The affinity which exists between such of the vernacular languages of India
as are offshoots of the Sanscrit, as the Hindostanee, Mahratta, Guzeratee,
&c., and the Greek, Latin, German, and English languages, is now well known
to European scholars, more especially since the publication of the
researches of Vans Kennedy, Professor Bopp of Berlin, &c. Indeed, scarcely
a day passes in which the European resident in India may not recognise, in
his intercourse with the natives, many familiar words in all those
languages, clothed in an oriental dress. I am inclined also to think that
new light may be thrown upon some of the impracticable Greek particles by a
reference to the languages of the East; and without wishing to be
understood as laying down anything dogmatically in the present
communication, I hope, through the medium of your valuable publication, to
attract attention to this subject, and invite discussion on it. Taking, as
an illustration, the 233d line of the first book of the _Iliad_, where the
hero of the poem is violently abusing Agamemnon for depriving him of his
prize, the fair maid Briseis, he says,

[Greek: "All' ek toi ereô, kai epi megan horkon homoumai."]

What is the meaning of [Greek: ek] in the above line? It is commonly
construed with [Greek: ereô], and translated, "I plainly tell thee--I
declare to thee;" [Greek: exereô], "I speak out--proclaim." But may it not
be identical with the Sanscrit _ek_, "one," a word, as most of your readers
are doubtless aware, in universal use throughout India, Persia, &c; the
rendering literally running thus:

"But _one_ thing I tell thee," &c.

That this is the original sense of the line appears probable by comparing
it with line 297. of the {419} same book, where in the _second_ speech of