any Chinese dialect. The Shanghai people pro- nounce g final before a sonant and k before a surd. The difference depends on position, but the fact indi- cates the possibility of ff, d, b, having once occupied an important place in the Chinese syllabary which was afterwards lost to k, t, p, as these have in their turn resigned their position at the ends of words in favour of the vowels. Examples will be here given tending to show that it cannot be learned from the European roots whether k, t, Pj and g, d, by all belonged to the primeval syllabary or not. The English reedj German roh}\ is in Chinese la and lilt. The Latin rota, rofioidus, and the Greek pv9fx6<;, dpLdii6<;, with the English round and Latin anoido, ** reed," all come from the same root. The finals t, d, ndy are found interchanging in European Ian- 352 china's place in philology. guages, wliile in Chinese, where lun is "wheel," and hit "anything round," n and t interchange. A fair inference is, that we cannot tell whether t or d was the original final, but that n and that final were inter- changeable before the Chinese language separated from the Indo-European. So with the Chinese ^jok, "to desire," when com- pared with the Latin acet% French aigre, and English eager, we cannot tell if U or g is the older. The arts of life had sufiiciently advanced, when the Chinese separated from the Indo-Europeans, for the names of boats, of agricultural processes, of weaving, of houses, of the physician and the necromancer, to be the same. Take texo, " to weave," Chinese talx, meaning " to weave cloth," or " to weave a hedge " of willow branches or bamboos. The corresponding European words do not appear ever to have cl or g in them. Hence it may be inferred that in this case t was the form of the initial previous to the separation of the races. The Eussian is tiUat or that, " to weave." The Greek has reu;)^©?, " a wall." At that distant time wooden cups were in use, which were called x^at, ji^>, the Sanscrit j)atra^ the Latin patera. " A boat " was hat, and " an oar " was lut, iperfMov. "A house" was ok, oIko^. "To heal," and " a physician " were both it, larpo^, Ido/iat. " A magician" was ma, the Mongol bo, Persian magus, EUROPEAN RADICAL SYLLABARY. 353 and Drayidian hagai. '*A dog" was k'on, "a cow," gu. ** A coverlid " and " to cover " were heel, tlie Latin pallium, and English bed. "To clothe" and "clothing" were wit, the Latin vestio, vestis. If boat and paddle (Latin batiUus), and bowl and patera, are connected, it seems hopeless to expect that the original form of the initial, whether b or p, can now be ascertained with certainty. European Radical Syllabary. The European families while still one with the Hindoo prefixed s and 8h to the initial consonant of many roots, and also inserted r or I after the initial in many more. To the six final consonants of the roots, which were originally Ix, t, p, ng, n, m, were added .9, 8h, r, I. Further, r and / were often inserted before the final consonant of the root. These processes were common to the Semitic and Indo-European systems. In the Semitic system the result was a vast formation of dissyllabic roots con- sisting of three letters each. Sibilant prefixes, the insertion of r and /, the duplication of certain letters, and the addition of ;*, /, s, sh, p, m, k, h, and perhaps others at the end, made that formation what it is. There is no trace of sibilant prefixes in the Turanian languages, nor of the insertion of r and / after the initial consonants of roots. In Eastern Asia sibilant prefixes occur only in Tibetan and Burmese, and the 23 354 china's place in philology. insertion of r and I only in these languages and in tlie eastern Himalaic family. We may, therefore, refer the sibilant prefixes and the insertion of r and / to Semitic influence. At least, these phenomena first make their appearance in that family, and the example was followed in the Indo-European and Himalaic systems. Examples : Hebrew shakab,^ " he reclined," KVTTTco, cuho, cumbo, English scoojj. Hebrew sagah, " was high," gabah, " was high," shafat, " he judged," from 2^at or bad^ '^ divide." Turanian influence on the European root appears in the finals, where r, /, s, are found as in Semitic. Examples : Mongol agola, Manchu alin (where the g of the root is dropped, as in colloquial Mongol), Sanscrit giriy Greek 0/309, German Hugely English MIL The Greek has dropped the initial g. For the Turanian I we find the English and German / corresponding. The Semitic is lim\ which has been followed by the Sanscrit and Greek. The Latin collis. joins the Teutonic group. The Sclavonic gora is in agreement with the Semitic and Greek. The German medial g^ which might seem to be an intruder, is found in the Chinese root goliy '^ mountain." It has been lost in all the other languages. Hence the European root is gor or gol, while the ultimate root is golx^ with the sense "high," as in the words Jiigh and hock. ' For the prefix of the sibilant in Hebrew to biliteral roots, see Gesenius, Lex. Man., 954, under the letter \^. THE EUROPEAN WORD. 355 Greek evpv^, " broad/' Sanscrit iirUy Mongol oreguny " wide." Here iir seems to be the root. Greek apprjv, dparjv, " male," Mongol ere. Greek ttoX^?, German burg/i, berg. Mongol halgasun and halig. Here the root is baJg or haligj and the insertion of I is of Turanian origin. Khanhaliky the Turkish name of Peking in the time of Polo, means " the city of the Khan." The European root shows a special and independent activity in its great extension of the sibilant prefixes and of inflexions, and in the great variety of its initials and finals. The European Word. In assuming the polysyllabic form, the European word followed the Turanian analogy rather than the Semitic. This is signally manifest in the formation of derivatives, of case suffixes, of the polysjdlabic tenses and moods of verbs, and of the greater portion of the particles. Yet the Semite influence is very apparent in the introduction of strong preterites, doubled consonants, and all tense forms where the change of the vowel is a characteristic. The English preterite in oo, u, e, on, or 0, etc., from a present in <7, e, etc., may be accounted for most satisfactorily in this way. This principle of change in the vowel — as in seethe, sodden, stand, stood, senden, gesandt — occurs less prominently in Greek and Latin, where XetTro) becomes eXcTrov, and sjmrgo becomes 356 china's place in philology. spergo in disjyerr/o and other compounds. In the first of ^ these examples the change fixes the tense, in the other it depends on laws of accent and quantity. In the Hebrew such changes distingruish tenses and moods, and so we find it in the Tibetan. We must suppose, then, that the ancestors of the Germans, Greeks, English, and Tibetians, adopted this mode of marking tense, mood, and conjugation, from the Semites. The distinction of masculine and feminine is also of Semite origin, and with it the idea of dual and plural numbers. The conception of mood and tense is chiefly Turanian. To this the Indo-European has, as its own contribution, added the distinction of voice, the augments of the past tenses, an increased number of tenses, and a very full development of the personal endings. A Greek verb has in its imperative the simpie root, as found in all languages. Its particles and infinitive, past, future, conjunctive, and other forms, are Turanian. They are made by verbal and pronominal sufiixes, in many cases identical with those used in Turanian languages. The theory of the conjugation of verbs rests on the mode of viewing the verb. It is regarded as a substantive, and the infinitive and participles were apparently first formed, the verb being here more concrete. From them came the past tenses of the indicative, in the manner already described in pre- ceding chapters. THE EUROPEAN AVORD. 357 The formation of compounds reveals to us the principle of juxtaposition, as in the oldest stems. Thus, in Xeu/coaroXo^, " white- robed," the law of order is as in Chinese and Turanian. Where a preposition combines with a verb or noun to form a compound, the principle of order is Turanian, and not Chinese. Thus, KaTairareco, " to trample down," is in Chinese chai hia, or, as the ancient sages would have pro- nounced it, dat ge, where ge, the equivalent of Kara, comes last. The English agrees with the Chinese, and the principle of arrangement is that of the juxta- position of two verbs in the order of time. But in English the word doicn, originally a verb, has become an adverb. In the Greek compound the principle of arrangement is Turanian. The word Kara, originally a verb, "to go down," and the same with the Chinese ge, or /ua, and the Japanese kudarUy ''go down," is here found in the position of the adverbs of space and direction, as in Mongol dotai tehi, "place below." So in English understand, in German verstehen. So in Russian nishodit, ''to go down," where ni, "down," is connected with nijnie, "lower," as in the name Nijnie Novgorod, literally "the lov/er new city." The English doivn is the Latin de, the Chinese ti, " bottom," and the Mongol do, " below." Thus the Indo-European languages in their prepositional verb compounds use a Turanian law of arrangement, while giving to tlie pre- position a verb force which is peculiar to those languages. 358 china's place in philology. European Syntax. The syntax of the European languages is a mixture. It contains Chinese, Semitic, and Turanian principles. The order of words is either natural or inverted. Where it is natural, as in " "William's son," *' tall man," "William struck Thomas," "quickly fly," "with a stick William struck Thomas," the order is usually Chinese and primeval. Where it is inverted, as in " the son of William," " un ouvrier industrieux," " du soUst Gott, deinen Herrn, anbeten," ^ " thou shalt worship God thy Lord," it is by principles derived from the more ancient Semitic and Turanian families. The post-position of the adjective, genitive, and adverb, is Semitic ; that of the verb is Turanian. The effect of Semitic influence is seen at its maxi- mum in the translations of the Scriptures made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, e.g.y in Luther's we read, " Aller Augen, die in der Schule, sahen auf ihn." The English version reads, "And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." The relative clause in both cases is thoroughly Semitic. The only feature not Semitic is in the German, in the order of the words aller Augen, " eyes of all." The Mongol would be horal on dotora haiksan hwim hugudeger nidun yer teguni sirtabai, which might be translated word for word thus, "Synagogue's within being men all eyes-with him observed." All refers to ^ Luther's Bible, Luke iv. 8. GREEK. 359 men, and with to ei/es. Him is the accusative after observed. The participle being is in the past tense, and here performs the duty of the relative. The same Semitic influence, however, appears in Homer. Thus, in ava^ dvSpcov, "king of men," the genitive comes last, and the adjective in Sovpl re fiaKpo), " with a long spear.'* Greek. The Greek seems to be specially founded on the Chinese in regard to tones. For what are the acute, grave, and circumflex accents but Chinese tones ? Yet we have found tones existing in the Himalaic lan- guages and also in a dialect of the Mongol. It is, therefore, uncertain from what source in particular the Greek accents are derived. Vocal sounds are necessarily either emphasized or slurred, even or inflected, high or low, long or short, or, in other words, admit of distinctions in emphasis, tone, pitch and quantity. In modern Europe the quick rising inflexion or tone is appropriated to ques- tions. When and where this began it is difficult to say. It would not be much needed in ancient Greek, for in that language very commonly interrogative words were placed at the beginning of sentences, and this inflexion was probably the proper sound of the acute accent. The grave accent would then be the quick descending inflexion heard in modern Europe 360 china's place in philology. as the tone of commands. The circumflex would be a combination of the rising and falling inflexion. Long and short quantity may be illustrated in Eastern Asia by the distinction between long and short tones in the south-eastern dialects of China, and that between long and short vowels in Sanscrit. The Greek circumflex was attached only to syllables long by nature. The Chinese circumflex or double inflexion may be applied to any word, according as it happens in the local habit of any dialect to be appro- priated to this or that tone class to which the word in question belongs. The occurrence of a long vowel in the last syllable of a Greek word necessitated the change of a circum- flex to an acute accent in the penultimate. Thus, (f)evy6 became rMON WORDS. 363 peculiarly old, and reveals a special affinity for that Turanian characteristic which views the verb as pre- dominantly a substantive. Only in Sanscrit, where the use of the participle is specially extended, is the influence of the Turanian idea equally prominent. In the pronouns and adverbs some remarkable similarities to Latin words in Turkish, Mongol, and Japanese, have been already pointed out. The following examples will help to give an enlarged idea of the number of such resemblances: — f I f > I » % j, hotno, " man," Mongol hximun, Chinese nin. T '' \' i \' i » , , vul^tu, "people," Greek oxA.os, Mongol oloa. ^ -•'- K > I T ^ r^i«, " old," Mongol o^o{/V, " old." egeo, "to be in want," Mongol ugei, " there is n(iie.'\ j ^ j ]♦'( ) J » \' | OS, ossis, " bone," Greek oarcou, Mongol i/esa. aurunij "gold," Mongol alte, "gold." puto, "think," Mongol bodaho, "think," "compute." odi, "hate," Mongol w^j'^ff, "hate." pauciy "few," ba^a, "small," English /fw?. emo, " buy," Chinese mai, English buy. alter, alius, " other," Mongol ore, German od€r, Greek iAAoy. oppidum, "town," Chinese ip, "city." Compare urbs. jtis, Justus, "just," Mongol yoso, "right." queero, "seek," qu A w^aj', Chinese tong, tok, "ought." peto, "seek," Mongol badaraho, "seek." The old form ollus for ille, " he," is the Turkish o/, "he." Examples of resemblance to Turkish, Manchu, 364 china's place in philology. Mongol, and Chinese words occur in all parts of speech in the Latin vocabulary. So with the Tibetan, as in nig, "black," which is the same with niger. This similarity in words and in the conjugation of the verb is well borne out by the syntax. Compared with Greek, the Latin s^mtax shows more of Turanian influence. The greater freedom and flow noticed in the Greek arrangement of words is due to a more thorough and prolonged intercourse with Phoenicians, Assyrians, and other ancient Semite races. The dif- ferent spirit of Greek and Latin syntax finds its solution here. The Tui'anian element in Latin sjnitax may be noticed in the favourite position of the verb. In Livy's First Book the following sentences occur : " Nondum maturus imperio Ascanius ^nese filius erat." A Greek would not put the little verb erati " was," last in the sentence. A Turanian could place it nowhere else. " Tamen id imperium ei ad puberem aetatem incolume mansit." The arrangement is Tu- ranian, except that the preposition ad, "till," should take the place of a suffix after wtatem. " Tantisper tutela muliebri (tanta indoles in Lavinia erat) res Latina et regnum avitum paternumque puero stetit." In this sentence the Turanian element operating on the syntax keeps the verb in its place at the end, in the parenthesis, and in the principal sentence. The position of four adjectives after their nouns is evidence TURANIAN SYNTAX IN LATIN. 365 of Semitic influence, and this principle is retained in the Frencli language to the present time. The natural place of the adjective is, however, retained by tanta before indoles. " Ab eo colonitc aliquot deductce, Prisci Latini appel- lati." The first of the two participles in this sentence corresponds in position to the Turanian gerund occur- ring at the end of a subordinate clause. The last participle, used here as a perfect indicative, corresponds to the Mongol past participle in ksaUy which is also constantly used as a perfect indicative, terminating the principal clause. The introduction of the parenthesis is impossible in Eastern Asiatic syntax. "Western freedom originated this phenomenon. The Latin seems to stand further back in time than the other European languages, and possesses an air of antique dignity which has been derived from the east. Roman solemnity and power appear in marked contrast to Greek poetry and life. Among the causes which produced this variety in the language, as in the history and literature of these two races, probably none was more powerful than the intimate intercourse they had in a long distant antiquity with Turanian and Semitic peoples. The character of the Roman family relation- ships is strongly suggestive of connexion with China and Tartary. The Latin gens and the Celtic clan are the counterpart of the Chinese zok (Latin socius) and the Mongol turul. The Latin ^ja^'i^^^s and avunculus, 3Q6 china's place in philology. uncle on the father's, and on the mother's side, respectively, agree in sense with the Mongol abaga and nagacho, and with the Chinese 7;rt/v and gu. The resemblance of Mongol and Roman usage is here the more observable, because the Chinese subdivides the relationship on the father's side into two classes. The uncles who are older than the father are called pak, and those who are younger are known as shok. The Manchu amji and echig correspond with the Chinese. The Mongol calls both kinds of uncles abaga. Other remarkable agreements between Chinese and Roman customs exist. For example, the Romans used raised altars of earth or stone for the worship of heavenly divinities, and scooped a hollow in which to place offerings to those that are terrestrial. The Chinese offerings of bullocks and silk at the Temple of Heaven are presented on an elevated altar, while at that of Earth they are, both silk and bullock, buried in the ground. The belief in the presence of spiritual beings in the woods, streams, trees, cultivated fields, and mountains, and the worship of them, was very similar among the ancient Romans and the ancient Chinese, so much so as frequently to impress the reader of passages in the Chinese classics bearing on these sub- jects with the idea of ancient connexion with the old Latin religion. The whole argument for the common origin of eastern and western nations might perhaps securely rest alone on the institution of sacrifices and THE RUSSIAN SYLLABLE REDUCED. 367 religious ideas. No one can deny the remarkable similarities between the religions of the old western world and China, which spring up to view on making special inquiry. But the main scope of our investi- gation is philological, and it is well to attend chiefly to that branch of evidence. EussiAN. The Russian language shows what the Sclavonic type of European speech has arrived at in its most modern form. It has a very full alphabet, including s, z, J, shy ts, chf and an aspirated ch among its sibilants. The old final g or k of a root syllable is often found in Russian changed toy or ch. Thus Bog, ^' God," ^ becomes hojiej "divine." The compound ts represents an old t, as tzelj in German Ziel, in Greek reA-o?, ''end," ''aim." The letter v represents the iv of Chinese and English, and the v of Latin and German, as in voda, " water," volyay " will." As an initial, z represents an old g, as zoloto, for " gold," zina for hi/ems, "winter," znanie, " knowledge," The Russian language is fond of prefixing several consonants to the root, as in vskocJiity I'sklocJiit, " to clot," "entangle." Klochit means the same thing. The pre- fixed s is the usual Indo-European sibilant prefix, and ^ Supposed to come from the Sanscrit hhagavat, " the blessed," " the glorious," " the adorable." 368 China's place in philology. the initial v is 'an old u placed before the word in the Greek and Mongol fashion. The / is inserted, as in the English word, after the initial consonant of the root. Sometimes a concourse of consonants is caused by a vowel dropping out, as in mnogie, ''many," where the English word shows that an a has been lost. The word for "prince" is hvjaz, and is the same as the German Konig, " king." The g is softened into a sibilant, but is retained in the feminine hiyaginya, " princess." The Chinese is kiiln or kon, "chief," " leader." The Russian declension of nouns and verb paradigm are very full, and in this respect the language wears an old aspect. The svntax is simple and modern, and seems to have fewer inversions than the Sclavonic, from which it has sprung. A few examples here follow, taken from the ecclesiastical Sclavonic version of the New Testament, now about seven centuries old, and the modern Russian version published in 1862 b}^ order of the S3mod of Moscow. Acts i. 7. Sclavonic : Muja dva stasia pred nimi bo odcjdi hyehje. In English, translated word for word, this reads, " men two stood by them in clothing white." The Russian is vdrug predstali ime dva muja ve hyeloi odcjdye, "suddenly stood by them two men in white clothing." The Russian restores the adjective to its place before the noun. It uses a compound 2jredstaIiJor " stood by." It is formed by prefixing the preposition ^rec?, "near," as our word bystander, from by. ANGLO-SAXON. 369 Acts ii. 31. Sclavonic : I hudet ve podyedniya dui, glagolcte Gospod izUyo o Duha moigo na vsyakii plot. " And shall be in last days, saith Lord, I will pour of Spirit my on all flesh." The Russian is almost identical with the Sclavonic. / budet ve poslyetnie dni, govorite Boge izUyo ote Duhe Moego na vsyakiiyo plot. A new word, govorit, is introduced for " saith." The Sclavonic and Russian word Boge, " God," is substituted for Gospode, " Lord," which seems to have come into the Sclavonic version through inadvertence. The word plot in Sclavonic and Russian is our "flesh," the con- sonant / not being used in the Sclavonic. Buhe, " Spirit," is the Hebrew ruahh, " spirit," " wind." The preposition ve^ "in," is also Semitic. Acts iii. 15. Sclavonic : Nachahiika je jizni nhili. Literal English : " Prince and of life they killed." Russian : A nacJiahuka jizni uhili, " And prince of life they killed." The Russian restores "and" to its place at the beginning of the sentence. The Sclavonic je, "and," like its etymological equivalent que in Latin, is placed after its noun. In this example, so nearly the same in both languages, there seems to be no sufficient reason for placing the verb last, except the presence of a Turanian element, the same which we have found powerfully operating in Sanscrit and in Latin. Anglo-Saxon. The following sentences are taken from Yemon's 24 370 china's place in philology. Anglo-Saxon Guide. " He cannot help him," is ren- dered by Jle him helpan ne macg, '' lie him help not may." " How she may escape from the hostile spirits," is translated, Hu heo tham feondlicum gastum othfleon mage, " How she the hostile spirits escape may." The syntax is Turanian. " May " is here to be regarded as the indicative verb closing the sentence. Immediately before it comes the infinitive ** fly." The adjective "hostile" preceds its noun, gastum. These words in the ablative case constitute with the initial pronoun a circumstantial clause preceding the clause which contains the principal verb. Before this circum- stantial parenthesis stands the nominative. All so far is Turanian. Only the adverb " how" is out of its place. It should immediately precede the verb " escape." This is the single exception to Turanian order. So frequently does the verb occur at the end of the sentence, after its accusative, or following some circum- stantial clause, that it may be concluded, respecting the Anglo-Saxon as compared with modern English, that it was much more pervaded by the Turanian spirit. The same thing may be said of German when compared with English. The Anglo-Saxon, like the Latin and German, broke partially free from this law, which in Sanscrit and in the three Turanian families ties the verb to the end of the sentence. The modern English has escaped from it entirely. REACTION IN FAVOUR OF PRIMEVAL LAWS. 871 Witli this instance of the gradual abandonment of Turanian grammar in the modern European languages agrees the ever-advancing c^-2cay of the marks of declen- sion and conjugation. Our ancestors a thousand years ago declined the word guma, '' man," which is also, when slightly modified, good Mongol and Latin, with four variations of the sufiix, namely, nominative a, accusative, ablative, and genitive an, ablative and dative plural tinij and genitive plural ena. The adjective soth, " true," our soot/f, the Chinese zhef, '* real," and the Mongol sidorago, '^ honest," has applied to it the suffixes ne, e, urn, es, re, ra, which supply it with five cases, two numbers, and three genders. Just as this more complex system of suffixes used in the days of Alfred connects our modern English with the original Indo-European mother-language, so the deeper tinge of Turanian influence in the syntax of the same age forms a midway link between the English of the nineteenth century and a still older Turanian model. But behind the Turanian influence there is a still older one, that of the language of which Chinese is the type. Turania cannot furnish a satisfiictory solution of the problem of the origin of language. In a still earlier age nature was true to herself, and inversions were still imknown. Chinese syntax is much more natural than the Turanian ; and the English of modern days, and the Greek of two thousand years ago, are found returning to the more simple laws of arrange- 372 china's place in philology. merit which were familiar both to the ancient Chinese and to the language of the Antediluvians. China throws light on the problem by showing that the Turanian and Sanscrit awkwardness in syntax is in truth not primeval, but an inversion of natural laws, introduced contemporaneously with the growth of cases, tenses, and moods. Language in its developments has been always con- trolled by the desire to arrive at a measured and ele- vated expression. What is attempted at a later period in poetry is sought at an earlier time in language. There is discernible in all speech an unconscious long- ing after internal harmony and symmetry. The desire for ideal beauty which God has implanted in the soul must be satisfied as far as possible in the creations of the language- forming faculties. The poet, seeking this ideal, voluntarily places himself under the limitations of art. Language is, although unconscious^, always doing the same thing. The Semite, fond of bold imagery, imagined the objects of nature to possess the distinctions of sex. A few centuries passed and his language became thoroughly permeated with this idea. A few more, and a male and female mythology grew into popular belief. The Indo-Europeans adopted both the idea of gender in language and of sex in m3^thology which they found among those to whom they then looked as teachers and examples. On the other side, the Turanian race left the Chinese ALLITERATION IX POETRY. 373 freedom, and adopted a certain rigid law in syntax. The verb, relegated to the end of the sentence, gave origin in great part to case suffixes, and the moods and tenses of Turanian grammar. These became the fruitful source of an abundance of word-forms imitated by those who first used Indo-European speech, then in the time of its youth and its greatest susceptibility of impression. After many generations, language became weary of these strict rules, of a long array of cases, and a complex system of moods. She is now throwing away these encumbrances as fast as she can, and has, in the English language at least, already attained to an almost entire freedom from them. The Anglo-Saxon poetry and that of ancient Germany was alliterative for the same reason that Mongol poetry is so. It was partly because words having polysyllabic suffixes are unsuitable for rhyme or metre, and also, probably, on account of both these schools having re- ceived the laws of their versification from some unknown race which originated alliteration in poetry. Rhj^ming was not practised by the Germans in their poetry till the Christian period.^ Alliteration characterized all their oldest heathen versification, such as was used, for instance, in the war- songs of which Tacitus speaks. The Anglo-Saxon alliteration is less regular than the Mongol. In Mongol, a poem may begin, for example, ^ "Weber's "Weltgescliiclite, 6th edit. Vol. ii. Gescliichteder Deutschen Literatur. 374 china's place in philology. with a. Each principal word in the first, second, third, and fourth lines will also begin with a. In the next stanza another letter will be used in the same manner. In the third stanza, a third, and so on. Thus the system is more like that of the old Hebrew alliteration, as in Psalm cxix., where the letter Aleph occurs at the beginning of each of the eight verses, Beth at the be- ginning of each of the second eight, and so on to the end of the alphabet. In Anglo-Saxon the irregular repetition of the alliterated initial in two or three 'principal words is enough. The poet does not attempt to carry the alliteration through more than two lines. ^ He prefers to begin a new alliteration with some other letter. Hhyme is best suited for languages where mono- syllabic roots abound. Polysyllabic suffixes render it impossible, or not agreeable to the ear. There would be no pleasure felt by the Mongol ear in the repetition at the end of several consecutive lines of three or four past tenses, such as yahaha, ''went," taraha, "agreed," sanaba, "thought," hairaha, ''returned." For the same reason the Greeks and Latins used no rhymes, because they had few words without suffixes, and the repetition of mere suffixes in rhyme would have been wearisome and inharmonious. Phyme came into use in Europe when derivative suffixes began to decay. In the Chinese language rhyme was always used. It is found in the most ancient portions of the Book of History. It suits ^ Vernon's Anglo-Saxon Guide. LIST OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMMON WORDS. 375 a monosj^llabic language, because the emphasis and the rhyme fall together on radical syllables. In English and German the number of monosyllabic words is large, and hence the rhyme can be so arranged as to fall on roots, and not on servile syllables. It is this circum- stance that renders the device of rhj^me pleasing, and a suitable ornament of poetry. English. A list of identical words will now be given, to show the extent to which the Chinese and English vocabu- laries agree. After the Chinese new and old pronun- ciations will be added a few examples of the forms assumed by the same roots in some select languages. Avoid, ^ tveif tvit, Latin veto, vito, divido. Augment, ^ yi, yik, Latin aucjeOy Greek av^dvco, German wachsen, English tcax. Back, ^ pei, pok, Versian pusht, Greek oTrlaco. Baggage, U fu, bok, Russian poklaja. Bake, J;^ ^:)'az«, hok, Persian pochtan, Latin frigo, Greek (pp-uyco. Bang, }^ p^eng, hang. Bear ^ fu, bu, be, Latin /ero, jmrto, Greek (/)epa). Beat, j^ fa, bat, Latin batiio, Russian bit. Bed, ^ 2)ei, hi, bit, " to spread," ** a covering." Black, ^ me, mek, " ink," " coal," *' that which is black," Greek ^eka^, Sanscrit malina. Boat, ^ fa, bat, Anglo-Saxon hat, Russian hot, Bow, ^ fu, bok, German hog en. 376 china's place in philology. Break, ^ p^i, pHk, " cleave with a hatchet," Latin frangOjfractiis, Sanscrit bhagnay ''broken," Ilebrew yp3, ''cleave." Bright, ^ pCy bak, Sanscrit bhaj\ "shine," Latin fiilgeo. Burn, ^ feUy bun, TiSitm pnuiaf Greek Trvp. UAA S But, boot (to add), |^ pei, pi, pit, Anglo-Saxon botan. '^\ Buy, bought, ^ 7nai, mui, niuk, Latin emo. Call, PJf hiau, ko, kok, Greek KaXeco. Can, "a cylindrical drinking vessel," f§ kwan, kan, ^ kan, "a pipe." Hence anything long and round, as channel, through the Latin canalis, and cane, from canna, in Chinese ^ kan, " a stalk." Certain, '^ kiue, kit, Latin certus. Chaste, ^ Z:i>, A'/^, "clean," Latin castas, Greek Ka6ap6<;. Cough, 5^ k^o, k'ok, German keicJie, Greek Kot^o). Cow, "^ w^ew, ^?zw, Sanscrit go. Crooked, ^ A-'/w, k'ok, Latin ciirvus. Crow, Aim, kii, Sanscrit kdka, Latin corviis. Cut, ^i] A'o, Aa^, Latin ccedo, Hebrew y^H. Day, ^ cheu, tok, German tag, Latin dies. Deem, '['^ c^hen, dim, Russian doomali, " think." I^ew, j^ lu, lok, Sanscrit dai, German than, Latin ros. Din, ^ c/^ew, f/m, " noise of war drums." Dong, ding-dong, ^ chiing, tang, " bell." Down, '(£ ^/, " low," " bottom," Latin deorsum, Mongol dor a. LIST OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMMON WORDS. 377 Drag, draw, dray, ^ VOy Va^ Latin traho, tracto, German Ziehen. Eager, ^ yuy yohj " to desire," Latin acer. Ear, hear, 3 ^^> "^Qh Persian gosJty Sanscrit ghosha, Turkish kulak, Latin auris, German ohr, Jtoren. Eat, P§ weijioidyWatj Sanscrit annam, **food," Mongol idehu, " eat," Latin vescor. Elk, j^ hi, lok, Russian los, German elch. Embrace, Q pau^ pok, Latin amplector, brachium, '*arm," Greek 7rrjxv<;. Fast, >JJ 2)i, pit, Mongol bedu, " firm," Greek TTiaro^;, Latin Jides, Sanscrit bad, " to be steady," Hebrew /tOS, "he trusted." Father, ^fu, bo, Latin, pater, Hebrew ab, Turkish baba. Flee, ^^ pi, bi, bik, Jjatmfiiffio, Greek (j)euyco, German fliehen, E-ussian biegat, "avoid," Hebrew H^l^* Fly, flit, fj§ fei, pi, pit, Sanscrit ptatat, "bird," Greek ireretvo^. Foetus, ^ p^ei, p'i, pHt, Jjaiin foetus. Fold (as in two-fold), f§ 2jci, bei, bit (as in san pei, "three-fold"). Forth, ^ fa, pat, " express," " go forth." Foundation, ;4^ pen, pun, Ijaiuifundamentum. Gather, 'g' hwei, git. Give, ^ ki, kip, German geben. Glad, ^ hi, kit, Latin gaudeo, gratus, Greek 7?/^&j. Go, gang, fj king, gang. Goose, ^ ngo, Russian gus^ Mongol galagad. 378 china's place in philology. Grip, grasp, 3^ kicty kap, "take under the arm or with tweezers," Latin capio, habeo. Gullet, P^ heUj gu, Sanscrit (/olciy Latin giilctf German hals, "neck." Hate, U hivelj git. He, ^ k'i) gi, Latin hie, Hebrew ^^'l^. Head, ^ kia, kap, " coat of mail," " first in rank," " cover," ^ kai, kap, " covering on the top," cajnit, K€(j)aX')], kopf, haiipt. Hem (as a substantive), ^ kin, Mm, " hem of a garment," "a boundary"; (as a verb) ^ kin, kim, "to prohibit," "restrain," Russian kaima. High, ^ kau, kok, Latin celsiis, German hoch. Hollow, ^ Jm, ku, Latin cavus, German Kot\o<;. Hook, 1^ keu, kok. Hoop (cooper), J2 ^'^^> ^W- Horn, ^ kio, kak, Latin cornu, Greek Kepa^, Hebrew ppj Sanscrit sringa, Persian shag. Hot, Hfe je, nyit, Mongol halon, Latin calidus, German heiss. House, ^ kia, ke, Latin c<7Srt, Mongol gere. Humble, ^ Z:'/e72, ^'«/i, Latin humilis. Hymn, B^ ym, gim, " to chant," Greek vfjLvo^. I, ^j^ >?Y70, ?i^«, Latin ego, German ich. Kick, JiJ ^7*0, /trt/v, " foot," Welsh cic, " foot," c/ci'«?<-', " kick." King, g Z;mw, kiin, Welsh kuiiy " a chief," German Konig. LIST OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMMON WORDS. 379 Lake, ^ che^ dak, Latin lacus. Lamp, J;^ Ian, lam, Greek Xafiird^;. Lath, ^ He, lit, " to split," " a rent," or " slit." Law, 3^ //, //, leg, Latin lex, Greek \0709. Leaf, ^ tie, dip, *' butterfly," (so called from its leaf- like wings,) ^ tie, dip, " fold one thing over another," Mongol lapc'hi, " leaf." Lick, ^ c^hang, dong, Latin lingo, linxi, Greek Xe/%G). Long, ^ &}iang, dong, Latin longus. Mill, |§ wo, ma, " grind," Latin wio/«5. Mother, -^ y;^^^, ?;^o, Greek fjuijrrjp. Much, ^ ?;io, yy^o/r, "abundant" (used in poetry). Muck, i% mo, mole, " dust." Paint, ^^ 2)iaii, pile, " to draw," " to adorn," Latin pictor, pix, 2^iiigo. Pair, ^ 2)^ei, p>H, Latin ^:)^r. Part, glj ^j/e, ^jiY, 5?Y, " to part from," " different," Latin ^Mrs, portio, partio, Hebrew /HS, " he divided." Paunch, )^ fii, hah, German hauch. Peace, ^ J^'ingy bang, "even," "peace," Latin j^aar. Peel, j[£ 7;'/, ba, Latin j9e//«s. Peg, pierce, ^Ij " to pierce by setting on a spear." Compare the words prick, pick, s];)oke, poke, pike, with the Sanscrit pij, " kill," Greek iriKpo^, Latin pungo, pugno, German fechten. Pledge, jH 2y^ing, bang, " lean on," " proof," Latin pigmts, German pflcgen. Pot, ^^ 2)ei,put, "cup," Sanscrit 7;d^r«. 380 china's place in philology. Prepare, ^ pei^ bij Mongol heJehu, Latin ^9«ro. Put (in put forth) f § /a, p)ttt, " go forth," or "be put forth." Quiet, ^ hiey kit, Latin quies, quietis. Quoth, 15 htvay gwat, " say," " words," Sanscrit kath, Latin ccdo. Reed, rod, ^ hi, hit, German rohr, Latin arundo. Right, ]![ cM, dik, " straight," Latin rectus, Greek hUaio'^, Sanscrit dakshina, " right." Ring, fi^ hng, Hng, "collar." Round, ^ hin, "revolve," "a wheel." ^ov7, ^ hi, lo, lot, " a scull," German ruder, " oar," Latin remus, remigo, Greek eperfio^;. Rude, |g» hi, lod, Latin riidis. Rule, 3|| li, " to govern," leg, Latin regula, rego, rex. Sad, ']^ tsiii, dzot, " sorry." Same, ^ fsan, Psam, sam, "blend with," "be one with," Latin similis. Satisfy, ^ ski, zhit, " full," " real," Latin satis. Say, |Jp su, sok, " tell," German sagcn, saga. Seed, ^ sa, sat, Latin sero, sator, Sclavonic syet, "sow." Seek, f^ so, sok, " seek," German suchen. Compare seaixh. Self, g ts'i, dzi, zi, Latin se, German selhst. Serve, ^ sh'i, zhi, Latin servo, serviis, Sanscrit shach, " to serve," sri, " to serve." Set, ^ she, shet, Latin sisto, sedeo, Hebrew H^tJ'. Shed, ^ she, shed, " cottage," ^ s/ii, shed, " house." LIST OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMMON WORDS. 381 To shed, ^ she, shed, " let go/' " forgive." Shine, Jp^ shen, shin, German scheinen, Latin candeo. Shoot, ^ ski, shed, ''arrow," "to swear," German schiessen. Sigh, ^g, si, sik, German so}'(/e, Sanscrit suka, " air," " wind." Sing, m sung, zung, " to chant," ^ simg, song, "to praise." Sister, ^ ts'i, tsi, Latin soror. Slay, ^ hi, loli, German schlachten, Anglo-Saxon sleahan. Small, ^ rvei, mi, Latin minutus, minor, Russian malo, Mongol baga. Smell, (^ wei, mi, " odour," Persian bni. Sot, 5$ tsiii, tsut, sot, " become intoxicated." Sound, ^ t'sinen, zien, " sound," " whole," " all," Latin sanus, German gesund. Sound (of voice), sheng, shang, Sanscrit sramana, " hearer," Latin sonitus. Split, ^Ij pie, pit, "to separate." Spoke (of a wheel), |g fu, pok. Spread, ^ po, pat, "scatter," Latin paieo, "lie open," German hreit, English hroad, Mongol hadaraho, "spread." Stand, stood, ^ ta, dat, " tread upon," Japanese tatta, " stand," Tamil tan, " stand," Latin sto. Step, JJf t^a, dap, " to step," Russian stapat. Stick, g c'hii, t'ok, "pierce," Latin stigo, German stechen. 382 china's place in philology. Straight, jjj ch'ij dik, Tamil takudi, "right," Latin rectus, Greek SLKaLo<;, "just." Strike, ff ta, tang, Mongol tugsehu, " beat," Hebrew ypn ," struck." Strong, }(£ chwang, tong. Suck, pj 8u, tso, soli, Latin sngo. Suet, 5'$ 5?^, sot, " fat about the entrails." Tablet, ;j;L ^"^^ ^'J <^^^^^ ^'^i^? " bamboo or wooden tablets." Take off, Jg che, tak. Take on the person, ^ ^«i, ifa/c. Tap, tapestry, Q c'ha, t'ap, " pierce," " prick," " embroider," German tepinch, French tapis, English tap a tree or a harrel. That, the, this, ^ ti, di, "this," JJ che, te, "this." Through, jg Pcu, t^ok, "thorough." Throw, ^ t'eu, du, did, ^ tieu, to. To, Ji| ^^w, ^0. Tongue, ^ c'hang, dimg, "to taste," Latin /w?^o, lingua. Trickle, fg i^/, jfi^\ Turn, f§ chiven, tun. Yain (that which is empty and unsubstantial), ijg yen, in, " smoke," ^ yuny on, " cloud," Latin vanus, ani?na, English 'Vanish. Wash, {§ yii, yok, Mongol ogahu. We, ^ yii, wu, "I." When, where, which, who, fpf ho, ga, " what ? " ^ A;/, A:«, " how many ? " LIST OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE COMMON WORDS. 383 Wicked, ^ ngo^ ah. Wind, ^ loan, " a bending," "to bend." Wish, :^ yd, yok, Latin rolo. Word, yuBy wat, " say," German icort. Yoke (that which connects), ^^ yo, yak, " agree," "agreement," JjatiRJiigu?)ifjungo, Greek ^evyo^. This vocabulary of 153 words is taken almost exclu- sively from the Saxon part of the English language. The few words of Latin orio:in which occur mijjht as well be placed in a Latin list, but as they form part and parcel of our English tongue they have also a right to be here.^ The old pronunciation of the Chinese words is indis- pensable in the comparison, and has been inserted in one or two forms. Most of the words are such as belong to the pith and marrow of language, and are not unlikely to be really primeval. A considerable difference in meaning, such as occurs, for example, under the words "vain," "shed," "leaf," " shoot," is not a fatal objection to the identification of the words, because of the great lapse of time since the ancestors of the Chinese and English spoke a common language. The great advantage of the comparison of roots of ^ For further examples, see Professor Halclcman's Eclations between the Chinese and Indo-European Languages, p. 13, and Chalmers's Origin of the Chinese. 384 china's place in philology. the European stock with those of the Chinese lies in the fact of the great antiquity of both. By lists such as those compiled by Eichhoff in his work on Compara- tive Grammar, English words are carried back to a period about two thousand years before the Christian era, because the Hindoo family cannot well have entered the Indian peninsula later, and the identification of the English and Sanscrit vocabularies is well established. But the Chinese vocabulary can be traced by the aid derived from the phonetic elements of the characters to a time equally ancient. During the lapse of four or five millenniums, the roots must be expected to appear not without some considerable modifications in the sense. "When they are verbs in China, they may be nouns in England, and vice versa. The existence of these difierences thus adds increased certainty to the identification. CHAPTER XIY. Conclusion. — Primeval Aryan Civilization as Known from Language. — The Common Civilization of Aryans and Chinese MAY be Known from Language in the same "Way. — Activity OF THE Third Millennium b.c. — Ethnology of Genesis X. Compared with the Modern Distribution of Races. — Characteristics of Families : The Chinese, Order ; The Semitic, Life ; The Himalaic, Quietness ; The Turanian, Extension ; The Malayo-Polynesian, Softness ; The Indo- European, Elevation ; All of One Blood. — Proof from Polynesian and American Traditions. — Eesume. — Duty of Christians to Asia. Sufficient proof has already been given that a vocabulary of common words is just as possible for Europe and Eastern Asia as for Europe and India. If language proves that the English race is akin to the Hindoo, it also shows that it is akin to the Chinese. Philologists have shown that historical data may be recovered from the common vocabulary of the Indo- European family. Before their separation into Hindoo and Persian, Goth and Sclave, Greek and Latin, the Aryan race had towns and fortified places, reared cattle and ploughed the ground. They possessed as domestic animals the horse, swine, ox, dog, sheep, and goat ; ^ ^ Whitney's Lectures on Language ; Max Miillcr's Lectures, first course, p. 223. 25 386 china's place in philology, they built ships ; they wove cloth ; they lived in houses ; they mined the earth for metals ; they counted to a hundred ; they recognized the social duties and the family bonds. Similar results flow, as shown in the last chapter, from an examination of the European and Chinese common vocabulary. We find there words used in the west for the horse, ox, dog, and domestic fowl. The boat was known, but not the ship. Weaving was practised, and was called by the same name by the Chinese as by the Latins. Wheels and carts were in use. Corn was ground with mill-stones. Wooden bowls were employed for holding food. The processes of sowing and reaping were known by the same simple names. The same is true of some useful vegetable pro- ductions. The Arabic word for flax, kuttan, is like the Chinese kof. The old Chinese had three words for houses of difierent sizes, corresponding to the European o2ko<;, cot, and shed. If a complete comparative vocabulary were drawn up for each division of the Indo-European family, including the Celtic, Lithuanian, and Armenian, we should be in possession of all the important words in the primitive language spoken at the time when in the earth '' there was one language and one speech." Koots which have survived the destroying efiects of time through four thousand years may be assumed to have lived througli the preceding period without much difficulty. The ACTIVITY OF THE THIRD MILLENIUM B.C. 387 vitality of roots is most remarkable, and nothing brings it more vividly into view than the fact of their con- temporaneous existence through so many ages at the extreme ends of Europe and Asia. Perhaps five hundred roots would satisfy the wants of the first men. The activity of the language-forming faculty was at its maximum during the period when the distribution of nations took place. At B.C. 2000 most of the races were settled in the regions they now occupy. Since that time the language-forming faculty has limited itself to the evolution of new languages out of old ones. Before that epoch the formation of the families took place, and for this result a space of 1500 years is not too much. During the 1500 years which seem to have inter- vened between the Deluge and the final settlement of the races, bands of colonists were traversing every region of the vast inheritance assigned by Providence to the human family. The energy and enterprise revealed in the mighty emigrations of those times, were paralleled by an intense intellectual activity, which rapidly and unconsciously traced the outline of the linguistic systems which have ever since prevailed in the two continents of Europe and Asia. "What are now families were then languages, and they were cognate to one another as branches from the same stock. This time of busy activity is described in the tenth 388 china's place in philology. and eleventh chapters of the Book of Genesis, which constitute the most valuable record we possess for primeval ethnology. Independent investigation leads us to the same period, described in the Bible as that " when the earth was divided." The Confusion of Tongues at Babel marks the time when the families of language now existing became separated. Patient inquiry leads to the support of the Scriptural statement, and throws light upon it. It seems to refer specially to the separation of the Semites, Turanians, Indo- Europeans, and a part of the Himalaic race, for the rest of the families had probably already left the Mesopotamian region. The object of the compiler of the tenth chapter was ethnological as well as genealogical, for Mizraim's seven sons are rather, as the plural termination indicates, seven races, and Canaan is said to be the father of eleven races. As Cush had an eastern and western branch, so other races, usually located in the west, may also have an eastern habitat. The name Bod, common to several races in Eastern Asia, ought, as already said in a former chapter, to be compared with Phut, the name of the third son of Ham. The Confusion of Tongues was followed by the do- mination of the Semite language, from Elam in Western Persia to Lydia in Asia Minor, and from Assyria to Sheba and Ophir in the south of the Arabian penin- GENESIS TENTH AND MODERN ETHNOLOGY. 389 sula. Striking traces of Semite influence are found in the Zend, the Persian, and all the Himalaic languages. The race of Ham extended into Africa. It fringed the sea-coast from Arabia Felix to the Indus, following the line of Cushite settlements. It then seems to have spread eastward, including the area of the Bod stock and that of China. Modern research finds no place for the Turanians or the Malayo-Polynesians among the names of the descendants of the sons of Noah.^ If they are to be included in the range of the tenth chapter of Genesis, it must be without the light of race names. The Scripture record is silent. To the inspired writers "they are the nations that sat in darkness '' and "the uttermost parts of the earth." The links of connexion are lost, and they have created no ancient literature that might have served as a guide. The linguistic proof, however, remains to show that they are of the common human stock. The Turanians are most nearly connected with the Japhetic languages, as the Himalaic and Malay o- Polynesian are with the Semitic. Thus we seem to have the Japhetic influence in the northern half of Eastern Asia, as that of Shem and Ham in the southern half. In the Pacific Ocean, Japan ^ The word Mongol may be compared ■with Magog^ and Togarmah with the Turks and Tungus. The race name of the Japanese is Wo^ which, as not having a consonant in it, is most nearly like Javau. 390 china's place in philology. represents Japheth, and tlie Polynesian Archipelago, with Australasia, combine to spread Semite principles of language. On the American continent, Turanian and Polynesian linguistic principles meet in the various Indian lan- guages. New combinations are formed. But the peculiarities of the languages have not been found sufficiently distinctive to form a thoroughlj^ satisfactory division into families. Yet it has been generally agreed to classify them as northern, central, and southern. The characteristics of the six families of languages reviewed in the preceding chapters are, in the Chinese orde)\ in the Semitic life, in the Himalaic quietness, , in the Turanian extension, in the Malayo-Polynesian softness, and in the Indo-European elevation. The love of order shown by the Chinese in their political and social sphere is found also in their lan- guage. The musical effect of the tones on the ear is parallel to the rigid laws of arrangement in their syntax. Antiquity prevails over novelty, and mono- syllabism has retained its empire among them, through a conservative principle, which has thus, happily for science, secured to us a copy more like the original mother of languages than can be found in any other land. The accuracy of the Chinese picture of that lost tongue, which it is the highest dut}^ of philology to restore, is in proportion to the restraining force CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES. 391 which among the Chinese has alwa3^s hindered develop- ment. That restraint has been caused partly by a feeling of art, which pleased itself with simple triumphs and the retention of the antique ; and partly from want of the poetic impulse, which in more western regions has had so powerful an influence on the advance of language. The principle of life characterizes remarkably the Semitic languages. The Koran and the Bible are replete with poetic expression. The people among whom these books originated were accustomed to look on the world with the poet's eye. This impulse was imparted to them by their possession of early revela- tion ; and its effect was to modify, first, their language, and afterwards their literature, by rapid transitions, personifications, and the breaking up of natural order, so as to place them in complete contrast to the linguistic and literary development of Eastern Asia. The poetic spirit of the Semites probably originated the Indo- European mythology, as it did the more imaginative part of the Indo-European languages. "Where the distinctions of gender are found in nouns, there will also be found male and female divinities with names and genealogies. The same feeling for personification, perhaps, has impressed on the Hamitic languages and systems of thought whatever features they possess of a kindred kind. The Hamites were a materialistic race, working patiently at trades and laud cultivation. They 392 china's place in philology. were farmers and artificers, and they appear to have originated writing. With such tastes they would not create the mythology which prevailed in Babylon and Egypt. Semite influence may be pointed to as a more likely source of their religious ideas, as it would be also of much of their grammar. The Himalaic peoples from Tibet to Cochin- China are characterized in their language, and in their historj^ by nothing so much as quietness. They have founded no institutions, originated no arts. They have received without giving. Their religion came from India and is Indo-European. Their arts were borrowed from China. The Tibetians have taken some elements in their language from the Semites, others from the Turanians, and others, again, from the Chinese. The Himalaic race are more thoroughly Buddhist than any other linguistic family. A contem- plative religion, opposed to activity, pleased them because it agreed with their natural disposition. Its effect on them has been to confirm them in their quiet ways of thinking. They can never produce any im- press on history till they abandon this inactive and gentle religion. The Turanian race has played in the world a much more important part than those who reside east and north of the Himalayan Mountains. In the fifth century, the Huns under Attila were named '* The scourge of God " ; and in the thirteenth century, the CHARACTERISTICS OF FAMILIES. 393 Mongols were the conquerors of all Asia and tlie dread of all Europe. Occupying Siberia, North Europe, Japan, Tartary, and South India, they won for them- selves a good title to the name of Japheth " the extender" In harmony with this name are the characteristics of their language. They founded the polysyllable and the most widely used system in the world of cases, tenses, and moods. They thus added immensely to the progress of language, by the simple process of ap- pending syllables to roots by agglutination. The language^ forming faculty then applied itself to the crys- tallization of these polysyllabic forms into the grammat- ical paradigms which belong to the several languages respectively of the Turanian and Indo-European stocks. The characteristic of the Malayo-Polynesian lan- guages is softness. The primitive monosyllable became a dissyllable by the enervating eifect of climate. The initial consonant formed the first syllable and the final the second. Agglutination proceeded on the same principle to work out the Oceanic pol3"syllable. Every- thing favoured an easy pronunciation adapted to a race accustomed to lassitude and contented to deteriorate. A people having a very soft language can never elevate themselves unless under new conditions, such as the introduction of Christianity. The last of the series, the Indo-European, is remark- able for elevation. This system is built on those that went before, and in many respects combines and per- 394 china's place in philology. fects their peculiar excellences. The topmost branches of the tree of language, those that spread widest and aspire highest, are the Indo-European. It is this race that has led the mind of the world in science and philosophy, and its language constitutes the most fitting vehicle for the transmission of scientific and philosophic thought. The monosyllabic languages are the lower branches, thick and of great length, but with no bend upwards. The dissyllabic modes of human speech are higher and are turned heavenwards. The earlier poly- syllabic languages have a vast extension, but not much upward curvature. The chief beauty of the tree is in its higher foliage. Here are seen the greatest variety of picturesque efiects, the most vigorous growth, the most elegant forms, the most imposing altitude. All the branches, however, upper or lower, proceed from one trunk. '' God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." When the European goes into the other continents of the world, as traveller, colonist, missionary, and civilizer, he meets everywhere with men of the same race. " But what have we in common with the Turanians, with Chinese, and Samoyedes ? Very little it may seem : and yet it is not very little, for it is our common humanity. It is not the yellow skin, or the high cheek-bones, that make the man. Nay, if we look but steadily into those black Chinese eyes, we shall find that there, too, there LANGUAGE SHOWS THE RACES TO BE ONE. 395 is a soul that responds to a soul, and that the God whom they 7nean is the same God whom we mean, however helpless their utterance, however imperfect their worship." ^ Language proves them to be one with ourselves. The black, the yellow, the copper- coloured, and the brown races come of one stock. If the yellow and the white can by linguistic proofs be shown to be one, the presumption will be strong that the same is true of all. The evidence is more accessible in the case of the yellow race than of the rest, because they have an ancient literature and a writing by means of ideographic signs, of which the phonetic values are known. With the less civilized races we have not this advantage. Their languages are perpetually changing, and we cannot recover their ancient forms. But if the differences between a white and a yellow skin, an upright and a receding forehead, a Caucasian and a Mongolian head, a large blue eye, set deep, and a small black eye, set on the surface, are not conclusive against consanguinity, so neither must it be allowed that a black or red skin, proves descent from a different Adam. If Adam were the progenitor of Caucasians only, as held by M'Causland,^ we should not find European roots existing in abundance in the Chinese vocabulary. * Max Miillcr, Lectures on the Science of Religion. 2 Adam and the Adamites, 1864. Dr. M'Causland has felt strongly the force of the stone hatchet argument. But the right way to proceed is rather to make mutual concessions in chronology. 396 china's place in philology. Nor should we meet the old tj^pe of the Aryan pro- nouns and the Arj^an system of accidence in Turanian languages still spoken in Tartary and Siberia. If the Polynesians were not of Asiatic origin, we should not find proofs of their sjdlabic system being based upon an old Asiatic syllabary and their laws of syntax all formed on Asiatic models. Man cannot retain his civilization and morality when isolated — he will cease to practise old arts, he will forget facts once familiar to him, his religious ideas will become dim, his range of thought will in each successive century- grow more limited, and he will fall into habits which are immoral and debasing. That the Polynesians are now inferior to the Japanese and Chinese is the effect of their distant wanderings, and is an argument for the propriety of offering to them early the blessings of religious and moral teaching, with instruction in the arts of civilized man. The religion of the Polynesians is more like that of the Brahmans than of the Buddhists, and there were probabty communicated to them, in early times, from India, some features of the Hindoo faith. Who can Tiki be but Sakra ? What can be the paradise of Tiki, as believed in by the Samoans, but the thirty- third heaven of Sakra ? At any rate k is changed into t quite commonly in the cognate languages spoken on the Birman peninsula. Yet the Samoan belief in a Supreme God, called Tangoloa reminds us strongly of RESUME. 397 the Mongol and Turkish faith in Tengri, and that of the Chinese in Tien. The addition of the two consonants g, r, is Turanian, and it was apparently from the Turanians, therefore, that faith in the Supreme Being under this name was derived. The worship of an- cestors, common in the South Seas, would be learned from the Chinese ; while the human sacrifices, which also existed among them to a frightful extent,^ must be viewed as Turanian, — for in some parts of India the aborigines are, under British eyes, only beginning to allow this practice to fall into desuetude, — or they are Semitic, and are of the same origin as the sacrifices to Moloch condemned in the Old Testament. Let the reader now recall the successive steps of this investigation from the commencement. The old insti- tutions of China were shown to be like those of the renowned cities of ancient Mesopotamia. It was stated that the remarkable similarity in arts, usages, and ideas, existing among the races that lived near the Yellow River, the Euphrates, and the Nile, indicated that they sprang from a common source. After briefly glancing at the geographical areas of the families of languages spoken in Asia, a sketch was drawn of their most general features, as constituting a rough picture of the world's primeval language. The roots are recoverable in a monosyllabic form. They were chiefly imitations of natural sounds, and were ^ Williams's Missionary Enterprizes. 398 CHINA^S PLACE IN PHILOLOGY. increased by the aid of tlie principle of the association of ideas. Special divine aid was afforded to primeval man in the task of forming for himself a language. In the chapter on the Chinese language, after it had been shown that the conditions of the situation would be best suited by supposing the Chinese to have left "Western Asia about 5,000 years ago, and yet subse- quently to the Deluge of Noah, the mode of recovering the primeval Chinese syllabary from the phonetic element of the characters was described. The syntax, so accordant with nature and innocent of inversions, was seen to be of the most primeval type. The next step in the progress of language was taken in the formation of the Semitic language. The people who used Semite speech added a consonant to the root, introduced prefixes to mark conjugations and moods, invented a plural and dual number, originated genders among nouns not properly masculine or feminine, and revolutionized the syntax. In speaking of the languages used in the region south of China, it was seen that while their tones, their syllabaries, and their vocabulary, connect them closely with China, their syntax links them remarkably with the Semitic type. While this is the case with the Siamese, the Cochin- Chinese, and the Miau aborigines in China itself, some still more striking Semitic charac- teristics belong to the Tibetan language. Though its tones, roots, and radical syllabary show it to be akin to RESUME. 399 the Cliinese, and its syntax and case suffixes prove its relationship to the Turanian type, its mode of conju- gating verbs and its consonantal prefixes are Semite, and seem to point for their origin to a time earlier than the Aryan occupation of India and Persia, which drove the Semites and Turanians from their neighbourhood on the west and south. The Japanese received special attention as the oldest of the polysyllabic languages in Asia, and it was shown how case particles grew into existence by agglutination, the syllables made use of for this purpose being words existing as separate roots in Chinese and other lan- guages. The second division of the polysyllabic Turanian system was described as the Dravidian. The growth of the verb by agglutination was here traced, and a growing resemblance in vocabulary and grammar to the western type found to be perceptible. The greatest likeness and nearest kinship between the Indo-European languages and the threefold Tu- ranian type was proved to exist in the Tartar, of which Mongol was taken as the best representative. Here it was shown that the pronouns and substantive verbs, declension of nouns, and verb conjugation of western speech, rest chiefly upon the Tartar branch of the Turanian family as their source and foundation. The Malays and Polynesians have a syllabary and vocabulary which was evidently once continental. The 400 china's place in philology. Malay and Siamese are specially connected with each other, while Chinese influence in the principles pre- vailing in the Polynesian languages is very perceptible. These islanders retain traces of a lost civilization, which comes more prominently to view on the American continent. Language and religious beliefs alike point to Southern Asia as the source from which came the tribes that inhabit Australia, Polynesia, and the civilized portion of the American tribes. The sudden expansion of language observable in Sanscrit, as compared with the preceding systems, indicates the commencement of a new era of develop- ment, characterized by unparalleled richness of forms. This new advance proceeds on principles already existing in older systems. In introducing gender in nouns, and sex in mythology, Semitic example was followed. So, also, the prefix of sibilants in the root and the insertion of r and I after the initial of the primeval syllable seem to have come from the same source. But in all the newer portions of the Sanscrit grammatical formation we find laws prevailing which also characterize Turanian languages. Case suffixes, the verb, and the syntax, bear united testimony to this statement. But there is a more highly wrought appearance in the forms. Agglutination has become inflexion. Poot and suffix are fused into a closer union. The advance in analytical acuteness, which was after a few centuries to culminate in the creation of RESUME. 401 Hindoo pliilosophy, is first seen in the minute sub- divisions of tlio verb paradigms. The adjective was now for the first time declined like the substantive, and the relative pronoun began to exert some of that power which it has more fully assumed in the European languages. When the speech of ancient and modern Europe was brought under our review, it was found, as in Sanscrit, that the principles of older languages were working underneath the surface. But they appeared in new combinations suited to the mental conditions of the successive races who have in that favoured continent wrought out such a marvellous history in the political, social, and intellectual sphere. Greece, happily placed in the vicinity of the ancient empires, was able early to derive from them the seeds of progress. Carefully nurturing these, she was seen to dev elope with as- tonishing rapidity those creations in poetry, science, history, and philosophy, which the world will never cease to admire. A language and literature so beau- tiful and complete as the Greek could never have originated but from the haj)py combination of fruitful principles, derived from the pre-existing systems of language and thought. The Latin, the Teutonic, and the Sclavonic forms of language were each modified by special elements, contributed in varied proportion from the same sources. In all these languages, early changes foreshadowed 26 402 china's place in philology. later ones, and new phenomena exemplify over again what took place lung ago. When we say, " Alfred the Great," we use a French idiom, dating from the Norman Conquest ; and among our Saxon idioms, old and new, forming tlie major part of the language, Turanian modes of expression may be pointed out, which at some distant time, when our ancestors lived near the Caspian, found their way into colloquial use in some similar manner. For the English, " and came before him," the Anglo- Saxon Gospels have, in Mark vi. 33, " and him beforan comon." These words are exactly in the order of Manchu and Mongol syntax. How great are the linguistic accessions to European speech received from far Asia has been shown by exam- ples of common words. The}'' are enough to make plain that the vocabularies of the east and west are essentially the same. This identity dates from a time previous to the settlement of the Chinese in China and the Mongols in Mongolia. Philology may here safely take her stand, and add a chapter of illustration to the sacred record, where it treats of the division of the earth and the planting of nations. It is the duty, as it is the destiny, of the nations of Europe to give back to the east the treasure of heavenly light which they once received from it. To Asia they owe the first impulses to thought, the earliest lessons in the arts, the invention of writing, and the price- less deposit of divine revelation. "Freely ye have DUTY OF THE WEST TO ENLIGHTEN THE EAST. 403 received/' says the Saviour, " freely give." Their higher mental elevation and their richer stores of knowledge fit them to be the instructors of the old world; and to this midertaking Divine Providence is leading them by unmistakable signs. England has received the rule of India for this purpose, that she may become the teacher and evangelizer of India. Commerce and war have opened the gates of China, that Christian truth may enter them. All new facts, therefore, should be welcome that tend to show that the Chinese are one with us in origin, and that their history, their institutions, their language even, derive their source, as ours do, from Western Asia. Let the kindly sympathy of the west for the east be the more called forth as the proofs of common brotherhood are accumulated. THE END. STEPHEN AUSTIN AND 60NS, PKINTSRS, UEUTIORD. 2 2 2 18 RETURN CIRCULATION department: ^, « TO— ^ 202 Main Library 1021,_6 LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS REVIVALS AND RECHARGES MAY fJE MADf 4 HAYS PRIOR TO DUE DA-^r LOAN prRlODS AH." 1-MONTH, 3-MONTHS AND 1-YEAR RENEWALS. CALL (415) 642-3405 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW JUL u « 1995 ^ , , , ■^ ..'-'- NOV 2 2 200! 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