METHOD OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY. 21 



larger and smaller groups of speech-forms, which are distin- 

 guished in Comparative Philology as primitive languages, 

 fundamental languages, parent languages, derived languages, 

 dialects, patois, etc., correspond perfectly in their mode of 

 development with the various larger and smaller groups of 

 organisms classed in sj^stems of Zoology and Botany as 

 tribes, classes, orders, families, genera, species, and varie- 

 ties of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The relations 

 between these various systematic groups, or categories, aie 

 in both cases identical; moreover, evolution follows the 

 same course in one case as in the other. This instructive 

 comparison was first elaborated by one of the most eminent 

 of German philologists, one who, unfortunately, died pre- 

 maturely — August Schleicher, not only a philologist but also 

 a learned botanist. In his more important works, the Com- 

 [)arative Anatomy and evolutionary history of languages is 

 treated by the same phylogenetic method which we employ 

 :n the Comparative Anatomy and evolutionary history of 

 animal forms. He has especially applied this method to 

 the Indo-Germanic family of languages ; and in his little 

 treatise on " The Darwinian Theory and the Science of 

 Language" (''Die Darwin'sche Theorie und die Sprach- 

 wissenschaft "), he illustrated it by means of a synoptical 

 pedigree of the Indo-Germanic family of languages.^^ 



If the formation of the various branch languages which 

 have developed from the common root of the primitive 

 Indo-Germanic tongue is studied with the aid of this pedi- 

 gree, a' very clear idea of their Phylogeny will be acquired. 

 At the same time it becomes evident how entirely analogous 

 is the evolution of the greater and lesser groups of the 

 Vertebrates, which have sprung from the one common root- 



