Excerpt from A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language: Containing the Accentuation, the Grammatical Inflections, the Irregular Words Referred to Their Themes, the Parallel Terms From the Gothic Languages, the Meaning of the Anglo-Saxon in English and Latin I intimated that the languages or eople, among whom such similarities prevailed, however disparted and divergent they had en, or now were, must have had some ancient and primeval consanguinity. - In meditating on this subject, it occurred to me, that if the mind were not pursuing an illusory idea, the same facts and the same intimation would appear as strikingly in some other words, as they were visible in the numerals. This impression, and the desire neither to mislead, nor to be misled, have induced me to observe, whether the words that are used in the different languages of the world to express the first, the dearest, the most universal, and the most lasting relations of life, Father and Mother, would he found to confirm, or overthrow the principles suggested. The words were arranged into classes, according to their primitive or more simple elements. These classes demonstrate that the common uk of sounds to express the same ideas, must have had some common origin, and are evidences of a common and early amuity. While each class proves a similarity or an identity, the numerous classes indicate great diversity. Identity without diversity would have proved only a common derivation, and diversity without identities would disprove community of origin. But so much partial identity and resemblance remaining, at this advanced period of the world, visible amid so much striking and filters] disparity, exactly coin cides with the Hebrew statement of an anterior unity, and of a su quent confusion, abruption, and dispersion. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.