There is little doubt that it and kindred languages were extensively spoken in early times throughout Susiana and the lower valley of the Euphrates down to the Persian Gulf. Its connection with the Old Susian has never been doubted. Lenormant, Oppert, Sayce and Hommel have testified to its more distant relationship with the Akkadian, the primitive language of Babylonia. Weisbach is naturally more sceptical, for in 1890 he had scarcely emancipated himself from the heresy of Halévy, who doubted the existence of Akkadian as an independent language.[702] Sayce and his disciple Hommel added the speech of the Kossaeans to the same group.[703] They were indeed disposed to create a new family of languages which they called Alarodian,[704] and included within it the Elamite, embracing New and Old Susian, Kassite,[705] Hittite[706] and Vannic.[707] They considered that the nearest modern representative of this language is the Georgian and Basque, an opinion which, it will be remembered, had somewhat fascinated both Westergaard and Rawlinson. The propriety of this classification was, however, doubted by Lenormant, and it has never been satisfactorily established.[708]