Noun Suffixes from Demonstrative Roots. Adjective Suffixes from Demonstrative Roots Noun Suffixes from Predicative Roots . ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN HISTORICAL ENGLISH GRAMMAR CHAPTER I. I. Relation of English to the Languages of Europe and Asia. ENGLISH BELONGS TO THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. 1. Most of the nations of Europe, and some in Asia, (India, Persia, Afghanistan,) have sprung from one common stock, and are therefore related to one another, by blood and by language. 2. These nations philologists have called the IndoEuropean or Aryan family. The ancestors of the Aryan race once lived together in the highlands north of the Himâlaya mountains. A time came, of which history gives us no account, when the old Aryan tribes separated from each other, and left their ancient abode to seek new settlements. S B Two great tribes, the old Hindus and the Persians, crossed the Himalaya mountains, and found new homes on the banks of the Ganges and Indus, from whence they soon spread over Hindostan, Persia, &c. The rest of the Aryan tribes, at different times, and at considerable intervals, travelled westward and came into Europe. 3. The first Aryan comers were the Kelts, who settled in parts of Germany, Italy, Spain, Gaul, and the British Isles. Their dialects still survive in Wales, the Highlands of Scotland, Ireland, the Isle of Man. and in Armorica or Brittany. The Kelts were driven out of their settlements in Italy, and pushed further westward by the advance of the Italic tribes. About the same time the peninsula of Greece was peopled by the Hellenic or Grecian tribes. Next came the Teutons, who took up their abode in Germany and Scandinavia. The last Aryan settlement was made by the Lithuanians and Slavonians. The Slavonians gradually spread themselves over Russia, Bohemia, Poland, &c. The Lithuanians settled on the Baltic coast in Prussia, Livonia, and Lithuania. 4. Of the people living in Europe the Fins, Lapps, Esths, Basques, Hungarians, and Turks, do not belong to the Indo-European family. |