Part 1

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

All changes noted in the ERRATA on page 303 have been applied to the etext.

As well as several words in Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit, some unusual characters are used in this book. These will display on this device as ► (black right-pointing pointer, or wedge) ☞ (white right-pointing index) ⁂ (asterism) (the original book used inverted asterisms.)

The ☞ symbol was used extensively to indicate that more information could be found in the Appendix. However, as the publisher notes at the end of the book, the Appendix was not in fact included in this volume. A second volume was planned but was never published.

The initials of a contributor of an entry, when present, have been consistently placed at the end of the entry text. They were sometimes right-aligned or placed on a separate line in the original book. A list of the names of the contributors can be found on page 302 at the end of this book.

The pointer ☞ to the (non-existent) Appendix, when present, has been consistently placed at the end of the entry. It was almost always right-aligned or placed on a separate line in the original book.

Some changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.

The Treasury of Languages.

A

RUDIMENTARY DICTIONARY

OF

UNIVERSAL PHILOLOGY.

DANIEL iii. 4.

עממיא אמיא ולשניא

HALL AND Co., 25, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following compilation presents the mere skeleton outline of a great subject; and, in submitting it to public notice, acknowledgment is most justly due to Messrs. BAGSTER AND SONS, for permission to use the literary matter of their interesting and instructive volume, the “Bible in Every Land;” and to Messrs. LONGMANS & CO., for a like favour with regard to Dr. Latham’s “Elements of Comparative Philology,” a laborious, learned, and useful book, without which the present volume could not have been produced.

The compiler readily apologises for any defects in his matter and manner; and takes this opportunity to thank his respected contributors, hereby exonerating them from any responsibility except for their own signed articles.

A list of signatures and writers will be found in the Appendix.

25, PATERNOSTER ROW, _February 7th, 1873_.

INTRODUCTION

ON

THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF LANGUAGES,

_Chiefly from_ DR. LATHAM.

AFRICAN.—The best way to study the wide and complex philology of Africa is to begin with the frontier of the Semitic languages, remembering that the Ethiopic branch of them is, to all appearance, indigenous to Africa; then to bear in mind that the Arabic, by intrusion and extension, is spread over a great part of Northern and Eastern Africa. The Eastern frontier, however, of the Arabic and the Syriac is in Asia, and in Asia it begins where the Persian and Turk areas end. For the philological geography of Africa it will be found useful to divide the continent into the following sections, regions, or areas: (1) The first division as North-Eastern until it approaches the Equator, and the parts between it and the Red Sea—in geography, Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, in philology the Coptic, Beja, Nubian, and (in its geographical sense) the Abyssinian regions. (2) The Barbary States and Canary Islands. (3) The Desert, divided into the Western or Great (the Sahara), and the Eastern (or Libyan) Desert. (4) Senegambia, or the drainages of the Senegal and Gambia. (5) Sudania. This gives us what we get nowhere else in Africa, a continuous belt or zone of languages, with fairly determined boundaries from Senegambia to Abyssinia, _i.e._, across the whole continent in its broadest part. Within the limits of this zone lie the fundamental materials for the study of African philology and ethnology. It is only, however, between the parallels of 10° and 15° N.L. that it is continuous, and this only approximately. (6) The Coast line. This means the sea-board of the Grain, Ivory, Gold, and Slave Coasts. (7) The Delta (of the Niger). This brings us within the Equator, but only on the side of the Atlantic. The Abyssinian extends to (there or thereabouts) the same parallels on the side of the Indian Ocean. Neither, however, carries us beyond a limited area inland. Where these two limits, East and West, end, South Africa begins. It is, with the exception of the few degrees of latitude just indicated, either equatorial or belonging to the Southern tropic; it falls into two divisions. (8) The Inter-Tropical, or Kaffir. (9) The Extra-Tropical, or Hottentot. All these divisions are simply what their names imply, except only that Senegambia is made to reach as far as Cape Mesurado, so as to include the parts about Sierra Leone and Cape Mount.

AMERICAN.—The primary division is that between North and South. (1) In North America the connection with Asia is decided. Through the Aleutian dialect of the Eskimo and the Kamtschatkan it is direct; through the Yukahiri and other tongues it is indirect. The Eskimo is a definite class; the Athabascan is also a definite class when compared with the Algonkin. The Chemmesyan, Hailtsa, Wakash, and Chinook are connected. The Jakon and Kallapuiah lead to the languages of the Sahaptin and Shoshoni class, among the congeners of which the sound of “tl” appears. In the Mexican it becomes prominent. Between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific the Algonkin appears to have spread from West to East, and the result has told most on the Iroquois family. The South Oregon languages graduate into the Californian, the Californian into those of the Paduca class and those of Sonora, till we come to two great divisions, the Mexican and the Maya. (2) In South America there is a reappearance of the phenomena of the North: what the Athabascan and Algonkin are in the one peninsula, the Quichua, the Carib, and, above all, the Guarani are in the other. With any South American vocabulary of adequate length, some North American root presents itself; some even from the extreme North, viz., the Eskimo area, which, along with the phenomena of transition, is the chief argument in favour of the fundamental unity of the two classes. The student from Peru finds Quichua words in every vocabulary he lights upon, whilst the student from Brazil finds Guarani words.

ASIAN.—Asia and Europe, though different quarters of the globe, form but a single continent, and as such have characteristics of their own. One great class of languages is absolutely common to the two—the great Ugrian or Fin family. We miss, no doubt, in Europe such districts as those of Caucasus, and the parts to the North of the Burmese Empire, where numerous mutually unintelligible languages are pressed together within a small area. Again, the inflected languages have their seat in Europe; the monosyllabic in Asia. On the other hand, it is only in the great central continent that Language can be studied in all its stages: the Monosyllabic stage in the South-East of Asia, and the Inflectional in Western and Southern Europe. This makes Asia and Europe the only region in which the whole (or nearly the whole) history of Language can be studied. Besides this, in Europe and Asia we have a history. We can see how languages like the English and Russian are extending themselves; how the German has extended itself; how the Latin had previously extended itself. We can see how languages like the Keltic, the Lithuanic, and the Fin recede. (1) The Western division is the one with which we are most familiar; it includes Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Valley of the Danube, and Greece; allowance being made for the Turk and Hungarian, which are intrusive. (2) The great Northern area is in Russia conterminous with the Western, which means, roughly speaking, Northern Asia with a large part of Europe; the chief displacements having been effected by the great spread of the Turk language. (3) The South-Eastern area begins with the North frontier of China, and includes Thibet, Nipal, the Transgangetic peninsula, Assam, Siam, Pegu, Cambogia, Cochin-China, and China. (4) The South-Western area contains India, Persia, and the Caucasus; here the displacing languages are Indian, Persian, and Arabic, which last is treated as African.

OCEANIC.—The first thing which commands attention is its thorough insular or oceanic character; subordinate to this is the remarkable distribution of its members. In one great division, viz., the Polynesian, the diffusion has been decidedly recent. The first primary division contains the Malay; the second has been called Micronesian; the third division is Polynesia proper. The second group is called Kelenonesian or Melanesian, including Papuan, Australian, and Tasmanian (“Elements,” p. 377). Australian languages are all upon the same general grammatical construction. Mr. Moorhouse says that “not one-twentieth part of the words agree in root, and yet there is evidence sufficient to satisfy any one that they belong to the same family.” All have suffixes to show relation; a dual in substantives, adjectives, and pronouns; no sibilant sounds, no auxiliary verb, no passive voice, no “h,” they abound in the pleonastic, and distinguish genders by postfixes. The only point of agreement is in the first personal pronoun, “I”; this is “nga-nga” on the Swan River; “nga-toa” in New South Wales; “nga-ti,” Adelaide; “ngai-tyo,” Mount Barker; “gni,” Murchison River; “nga-pe,” Encounter Bay; “ngai,” Port Lincoln; “nga-ppo,” Murray River; “naddo,” Murrumbidgee River; “nga-pe,” Lower Murray; “noga-toa,” Hunter River. At the same time, the Malayan is “nga-n”; the Sumba, “nga-nga”; the Thibetian, “nga”; the Corean, “nai”; and the Burmese, “ngai.” Yet Dr. Latham finds no Australian dialects resemble those of the Asiatic Isles. Mr. Norris first detected similarity of the grammar between the Australian and the South Dravidian languages of India, spoken before the Aryan migration to the Ganges. Mr. J. R. Logan, of Singapore, thinks the Australian the most ancient of the Indo-Australian tongues. He says they are “a remnant of the Proto-Scythic era of the harmonic development, and between Chinese and American.” He regards them, with the other kindred dialects of South-Eastern Asia, as in existence “before the expansion of the numerals one, two, and three into higher binary and ternary terms.” According to him, “the pronominal roots are compounded with definitives, singular and plural, with the numeral two to form duals, with masculine and feminine definitives in the third person, and in all the three persons with each other; thus producing not only absolute and relative plurals of the first person, but several other complex plurals.”

J. B.

_October 31st, 1873._

DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGES.

☞ For Additions see Appendix. ☞

A.

AACHEN.

A sub-dialect of low-German or PLATT-DEUTSCH, vernacular at Aix-la-Chapelle, Lower Rhine. See Müller and Weitz’s “Idiomatikon,” Leipsig, 1836.

ABABDEH _or_ ABADEH.

_Semitic_: a different form of speech was formerly vernacular at Sheikh Abade, in Upper Egypt; the site of some ancient ruins on the banks of the Nile. Since superseded by ARABIC. Adelung: “Mithridates,” iv., p. 502.

⁂ A division of the BEJA, BEJAWI, or BISHARI family; they are the most northerly members of this class, which occupies the desert between the Nile and Red Sea from Cosseir to Suakim. R. G. L.

ABADJA.

African: a sub-dialect of the OTAM.

ABAK.

A dialect of the Philippine Islands, closely allied to BISSAYAN and TAGALA. See Jülg’s “Vater,” p. 1.

ABANTES.

An extinct form of speech, classed as THRACO-ILLYRIAN, formerly vernacular in the I. of Eubœa, now called Negropont or Egripos, in the Grecian Archipelago. Adelung: “Mithridates,” ii., p. 362.

ABASCI _or_ ABASSIAN, _see_ ABSNE.

ABBEVILLE.

A sub-dialect of FRENCH, vernacular in Picardy. See De Soilly’s “Idiome Picard,” Abbeville, 1833.

ABBITIBBE.

American: dialect of the Christinos or Cree Indians; classed as ALGONKIN. See Jülg’s “Vater,” p. 204.

ABENAKI _or_ ABENAQUI.

A dialect of the ALGONKIN race of N. American Indians, spoken in Lower Canada and the State of Maine. The tribe once occupied the valley of the R. Kennebeck; but the name also includes the Etchemins, Micmacs, and others. See Rasles. Dict., 1833; Vocabulary in Amer. Ethnol. Trans, ii., p. 109.

ABIPONIAN.

A name given by the early Spaniards to the language spoken on the western bank of the Parana in S. America; although on the borders of the Gran Chaco it differs considerably from the dialects spoken in that district. See Dobrizhoffer’s “Geschichte,” 3 vols., 8vo, Vienna, 1784. D. F.

ABOR.

A dialect of ASSAMESE, spoken by a hill tribe on the north-western extremity of Assam. Logan, Jnl. Indian Archipelago, 1853, p. 190. _See_ AKA.

ABSNE _or_ ABKHAZIAN.

A name for the ancient ABASCI, now represented by Abascia or Abgah (Abkasia), a country of Asiatic Russia, lying between the Caspian and Black Seas. The modern word ABSNÉ is called Abkhazi by the Georgians; with the terminal “eti” for “land,” it is Abkhazeti, and extends from Soukum-kale to Jenikale. The affinities of the Absné language are very uncertain; a large number of its words are similar to Circassian, but a larger proportion apparently not so. See Vocabularies in Güldenstädt’s “Reisen;” Klaproth’s “Reise;” “Asia Polyglotta,” &c. H. H. H.

ABYSSINIAN, _see_ AGAU, AMHARIC, GALLA, TIGRE, &c. ☞

ACADIAN.

American: That division of the ALGONKIN family containing the languages of Lower Canada and Nova Scotia.

ACAXE.

American: a doubtful name for a probable dialect of the TUBAR.

ACCAD.

The oldest known language before the Semitic population settled in Mesopotamia. W. S. W. V. _See_ AKKADIAN.

ACCAWAY.

A dialect of native S. American, belonging to the CARIB, or Karib group. Vernacular in the Highlands of British Guiana.

⁂ CARIB of Demerara, closely allied to the CARABISI. See Hilhouse, Schomburgk, &c.

ACCRA _or_ ACCARAH.

A language of the MANDINGO branch of native African, spoken by a small nation on the Gold-coast, about lat. 5° 35′ N., long. 0° 12′ W.; it is sometimes designated the GHAH or GA, and the people are supposed to have been removed by emigration from the interior. Ghana or Gana is a city, governed by a Sultaun, near the upper course of the Niger. Rask’s “Vejledning,” 8vo, Copenhagen, 1828. _See_ AQUAPIM.

ACHÆMENIAN PERSIAN.

The name of that form of the Old PERSIAN language which is used in the inscriptions of the Achæmenian kings, or the line of native monarchs which commenced with Cyrus the Great and terminated with Darius Codomannus, the antagonist of Alexander. The language is written in an arrow-headed or cuneiform character of a simple kind, and is closely akin to the Zend, Pazend, and the modern Persian. The best work on the language is that of Spiegel, “Altpersische Keilinschriften.” G. R.

ACHAGUA.

A dialect of native S. American, vernacular on the R. Casanare, a tributary of the R. Orinoco; and closely allied to MAIPUR. “Mithridates,” iii., p. 631.

ACHASTLI.

AMERICAN: spoken on the coast of California between San Francisco and St. Diego.

ACHINESE.

A language of the MALAYAN family, spoken in the kingdom of Ache or Achin, the northernmost part of Sumatra. It is distinguished from all other Malay languages by having the accent on the terminal instead of the penultimate syllable, and by a good deal of monosyllables. It is at present very little known, but its presumed affinity to the monosyllabic languages of Asia renders its study highly interesting for investigating the origin of the Malay race. P. J. V.

ACOMA.

A dialect of native AMERICAN, vernacular in New Mexico. It is one of the dialects spoken by the Pueblo Indians on the R. Grande. It is also called LAGUNA.

ACROA-MERIM.

American: a dialect of the GEZ class, vernacular in Brazil. See Von Martius, vol. ii., p. 144.

ADAIHE _or_ ADAIHI.

A very isolated language of N. American. Spoken in Louisiana, in 1805, by forty individuals only. Vocabulary in “Archæologia Americana.” It is also called ATAYO. Vocabulary Amer. Ethn. Trans., vol. ii., p. 95.

ADALI (_pl._ ADAIEL _or_ ADAL.)

Largely SEMITIC. An Abyssinian dialect, spoken by the tribes between the Highlands and the sea-coast. See Salt’s “Voyage,” Appdx. i., p. 6. C. T. B.

ADAMPI.

A native African dialect, closely resembling ACCRA and KREPEE, vernacular on the Gold-coast, W. Africa.

ADAREB, _see_ BEJA.

ADELAIDE.

A variety of native AUSTRALIAN, formerly vernacular at Adelaide, S. Australia; it differs but little from other dialects of the Gulf St. Vincent.

ADIGE.

A name for the CIRCASSIAN proper, as opposed to the APKHAZ.

ADIYAH.

Otherwise FERNANDIAN: the language of Fernando Po, an island on the W. coast of Africa, near the mouths of the Niger.

ÆOLIC.

A dialect of ancient GREEK spoken in Bœotia, Thessaly, Ætolia, Elis, Lesbos, Chios and the N.W. part of Asia Minor. Pindar, Sappho, and Alcæus wrote in it. G. R.

ÆTHIOPIC, _under_ E.

AFER.

Native name of the DANAKIL.

AFFADEH.

African: a dialect of the BORNU.

AFFAR, _see_ ADALI.

AFGHAN, _see_ PUSHTOO.

AFNU.

African: a dialect of the HAUSSA.

AFRICAN.

A name for all native dialects of Africa, not directly SEMITIC. Works by Borth, Kölle, Bleek, Beke, Sir G. Grey, Clarke’s “Dialects of Africa.” _See_ INTRODUCTION.

AFUDU.

A native African dialect of the OTAM, vernacular on the coast of W. Africa, about 4° N.L.

AGAU _or_ AGAW.

A language of ABYSSINIA, spoken in three dialects; 1. The HHÁMARA, or AGAU of Lasta, the Tcheratz Agows of Bruce; 2. The AGÁWI or AGHAGHA of Agaumider, _i.e._ Agau-land; 3. The FALASHA spoken by the Israelitish people scattered over the northern and western parts of the country. Salt’s “Voyage,” Appdx. i., p. 6. C. T. B.

AGGLUTINATIVE.

A name applied to certain languages, when “two unaltered roots combine to form words;” and words brought into mutual relation by syntax undergo a change of form, accent, or meaning; the COPTIC, for example, is considered as essentially agglutinative. The American agglutinative languages are called polysynthetic or incorporating. These languages have generally little or no literature.

AGOLELEGMÜT.

The ESKIMO of N. America and Behring’s Straits, especially the island of Nunivok. The terminal “müt,” which is common from Behring’s Straits to the parts about Mount St. Elias, is derived from the Eskimo. See Chromtschenko’s “Reise-Journal,” 8vo, St. Petersburgh, 1824. R. G. L.

AHOM.

A nearly extinct language formerly spoken in Assam, a province of British India; it is a dialect of SIAMESE, monosyllabic in form, and appears to have been transported by emigration from the borders of China.

AHT, THE.

American: dialect of Van Couver Island; spoken by all the W. coast tribes, from S. of Quatseeno to Port San Juan on De Fucas Straits. See Sproat: “Scenes of Savage Life.” All the tribes speaking it end in “aht.” R. B.

AHTIAGO.

A dialect of MALAY, vernacular in Ceram, closely allied to TELUTI and ALFUROS.

⁂ The more correct form would be ATIAHU, the name of a village on the S. coast, with a mixed population. The vocabulary quoted by Mr. Wallace does not constitute a distinct dialect. P. J. V.

AIAWONG.

A dialect of native AUSTRALIAN, belonging to the W. coast.

AIMARA.

A dialect of the Indians of S. America, largely augmented by Spanish. The natives were subject to the Incas of Peru, at the conquest, and now inhabit the high ground near Lake Titicaca or Chucuito. They are closely allied to the Quichua or native Peruvians. _See_ AYMARA.

AIMAUK.

A dialect of MOGHOL, spoken by the Tshehar-Aimauk, N. W. Afghanistan, in the neighbourhood of Herat.

AINO.

The native name for the language of the Curile Islands, meaning “man.” ☞

AIRICA.

American: a dialect of the BETOI.

AITUTAKÌAN.

A mixed form of the TAHITIAN and the RAROTONGAN dialects. An island in the Hervey group, S. Pacific. Example, “mau-tangata” = “men.” W. G.

AKA (1).

A dialect spoken by a hill-tribe to the N. of Assam. It is almost identical with ABOR. See Brown’s Table: “Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,” 1837.

AKA (2).

African: sometimes used for the YORUBA, of which it is a sub-dialect.

AKABI, _see_ UKUAFI.

AKKADIAN.

A name sometimes given to the language used on the earliest Babylonian bricks, especially those found at Mugheir (Ur), Warka (Erech), Senkareh, Niffer, and other very ancient Mesopotamian cities. The general character of the language is TURANIAN; but its vocabulary connects it with the dialects of Southern Arabia and Abyssinia, more especially with the Mahra, Galla, and Wolaitsa. The writing is a rude and very complicated cuneiform. It is supposed that the language was spoken in Babylonia from a very early age (B.C. 2500?) to the date of the Assyrian conquest, about B.C. 1300. By that time it had become the language of an extensive literature, and as such, continued to be studied by the more learned Assyrians down to the close of the Empire, B.C. 624. The later Assyrian tablets are to a great extent translations from it. See Rawlinson’s “Ancient Monarchies,” vol. i., pp. 61-69, 2nd ed. G. R.

AKKIM.

African: a sub-dialect of FANTI.

AKO.

An African dialect, somewhat allied to AFUDU.

AKRA.

African. Language of the Gold-coast, for the parts about Cape Castle. _See_ AQUAPIM.

AKRIPON.

African: a sub-dialect of FANTI.

AKUSH.

A dialect of LESGIAN, spoken in Daghestan (the ancient Albania), a district situated between the Caspian and the Black Sea.

AKWAMBU, _see_ AQUAPIM.

ALABAMA.

AMERICAN. Derived from “Alibamon,” the original occupants of the modern State so called.

ALANI.

A people originally settled in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, very powerful from about A.D. 75 to A.D. 461. They are now generally considered to have been of the FINNISH stock, akin to the Ostiaks, Samoeids, and other races of Northern Asia. G. R.

ALARODII, _see_ URARDA.

ALATYAN.

A name used by Prof. Steinthal for the URAL-ALTAIC or TURANIAN languages.

ALBANIAN.

The vernacular tongue of modern Albania, a maritime province of European Turkey, which answers to the ancient Epirus; the inhabitants are a mixed race, including Arnauts, who are probably descended from the ancient Illyrians, Greeks, and Turks. The ancient language, called old ILLYRIAN, and closely allied to GREEK, has become mingled with SLAVONIC, written in GREEK characters. The native name of the Albanian dialect is SKIPETAR. Both terms mean “mountaineers.” The modern language is sub-divided into the GHEGH and the TOSKI. See Hahn: “Albanische Studien,” Jena, 1854.

ALEMANNIC _or_ ALLEMANIAN.

The oldest form of TEUTONIC or HIGH-GERMAN with which we are acquainted; it is the language attributed to the Suevi or Swabians, who, emigrating to the S., formed with other tribes a great confederation on the Rs. Maine, Rhine, and Danube.

⁂ See Bosworth’s “Dict. of the Anglo-Saxon Language,” ed. 1838, p. 120. W. W. S.

ALEUTIAN _or_ ALIOUT-LISEYEFF.

The dialect of the Aleutian or Fox Islands, in the N. Pacific, between Asia and America. The inhabitants resemble the MOGHOLS in physical peculiarities, but their language is allied to the ESQUIMAUX. Vocab. Amer. Ethn. Trans., vol. ii., p. 130. ☞

ALFUROS.

Dialects of MALAY, spoken by uncivilized tribes of the Indian Ocean. Adelung calls them “Harafora auch Alfurier” in the Moluccas. “Mithridates,” i., p. 585. Wallace calls them the true indigines of Gilolo, and the predominant type of Ceram. “Malay Archipelago,” ii., pp. 16, 19, 96. It is the same word as in the Arafura Seas, W. of N. Guinea. ☞

ALGIERIAN.

A form of ARABIC vernacular in N. Africa.

ALGONKIN _or_ ALGONQUIN.

A very large class of native N. AMERICAN dialects, including the Chippewas, Blackfoot, Ogibeway, Ottawa, Mohican, Shawnees, and other principal eastern tribes of red Indians. Vocab. Amer. Ethn. Trans., vol. ii., pp. 78, 106.

ALIEH, _see_ EYISH.

ALIKHULIP.