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CONCLUDING REMARKS.

kind, but with relation to the descendants of Shem also, will, I trust, sufficiently establish the correctness of the principles governing the distribution of mankind which have been enunciated in this Work'. The consideration of the descendants of Japheth, and of the countries which were peopled by them-"the sea coasts of the Gentiles',"-is reserved for another volume: respecting them I will now merely observe, that the determination of their several possessions will lead to the consideration of nations which would seem exclusively to belong to the province of Profane History; but we shall find that the investigation of their history is strictly within the scope of the present Work, when we reflect that the Bible is in reality the first and principal volume of the Universal History of Mankind; a fact which, although denied by few, is not sufficiently regarded, and is indeed at times entirely lost sight of, by those who treat of the nations

1 See Page 78.

2" (iyé haggoím), Gen. x. 5., usually rendered 'the 'isles of the Gentiles'; but the expression is more properly applicable to the coasts of Asia Minor, where, according to the system of Geography proposed in this Work, and not at any greater distance from the centre of dispersion, the seaport of Tarshish (Jon. i. 3.), and the 'sea coasts' ("iye) of Chittim and Elishah (Ezek. xxvii. 6, 7.), will have to be placed. The Greek mythological fable of the marriage of Iapetus with Asia, the daughter of Oceanus (Apollod. lib. i. cap. 2. sec. 3.), may probably be intended in some manner to allude to the original settlement of Japheth and his descendants within this maritime country Asia (Minor),

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

225

whose early history is not immediately connected with that of the Israelites.

As has been already mentioned, the particular geography and history of the country of Mitzraim Proper has still to be discussed; but before entering upon that highly interesting subject, another yet remains, namely, the investigation of the languages spoken amongst the various descendants of Ham, which will form the subject of the succeeding Chapter.

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CHAPTER X.

The Hamitish languages; their classification :-Cushitish family of these languages;-Those of Egypt, Nubia, and the Centre and South of Africa.-Mitzritish family;-Consists of what philologists have hitherto called the 'Semitic' languages ;Reasons for this change of nomenclature.-Consideration of the confusion of tongues at Babel :-Opinion asserted as to its permanent character;-Hypothesis proposed to explain the formation and classification of the languages of the whole earth. -The Arabic language necessarily of Mitzritish origin.-The Hebrew language also Mitzritish, and acquired by the Israelites during their residence in Mitzraim;-Confirmation of this opinion afforded by the Berber language of Northern Africa.— Hypothesis that the Basque tongue (if really not of Japhthitish origin,) is also Mitzritish, proposed as an Experimentum Crucis for the trial of the system propounded in this Work.—The early portions of the Book of Genesis, and the Book of Job, translated into Hebrew from the original Shemitish languages.—The designation 'Aramean' improperly applied to the Biblical Chaldee : -That language not vernacular in Chaldea, but merely a corrupted dialect of the Hebrew.-The Syriac language a representative of the Hebrew in a still more corrupted state;— Suggestion that it may in part have been introduced by the Ten Tribes of Israel during the Assyrian captivity:-Consideration of the situation of the countries of their captivity, and especially of the situation of Media;-Hypothesis proposed that a great portion of the early converts to Christianity were the Gentilized descendants of the Ten Tribes.-Mitzritish languages of Abyssinia. Mitzritish derivation of the Berber and other dialects of the North of Africa.-Canaanitish languages.-Concluding ob

servations.

THE languages spoken among the descendants of Ham must be considered as corresponding with the

HAMITISH LANGUAGES.

227

three principal families of which his posterity consisted, and may accordingly be divided into three groups, namely, the Cushitish, the Mitzritish, and the Canaanitish.

The origin which, in a former Chapter of this Work', has been attributed to the Egyptians, will naturally require that the language spoken by them should be referred to the first of these families, namely, the Cushitish. Of this language in its original state our certain knowledge may be said to be nothing, the only means which we at present possess of endeavouring to form any idea of its character and structure being through the medium of the more recent Coptic; which, as the native Cushitish language of Egypt must have received very considerable modification from the introduction of the language of the Mitzritish invaders and conquerors of that country, of whom I shall have occasion to speak in the sequel, must be far from presenting us with anything like a copy of the original from which it was primarily derived. Without attempting to determine what may have been the actual amount of the change which was thus effected in the language of Egypt, we may, arguing from the analogy of other languages which have been compounded under similar circumstances, be led, however, to offer the opinion, that in the same manner as the modern Persian has been formed by the admixture of the Arabic with its ancient Per1 See Pages 159–161.

228

CUSHITISH FAMILY OF LANGUAGES.

sic base, and as the English has resulted from the addition of the Norman French to its Anglo-Saxon radical, so would the Coptic, whilst it retained the general character and grammatical structure of its Cushitish original, have had its vocabulary enriched and modified by the accession of a considerable number of Mitzritish terms. The investigation of this subject would, under any circumstances, be one of considerable nicety, and of no small difficulty; and it becomes more especially such when we take into consideration the fact that the compound dialect which thus sprung from the union of the languages of Egypt and Mitzraim, underwent a still further change from a mixture of Greek terms, which must inevitably have been introduced into it during the many centuries that the Greeks had a footing in Egypt, and especially during the existence of the dynasty of the Ptolemies; so that it may, perhaps, be almost, if not entirely, an useless labour to endeavour, after the lapse of so many ages, to bring it to any satisfactory conclusion.

In the same family with the aboriginal Egyptian tongue, must be comprised the Nubian and other languages of Ethiopia, where they have not been supplanted by the Mitzritish dialects of the second race of people, who entered Africa in the same direction as their Cushitish predecessors'; and to it are likewise to be referred the dialects of the

1 See Page 207.