'roots of language. 26^ 



any great moment from that of the evolutionist, as I have 

 already observed. For, so long as it is universally agreed 

 that all the language-groups have been products of a gradual 

 development, it is, comparatively speaking, immaterial 

 whether the groups all stand to one another in a relation of 

 serial descent, or whether some of them stand to others in 

 a relation of collateral descent. That is to say, the evolu- 

 tionist is under no obligation to espouse either the monotypic 

 or the polytypic theory of the origin of language. There- 

 fore, it will make no material difference to the following 

 discussion whether the reader feels disposed to follow the 

 doctrine, that all languages must have originated in such 

 monosyllabic isolations as we now meet with in a radical 

 form of speech like the Chinese ; that they all originated in 

 such polysynthetic incapsulations as we now find in the 

 numberless dialects of the American Indians ; or, lastly, and 

 as I myself think much more probably, that both these, 

 and possibly other types of language-structure, are all equally 

 primitive. Be these things as they may, my discussion 

 will not be overshadowed by their uncertainty. For this 

 uncertainty has reference only to the origin of the existing 

 language-types as independent or genetically allied : it in no 

 way aftects the certainty of their subsequent evolution. Much 

 as philologists may still differ upon the mutual relations of 

 these several language-types, they all agree that " von dcr 

 ersten Entstehung der Sprachwurzeln an bis zur Bildung 

 der volkommenen Flcxionssprachen, wie des Sanskrit, 

 Griechischen, oder Deutschen, ist Alles in der Entwicklung 

 der Sprache verstandlich . . . Sobald nur die Wurzeln als 

 die fcrtigen Bausteine der Sprache einmal da sind, lasst sich 

 Schritt fur Schritt das Wachsthum des Sprachgebaudcs 

 verfolgen." * 



Therefore, having now said all that seems necessary to 

 say on the question of language-types, I will pass on to 

 consider the information that we possess on the subject of 

 language-roots. 



* Wuiiilt, J'or/c-sinigcn, d-^r., ii., 3S0, 3S1. 



