The Origin of Language ., 1 7 



written Beitrage zu einer Kritik der Sprache 1 give boom reason to 

 hope that, on one side at least, the future ma] be better than 

 the past. 



Where Charles Darwin's special studies came in contact aitfa the 

 Science of Language was over the problem of the origin and develop 

 raent of language. It is curious to observe that, where 90 man] li. I.I, 

 of linguistic research have still to be reclaimed— man) as yet can 

 hardly be said to be mapped out,— the least accessible field of all 

 that of the Origin of Language— has never wanted assiduous tiller* 

 Unfortunately it is a field beyond most others where it ma; t> 

 that 



Wilding oats and luckless darnel grow. 



If Comparative Philology is to work to purpose here, it mod be on 

 results derived from careful study of individual languages and groups 

 of languages. But as yet the group which Sir William Jones Ural 

 mapped out and which Bopp organised is the only one where modi 

 has been achieved. Investigation of the Semitic group, in BOOM 

 respects of no less moment in the history of civilisation and religion, 

 where perhaps the labour of comparison is not so difficult, aa the 

 languages differ less among themselves, has for some reason Btrangelj 

 lagged behind. Some years ago in the American Journal of PhUo- 

 logy Paul Haupt pointed out that if advance was to be made, it 

 must be made according to the principles which had guided the 

 investigation of the Indo-Germanic languages to success, and at last 

 a Comparative Grammar of an elaborate kind is in progress abo foe 

 the Semitic languages 2 . For the great group which includes Finnish, 

 Hungarian, Turkish and many languages of northern Asia, a beginning; 

 but only a beginning, has been made. It may be presumed from the 

 great discoveries which are in progress in Turkestan that present^] 

 much more will be achieved in this field. But for a certain utterance 

 to be given by Comparative Philology on the question of the origin 

 of language it is necessary that not merely for these languages bol 

 also for those in other quarters of the globe, the facts should be 

 collected, sifted and tabulated. England rules an empire which COD 



forschung, Strassburg, 1901, with a rejoinder by Wundt, SpraehgeschieLt, an i 

 psychologic, Leipzig, 1901; L. Sutterlin, Dai Weten der Sprachgebilde, H i 

 von Rozwadowski, Wortbildung und Wortbedeutung, Heidelberg, 1904 j I 

 Grundzuge der Sprachpsychologie, Halle, 1904; Ch. A. Sechehaye, Programme <t m/tho<Ut 

 de la linguistique theorique, Paris, 1908. 



1 In three parts: (i) Sprache und Psychologic, (ii) Zur 8prmekwt*m * 

 Stuttgart 1901, (iii) Zur Grammatih und Logik (with index to all three vt.luinwl. BUM 

 gart and Berlin, 1902. nuns 



2 Brockelmann, Vergleichende Grammatik der temitucKn Sprocket, n.-riin. iw «• 

 Brockelmann and Zimmern had earlier produced two small band 



work was William Wright's Lectures on the Comparative ftMMT *J < 

 Languages, Cambridge, 1890. 



