"the Pehlvi collection, where this Zend-Pehlvi Vocabulary is inferted, the words are placed "without order, and fometimes feparated by paragraphs and phrafes, fhewing the various "fenfes the words are fufceptible of expreffing. I have placed them nearly alphabetically "--and have omitted fome words where the meaning was not clear to me. "The learned muft not be furprized to find words and expreffions in the Zend common to the Syriac, Greek, and Latin languages; for, ift, The fituation of Aderbedjan, of Iran "properly fo called (the refidence of Zoroafter) and the intercourfe of the inhabitants of "that country with Syria, might have occafioned the firft." 66 "2d, The old inhabitants of Greece, before the arrival of Cadmus, may have caused many expreffions to be common to the Greek and the Zend." "3d, Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus fays, the language fpoken by the Romans in his time, “was a mixture of Greek and barbarism; by barbarians he understands the Etrufcans, the "Gauls, the Spaniards, and that multitude of foreigners, that were fucceffively fixing them"felves in Rome. Amongst these foreigners there may have been fome, from the countries "where the Zend was fpoken. We know alfo, that the Romans had a connexion with the "inhabitants of the coaft of the Pontus, Euxine, and of the Cafpian Sea." "Probably the Zend may furnish the roots of many words in the Greek and Latin "languages, which cannot be found in the Tufcan, or in the languages of the South of Afia." It certainly does furnish the roots of fome words in the Irish language, that cannot be traced in any other. The Pehlvi, or old Rerfian, was a dialect of the Chaldaic, according to Sir Wm. Jones, and he fays alfo, that hundreds of nouns in the Parfi are pure Sanfcrit, and that the Parfi was derived, like the various Indian dialects, from the language of the Brahmans, and I muft add, fays he, "That in the pure Perfian I find no trace of any Arabian tongue, except what proceeded from the known intercourse between the Perfians and Arabs, especially "in the time of Bahram, who was educated in Arabia, and whofe Arabic verfes are fill extant, together with his heroic lines in the Deri, which many fuppofe to be the first attempt "at Perfian verfification in Arabian metre. But, without having recourfe to other arguments, the compofition of words, in which the genius of the Perfian delights, and which "the Arabic abhors, is a decifive proof, that the Parfi fprang from an Indian, and not from an Arabian stock." (Sir Wm. here fpeaks of the modern Perfian.) "Confidering languages as mere inftruments of knowledge, and having ftrong reafon to "doubt the existence of genuine books in the Zend or Pahlavi, especially fince the well "informed author of the Dabistan affirms the work of Zeratufht (Zoroafter) to have been loft, and its place fupplied by a recent compilation; I had no inducement, though I had "an opportunity, to learn what remains of those ancient languages: but I often conversed 66 on them with my friend Bahman, and both of us were convinced, after full confideration, "that the Zend bore a ftrong resemblance to Sanferit, and the Pahlavi to Arabic. He had 66 at my request translated into Pahlavi the finest inscription, exhibited in the Gulistan on "the diadem of Cyrus: and I had the patience to read the lift of words from the Pazend, "in the appendix to the Farhangi Jehangiri. This examination gave me perfect conviction, "that the Pahlavi was a dialect of the Chaldaic. As a proof, Zamar, by a beautiful me"taphor from pruning trees, means in Hebrew, to compose verses; and thence by an easy "tranfition, to fing them: and in the Pahlavi, we see the verb Zamruniten to fing, with its "forms Zamrunemi I fing, and Zamrunid he fang: the verbal termination of the Perfian "being added to the Chaldaic root." Af. Ref. V. 1. p. 188. Of this metaphor and its connexion and affinity with Irish literature, we shall have occafion to speak, at the close of this preface, when we treat of the Irish alphabet, where we shall find File a poet, from the Chaldee ↳ phil, Ar. i fal, putare vitem, putare rationes, and Sopa Soma or Sama, the well of knowledge, ND Zama pro Zamra (Punicé R. finale abjectum) fons in Africa, canoras voces faciens, (Bochart, V. 1. p. 438.) whence the Sopa Soma, i. e. tobar colas, the well of knowledge of the Irish. See Sopar. Le meilleur moyen de découvrir l'origine d'une nation eft de fuivre en remontant les traces de fa langue comparée à celles des peuples, avec qui la tradition des faits nous apprend que ce peuple a eu quelque rapport. (Prefid. De Broffes.) The reader will perceive very little affinity between the Greek, the Latin, and the Zend, but between the Zend and the Irish a ftriking fimilitude will appear. |