to other Branches of Knowledge. 325 



A second class of words, which are common to nations 

 who had attained some degree of refinement before the era 

 of their separation, consists of terms connected with simple 

 arts, such as simple nations early acquire, as, to plough, to 

 weave, to sew ; names of metals, of weapons, tools, articles 

 of dress. It may be observed, that words of this class are 

 often common to nations whose domestic vocabularies are dif- 

 ferent ; and, on the other hand, often different when the do- 

 mestic vocabulary is nearly the same. 



A careful investigation of the phenomena of resemblance 

 or analogy, which discover themselves on comparing different 

 languages, on the principles to which I have now adverted, 

 will go far towards an elucidation of the question, whether 

 such phenomena of resemblance belong to the primitive and 

 original parts of language, and therefore prove a common 

 origin in the nations to which they belong, or are of later 

 date, and are referable to intercourse, or conquest, or some 

 secondary and contingent cause. Such an investigation will, 

 at least, greatly aid and confirm the conclusions which we 

 may draw from historical evidence of a different kind as to 

 the history of tribes, and their mutual relations to each 

 other. 



I shall now advert to some of the principal instances in 

 which ethnology has been extended through the medium of 

 researches into the affinities of languages confirmed by his- 

 torical facts. 



Nearly the whole continent of Asia and Europe is divided 

 between four great classes of languages ; and in this instance 

 history affords reason to conclude, with great probability, 

 that the affinities of language really mark out as many races 

 or great families of nations. These four sets of languages 

 alluded to are, 1. The Indo-European Languages. 2. The 

 Northern Asiatic, which, for reasons to be explained, 1 shall 

 term tlie Ugrian or Tartarian Languages. 3. The Syro- Ara- 

 bian or Semitic Languages. 4. The Chinese or Indo-Chi- 

 nese, or the Monosyllabic or Uninflected Languages. 



1. The name of Indo-European was first given some years 

 since (by the writer of a review of Adelung's Sprachenkunde, 

 in the Quarterly Review) to a group of languages which in- 



