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THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE
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and the later Lycians[1] and Lydians;[2] possibly also by the Etruscans in Italy.[3] Such analogues as may be found between Elamite and any of these other languages naturally point only to linguistic affinities and not to a linguistic unity; with due caution, however, they may indicate ethnic relationships.

For a modern anthropologist it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine that the present-day inhabitants of Iran could make up a single ethnological family. From time immemorial the plateau has been subjected to invasion and counter-invasion, for, in spite of the difficulties its borders present, it must be remembered that Iran is as much a bridge between the Far East and the Land of the Two Rivers as is Palestine between Asia and Africa. Consequently, peoples of highly diverse origin have sheltered themselves under a single linguistic roof in Iran; and the

  1. Kluge, "Die lykischen Inschriften," MVAG, XV, Heft 1 (1910), 1–135; Bork, Skizze des Lükischen (Königsberg i. Pr., 1926); Deeters, "Lykia. VII. Sprache," Pauly-Wissowa, Real Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, XXVI (1927), 2282–91; P. Meriggi, Über einige lykische Pronominal- und Verbalformen," Indogermanische Forschungen, XLVI (1928), 151–82, and {{lang|de|"Beiträge zur lykischen Syntax," Kleinasiatische Forschungen, I, Heft 3 (1930), 414–61.
  2. Deeters, "Lydia. Sprache und Schrift," Pauly-Wissowa, op. cit., XXVI (1927), 2153–61; W. Brandenstein, "Die lydische Sprache," WZKM, XXXVI (1929), 263–304, and XXXVIII (1932), 1–67; "Die Nominalformen des Lydischen," Caucasica, IX (1931), 25–40; "Die lydische Nominalflexion," ibid., X (1932), 67–94.
  3. G. Herbig, "Etrusker. B. Sprache," Reallexikon der Vorgeschichte, III (1925), 138–47; cf. F. Sommer, "Das lydische und etruskische F-Zeichen," Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Abt., 1930, Heft 1, pp. 1–23.