The principal consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German language.

Thus the original word for _father_, which closely resembled the Latin _pater_, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon _faeder_, and in modern High German _vater_.

So, again, among the numerals, our _two_, in early English _twa_, answers to Latin _duo_ and modern High German _zwei_; while our _three_, in old English _threo_, answers to Latin _tres_, and modern High German _drei_.

So far as these permutations are concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects mainly agree.

From these, the English varies one degree, the High German two.