I. _The Indian._ This branch includes the Sanskrit (the language of the Vedas, the first literary monument of the Arian world), with its living representatives, the Hindustani, Mahratti, Bengali, Guzerati, Singhalese, &c.; the Prakrit and Pali idioms; the Siah-Posh (Kafir dialect), and the language of the Gipsies. II. _The Iranian_ or _Persian_. To this branch belong the Zend or Old Persian (the language of the Zendavesta), with its representatives; the language of the Achaemenians, written in the Cuneiform character; the speech of Huzvaresh or Pehlevi; the Pazend or Parsi; and the modern Persian. The following dialects, though not very important in a philological view, belong to this class:—the Afghan, Bokhara, Kurdian, Armenian, and Ossetian. In Europe there are no less than six branches of the Arian family: I. _The Celtic._ Though the Celts seem to have been the first inhabitants of Europe, very few of their dialects are now spoken, having been superseded by the Teutonic idioms. Modern Celtic dialects are divided into two classes; (_a_) the Gallic or Ancient British, including the Welsh (Cymric), Cornish, and Armorican of Brittany; (_b_) the Galic, Gadhelic, or Erse, including the Irish (Fenic), the Highland Scottish (Gaelic), and Manx, the dialect of the Isle of Man. II. _The Teutonic._ This branch is divided into three dialects; (_a_) the High German, including the Old High German, the Middle High German, and the Modern High German; (_b_) the Low German, including the Gothic, the Anglo-Saxon and English, the Old Saxon and Platt-Deutsch, the Frisic, the Dutch and Flemish; (_c_) the Scandinavian, including the Old Norsk, the Icelandic, the Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. III. _The Italic._ To this class belong the Oscan, Umbrian, and Latin dialects; the Old Provençal, and the Romance languages (Provençal and French, Italian and Wallachian, Spanish and Portuguese) formed during the decay of the Latin. IV. _The Hellenic._ This branch includes the Greek and its dialects, the Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, and Attic. V. _The Albanian_; including the Geghian and the Toskian dialects spoken in Illyria and Epirus. VI. _The Slavonic_ or _Windic_ branch is divided into two dialects; (_a_) the Lettic, including the Lithuanian, Old Prussian, and Lettish; (_b_) the Slavonic Proper, which is again divided into two branches, termed the Eastern and Western. The Eastern dialect includes the Russian (Great, Little, and White Russian), the Servian, Kroatian, and Slovenian; and the Bulgarian, or in its oldest form, the Ecclesiastical Slavonic. The Western dialect includes the Polish, the Bohemian, the Polabian, and the Lusatian. (B) THE SEMITIC Family (so called from Shem, one of the sons of Noah) is not so widely extended as the Arian family, but the nations composing it were the first to appear upon the theatre of history. It comprises the following branches:— I. _The Arabic_, which includes the Ethiopian or Abissinian and the Maltese.