Page:Alexander Macbain - An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language.djvu/26

 ii. :(b) Iranian branch, which comprises Zend or Old Bactrian (circ. 1000 B.C.), Old Persian and Modern Persian.

IV. , of which anon.

These six groups cannot, save probably in the case of Latin and Celtic, be drawn closer together in a genealogical way. Radiating as they did from a common centre, the adjacent groups are more like one another than those further off. The European languages, inclusive of Armenian, present the three primitive vowels a, e, o intact, while the Indo-Iranian group coalesces them all into the sound a. Again the Asiatic languages join with the Balto-Slavonic in changing Aryan palatal k into a sibilant sound. Similarly two or three other groups may be found with common peculiarities (e.g., Greek, Latin, and Celtic with oi or i in the nom. pl. masc. of the o- declension). Latin and Celtic, further, show intimate relations in having in common an î in the gen. sing, of the o- declension (originally a locative), -tion- verbal nouns, a future in b, and the passive in -r.