VII.

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE ITALIAN

LANGUAGE.

BY

DR. BEOLCHI.

REMEMBER having read, when I was at school

I in Italy, a pamphlet in which the author deserhood

the dreadful effects of an earthquake in the kingdom of Naples; and amidst the many scenes of destruction there portrayed, I was struck by this singular fact. An elevated ground of volcanic origin by the shock of that convulsion happening to be sundered, one half fell down, and the standing half exhibited this striking view. On the top a part of the burial-place of a neighbouring village; lower down part of a Roman cemetery; and at the bottom the remains of an Etruscan one. Here is a melancholy picture of the fate of nations! Of three great nations which at different times inhabited the soil of Italy, two have past away, and we meditate on their history over their tombs. Whether the Etruscans were a race of Aborigines, or whether they were a colony of Pelasgi or of Lydians, it cannot be denied that

they were a great people; and had any one been able to foresee, that to Italy was destined the empire of the world, seeing the rapid progress with which the Etruscans extended their dominion from one sea to the other, to them and not to the Latins, such a fortune he would have announced. The more fortunate Romans subdued the Etruscans, and of a people who struggled for five centuries for their independence and the dominion of Italy, all memory has perished, save what their proud conquerors were pleased to record, to magnify their own triumphs.

Yet we are told by the Latin historians, that the Romans were accustomed to have their children instructed in the Etruscan knowledge; a fact which sufficiently shows the intellectual superiority of the Etruscans over the Latins. And when we consider the beautiful monuments of that people, which have been spared by time, we must conclude that they were far advanced in the fine arts, and possessed a high degree of culture, a refined language and literature; for the fine arts can only reach that point of perfection which Etruscan monuments exhibit, amidst a people who have attained a high degree of civilization and culture.

But of their language the very alphabet has been forgotten; and the many Etruscan inscriptions which from time to time have been discovered, were to the understanding as if they had not been sculptured on those stones.

A happy discovery, the celebrated Gubbio's Tables found in the year 1444, came to throw light over that darkness. At first they were supposed to be written in the Egyptian language. One learned man pronounced those unknown characters to be old Greek or Cadmeian; another was of opinion that they were Carthaginian. An attentive inspection showed that they were Etruscan, and that the Tables contained the rites and religious ceremonies of that people. Two of these Tables were found containing the Latin translation of the Etruscan ones. Thus comparing word with word, letter with letter (Latin and Etruscan being kindred languages), human ingenuity succeeded in reading the Etruscan, and giving us an alphabet, a grammar, and a vocabulary of that language.

To those who would wish to have some knowledge of that ancient and long-forgotten language I would recommend the work of Lanzi, "Saggio di Lingua Etrusca." And to those who would like to have a minute knowledge of the history of the Etruscans, as well as of other nations who inhabited Italy before the Romans, I would recommend the work of Micali, "L'Italia avanti il dominio dei Romani."

By the conquests of the Romans the language of the Latins was spread all over the peninsula, and from its humble origin, by degrees enriched and

ennobled, it became at last the language of Terentius and Cicero, of Horace and Virgil.

Here a question arises. Did the Latin, by its diffusion over Italy, supersede and silence the Etruscan and the other languages spoken by the people of that country? This question shall be answered hereafter in speaking of the Italian. Conquest being the policy of the Romans, from the very foundation of their city they sought to increase their people by admitting into Rome strangers of every description. The consequence was that the Latin language soon began to be altered; so much so, that a treaty of peace, written in the third century from the foundation of Rome, between Rome and Carthage, could hardly be understood at the time of Polybius.

It happens with languages as with organic beings. Their internal vital principle is gradually altered by the action of the external opposite forces which combat and destroy it. The vital principle of a language is its peculiar character, consisting in the structure of its grammar, in its syntax, in the harmonious affinity of all its words, by which their sounds, although very different, harmonize together and exhibit a common feature which shows that they all belong to one single family. As long as that principle lives, the language flourishes, and the incorporation of external elements does not alter it, because they are few, and because they are modified and assimilated by its in

ternal power. But if the action of external elements prevails over the inward power of transforming them, and that inward power can no longer transform and incorporate them, then the individuality of that language is by degrees altered and destroyed. Such has been the case with the Latin, which more particularly began to be altered and corrupted from the first century of our era, when the afflux of foreigners in Rome was greater and more frequent than before; and its decline went on in the same proportion with the decline of the Roman empire, and civilization.

At last the irruption of the barbarians into Italy struck the last blow at that beautiful language; and with the Latin language all traces of human culture and civilization were spent. Ages of darkness followed ages of darkness. The ignorance of the people was only equalled by their wretchedness. No schools, no instruction, no books! Those wonders of Grecian and Latin wisdom, elegance, and eloquence, all were buried under the ruins of towns, or destroyed in conflagrations.

This was the condition of Italy for many centuries. When suddenly on the banks of Arno arose a genius, who in a sublime poem, still unrivalled, exhibited to the astonished world a language, which for harmony and elegance, energy and richness, has nothing to envy in those of Greece and Rome. How are we to account for this wonder? Did Dante 10

[q. c. LEC.]