English scholars were late in entering this field of research. Home Tooke's (q.v.) Diversions of Parley, though a work of genius, and though it has been the means of first awakening in many an interest in the nature of language, was written without sufficient acquaintance with the kindred tongues, and before the true key to the inquiry had been obtained, and therefore few of the results can now be accepted. Among the first impor tant contributions were Prichard's Eastern Origin of the Cella, JV&ions 1831), and the contributions of the rev. Richard Garnett to the Quarterly Review in 1833-48. Mr. Gar nett's essays in the Quarterly, and his subsequent papers printed in the proceedings of the London philological society (in the formation of which, in 1842, he took an active part), have been reprinted under the title of Philological Essays (Williams and Norgate, 1839). and are models of linguistic research. The philological articles of the Penny Cyclo ;mac also" contributed to popularize the study in England. Of substantive works the most important, though bearing more directly on the Greek and Latin tongues, are The New Cratylas (1839, 3,1 ed. 1839), and the Varroniaizus (1844) of J. W. Donaldson (q.v.). Winning's Manual of Comparative Philology (1838) had previously given a popular 'sketch of the affinities of the Aryan languages. Latham's Elements of Comparative Philology (1862) gives an elaborate classification of the languages of the world, with specimens; only a small part of the work is given to the general principles of the science. Farrar, On the Origin of Language (1860), chiefly deals with the speculative part of the subject; in his chapters on Language (new ed. 1873), he defends his original positions; his Families of Speech (new ed. 1873) deals with classification. The writings of Max a tire Mythology in the Orford Essays, 1856; Lectures on the Science of Language, 1861; second series. 1864; new ed. of both. 1871) went far to make the study of this science take root in Britain. The principles of linguistic science are set forth in Whitney's Language and the Study of Language (1S68), and The Life and Growth of Language (1875). Oilier recent works are: Key's Origin and Development of Language (1874); and Sayce's Principles of Compomtive On the principles of classification above sketched, the chief languages of the earth may be thus arranged: I. Monosyllabic or Isolating.-1. Chinese, the typical language of tbis order. 2. Thibe tan, which shows some beginnings of grammatical forms. 3. The lang,ungeS of the east ern peninsula—Siamese, Anamese, Burman. Japanese and the language of Corey are
doubtful.
II. Agglutinate.-1. The most important division of this order is the Turanian family, comprising "all languages spoken in Asia and Europe (including Oceania), and not included under the Aryan and Semitic families, with the exception of Chinese and its cognate dialects." For the subdivisions of this family, see TunusIAN LANGUAGES. 2.
African of the languages of Africa are allied to the Semitic family, and were introduced by immigration, such as the dialect of Tigre itr Abyssinia (see and the Arabic dialects spoken by the Mohammedan population of the coasts, and which have even penetrated deep into the interior. Ilow tar the Berber dia lects are of Semitic character is a disputed question; and the same is the case with the language of the Gallas in Abyssinia. Little has as yet been done in investigating fool classifying the native agglutinate languages of Africa; which have been designated by the common name of Hamitic. The ancient Egyptian, from which the modern Coptic is derived, would seem never to have got beyond the isolating stage (see litEnooLyntics). Some of the languages adjoining Egypt are thought to he allied to the Coptic. The negro languages, properly so-called, of the Sudan, and of the w. coast from the Senegal to the Niger, are exceedingly numerous and widely diverse. The languages to the s. of the equator are markedly different from those to the north. They fall, according to some, into two great families, the Congo family on the w., and the Kaffer family on the east. The Hottentot language.is distinct from both. A valuable contribution has recently been made to the study of part of the field by Bleep's Comparative Grammar of the South African Languages (18(i2). 3. TheLanguages ofthe American native lan guages of the new world are numbered by many hundreds, all differing totally in their vocabulary, but still agreeing in the peculiar grammatical structure which has given the name of incorporative (see above). Their area is fast contracting, and they seem destined to disappear.
III. order consists of two families, so distinct in their grammati cal framework that it is impossible to imagine a language of the one family derived from one of the other. It is the peoples speaking these languages that have been the leaders of civilization within the historic period. The subdivisions of these families will be best understood from the accompanying tables, taken from Max Mailer's lec tures, first series.