whence dakja dakza daša daça), then, for the examples in question, we should have to figure to ourselves a typical example which might be written latvar [four], the indefinite parasite of which (something like a Greek v) came to assume among the Indo-Iranians, in a period relatively modern, the palatal pronunciation (kjatrar-, whence l'atvar-, catvar-, see p. 44), and among the Europeans, on the contrary, or at least among those whose dialects reflected an ancient kv, halted as a rule (see § 21) at a labial or labio-dental pronunciation (kvatrar- kvatvar-, whence quatuor and **bator, etc)'. In this way we should have in the Indo-Iranian branch the full development, but certainly not co-temporaneous, of both of the affections (dak'a daça; kattar katrar), which would be resolved into one and the same affection with twofold result; and the development katvar kjatvar would come to coincide with the kj (k from k) which sprang from the unimpaired stem in the IndoIranian period .; while in the European section we should have the type dak'a restored everywhere else but in the Lithu-Slavonic branch and the not very numerous examples of the type hatvar, on the other hand, restored precisely in the Lithu-Slavonic branch (e.g. Lith. keturì ), as in a different way they are restored besides in also elsewhere." Ireland. and sometimes. Not at all unlike is the history which Ascoli traces of The phonetic group kv, by the progressive change of the continuous sound v into the explosive labial surd under the influence of the preceding explosive surd sound, which it eclipsed, became transformed gradually into kb, kp, pp, p: hence, beside the Latin qu, we have the Greek, Os. can, Umbrian and Kymric p. See Ibid. pp. 71-8. 2 Ibid. pp. 84-5.-The best proof of the ky = European ko and Asiatic kj (k) is, in Ascoli's view, = the Greek T= = kj from k3, beside the guttural media (g) and of th aspirate (gh): the various changes of which in the Aryan languages he explains with the help of the hypothesis just referred to. We may, however, pass over them in silence in this brief treatise and proceed at once to critical considerations touching the doctrine of Ascoli which we have set forth. Let us begin with the following words from the pen of that learned philologist and mythologist, M. Bréal: "We do not know, in phonology, an instance of a sound which after having been changed has reverted to its primitive purity;1 moreover the hypothesis of Ascoli only serves to shift the ground of the problem, because, though it points out for what reason the change is found in the same words in Slavonic and Sanscrit, it does not enable us to understand the principle on which the restoration takes place uniformly in Latin, in Greek, in Gothic, in Keltic." Another objection is started by Schweizer-Sidler himself, who remarks how ill the theory of Ascoli under discussion can be reconciled with the doctrine of a special affinity of SlavoLithuanian with Teutonic; a doctrine maintained by A. Schleicher and his most learned pupils.3 Jolly, too, finds fault with Ascoli's hypothesis, deeming it too complicated: "not only the symbols, ki and k", selected by him to denote the two affections which he attributes to the primitive k, but also the hypothesis itself of a mere affection instead of a primordial duality of the ancient k, are artificial, and this last supposition led him further to the opinion, still more unlikely, that the impaired & had in some languages been restored, healed." "Besides," continues Jolly, "why should the k have developed after itself a parasitic sound?" Windisch admits the transformation of k pp. 357-61. 1 See, however, Ascoli, Studi Critici, ii. Roma-Torino-Firenze, p. 28. 2 Revue critique d'histoire et de littérature, 5th year, 1st semester, 3 Zeitschrift f. vergl. sprachforschung, xxi. 257-66. 4 Noch einmal der stammbaum der indogermanischen sprachen into l, at least as an expression of a change of k2 into k1 (these symbols will be remarked on shortly): but believes such a phenomenon to have come about without parasites. "Physiologically considered it consists only in a slight alteration: the enclosure formed by the back of the tongue with the palate in the production of the guttural is gradually forced more and more forward from the soft hinder parts of it. 10 Hence there results at last a position, just where the palate and the gum touch each other, in which no longer even a can be pronounced, but only a t-sound' and the so-called palatal . And he denies that the Kymric p always appears regularly where, according to Ascoli's hypothesis, we should have the right to expect it." As the reader will have observed in the foregoing remarks, the objection, which assails most strongly the hypothesis of the Italian philologist, is derived from that great phonetic law, which teaches us that a sound when corrupted, far from reverting to its primitive entirety, tends to become constantly more corrupted. And here we are indeed in that part of the domain of language in which the inexorable fatality of the phonetic laws rules with absolute power. To Italians it recalls Manzoni's simile of the rock, which will lie immovable in its sluggish mass where it fell headlong, unless a friendly power comes to raise it aloft. And we seek and seek again, but ever idly, the friendly power to restore the impaired sound in Ascoli's hypothesis. § 2. The obstacles, which oppose themselves to the derivation of the various sounds referred to from a single ProtoAryan k, induced other philologists, and, so far as we know, first among them Fick,' whose important lexical labours we shall mention later on as they deserve, to suppose a (Zeitschrift für völkerpscyhologie und zur vergl. sprachforschung, viii. sprachwissenschaft, viii. 190-205). 1 The dorsal t, Brücke's t3. den celtischen sprachen (Beiträge 1-48). 3 Die ehemalige spracheinheit der Indogermanen Europas, Göttingen, 1873, pp. 2-34. double primitive guttural tenuis. He hopes to be able to demonstrate that our linguistic stock, both in its entire proethnic period, and partly also in the several languages, possessed two surd guttural sounds, completely distinct from one another (like the Semitic), of which two sounds the 11 one is represented in Indo-Iranian by k and by c,' the other by, and between these almost no contact took place, while partly in Greek and Italic, almost completely in German, they became fused into one sound. For the sake of brevity he denotes these two sounds by the symbols & and k, and he puts before us their changes in the various families of the Aryan dialects. He throws into relief, in the IndoIranian, the affinity existing between / and e and the difference between / and ç, considering e as a successor of k and observing that there is not, on the other hand, an assured instance of derived from and used in place of it, and that herein, with very rare exceptions, Slavo-Lithuanian also agrees with Indo-Iranian. The various ways in which the two sections of the Keltic languages represent the ProtoAryan k, which in Old Irish is regularly reflected by c (ch), while in Welsh it is refracted sometimes into c, sometimes intop, lead Fick to the opinion that in the primitive Keltic there existed two k-sounds, which in Irish became fused into a single sound (c), in Welsh maintained themselves distinct and became c and p. Hence the two equations: 1st. O. Ir. c=Welsh p-Indo-Iran. k and c; 2nd. O. Ir. c=Welsh c=Indo-Iran. ç= Lith. sz=Sl. 8. The first sound, which, becoming c in Irish and p in Welsh, must have had a power intermediate and wavering between c and p, may be expressed, according to Fick, by kv: the power of the second can only have been k. In Greek and in Italic the primitive k appears represented by kv (and by the sounds which this group originates) and also by k (cor 1 The c of Fick corresponds to the k', used by Ascoli and many other linguists in the transcription of the Indo-Iranian languages. responding to an older kv): of the Proto-Aryan k. (IndoIran. ç=Lith. sz=Church-Sl. s=Ir. c=Welsh c) the successor is k. In Teutonic the primordial difference between the two guttural surd sounds of the fundamental Aryan is 12 for the most part obscured by the 'lautverschiebung: " the one and the other we find represented by h, while this aspirate does not discover to us its origin from k or from k.. Only in a few instances does initial or final hv show us that, in this family also of Aryan dialects, the corresponding to the primitive & undergoes the change to kv. In Slavonic the Proto-Aryan k appears well marked only in the group sk. 3 Fick's hypothesis of the double primitive & was received with favour by several philologists, among whom we would first mention G. Curtius, who, to remove all doubt with respect to the genealogical tree of the Aryan languages, considers himself bound "with Fick to suppose for the Indo-Germanic period a double k, or, to be brief, a guttural k and a palatal k." Havet, too, believes in the existence of the two Proto-Aryan guttural surds, which he represents by the symbols k, and k, and to which he attributes in the primitive and fundamental Aryan the same sound which they had in Latin, pronouncing k1 (=k of Ascoli, k of Fick) as kw, k, (=ki of Ascoli, k, of Fick) as k. But he sees in the development of a parasite after the explosive the effect, not the cause, of the original change of the consonant in question. The change of k into k' is, in his opinion, prior to all formation of a parasitic sound. 1870, pp. 99-104. 1 See the Deutsche grammatik (Part i. Book i. Göttingen, 1822) and the Geschichte der deutschen sprache (Leipzig, 1848, pp. 392-434) of J. Grimm.— - See also M. Müller, Lectures, etc., 2nd series, London, 1864, Lect. v.; Helfenstein, A comparative grammar of the Teutonic languages, London, |