Such Similarity,
However, Though So Strongly Insisted Upon, By No Means Exists In
Fact, And Perhaps In The Whole Of Europe It Would Be Difficult To
Discover Two Languages Which Exhibit Fewer Points Of Mutual
Resemblance Than The Basque And Irish.
The Irish, like most other European languages, is a dialect of the
Sanskrit, a REMOTE one, as may well be supposed.
The corner of the
western world in which it is still preserved being, of all
countries in Europe, the most distant from the proper home of the
parent tongue. It is still, however, a dialect of that venerable
and most original speech, not so closely resembling it, it is true,
as the English, Danish, and those which belong to what is called
the Gothic family, and far less than those of the Sclavonian; for,
the nearer we approach to the East, in equal degree the
assimilation of languages to this parent stock becomes more clear
and distinct; but still a dialect, agreeing with the Sanskrit in
structure, in the arrangement of words, and in many instances in
the words themselves, which, however modified, may still be
recognized as Sanskrit. But what is the Basque, and to what family
does it properly pertain?
To two great Asiatic languages, all the dialects spoken at present
in Europe may be traced. These two, if not now spoken, still exist
in books, and are, moreover, the languages of two of the principal
religions of the East. I allude to the Tibetian and Sanskrit - the
sacred languages of the followers of Buddh and Bramah.
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