READ
BEFORE THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
FEBRUARY THE 15TH. 1858.
So little light has been thrown upon the languages of Caucasus,
that a publication of the year 1856, entitled _Versuch über die
Thusch-Sprache_, by A. Schieffner, may be allowed to stand as a text
for a short commentary.
The Tushi is a language belonging to the least known of the five
classes into which Klaproth, in his _Asia Polyglotta_, distributes the
languages of Caucasus: viz. (1.) the Georgian. (2.) the Osset or Iron.
(3.) the Lesgian. (4.) the Mizhdzhedzhi. And (5.) the Tsherkess or
Circassian. It is to the fourth of these that the Tushi belongs; the
particular district in which it is spoken being that of Tzowa, where it
is in contact with the Georgian of Georgia; from which, as well as from
the Russian, it has adopted several words.
The _data_ consist in communications from a native of the district,
Georg Ziskorow, with whom the author came in contact at St. Petersburg.
They have supplied a grammatical sketch, a short lexicon, and some
specimens in the way of composition, consisting of translations of
portions of the Gospels, and two short tales of an Arabic or Persian
rather than a truly native character. They are accompanied by a German
translation.
Taking the groups as we find them in Klaproth, we may ask what amount
of illustration each has received in respect to its _grammar_. In
respect to the vocabularies, the _Asia Polyglotta_ gives us specimens
of them all.
The Georgian has long been known through the grammar of Maggi,
published upwards of two centuries ago. The researches of Rosen on
its several dialects are quite recent. Of the Iron there is a copious
dictionary by Sjögren, and a short sketch of its grammar by Rosen. The
alphabet is Russian, with additions. Rosen has also given a grammatical
sketch of the Circassian: This, however, as well as his notice of the
Osset, is exceedingly brief. Of the Lesgian we have no grammar at all;
and of the Mizhdzhedzhi, or Tshetshent group, the first grammatical
sketch is the one before us.
The alphabet is the ordinary Roman modified; the work being addressed
to the Russians rather than the natives, and to the European _savans_
in general rather than to the Russians. Otherwise the Georgian alphabet
might have been used with advantage; for it is especially stated that
the Georgian and Tushi sound-systems are alike. The modifications to
which our own alphabet has been subjected, are those that Castrèn has
made in his Samoyed grammar and lexicon. So that we may say that it is
in Castrèn's Samoyed mode of writing that Schieffner's Tushi grammar
and lexicon are exhibited.
In respect to the general relations of the language, the evidence of
the work under notice is confirmatory (though not absolutely) of the
views to which the present writer has committed himself, viz.--(1.)
that the languages of Caucasus in general are so nearly _mono_-syllabic
as to be with fitness designated _pauro_-syllabic; (2.) that the
distinction drawn by Klaproth between the Mizhdzhedzhi and Lesgian
groups is untenable; both belonging to the same class, a fact by which
the philologic ethnography of Caucasus is, _pro tanto_, simplified.
Upon the first of these points Schieffner writes, that the avoidance of
polysyllabic forms has introduced all manner of abbreviations in the
language; upon the second, that the little he has seen of the Lesgian
grammar induces him to connect it with the Tshetshents. It should be
added, however, that in respect to its monosyllabic character, he
maintains that the shortness of many of its words is due to a secondary
process; so that the older form of the language was more polysyllabic
than the present.
Of the chief details, the formation of the cases of the nouns comes
first. The declension of the personal pronouns is as follows. With a
slight modification it is that of the ordinary substantive as well.