Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/103

Rh another, and the various phases of the changed language represent its several dialectal stages. But in course of time, certain intermediate stages are lost and all traces of them are oblite rated, so that a wide gulf is created between dialect and dialect, when they become separate languages This loss of intermediate dialects is a feature of almost all families of languages, and this phenomenon occurs mostly when the barriers between two dialects are removed and free inter-communication is established. When thus smaller dialects merge themselves into larger groups, they tend to disappear. In this way, it is believed that many dialects which must once have bridged over the gulf between Slavonic and Iranian, Armenian and Greek, Latin and Celtic have been extinguished. Similarly, many Armenian dialects are said to have disappeared and the existing Iranian languages,- Pushtu,