elucidate the local dialects, have submitted interesting papers, which will now be read; after which M. de Rosny, the distinguished President of the last Congress, desires to offer some observations. In connexion with this branch I may call attention to the dictionary of the Chinese dialect of Amoy, by the Rev. Carstairs Douglas (1873), which possesses this remarkable quality, that the Chinese signs are represented by Roman characters, an ingenious experiment, carrying out in some degree the suggestions thrown out in the President's Address for the adoption of an alphabet suited to all languages. I may also notice the Rev. Dr. Legge's translation of the Chinese classics, comprising seven works, and filling eight volumes, five of which have appeared, as of the greatest value to every one engaged with the literature of the Celestial Empire. Dr. Legge is still continuing his valuable labours. Of the T'hai languages I can say little, and of the Malayan still less. Leyden's essay on the Indo-Chinese languages, in the tenth volume of the Asiatic Researches, gives an excellent compendium of their affinities, as applicable now as at the time it was written. The Journal of the Eastern Archipelago, commenced in 1847, will be found a storehouse of information, to which I can confidently refer any one desirous of becoming better acquainted with them. The work was edited by Mr. J. R. Logan, he himself being a principal contributor, particularly in the departments of philology and ethnology, in which he did not confine himself to the topographical limits indicated by the title of the serial, but extended his investigations to the languages of India as well. After carrying the Journal through eleven volumes, it closed abruptly with the issue of the first part of the twelfth, in 1859. In the fifth volume will be found a notice of the T'hai Grammar of Bishop Pallegoix, Vicar Apostolic in Siam (1850). I will now call on Professor Hunfalvy to read his paper. ON THE STUDY OF THE TURANIAN LANGUAGES. BY PROFESSOR HUNFALVY. The notion of the Turanian languages generally accepted by the linguistic literature of this country is as ill-defined as its results are in the whole of a negative character. But, I believe, a description of any of those languages, showing clearly the relations existing between that and other ones belonging to the same group, may conduce to some positive results, which will be of great value in the classification of languages. For both these purposes I choose Hungarian, examining firstly the fundamental stock of words in its vocabulary, and then the grammatical forms of the words. The other languages with which the Hungarian words will be compared are the Vogul, the Ostiak, and the Finnish. The fundamental portion of the vocabulary of every language consists of words which denominate the parts of the human body, the principal events of physical and moral life, the facts and phenomena of nature, the first elements of social life, economy, industry, religious belief, and science, the numerals, the pronouns and (pre-or) post-positions. The last two categories of words lead us to the grammar, about which any considerable mistake is almost impossible. A. HUMAN BODY. og sem szem sem suu 17 span arasz ENGLISH. HUNGARIAN. VOGUL. OSTIAK. FINNISH. 1 head fej, föv, f8 pää aju 3 eye silmä 4 tear köny (sem-vit) kyynö 6 ear fül pal 6 mouth száj sop (ong) 7 tooth fog pii 8 tongue nyelv n'elm n'alim (kieli) 9 throat tor-ok turkku 10 gum, jaw iny egn angen 11 skin haj sah 12 hair fan pun 13 hand kéz käte (kasi) tal syli luj (sormi) 16 ring-finger nevetlen újj nimtal tul'c nemla luj nimitön (sormi) soros 18 elbow könyök kavan kynärä 19 breast melly majl mejl 20 liver máj mugol maksa 21 mark vel8 velim ytime vir veri 23 heart szü, szú sim syömi, sydäme We may be sure that these twenty-three words do not exhaust all the terms for the parts of the human body. Every language has some words peculiar to it, every one has certainly lost some words of the common stock. For instance, in the old Hungarian translation of the Bible (about 1466) we find the word tügy cheek,' which corresponds to the Finnish tykö apud,' penes.' In Modern Hungarian this word tügy is quite obsolete. Besides the resemblance of the words themselves, we must also observe the mutations of sounds; such mutations, following definite rules, are always the surest proofs of the genealogical relationship of languages. The initial consonant of the words numbered 1, 5, 7, 12 is in Hungarian f, in the other languages p. We may expect, then, that this will generally be the case." ver sam 6 6 1 1. F=P. 1 At the end of the words numbered 8, 16, the Hungarian has v, the others m. The Hungarian név .name,' becomes in the others nem, nim; hence Hungarian nev-etlen is there nem-tal. (The 'ringfinger' is called in these languages the finger without a name.' We shall find opportunity to recur to this fact.)' In such words the Hungarian v orj is sometimes absorbed by a long vowel; hence 21, velő for velej in Vogul and Ostiak, is valem, velim; and 23, szü for szú is in the others sim, sam, syömi, or sydäme. In corresponding words we find also p for v, j; for instance 6, the Vogul sop 'mouth,' becomes in Finnish suu, as if it were suv or suj, in Hungarian száj B. PHYSICAL AND MORAL LIFE. In citing verbs I cite the roots, not the infinitive. When a syllable or letter does not belong to the root, attention is called to the fact. ENGLISH. HUNGARIAN. VOGUL. OSTIAK, FINNISH. 31 to go men man lol unl 24 soul lél-ek 25 mind ész 26 to live él 27 to be, exist val 28 to die hal 29 to hear hall 30 to lie hál men 32 to stand úll 33 to sit ül 34 to swim U-SZ 35 to regard né-z 36 to see lát 37 to do te', tev 38 to eat e', ev 39 to drink 40 to bear vi', viv 41 to take ve', vev 42 to become, to be le', lev 43 to believe hi', hiv 44 to call uj nähvaat (Esthonian) teh syö juo vie ot lie te 比团n. li hiv 45 to be borne szül-et 46 to swallow nyel ! synt 1 II. Final v or j=m, sometimes =p. ENGLISH. HUNGARIAN. VOGUL. OSTIAK. FINNISH. pul pol' pel lel mar vesz uos ant 47 to lick nyal n'ol-id nuol 48 to flow fú pu puh 49 to freeze faz pot 50 to fear fél pil pelj 51 voice szó sij 52 to speak szól sujt sijal 53 to read, count olv-as lau luk 54 to stand up kel käy 55 to kill öl vel 56 to find löy 57 to shut lö luo 58 to bite pur pur 59 to vanish uš 60 to make vanish vesz-t uos-t uš-t 61 to laugh mev-et, nev-et mau-int noh 62 sleep, dream álom ulem olim, ulim 63 to sleep alu, alv aj (al) 64 to dream álmod ajlmät 65 to ascend hág kang kang 66 to give ad The word numbered 24 lél-ek, lil, soul,' offers us an opportunity for observing the difference between formative syllables and suffixes. The formatives joined to the roots form different categories of words, and can be added on one after another. For instance, the root lél, with the formative k, becomes lélek, to which other formatives (such as i, é, etlen, ú, ség) can be joined, as lelk-i belonging to the soul'; lelk-es having a soul,' lelk-etlen being without soul,' lelk-ż which is always preceded by some adjective, as kis lelkü “low-minded,' nagy lelkü 'great-minded,' lelk-es-ség and lelki-ség, abstract substantives, meaning soulhood, if such a term were allowable. . The suffixes do not form new words; they are only exponents of the different relations in which the words stand to one another. For this reason they cannot be added on one after the other. The suffixes constitute the “ cases” of the nouns and the terminations of the verbs. In the words hitherto cited, or which may hereafter be cited, formatives may sometimes be found, but never suffixes. Having made the foregoing observations, we now cite as examples the words numbered 9, 18, 24, where the Hungarian words appear with the formative k; other examples will follow. Continuing our observations upon the mutations of sounds, we find that in 28, 29, 30, 65, the initial of the Hungarian words is h, 6 |
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