A proximate estimate of the number of Armenians in different countries in the world may be given as follows: Two millions in the Turkish empire, before the war; one million and three hundred thousand in Russian Armenia and in the same empire; one hundred and fifty thousand in Persia and in other eastern countries; one hundred thousand in European countries and a hundred thousand in America; total three million and six hundred fifty thousand. The Armenians belong to the branch of the human family which is commonly called the Aryan Race. The nations of Aryan stock extend from Hindustan or India to Europe, for this reason it is also called Indo-European or Indo-Germanic. This Aryan race is geographically divided into two branches, the eastern and the western. The western branch comprehends the inhabitants of Europe with the exception of the Turks and others of Mongolian origin. The eastern branch comprehends the Armenians, the Persians, the ancient Medes and Afghans and the inhabitants of Northern Hindustan. The studies of anthropology, philology, psychology and sociology have confirmed the original unity of these nations. The Armenian language also, therefore, belongs to the Indo-European family (the occidental branch) of languages. This is proved not only by numerous words with the identical sense in this family of languages, but also by the very construction of the language itself. “In any case it is clear that many of the oldest forms which the Armenian shared with other Indo-Germanic dialects were lost and replaced by forms of which the origin is obscure.... The attempt made by S. Bugge to assimilate Old Armenia (language) to Etruscan, and by P. Jesen to explain from it the Hittite inscriptions, appear to be fanciful.”[77] There are, however, two Armenian languages, the ancient and the modern; the former was the language of the pre-Christian era, and after the conversion of the nation, and the translation of the Bible into the same, it became the standard language of literature. “In its syntactical structure the Old Armenian resembles most nearly the classical Greek.” The modern Armenian is not a distinct language, but it is simplified and adapted to the present use of the most of the people. Within little more than a century it has become a very rich language by numerous original and translated works, by periodicals and papers published in various centers of learning, and especially by the translation of the Bible. The relations of the modern to the ancient Armenian might well be compared with that of the modern Greek to ancient Greek language. The Armenian literature of the pre-Christian era has not survived, excepting a few fragmentary songs, which lingered until the time of Moses of Khorene, in whose history of Armenia they are preserved; and the inscriptions of Van, which some claim as “the oldest specimens of the Asiatic branch of the Indo-Germanic family.”