Файл:Ridpath's Universal history - an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the (14597761157).jpg

Identifier: ridpathsuniversa05ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's Universal history : an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the civilized life among men and nations, from recent and authentic sources with a preliminary inquiry on the time, place and manner of the beginning
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Jones
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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inflections from acommon type, where-by the various raceshave expressed theirthought and indicatedtheir emotions. As wehave already said, onsuch a question as therelative roughness ofspeech, climate has hadnot a little to do. TheNorthern lano^uasfesare rough ; the South-ern languages aresmooth ; the North-ern are guttural; thevSouthern are vocalicand musical. Theseare the laws to which,however, there aremany limitations andrestrictions. Apart,however, from thosequalities which climateand environment areable to give or to in-tensify, there has beenin the European lan-guages, if we mistake not, a regulargradation according to age—a gradationin what may be called elaborateness ofstructure and smoothness and musicalutterance. The old languages had amore elaborate structure than those which were dominant in the earlier cen-turies of our era; they, a more elaboratethan the tongues of the Middle Ages;they, than the dialects and languages ofmodern times. This variability in grammatical com-
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■ SLAVIC SCULPTURES AND INSCRIPTION.Drawn by Puyplat, from a photograph. pleteness and in musical vocability maybe used as a standard to de- Language maytermine, not indeed exact- ^^.^i.;^™ priority among ly, but relatively, the era at races. which a given language was heard on the tongfues of men. Now the rouofh- 114 GREAT RACES OE MANKIND. ness, jaggedness, and consonantal stiif-ness and guttural quality of the vSlavicand Lithuanian languages, even as com-pared Avith German, much more as com-pared with vScandinavian, are so strikingqualities as to have led many to supposethe Slavic tongues to have been derivedfrom another radix totally different Middle Higli German, New HighGerman—we should find an ascend-ing scale of recencv, and note infalliblytliat it corresponds with an ascend-ing scale of roughness and gutturalquality. Now, by carrying on thissame ascent, we come into the Lithua-nian and vSlavic languages, and by a rea- %H t> 1 rnk Jk

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