THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. 57 



point, and in proportion as they deviated 

 from it, the languages must have grouped 

 themselves in continually increasing devia- 

 tion from the stock-idiom, since geographical 

 distance entails a growing variety of climate 

 and vital conditions. Even now we imagine 

 that we observe traces of the absolute 

 necessity of that regular division of speech. 

 The American languages for instance, the 

 idioms of the South-Sea Islands, clearly point 

 to a common type in spite of all their 

 variety. Nay, even on the European- Asiatic 

 continent, where the linguistic relationship 

 has been subject to such important change 

 owing to historical events, even there we find, 

 undeniably, certain groups of essentially 

 similar branches of speech. Indo-Germanic, 

 Einnic, Turkic, Tataric, Mongolic, Tun- 

 gusic,* as well as Dekhanic, (Tamulic etc.,) 



* The autliov's mands/iun'sc/i, not being very usual in our 



