e affinity between the Zend and
the Sanskrit. Since the time of Kleuker, this question has been
investigated by many learned scholars. Sir W. Jones, Leyden, (Asiat.
Research. x. 283,) and Mr. Erskine, (Bombay Trans. ii. 299,) consider it
a derivative from the Sanskrit. The antiquity of the Zendavesta has
likewise been asserted by Rask, the great Danish linguist, who,
according to Malcolm, brought back from the East fresh transcripts and
additions to those published by Anquetil. According to Rask, the Zend
and Sanskrit are sister dialects; the one the parent of the Persian, the
other of the Indian family of languages.--G. and M.----But the subject
is more satisfactorily illustrated in Bopp's comparative Grammar of the
Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, and German languages.
Berlin. 1833-5. According to Bopp, the Zend is, in some respects, of a
more remarkable structure than the Sanskrit. Parts of the Zendavesta
have been published in the original, by M. Bournouf, at Paris, and M.
Ol. shausen, in Hamburg.--M.----The Pehlvi was the language of the
countries bordering on Assyria, and probably of Assyria itself. Pehlvi
signifies valor, heroism; the Pehlvi, therefore, was the language of the
ancient heroes and kings of Persia, the valiant. (Mr. Erskine prefers
the derivation from Pehla, a border.--M.) It contains a number of
Aramaic roots. Anquetil considered it formed from the Zend. Kleuker does
not adopt this opinion. The Pehlvi, he says, is much more flowing, and
less overcharged with vowels, than the Zend. The books of Zoroaster,
first written in Zend, were afterwards translated into Pehlvi and Parsi.
The Pehlvi had fallen into disuse under the dynasty of the Sassanides,
but the learned still wrote it. The Parsi, the dialect of Pars or
Farristan, was then prevailing dialect. Kleuker, Anhang zum Zend Avesta,
2, ii. part i. p. 158, part ii. 31.--G.----Mr. Erskine (Bombay
Transactions) considers the existing Zendavesta to have been compiled in
the time of Ardeschir Babegan.--M.]

[Footnote 9: Hyde de Religione veterum Pers. c. 21.]

[Footnote 10: I have principally drawn this account from the Zendavesta
of M. d'Anquetil, and the Sadder, subjoined to Dr. Hyde's treatise. It
must, however, be confessed, that the studied obscurity of a prophet,
the figurative style of the East, and the deceitful medium of a French
or Latin version may have betrayed us into error and heresy, in this
abridgment of Persian theology