survey of all the known lan guages of the inhabited earth with short grammatical sketches and brief specimens was given in Friedrich Milner's Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft (4 vols., Wien, 1876-88). The attempt has never been renewed on so extensive a scale. F. N. Finck, Die Sprachstiimme des Erdkreises (Leipzig, 1909), gives a bare enu meration of the names of languages, but the great work Les Lan gues du Monde by A. Meillet et Marcel Cohen (Paris, 1924) does not content itself with this, but gives valuable discussions on many problems connected with the present state of linguistic science with regard to some, at least, of the linguistic groups. An extremely bold attempt at proving relationship between all existing languages and thus establishing the monogenesis of human language is found in various works by A. Trombetti, most elab orately in Elementi di Glottologia (Bologna, 1923) ; most philol ogists prefer not to commit themselves either to this theory or definitely to the opposite theory of polygenesis, but to leave the question open as impossible of solution at present. An equally bold attempt is made in the recent book by Father W. Schmidt, Die Sprachfamilien and Sprachenkreise der Erde (Hei delberg, 1926) : he tries to group all known languages genetically and then to show intimate connection between a series of phe nomena—phonetic traits, such as the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, initial and final sounds and sound groups, morphological peculiarities (number, exclusive and in clusive pronouns, gender, numeral systems), syntactical features (place of genitive and adjective)—on the one hand and on the other hand ancient centres and migrations of cultural phenomena: totemism, agriculture, matriarchy, etc.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—History of Philology: 0. Jespersen, Language, Book I. (1922) ; W. Streitberg, Die Erforschung der indogermanischen Sprachen (only two volumes of a planned great work have appeared, dealing with Greek, Latin, Keltic, Slavic and Albanian, 1916-17) ; Stand und Aufgaben der Sprachwissenschaft, Festschrift fiir W. Streit berg (1924) ; H. Pedersen, Sprogvidenskaben i det rg. Aarhundrede (1924) ; V. Thomsen, Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft (1927).
For general bibliography see the two works mentioned above, Les Langues du Monde, and W. Schmidt, Die Sprachfamilien. See also under LANGUAGE and GRAMMAR. (0. J.)