ner-ë-de ner-ë-don.
ner-ë-dest ner-ë-don.
ner-ë-de ner-ë-don.
Subjunctive:
ner-ë-de ner-ë-don.
ner-ë-de ner-ë-don.
ner-ë-de ner-ë-don.
Let us now look to the auxiliary verb _to do_, in Anglo-Saxon:
Singular. Plural.
dide didon.
didest didon.
dide didon.
If we had only the Anglo-Saxon preterite _nerëde_ and the Anglo-Saxon
_dide_, the identity of the _de_ in _nerëde_ with _dide_ would not be very
apparent. But here you will perceive the advantage which Gothic has over
all other Teutonic dialects for the purposes of grammatical comparison and
analysis. It is in Gothic, and in Gothic in the plural only, that the full
auxiliary _dêdum_, _dêduþ_, _dêdun_ has been preserved. In the Gothic
singular _nasida_, _nasidês_, _nasida_ stand for _nasideda_, _nasidedês_,
_nasideda_. The same contraction has taken place in Anglo-Saxon, not only
in the singular but in the plural also. Yet, such is the similarity
between Gothic and Anglo-Saxon that we cannot doubt their preterites
having been formed on the same last. If there be any truth in inductive
reasoning, there must have been an original Anglo-Saxon preterite,(215)
Singular. Plural.
ner-ë-dide ner-ë-didon.
ner-ë-didest ner-ë-didon.
ner-ë-dide ner-ë-didon.
And as _ner-ë-dide_ dwindled down to _nerëde_, so _nerëde_ would, in
modern English, become _nered_. The _d_ of the preterite, therefore, which
changes _I love_ into _I loved_ is originally the auxiliary verb _to do_,
and _I loved_ is the same as _I love did_, or _I did love_. In English
dialects, as, for instance, in the Dorset dialect, every preterite, if it
expresses a lasting or repeated action, is formed by _I did_,(216) and a
distinction is thus established between “’e died eesterdae,” and “the
vo’ke did die by scores;” though originally _died_ is the same as _die
did_.
It might be asked, however, very properly, how _did_ itself, or the
Anglo-Saxon _dide_, was formed, and how it received the meaning of a
preterite. In _dide_ the final _de_ is not termination, but it is the
root, and the first syllable _di_ is a reduplication of the root, the fact
being that all preterites of old, or, as they are called, strong verbs,
were formed as in Greek and Sanskrit by means of reduplication,
reduplication being one of the principal means by which roots were
invested with a verbal character.(217) The root _do_ in Anglo-Saxon is the
same as the root _thē_ in _tithēmi_ in Greek, and the Sanskrit root _dhâ_
in _dadâdmi_. Anglo-Saxon _dide_ would therefore correspond to Sanskrit
_dadhau_, I placed.
Now, in this manner, the whole, or nearly the whole, grammatical framework
of the Aryan or Indo-European languages has been traced back to original
independent words, and even the slightest changes which at first sight
seem so mysterious, such as _foot_ into _feet_, or _I find_ into _I
found_, have been fully accounted for. This is what is called comparative
grammar, or a scientific analysis of all the formal elements of a language
preceded by a comparison of all the varieties which one and the same form
has assumed in the numerous dialects of the Aryan family. The most
important dialects for this purpose are Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and
Gothic; but in many cases Zend, or Celtic, or Slavonic dialects come in to
throw an unexpected light on forms unintelligible in any of the four
principal dialects. The result of such a work as Bopp’s “Comparative
Grammar” of the Aryan languages may be summed up in a few words. The whole
framework of grammar—the elements of derivation, declension, and
conjugation—had become settled before the separation of the Aryan family.
Hence the broad outlines of grammar, in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic,
and the rest, are in reality the same; and the apparent differences can be
explained by phonetic corruption, which is determined by the phonetic
peculiarities of each nation. On the whole, the history of all the Aryan
languages is nothing but a gradual process of decay. After the grammatical
terminations of all these languages have been traced back to their most
primitive form, it is possible, in many instances, to determine their
original meaning. This, however, can be done by means of induction only;
and the period during which, as in the Provençal _dir vos ai_, the
component elements of the old Aryan grammar maintained a separate
existence in the language and the mind of the Aryans had closed, before
Sanskrit was Sanskrit or Greek Greek. That there was such a period we can
doubt as little as we can doubt the real existence of fern forests
previous to the formation of our coal fields. We can do even more. Suppose
we had no remnants of Latin; suppose the very existence of Rome and of
Latin were unknown to us; we might still prove, on the evidence of the six
Romance dialects, that there must have been a time when these dialects
formed the language of a small settlement; nay, by collecting the words
which all these dialects share in common, we might, to a certain extent,
reconstruct the original language, and draw a sketch of the state of
civilization, as reflected by these common words. The same can be done if
we compare Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, and Slavonic. The words
which have as nearly as possible the same form and meaning in all the
languages must have existed before the people, who afterwards formed the
prominent nationalities of the Aryan family, separated; and, if carefully
interpreted, they, too, will serve as evidence as to the state of
civilization attained by the Aryans before they left their common home. It
can be proved, by the evidence of language, that before their separation
the Aryans led the life of agricultural nomads,—a life such as Tacitus
describes that of the ancient Germans. They knew the arts of ploughing, of
making roads, of building ships, of weaving and sewing, of erecting
houses; they had counted at least as far as one hundred. They had
domesticated the most important animals, the cow, the horse, the sheep,
the dog; they were acquainted with the most useful metals, and armed with
iron hatchets, whether for peaceful or warlike purposes. They had
recognized the bonds of blood and the bonds of marriage; they followed
their leaders and kings, and the distinction between right and wrong was
fixed by laws and customs. They were impressed with the idea of a divine
Being, and they invoked it by various names. All this, as I said, can be
proved by the evidence of language. For if you find that languages like
Greek, Latin, Gothic, Celtic, or Slavonic, which, after their first
separation, have had but little contact with Sanskrit, have the same word,
for instance, for _iron_ which exists in Sanskrit, this is proof absolute
that iron was known previous to the Aryan separation. Now, _iron_ is _ais_
in Gothic, and _ayas_ in Sanskrit, a word which, as it could not have been
borrowed by the Indians from the Germans or by the Germans from the
Indians, must have existed previous to their separation. We could not find
the same name for house in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and
Celtic,(218) unless houses had been known before the separation of these
dialects. In this manner a history of Aryan civilization has been written
from the archives of language, stretching back to times far beyond the
reach of any documentary history.(219)
The very name of _Arya_ belongs to this history, and I shall devote the
rest of this lecture to tracing the origin and gradual spreading of this
old word. I had intended to include, in to-day’s lecture, a short account
of _comparative mythology_, a branch of our science which restores the
original form and meaning of decayed words by the same means by which
comparative grammar recovers the original form and meaning of
terminations. But my time is too limited; and, as I have been asked
repeatedly why I applied the name of _Aryan_ to that family of language
which we have just examined, I feel that I am bound to give an answer.
_Ârya_ is a Sanskrit word, and in the later Sanskrit it means _noble_, _of
a good family_. It was, however, originally a national name, and we see
traces of it as late as the Law-book of the Mânavas, where India is still
called _Ârya-âvarta_, the abode of the _Âryas_.(220) In the old Sanskrit,
in the hymns of the Veda, _ârya_ occurs frequently as a national name and
as a name of honor, comprising the worshippers of the gods of the
Brahmans, as opposed to their enemies, who are called in the Veda
_Dasyus_. Thus one of the gods, _Indra_, who, in some respects, answers to
the Greek Zeus, is invoked in the following words (Rigveda, i. 57, 8):
“Know thou the Âryas, O Indra, and they who are Dasyus; punish the
lawless, and deliver them unto thy servant! Be thou the mighty helper of
the worshippers, and I will praise all these thy deeds at the festivals.”
In the later dogmatic literature of the Vedic age, the name of Ârya is
distinctly appropriated to the three first castes—the Brahmans,
Kshatriyas, Vaiśyas—as opposed to the fourth, or the Śûdras. In the
Śatapatha-Brâhmaņa it is laid down distinctly: “Âryas are only the
Brahmans, the Kshatriyas, and Vaiśyas, for they are admitted to the
sacrifices. They shall not speak with everybody, but only with the
Brahman, the Kshatriya, and the Vaiśya. If they should fall into a
conversation with a Śûdra, let them say to another man, ‘Tell this Śûdra
so.’ This is the law.”
In the Atharva-veda (iv. 20, 4; xix. 62, 1) expressions occur such as,
“seeing all things, whether Śûdra or Ârya,” where Śûdra and Ârya are meant
to express the whole of mankind.
This word _ârya_ with a long _â_ is derived from _arya_ with a short _a_,
and this name _arya_ is applied in the later Sanskrit to a Vaiśya, or a
member of the third caste.(221) What is called the third class must
originally have constituted the large majority of the Brahmanic society,
for all who were not soldiers or priests, were Vaiśyas. We may well
understand, therefore, how a name, originally applied to the cultivators
of the soil and householders, should in time have become a general name
for all Aryans.(222) Why the householders were called _arya_ is a question
which would carry us too far at present. I can only state that the
etymological signification of Arya seems to be “one who ploughs or tills,”
and that it is connected with the root of _arare_. The Aryans would seem
to have chosen this name for themselves as opposed to the nomadic races,
_the Turanians_, whose original name _Tura_ implies the swiftness of the
horseman.
In India, as we saw, the name of Ârya, as a national name, fell into
oblivion in later times, and was preserved only in the term Âryâvarta, the
abode of the Aryans. But it was more faithfully preserved by the
Zoroastrians who migrated from India to the north-west, and whose religion
has been preserved to us in the Zend-avesta, though in fragments only. Now
_Airya_ in Zend means venerable, and is at the same time the name of the
people.(223) In the first chapter of the Vendidád, where Ahuramazda
explains to Zarathustra the order in which he created the earth, sixteen
countries are mentioned, each, when created by Ahuramazda, being pure and
perfect; but each being tainted in turn by Angro mainyus or Ahriman. Now
the first of these countries is called _Airyanem vaêjô_, _Arianum semen_,
the Aryan seed, and its position must have been as far east as the western
slopes of the Belurtag and Mustag, near the sources of the Oxus and
Yaxartes, the highest elevation of Central Asia.(224) From this country,
which is called their seed, the Aryans advanced towards the south and
west, and in the Zend-avesta the whole extent of country occupied by the
Aryans is likewise called _Airyâ_. A line drawn from India along the
Paropamisus and Caucasus Indicus in the east, following in the north the
direction between the Oxus and Yaxartes,(225) then running along the
Caspian Sea, so as to include Hyrcania and Râgha, then turning south-east
on the borders of Nisaea, Aria (_i.e._ Haria), and the countries washed by
the Etymandrus and Arachotus, would indicate the general horizon of the
Zoroastrian world. It would be what is called in the fourth cardé of the
Yasht of Mithra, “the whole space of Aria,” _vîśpem airyô-śayanem_ (totum
Ariæ situm).(226) Opposed to the Aryan we find in the Zend-avesta the
non-Aryan countries (anairyâo dainhâvô),(227) and traces of this name are
found in the Ἀναριάκαι, a people and town on the frontiers of
Hyrcania.(228) Greek geographers use the name of Ariana in a wider sense
even than the Zend-avesta. All the country between the Indian Ocean in the
south and the Indus in the east, the Hindu-kush and Paropamisus in the
north, the Caspian gates, Karamania, and the mouth of the Persian gulf in
the west, is included by Strabo (xv. 2) under the name of Ariana; and
Bactria is thus called(229) by him “the ornament of the whole of Ariana.”
As the Zoroastrian religion spread westward, Persia, Elymais, and Media
all claimed for themselves the Aryan title. Hellanicus, who wrote before
Herodotus, knows of Aria as a name of Persia.(230) Herodotus (vii. 62)
attests that the Medians called themselves Arii; and even for Atropatene,
the northernmost part of Media, the name of Ariania (not Aria) has been
preserved by Stephanus Byzantinus. As to Elymais its name has been derived
from _Ailama_, a supposed corruption of _Airyama_.(231) The Persians,
Medians, Bactrians, and Sogdians all spoke, as late as the time of
Strabo,(232) nearly the same language, and we may well understand,
therefore, that they should have claimed for themselves one common name,
in opposition to the hostile tribes of Turan.
That _Aryan_ was used as a title of honor in the Persian empire is clearly
shown by the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius. He calls himself _Ariya_
and _Ariya-chitra_, an Aryan and of Aryan descent; and Ahuramazda, or, as
he is called by Darius, Auramazda, is rendered in the Turanian translation
of the inscription of Behistun, “the god of the Aryans.” Many historical
names of the Persians contain the same element. The great-grandfather of
Darius is called in the inscriptions Ariyârâmna, the Greek _Ariaramnēs_
(Herod, vii. 90). Ariobarzanēs (_i.e._ Euergetēs), Ariomanes (_i.e._
Eumenēs), Ariomardos, all show the same origin.(233)
About the same time as these inscriptions, Eudemos, a pupil of Aristotle,
as quoted by Damascius, speaks of “the Magi and the whole Aryan
race,”(234) evidently using Aryan in the same sense in which the
Zend-avesta spoke of “the whole country of Aria.”
And when, after years of foreign invasion and occupation, Persia rose
again under the sceptre of the Sassanians to be a national kingdom, we
find the new national kings the worshippers of Masdanes, calling
themselves, in the inscriptions deciphered by De Sacy,(235) “Kings of the
Aryan and un-Aryan races;” in Pehlevi, _Irân va Anirân_; in Greek, Ἀριάνων
καὶ Ἀναριάνων.
The modern name of Irán for Persia still keeps up the memory of this
ancient title.
In the name of _Armenia_ the same element of _Arya_ has been supposed to
exist.(236) The name of Armenia, however, does not occur in Zend, and the
name _Armina_, which is used for Armenia in the cuneiform inscriptions, is
of doubtful etymology.(237) In the language of Armenia, _ari_ is used in
the widest sense for Aryan or Iranian; it means also brave, and is applied
more especially to the Medians.(238) The word _arya_, therefore, though
not contained in the name of Armenia, can be proved to have existed in the
Armenian language as a national and honorable name.
West of Armenia, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, we find the ancient
name of _Albania_. The Armenians call the Albanians _Aghovan_, and as _gh_
in Armenian stands for _r_ or _l_, it has been conjectured by Boré, that
in _Aghovan_ also the name of Aria is contained. This seems doubtful. But
in the valleys of the Caucasus we meet with an Aryan race speaking an
Aryan language, the _Os_ of _Ossethi_, and they call themselves
_Iron_.(239)
Along the Caspian, and in the country washed by the Oxus and Yaxartes,
Aryan and non-Aryan tribes were mingled together for centuries. Though the
relation between Aryans and Turanians is hostile, and though there were
continual wars between them, as we learn from the great Persian epic, the
Shahnámeh, it does not follow that all the nomad races who infested the
settlements of the Aryans, were of Tatar blood and speech. Turvaśa and his
descendants, who represent the Turanians, are described in the later epic
poems of India as cursed and deprived of their inheritance in India. But
in the Vedas Turvaśa is represented as worshipping Aryan gods. Even in the
Shahnámeh, Persian heroes go over to the Turanians and lead them against
Iran, very much as Coriolanus led the Samnites against Rome. We may thus
understand why so many Turanian or Scythian names, mentioned by Greek
writers, should show evident traces of Aryan origin. _Aspa_ was the
Persian name for _horse_, and in the Scythian names _Aspabota_,
_Aspakara_, and _Asparatha_,(240) we can hardly fail to recognize the same
element. Even the name of the Aspasian mountains, placed by Ptolemy in
Scythia, indicates a similar origin. Nor is the word Arya unknown beyond
the Oxus. There is a people called _Ariacœ_,(241) another called
_Antariani_.(242) A king of the Scythians, at the time of Darius, was
called _Ariantes_. A cotemporary of Xerxes is known by the name of
_Aripithes_ (_i.e._ Sanskrit, _aryapati_; Zend, _airyapaiti_); and
_Spargapithes_ seems to have some connection with the Sanskrit
_svargapati_, lord of heaven.
We have thus traced the name of _Ârya_ from India to the west, from
Âryâvarta to Ariana, Persia, Media, more doubtfully to Armenia and
Albania, to the Iron in the Caucasus, and to some of the nomad tribes in
Transoxiana. As we approach Europe the traces of this name grow fainter,
yet they are not altogether lost.
Two roads were open to the Aryans of Asia in their westward migrations.
One through Chorasan(243) to the north, through what is now called Russia,
and thence to the shores of the Black Sea and Thrace. Another from
Armenia, across the Caucasus or across the Black Sea to Northern Greece,
and along the Danube to Germany. Now on the former road the Aryans left a
trace of their migration in the old name of Thrace which was _Aria_;(244)
on the latter we meet in the eastern part of Germany, near the Vistula,
with a German tribe called _Arii_. And as in Persia we found many proper
names in which _Arya_ formed an important ingredient, so we find again in
German history names such as _Ariovistus_.(245)
Though we look in vain for any traces of this old national name among the
Greeks and Romans, late researches have rendered it at least plausible
that it has been preserved in the extreme west of the Aryan migrations, in
the very name of _Ireland_. The common etymology of _Erin_ is that it
means “island of the west,” _iar-innis_, or land of the west, _iar-in_.
But this is clearly wrong.(246) The old name is _Ériu_ in the nominative,
more recently _Éire_. It is only in the oblique cases that the final _n_
appears, as in _regio_, _regionis_. _Erin_ therefore has been explained as
a derivative of _Er_ or _Eri_, said to be the ancient name of the Irish
Celts as preserved in the Anglo-Saxon name of their country,
_Íraland_.(247) It is maintained by O’Reilly, though denied by others,
that _er_ is used in Irish in the sense of noble, like the Sanskrit
_ârya_.(248)
Some of the evidence here collected in tracing the ancient name of the
Aryan family, may seem doubtful, and I have pointed out myself some links
of the chain uniting the earliest name of India with the modern name of
Ireland, as weaker than the rest. But the principal links are safe. Names
of countries, peoples, rivers, and mountains, have an extraordinary
vitality, and they will remain while cities, kingdoms, and nations pass
away. _Rome_ has the same name to-day, and will probably have it forever,
which was given to it by the earliest Latin and Sabine settlers, and
wherever we find the name of Rome, whether in Wallachia, which by the
inhabitants is called Rumania, or in the dialects of the Grisons, the
Romansch, or in the title of the Romance languages, we know that some
threads would lead us back to the Rome of Romulus and Remus, the
stronghold of the earliest warriors of Latium. The ruined city near the
mouth of the Upper Zab, now usually known by the name of Nimrud, is called
_Athur_ by the Arabic geographers, and in Athur we recognize the old name
of Assyria, which Dio Cassius writes Atyria, remarking that the barbarians
changed the Sigma into Tau. Assyria is called Athurâ, in the inscriptions
of Darius.(249) We hear of battles fought on the _Sutledge_, and we hardly
think that the battle field of the Sikhs was nearly the same where
Alexander fought the kings of the Penjáb. But the name of the _Sutledge_
is the name of the same river as the _Hesudrus_ of Alexander, the
_Śatadru_ of the Indians, and among the oldest hymns of the Veda, about
1500 B. C., we find a war-song referring to a battle fought on the two
banks of the same river.
No doubt there is danger in trusting to mere similarity of names. Grimm
may be right that the Arii of Tacitus were originally Harii, and that
their name is not connected with Ârya. But the evidence on either side
being merely conjectural, this must remain an open question. In most
cases, however, a strict observation of the phonetic laws peculiar to each
language will remove all uncertainty. Grimm, in his “History of the German
Language” (p. 228), imagined that _Hariva_, the name of _Herat_ in the
cuneiform inscriptions, is connected with Arii, the name which, as we saw,
Herodotus gives to the Medes. This cannot be, for the initial aspiration
in _Hariva_ points to a word which in Sanskrit begins with _s_, and not
with a vowel, like _ârya_. The following remarks will make this clearer.
Herat is called _Herat_ and _Heri_,(250) and the river on which it stands
is called _Heri-rud_. This river _Heri_ is called by Ptolemy Ἀρείας,(251)
by other writers _Arius_; and _Aria_ is the name given to the country
between Parthia (Parthuwa) in the west, Margiana (Marghush) in the north,
Bactria (Bakhtrish) and Arachosia (Harauwatish) in the east, and Drangiana
(Zaraka) in the south. This, however, though without the initial _h_, is
not Ariana, as described by Strabo, but an independent country, forming
part of it. It is supposed to be the same as the _Haraiva_ (Hariva) of the
cuneiform inscriptions, though this is doubtful. But it is mentioned in
the Zend-avesta, under the name of _Harôyu_,(252) as the sixth country
created by Ormuzd. We can trace this name with the initial _h_ even beyond
the time of Zoroaster. The Zoroastrians were a colony from northern India.
They had been together for a time with the people whose sacred songs have
been preserved to us in the Veda. A schism took place, and the
Zoroastrians migrated westward to Arachosia and Persia. In their
migrations they did what the Greeks did when they founded new colonies,
what the Americans did in founding new cities. They gave to the new cities
and to the rivers along which they settled, the names of cities and rivers
familiar to them, and reminding them of the localities which they had
left. Now, as a Persian _h_ points to a Sanskrit _s_, _Harôyu_ would be in
Sanskrit _Saroyu_. One of the sacred rivers of India, a river mentioned in
the Veda, and famous in the epic poems as the river of Ayodhyâ, one of the
earliest capitals of India, the modern Oude, has the name of _Sarayu_, the
modern _Sardju_.(253)
As Comparative Philology has thus traced the ancient name of Ârya from
India to Europe, as the original title assumed by the Aryans before they
left their common home, it is but natural that it should have been chosen
as the technical term for the family of languages which was formerly
designated as Indo-Germanic, Indo-European, Caucasian, or Japhetic.
LECTURE VII. THE CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF LANGUAGE.