Debris from Latin Mines [pp. 48-51]

Debris from Latin Mines.
2. Quel fova enten l'antschetta tier Deus.
3. Tuttas caussas ein fatgas tras el, e senza el ei
fatg nagutta da quei ca ei fatg.
4. Enten el fova la vita, a la vita eira la glisch
dils carstiauns.
5. A quella glisch dat clarezia enten la schiradegna, mo las schiradegnas il han buca cumprin.
It may not be taken as an impertinence to
append the English version, to save the
trouble of reference to any who may have
forgotten some of the words.
I. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
. The same was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made by him, and without
him was not anything made that was made.
4. In Him was life; and the life was the light of
men.
5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not.
It should be observed that the two versions above given are translated by different
hands, or there would be less dissimilarity.
We give one more illustrative text.
Niebla Gagliar'iensche.
Un schuldaut Romajin, cavet iin process, roga
Augiist d'ilg defender. Ilg Imperadiir Igi dev' iin
hum da sia C'u6rt par ilg manar tiers ils derschhders.
Ilg schuldaii fova gagliards aviinda da gir tiers Aug ust: "Signiir, en risguard dad els hai jou bucca faig
aschia, cur els eran en prieguel en la battaglia sper
Actium; Jou mez hai cambattieti par els." En quei,
c'el schet quels plaids, scha scuvri el si sias plagas,
c'el veva survangieu. Questa representatiun commo venth ilg August da tal guisa, ca el ma sez enten la
casa da la darchira, par defender ilg schuldau.
Noble Boltness.
A Roman soldier who had a lawsuit, asked Augustus
to defend him. The Emperor gave him one of his
courtiers to take him to the judge. The soldier was
bold enough to say to Augustus: "Sire, I (lid not
so fail you when you were in peril in the battle of
Actium; I fought for you myself." While he said
these words he uncovered the wounds which he had
received. This sight so moved Augustus that he
himself went to the Court to plead the cause of the
soldier.
The orthography of the Ladin is in a some what fantastic state; it is very much con fused, especially because of dialectical varia tions.
We now turn to the land which was for merly called Dacia, settled by the legionaries
VOL. VI.-4.
of Trajan in the early part of the second century of our era. There we find a form of
speech termed Rumanian or Wallachian,
which was long supposed to be a Slavonic
dialect, until the electric light of comparative
philology was turned full upon it. The misapprehension was owing to the fact that it
was written in Cyrillic letters, the same as
are employed by.the Russian, Servian, and
Bulgarian. This alphabet has been discarded for the Roman. There are some respects
in which the Cyrillic is preferable to the
other for the transcription of this idiom, but
on the whole the preference is with the
Roman, though it has been considered necessary to supplement it by certain diacritical
signs.
The name Wallachian is one which they
repudiate, for it is merely a descriptive Teutonic term signifying "foreign "-WalschWelsh-an appellation applied by our own
forefathers to the Celts whom they drove
into the fastnesses of the WVest. They very
naturally prefer to be called Rumanians, a
term which is reminiscent of their origin.
The Roman soldiers who had been stationed
for twenty-five years in the same outposts,
settled down upon the banks of the Danube,
married, and formed the basis of a Roman
population, and laid the foundations of a
Romance dialect.
It is the most remarkable of all the neo Latin stock; it is not so rich as the other
dialects, from which it is so completely sepa rated in geographical position, being on the
eastern frontiers of Europe; but it neverthe less retains more classic words of the age of
Augustus than the others, and many of them
have retained their original value, so often
entirely lost elsewhere.
Rumanian is spoken by between 8,ooo, ooo and 9,ooo000,000ooo people. Its locus in quo
is described as "singularly uniform and com pact" (with the exception of one small de tached subdivision), "forming a sort of ir regular circle of over one hundred leagues
in length, from the Dniester to the Danube,
and about the same in width from Arad to
the mouth of the Danube. Besides Wal lachia and Moldavia - that is, Rumania
1885.]
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