Note 367 — Chapter IX

According to Hirt, “Die Urheimat ... d. Indogermanen,” Geogr. Zeitsch., vol. i., p. 649, Leipzig, 1895, the home of dispersion of the primitive Aryan language would be found to the north of the Carpathians, in the Letto-Lithuanian region. From this point two linguistic streams would start, flowing round the mountains to the west and east; the western stream, after spreading over Germany (Teutonic languages), left behind them the Celtic languages in the upper valley of the Danube, and filtered through on the one side into Italy (Latin languages), on the other side into Illyria, Albania, and Greece (Helleno-Illyrian languages). The eastern stream formed the Slav languages in the plains traversed by the Dnieper, then spread by way of the Caucasus into Asia (Iranian languages and Sanscrit). In this way we can account, on the one hand, for the less and less marked relationship between the different Aryan languages of the present day and the common primitive dialect, and, on the other hand, the diversity between the two groups of Aryan languages, western and eastern.