INTRODUCTION § 1. GOTHIC forms one member of the Germanic (Teutonic) branch of the Indo-Germanic family of languages. This great family of languages is usually divided into ten branches:— I. Aryan, consisting of: (i) The Indian group, including the language of the Vedas, classical Sanskrit, and the Prakrit dialects; (2) The Iranian group, including (a) West Iranian (Old Persian, the language of the Persian cuneiform inscriptions, dating from about 520-350 B.C.) ; (6) East Iranian (Avesta—sometimes called Zend-Avesta, Zend, and Old Bactrian—the language of the Avesta, the sacred books of the Zoroastrians). II. Tocharian, now extinct, represented by texts discovered in Chinese Turkestan, which are thought to be anterior to the tenth century A.D. III. Hittite, a language spoken in Asia Minor in the second millennium B.C. Although the vocabulary of Hittite contains many non-Indo-Germanic elements, it possesses definite grammatical affinities with other Indo-Germanic languages. IV. Armenian, the oldest monuments of which belong to the fifth century A.D. V. Greek, with its numerous dialects. VI. Albanian, the language of ancient Illyria. The oldest monuments belong to the seventeenth century, VII. Italic, consisting of Latin and the Umbrian-Samnitic dialects. From the popular form of Latin are descended the Romance languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Provenfal, French, Italian, Raetoromanic, Rumanian or Wallachian. VIII. Keltic, consisting of: (i) Gaulish (known to us by Keltic names and words quoted by Latin and Greek authors, and inscriptions on coins); (2) Britannic, including Cymric 1187 Β