tian era. To
this period belong the translation of the Scriptures and the old Armenian
Chronicle. The Armenian is still a living language, though spoken in widely
separated districts, owing to the scattered locations in which the
Armenians are found to-day.

d. _The Tokharian_. This language, only recently discovered and identified
as Indo-European, was spoken in the districts east of the Caspian Sea
(modern Turkestan). While in some respects closely related to the three
Asiatic branches of the Indo-European family already considered, in others
it shows close relationship to the European members of the family. The
literature of the Tokharian, so far as it has been brought to light,
consists mainly of translations from the Sanskrit sacred writings, and
dates from the seventh century of our era.

EUROPEAN MEMBERS OF THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY.

e. _The Greek_. The Greeks had apparently long been settled in Greece and
Asia Minor as far back as 1500 B.C. Probably they arrived in these
districts much earlier. The earliest literary productions are the Iliad and
the Odyssey of Homer, which very likely go back to the ninth century B.C.
From the sixth century B.C. on, Greek literature is continuous. Modern
Greek, when we consider its distance in time from antiquity, is remarkably
similar to the classical Greek of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.

f. _The Italic Group._ The Italic Group embraces the Umbrian, spoken in the
northern part of the Italian peninsula (in ancient Umbria); the Latin,
spoken in the central part (in Latium); the Oscan, spoken in the southern
part (in Samnium, Campania, Lucania, etc.). Besides these, there were a
number of minor dialects, such as the Marsian, Volscian, etc. Of all these
(barring the Latin), there are no remains except a few scanty inscriptions.
Latin literature begins shortly after 250 B.C. in the works of Livius
Andronicus, Naevius, and Plautus, although a few brief inscriptions are
found belonging to a much earlier period.

g. _The Celtic._ In the earliest historical times of which we have any
record, the Celts occupied extensive portions of northern Italy, as well as
certain areas in central Europe; but after the second century B.C., they
are found only in Gaul and the British Isles. Among the chief languages
belonging to the Celtic group are the Gallic, spoken in ancient Gaul; the
Breton, still spoken in the modern French province of Brittany; the Irish,
which is still extensively s