'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎83] (130/905)

chap. iv.]
language of iran.
83
known than the other branches of natural history. We are insects,
familiar, however, with the musquito and locust; myriads
of the former, of two sizes, infest the rivers as well as the
marshes; and the latter, which may be called the scourge of
Africa and Asia, come occasionally in such clouds as not only
to devastate the crops, but also to destroy everything like
vegetation throughout the line of their course.
L anguage, R eligion, etc., of I ran.
In the gradual diffusion of mankind, the western provinces Languages
of Iran appear to have fallen to the share of the Arameans tlTshemTtic.
and Elamites, while the mass of the Cosssei, Ariani, Mardi,
and other tribes, composing the earliest inhabitants, moved
more eastward; leaving some of their numbers in the moun
tainous districts, to mix with or become subject to the new
comers. The Shemitic people and language having thus
become dominant, instead of the Cushite, the ethnography
of the former, rather than that of the latter, becomes an im
portant consideration. From this primitive language, or
rather from one of its cognates (as the Homyaritic may
possibly prove to have been), two distinct branches were
derived; the original Arabic, with the Musnad, Koreish, and Arabic,
other dialects of that tongue, being one of these; and the
Aramaic the other. The latter had two grand subdivisions;
from one of which, known as the Western Aramaic, were
derived the Amharic, 1 Syriac, Hebrew, &c.; and from the
other, or Eastern Aramaic, came the Assyrian, Babylonian, Aramaic,
and Chaldean tongues. From its monosyllabic construction,
the eastern seems to be more ancient than the western
Aramaic, and it appears likewise to be the root of the Zend,
Pehlevi, Sanscrit, and other dialects in use throughout a
portion of the territory, along which it had spread eastward.
Whether the first of these languages was once in general use,
or was merely the sacred language 2 of Iran, the affinity of all
of them is such as to imply a common origin. Pehlevi was
1 According to tradition, recorded by Abd-el-Malik, the Amharic was the
language spoken in Mesopotamia soon after the deluge.
2 Zend, character, Avesta, language.—SixW. Jones's works. Vol. III., p. 113.
m 2