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O F T H E

L A C I G O L O L I HP Y T E I C OS ,

1 8 7 7 - 8 - 9 .

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PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY ,

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CONTENTS OF PART III . P A G K VIII . - S o u n d s a n d F o r m s o f S p o k e n S w e d i s h . B y , E s q . 4 5 7 IX . - R u s s i a n Pronunciation . B y HENRY SWEET , E s q . 5 4 3 X. - E i g h t h A n n u a l A d d r e s s o f t h e P r e s i d e n t t o t h e P h i l o l o g i c a l S o c i e t y , d e l i v e r e d a t t h e Anniversary M e e t i n g , F r i d a y , 1 6 t h M a y , 1 8 7 9 . B y D r . J. A. H. MURRAY 1 65 S T R O P ER YB T h e PRESIDENT , o n t h e W o r k o f t h e Philological S o c i e t y i n 1 8 7 8 - 9 5 6 1 T h e P R E S I D E N T , o n t h e Philological S o c i e t y ' s D i c t i o n a r y 5 6 7 T h e P R E S I D E N T , o n P r o b l e m s a n d P r i n c i p l e s o f Lexicography 5 7 3 P r o f . R A J N A , o n t h e D i a l e c t s o f I t a l y 7 85 . f o rP R E N F E I H CS , no e ht s e g a u g n aL fo e ht s u s a c u aC 3 95 . rD o t tO R E N N OD , no e ht h s i n n iF d na h s i p p aL d na r i e ht l a u t uM p i h s n o i t a l eR . .. 2 06 .R .N t s uC , q sE . , no e ht n a e r oK e g a u g n aL 3 16 n o i s u l c n oC 7 16 n e m i c e pS fo e ht y r a n o i t c iD 6 2 2 APPENDIX II . — C o l l a t i o n o f t h e D u r h a m R i t u a l ; w i t h N o t e s , e t c . B y t h e R e v . P r o f e s s o r SKEAT ... * 94 X E D NI * 37 X I D N E P PA I II . - 1 . s e t u n iM fo s g n i t e eM m o rf y r a u n aJ 91 , 7 7 81 , ot y aM 2 , 9 7 81 i .2 .A r a l u c r iC fo e ht n oH . y r a t e r c eS , .F .J l l a v i n r uF , q sE . , t o t h e M e m b e r s o f t h e Philological S o c i e t y , J a n u a r y 1 8 , - 1 8 7 9 . . . i i i xx .B r a l u c r iC fo e ht l i c n u oC ot e ht s r e b m eM fo e ht o l i hP l a c i g ol y t e i c oS , y r a u n aJ 42 , 9 7 81 ...... x x v i C. M e m o r a n d u m a n d A r t i c l e s o f Association o f t h e Philological S o c i e t y ...... x x i x D. C o p y o f t h e A g r e e m e n t r e f e r r e d t o i n t h e A r t i c l e s x l v i E. D i c t i o n a r y - C o n t r a c t w i t h t h e C l a r e n d o n P r e s s x i lx .3 t s iL fo s r e b m eM .4 s ' r e r u s a e rT h s aC s t n u o c cA , 7 7 81 , 8 7 81 x i xl

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COUNCIL , 1879–80 . President . JAS . A. H. MURRAY , ESQ . , LL.D. , B.A. Vice - Presidents . THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN . EDWIN GUEST , ESQ . , LL.D. , M.A. WHITLEY STOKES , ESQ . , LL.D. , M.A. , ESQ . , B.A. , F.R.S. THE REV . RICHARD MORRIS , LL.D. , M.A. HENRY SWEET , ESQ . , M.A. Ordinary Members of Council . E. L. BRANDRETH , ESQ . THE REV . J. B. MAYOR , M.A. C. B. CAYLEY , ESQ . , B.A. W. R. MORFILL , ESQ . , M.A. R. N. CUST , ESQ . H. NICOL , ESQ . F. T. ELWORTHY , ESQ . J. PEILE , ESQ . , M.A. H. H. GIBBS , ESQ . , M.A. PROF . C. RIEU , PH.D. E. R. HORTON , ESQ . , M.A. THE REV . A. H. SAYCE , M.A. H. JENNER , ESQ . THE REV.PROF.W.W.SKEAT , M.A . E. L. LUSHINGTON , ESQ . , LL.D. THE REV . W. THOMPSON , D.D. PROF . R. MARTINEAU , M.A. H. WEDGWOOD , ESQ . , M.A. J. MUIR , ESQ . , LL.D. R. F. WEYMOUTH , ESQ . , D.Lit . Treasurer . BENJAMIN DAWSON , ESQ . , B.A. , The Mount , Hampstead , London , N.W. Hon . Secretary . F. J. FURNIVALL , ESQ . , M.A. , 3 , St. George's Square , Primrose Hill , N.W.

The Philological Society is formed to investigate , and to promote the study and knowledge of , the Structure , the Affinities , and the History of Languages . Each Member pays two guineas on his election , one guinea as entrance fee , and one guinea for his first year's contribution . The Annual Subscription becomes due on the 1st of January in each year . Any Member may compound for his contribution by the payment of Ten Guineas , exclusive of his entrance - fee . The Society's Transactions are publisht yearly . An Abstract of its Proceedings is posted monthly to Members . Occasional volumes are also issued , as the Funds allow . The Society's New English Dictionary is in preparation , under the Editor ship of its President , Dr. J. A. H. Murray , and the auspices of the Clarendon Press . ( Volunteers willing to read for the Dictionary should write to Dr. Murray , Mill Hill , N.W. ) Members are entitled to a Copy of all Papers issued by the Society , and to attend , and introduce a friend to , the Meetings of the Society , on the first and third Fridays in every month , from November to June . Subscriptions are to be paid to the Treasurer , or to the Society's Bankers , Messrs . Ransom , Bouverie , & Co. , 1 , Pall Mall East , W.

Applications for admission should be made to the Honorary Secretary , F.J. Furnivall , Esq . , 3 , St. George's Square , l’rimrose Hill , London , N.W. PROF . SCHIEFNER ON LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS . 5 9 3 t h e l a s t f e w y e a r s . T h i s , a t a n y r a t e , s h o u l d b e t h e s u b j e c t o f a s p e c i a l r e p o r t . “ A s t o lexicography I w i l l b e g i n w i t h t h e ‘ Bibliografia d i v o c a b o l a r i n e ' d i a l e t t i i t a l i a n i ' ( B o l o g n a , R o m a g n o l i , 1 8 7 6 ) , c o m p i l e d b y A. B a c c h i d e l l a L e g a . A s e c o n d e d i t i o n , m u c h a u g m e n t e d a n d a l m o s t r e - w r i t t e n , h a s a p p e a r e d o f t h e 6 o i r a n o i z iD e s e v o n eG ' fo a i c c a s aC ( a o n eG , i n o n e h cS ) . tI si t ub w o ls s s e r g o rp t a ht si e d am yb e ht o i r a l o b a c oV o s u ' l l ed o n i t n e r o if ’ fo i n i g r o iG d na fo o i l g o rB , sa l l ew sa yb e ht w en n o i t i de fo e ht o i r a l o b a c oV a l l ed a c s u rC . ' t uB , ni t c e p s er ot e ht ' a c s u rC , ' I t s um t on t i mo a t n a c i f i n g is d na y r ev g n i s i m o rp t c af , y l e m an , t a ht e ht s u o i r t s u l li s n a i c i m e d a ca e v ah n e k at r i e ht s e c a lp g n o ma e ht s r e b i r c s b us ot e ht z e iD n o i t a d n u oF . s u hT e ht d lo y g o l o l i hp s d n el a d n ah ot e ht w en , d na s e z i n g o c er ni a r e n n am e ht y t i s s e c en fo g n i d e e c o rp h t r o f e c n eh t s a e r ba fo ti . "

E HT S E G A U G N AL FO E HT S U S A C U AC .

P r o f e s s o r S c h i e f n e r o f S t . P e t e r s b u r g , t h e f i r s t a u t h o r i t y o n t h e o b s c u r e a n d d i f f i c u l t l a n g u a g e s o f t h e C a u c a s u s , t h e a f f i n i t i e s o f m o s t o f w h i c h a r e s o l i t t l e k n o w n t h a t t h e y a r e i n c l u d e d b y L e p s i u s i n h i s provisional l u m b e r - r o o m o f " I s o l a t e d L a n g u a g e s , ” h a s h i m s e l f contributed t h e f o l l o w i n g a c c o u n t o f t h e i r geographical distribution , t h e philological w o r k d o n e u p o n t h e m , a n d t h e r e m a r k a b l e peculiarities o f s t r u c t u r e w h i c h t h e y p r e s e n t . “ T h e l a n g u a g e s o f t h e C a u c a s u s h a v e o n l y p a r t i a l l y b e e n m a d e t h e s u b j e c t o f s c i e n t i f i c t r e a t m e n t . I f w e p a s s o v e r t h e m e r e l i s t s o f w o r d s i n K l a p r o t h ' s A s i a P o l y g l o t t a , a n d t h e s p e c i m e n s i n h i s Kaukasische S p r a c h e n , t h e f i r s t s t e p t o a r e a l l y t h o r o u g h investigation w a s m a d e b y t h e Academician S j ö g r e n , w h o , a s t h e r e s u l t o f h i s o w n p e r s o n a l r e s e a r c h e s a m o n g t h e O s s e t e s , p u b l i s h e d a t S t . P e t e r s b u r g , i n 1 8 4 4 , h i s • O s s e t i s c h e Sprachlehre , w i t h a s h o r t O s s e t i c - G e r m a n a n d G e r m a n - O s s e t i c V o c a b u l a r y ' ( p p . x l i x . a n d 5 4 3 , 4 t o . ) , a n d subsequently , i n 1 8 4 7 , i n t h e M é m o i r e s ( s e r i e s v i . v o l . v i i . p p . 4 0 594 THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS FOR 1879 .

571-652 ) , his ' Ossetische Studien , with special reference to the Indo - European Languages ' — first part , the Vowels . In 1845 there appeared in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy a treatise by Dr. George Rosen on the Ossetic Language ( pp . 361-404 ) . After a long interval , Schiefner had occasion to open up new sources for investigation , by the publication of Ossetic texts , viz . Ossetic Proverbs , Bulletin , anno v . pp . 435-453 ( 1862 ) ; Supplementary Obserca tions on the Ossetic Proverbs , Bulletin , anno v . pp . 492–495 ( 1862 ) ; Ossetic Texts , Bulletin , anno vi . pp . 446–473 ( 1863 ) ; Tuo Ossetian Animal Legends , anno viii . pp . 35-43 ( 1864 ) ; Ossetian Tales and Stories , Bulletin , anno xii . pp . 180–211 ( 1867 ) . P. Lerch wrote also in the Bulletin of the St. Peters burg Academy ( vol . viii . pp . 13-50 ) on the Plural - suffix in Ossetic ( 1864 ) . Simultaneously with these , Friedrich Müller was busy with Ossetic in Vienna ; in the Proceedings of the Academy of that city he published his researches On the Place of the Ossetic in the Iranian Group of Languages ( vol . xxxvi . ( 1861 ) p . 3 ) ; Contributions to Ossetian Phonology ( vol . xli . ( 1863 ) , p . 148 ) ; The fundamental principles of the Ossetic Conjugation , treated from the side of Comparative Philology ( vol . xlv . ( 1864 ) , p . 524 ) . The most recent essay is that of C. Salemann , in St. Petersburg , A Study upon the Ossetic Conjugation , Part I , in A. Kuhn's Beiträge zur vergleichenden Sprachforschung , vol . viii . pt . i . pp . 48-90 ( 1874 ) . “ From materials available in the Asiatic Museum of the Academy of Sciences , Schiefner succeeded , with the help of a native , Georg Ziskarow , in producing an exhaustive work upon the Tush language ; this appeared in 1856 , in the Mémoires of the St. Petersburg Academy , vol . ix . as a treatise upon the Tush Language ( pp . 160 , 4to . ) . Mainly through this work , Major - General Baron Peter Uslar , who had been entrusted by the Russian Government with the task of pre paring an ethnographic description of the Caucasus , was urged on to similar investigations . He turned his attention to the Tshetshensian , a language which stands in the closest connexion with the Tush . This language has its chief extension in the basin of the river Sundsha , in the region of PROF . SCHIEFNER ON LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS . 595 the tributaries which fall into it from the right , but prevails also to the north of the river as far as the Terek ; on the east it extends to the rivers Yaryk - su and Ak - tasch , as far as their effluence into the Kumukian plain ; on the west to the river Kambileyevka , an affluent of the Terek , and even as far as the Terek . The number of the Tshetshenses amounted in the year 1868 to 170,000 souls . Uslar's work treated especi ally of the dialect of the plain , and was lithographed by himself in 1862. This enabled Schiefner , in 1863 , in his Tshetshensian Studies ( Mémoires of the Academy of Sciences , series vii . anno vii . No. 5 - pp . viii . and 72 ) , to show the relationship of the language to the cognate Tush , and the greater antiquity of the latter . “ Upon the basis of the materials collected by Adolf Berger and others , and in part by the help of individuals to be met with in the Caucasian Battalion at St. Petersburg , Schiefner attempted in his ' Essay upon the Awar , ' 1862 ( Mémoires , series vii . vol . v . No. 8 , pp . 54 ) , to fathom the peculiarities of the Awar tongue . This language is spoken in the heart of Daghestan , over a tract extending 160 versts from north to south , from Tshir Yurt to Novîye Zakataly , by 70 versts in breadth , in the district of Gunib in Central , and the Awar district in Western , Daghestan . In the year 1868 the population comprised 96,000 souls . The essay of Schiefner was , however , soon superseded by the considerably more comprehensive and more copious work of Baron Uslar : " On the Northern Dialect of the Awar , viz . that of Chunsag ' ( lithographed by the author in Russian ) . It was not till 1872 that Schiefner furnished a comprehensive account of these languages ( Mémoires , series vii . anno xviii . No. 6 , pp . viii . and 180 ) , in which he compared the Awar grammatically as well as lexicographically with the other languages of the Caucasus . “ The next work of Baron Uslar related to the language of the Kasikumuks , or , as they call themselves , Lak . The latter name was also preferred by Baron Uslar , who entitled his work ‘ A Sketch of the Lak Language . ' This tribe chiefly inhabits the Kasikumuk district in Central Daghestan ; 596 THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS FOR 1879 .

their numbers amount to about 33,000 souls . Schiefner's full account of this work appeared in 1866 ( Mémoires , series vii . vol . x . No. 12 , pp . viii . and 136 ) . “ Connected with this was a communication of Baron Uslar , in the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy ( vol . vii . No. 2 , pp . 99 ) , referring to the Artshi language , which , although it is spoken only in one village , 30 versts south - west of the Kasikumuk territory , and passes as something quite peculiar and isolated , nevertheless stands closely related to the languages of Daghestan . “ Baron Uslar next turned his attention to the languages which are spoken to the east of the highlands of Daghestan -the district which had hitherto been exclusively investi gated — and first of all to the Darginian dialects , and those of the mountains Kaskak . The population of this territory amounts to some 90,000 souls , extending north as far as the Aul Kadar , which is situated close to the Awar speech - frontier , and south to the village of Tshirach , near the S.E. frontier of the Kasikumuk domain . Broadly speaking , there are three main dialects , —Akusha , Tshaidak , and Wurkun ; of the former , the Akusha proper and Käba are the most widely spoken : the latter is also , after the largest village , called the Huruk speech , on account of which Baron Uslar designated it in his work the Hürkilinian , but Schiefner in his treatise ( Mémoires , series vii . vol . xvii . No. 8 ; pp . iv . and 200 ) in 1871 , in reference to the fact that the single indi vidual is called Hürkan , has distinguished it as Hürka nian . “ Finally , Baron Uslar dealt also with the Kurinian lan guage , which is spoken in the most southern part of Daghestan , on both sides of the river Samur as far as its outlet into the Caspian Sea . The total number of the Kurins amounts to about 80,000 . Schiefner's report upon Uslar's work ( also lithographed by himself ) appeared in June , 1873 , in the Mémoires , series vii . ( vol . xx . No. 2 - pp . iv , and 256 ) . The work in which Baron Uslar was engaged , when death prematurely cut him off , on the 28th of June , 1875 , is still un printed . It is his essay on the Tabasseranian language . PROF . SCHIEFNER ON LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS . 597

“ The work on the Kurinian which was the last published , stands on the other hand also in a certain relation to Schiefner's Essay on the language of the Udes ( Uden ) , which had appeared in the Mémoires as early as 1863 ( series vii . vol . vi . No. 8 , pp . 110 ) . This remnant of a people has maintained its existence only in two villages ( Wartashen and Nish ) of the district of Nucha in Armenia , therefore quite outside the boundary of Daghestan . Both languages have been exposed to the strongest influence of the Azerbi janic dialect of the Tartar ; the Tartar element has made its influence most strongly felt on the Udish , but is equally powerful as regards the Kurinian , which appears already to have lost a great part of its Caucasian peculiarities . “ If we turn now to the languages of the Western Caucasian lands , we must give prominence to the Abchasian as the object of the investigations of Baron Uslar . Of his lithographed work Schiefner furnished a report in the year 1863 ( Mémoires , series vii . vol . vi . No. 12 , pp . viii . and 61 ) . Before him George Rosen had turned his attention to the same language , from whom a treatise upon the Mingrelian , Suanian , and Abchasian appeared in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences for 1845 ( pp . 405-444 ) . “ From George Rosen there appeared also , as far back as 1843 , a treatise upon the speech of the Lazes in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy ( pp . 1-38 ) . “ On the Tsherkessian field there are only two works to name , the Tsherkessian Dictionary compiled by L'Huilier in the Russian language , with a short Grammar ( Odessa , 1846 ) , of which work Sjögren furnished a report in 1846 in the Bulletin Historico - Philologique , vol . iv . pp . 165-176 , and Loewe's Dictionary English - Circassian - Turkish , and Circassian - English - Turkish , London , 1854 . “ After this short survey of the more recent investigations in Caucasian philology , omitting the literary languages , we may ask what peculiarities of these languages have been brought to light by the inquiries above named . “ In our survey we have begun with an Iranian language , 598 THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS FOR 1879 .

the Ossetic . In addition to many other peculiarities , we would call attention particularly to the fact that here the liquids , r especially , do not follow the mutes but precede them . The Ossetic words artha and furth correspond to the Sanskrit traya and putra . But these peculiarities are found likewise in the Tshetshensian and Awar : thus the Tshet shensian has korgun deep , ' and merzin ' sweet , ' as compared to the Tush khokru and maçri ; the Awar gabur neck , ' and ebel ' mother , ' have in the plural garbul and ulbul . Another peculiarity which the Awar and Kasikumuk share with the Ossetian , is this , that m can never appear finally , but n appears instead ; only a few foreign words constitute an exception . So in the Kasikumuk final b is similarly in admissible , and must pass into u . “ The Tush , like the Mongolian , does not admit of initial r ; in the Udish r occurs initially only in a few foreign words . “ The great frequency of gutturals and sibilants is re markable in the Caucasian languages ; the former number from ten to fifteen in the languages investigated by Baron Uslar , and the number of the various sibilants is no less considerable . Besides these , mention ought to be made of the mixed sounds compounded with I , which approximate to the clicks . Of these the Tush has only one , ' l , while the Awar , according to the observation of Uslar , presents four of them . In the Abchasian the same inquirer has pointed out gutturals and sibilants ending in a parasitic w , and dentals with parasitic labials , as to , db . “ As we are accustomed in various languages to distinguish words by gender , so in the Caucasian languages there are various analogous categories , depending firstly upon the fact whether the individual words signify beings with or without reason ; and secondly , among the former , whether they indicate male or female , or such as have sex not yet de veloped or unrecognizable . In expressing these categories , the letters w ( u ) , y ( i ) , b , d ( r ) are employed , and the modification partly exhibited initially . Thus in Tush we have stag wa ‘ homo est , ' bstuino ya ' mulier est , ' do ba PROF . SCHIEFNER ON LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS . 599

equus est , ' bader da ' infans est ; ' so also the adjectives woxo ' magnus ( vir ) , ' yoxo ' magna ( femina ) , ' boxo ' magnus ( equus ) , ' doxo ' magnus ( infans ) ’ ; further the nouns waxol , yaxol , baxol , daxol , ‘ magnitudo ( viri , mulieris , equi , infantis , respectively ) ; in the Awar , wagi ‘ hunger ( of a man ) , ' yagi ' hunger ( of a woman ) , ' bagi ' hunger ( of a beast ) , ' ragi ‘ hunger ( of several ) ; ' in the Hürkanian , wāḥ • face ( of a man ) , dãḥ face ( of a woman ) , ' bāḥ face ( of cattle ,' etc. ) . The same change is also found in the Locative forms , especially in Awar ; e.g. rogou domi ' ' at home ' ( he ) , rogoi ' at home ' ( she ) , rogob at home ' ( cat , dog ) ; plural , rogor ' at home ' ( they ) ; rogowe domum ' home ( he ) , rogoye ' home ' ( she ) , rogobe ' home ' ( horse , cow , etc. ) , rogore home ' ( they ) . “ These languages have no diminutives . “ In Tush and Tshetshensian , the Nominative case is not the simple stem , but mostly an abbreviation of it ; e.g. in Tush , çar ' fire , nom . çe ; phar dog ,' nom . phu ; or a mutation of the stem - vowel , as matt ' young , ' nom . mott ; nag ' way , ' nom . nig . Numerous as are the cases , these languages possess no Accusative ; they dispense with it . The terminations for the plural are very numerous ; in Tush , Tshetshensian , and Kasikumuk , double plural - suffixes occur . “ In the numerals , the Ossetic , Tush , Tshetshensian , Awar , Kürinian , and Udish , follow the vigesimal system , with which the Kasikumuk and Hürkanian do not agree . “ The personal pronoun in Tush , Tshetshensian , Awar , has , in the first person plural , two forms , one including , the other excluding the person addressed . The relative pronoun is wanting in most of the languages ; only in Tush and Udish , it coincides in form with the interrogative . “ In the verb , the stem undergoes a peculiar strengthening when the action or occurrence has reference to a multitude . This is especially the case in Tush and Tshetshensian ; thus beside the simple verbs ' toxar to beat ,' ' tasar ' to fell , ' xasar ' to throw , ' there exist the verbs of multitude ' tebuar , ' tebsar , and websar . Here may be mentioned a peculiarity of 600 THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS FOR 1879 .

the Hürkanian ; nouns expressive of a collective idea — even though they have a special plural — take with their singular number a plural attribute and predicate , e.g. vidziti šin sweet water ' dulces aqua ( sing . vidzi ' sweet ' ) , šin lir ( “ the water are ,' aqua sunt ( sing . liv- ' is ' ) , sagati mura ' fresh hay , ' recentia fenum ( saga , ' fresh , ' ' new , ' and -ti , plural affix ) . “ But the great characteristic of the verbs in these lan guages is the exuberance of tense and mood forms , ex pressing at once the beginning , continued , contemplated , and required action . The Awar presents a pluperfect ; the Hürkanian has two . Among the preterite forms of the Awar is one restricted to actions and occurrences of which the speaker has not himself been a witness . Similarly there is in Kasikumuk an Aorist used of events which the speaker has not himself seen , but has learned by hearsay , especially of things which he has experienced in his earliest youth , and knows only by the reports of others . In Kurinian , one of the perfects expresses that which arises expectedly in con nexion with a preceding event ; the other that which is unexpected . “ Among the peculiarities of Syntax , one of the most striking is that in these languages the dative is used with certain verbs with which we are accustomed to use the accusative , especially with verbs denoting sensuous im pressions ( as see , hear , etc. ) , knowledge , love , obligation , power , wish , and in Udish also verbs of fear and shame .

The want of an accusative ( already mentioned ) is also 1 supplied by a construction in which the acting subject of a transitive verb is put in the instructive or instrumental . In Tush , moreover , the pronoun of the first and second persons , but not of the third , stand also before other verbs in the same case ; e.g. as lei ' I speak , ' aħ lei ' thou speakest , ' but o lei ‘ he speaks ; ' but if the idea of personal action is excluded , the subject is in the nominative case , as so wože • I fell ’ ( accidentally ) , but as wože ' I fell ’ ( not without some blame or intentional action ) . “ The foregoing remarks have had special reference to the 1 languages of Eastern Caucasia . The peculiarities of the PROF . SCHIEFNER ON LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS . 601

Western languages are of a different nature ; but of these only the Abchasian has become partially known through the labours of Baron Uslar . In this language the most interest ing feature is the remarkable prefixture of the personal pronouns . For example , the word ab ' father , ' makes sab ' my father , uab ' thy father ' ( masculine ) , bab “ thy father ' ( fem . ) , yab ‘ his father , ' labher father , ' hab ‘ our father , ' šab ' your father ,' rab their father . ' In the same con tracted form the personal pronoun is prefixed to the verb . ? Most noteworthy are the verbal forms which take the place of the Interrogative pronoun ; thus from the substantive verb qa , we have iqouda , ' who is ? ' iqadar who was ? ' iqarnda ' who is not ? ' iqarndar ' who was not ? ' iqousi ' what is ? ' igazi ' what was ? ' iqamzi " what is not ? ' iqamy : what was not ? ' “ As the Tsherkessian has not yet been treated grammati cally in accordance with the requirements of philology , we may here only mention that in this language also prefixes play an important part , and that the interrogative particle appears likewise as an infix . “ The Georgian , long ago raised to the dignity of a written language , possessing a rich literature , which has also been treated grammatically by Brosset , Tschubinoff , and others , I only name in conclusion , for the sake of mentioning some forms analogous to the Abchasian , viz . uicer ‘ I write for myself ,' wucer ‘ I write for him , ' miçer thou writest for me , ' mcer “ thou writest to me , ' miçerebi “ thou writest me . ' " In conclusion , I do not consider it superfluous to note that Frederick Müller , even in his second edition of the Algemeine Ethnographie ( Part 1 , Vienna , 1878 , p . 26 ) , has not quite correctly classified the Caucasian languages as , “ a . Lesghian , Awar , Akusha , Kasikumuk , Kürinian , Ku betshi ?

? In the prefixed a of the Abchasian , we have clearly a demonstrative pronoun which has sunk down into an article ; compare aab ' the father , ' with abyk ' a father ,' anapy the dog , ' with napyk a dog . ' Cor B. Dorn : “ The present Kubätschi " in the bulletins of the St. Petersburg Academy , vol . xviii . p . 321-326 ( 1872 ) , where a short vocabulary is also given . 602 THE PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS FOR 1879 .

“ b . Tsherkessian , Abchasian . “ c . Kistish ( Tush ) , Tshetshensian , Udish . “ d . Georgian , Lazian , Mingrelian , Suanian . “ Here , in the first place , Lesghian must be struck out , since it denotes no particular tribe or people ; secondly , Udish has its affinities rather with Kürinian ; while Kubetshi stands in more intimate relationship to Hürkanian , and ought , there fore , to follow after Akusha ; I should also prefer to place Tsherkessian and Abchasian not in the second place b , but to put it as d in the fourth place . "

FINNISH AND LAPPISH AND THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP .

We are indebted to Doctor Otto Donner , Professor of the University of Helsingfors , in Finland , for these remarks on the Finn and Lapp languages ; they have been translated from the German original . Dr. Donner is the author of the “ Vergleichendes Wörterbuch des finnischugrischen Sprachen , ” vol . i . ii . 1874-76 , a work of the highest authority : he has also published translations from Sanskrit into the Swedish and Finn languages , and several grammatical works , as well as a collection of Lapp ballads . “ Amongst the Finno - Ugrian languages which form one branch of the comprehensive Altaïc family , one group is marked off from the rest by several peculiar traits . This Finnic group comprises the following idioms : Mordvin and Tsheremiss , Lapp , Livonian , Vepse , Esthonian , Kare lian , Vote , and Finnish . They separated themselves from their single common stock in about the same order in which they are here enumerated , first of all the Mordvin Tsheremiss , which alone remained behind in a southern region while the others wandered a considerable distance towards the north - west . “ The principal and most recent sources for the study of these languages are the following “ Mordvin . For the Moksha dialect a grammar by A. Ahlqvist , and for the Ersa dialect one by F. J. Wiede