246 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



(with Mongols, Turks, Samoiedes, and Finns), Zenniseis, 

 Kuriles or Ainos, Jukagires, Korjakes, Kamschatdales, Polar- 

 Americans in Asia, Japanese, Koreans, Tibetians, Chinese, 

 Indo-Chinese. The latter and the Caucasians are probably 

 to be subdivided in several families (Pott) . 



ii. Europe, with 53 languages in seven families : Iberian, 

 Basque, Rhastian-Etruscan, Illyrian-Albanese, Indo-Germanic 

 (Greeks and Latins, Celts, Germans, Lithuanians and Slavo- 

 nians, Gypsies), Finns (Lapps, Esthonians, Magyars), Semitics, 

 Turks. 



in. Africa, with 114 (according to Kolle, with 150-200) 

 languages, among which the Berber and the Kongo family (the 

 South African language) are the most extended. 



iv. Oceania, with 117, in three families : Malays and Poly- 

 nesians, Melanesians (black nations), and Australians. 



v. America, with 423 languages, which, excluding California, 

 separate in North America in thirty-two different stocks. In 

 South America, Rivero and Tschudi have estimated the number 

 of languages from 280-340, of which four-fifths are radically 

 different. 



It is scarcely necessary to caution the reader against the 

 authenticity of the above data, when we consider that the de- 

 finition of what must be considered as a distinct language is 

 rather arbitrary. The numbers are, however, hardly too high. 

 When we take into consideration the many languages spoken 

 in a comparatively small space, owing to the want of inter- 

 course or complete isolation of small tribes, in various regions 

 of the globe, we would rather be inclined to assume a higher 

 number of radically different languages on the globe than 

 Balbi did. The maximum of different languages appears to 

 prevail in Central America, and thence northwards on the 

 western coasts from California to the land of the Esquimaux, 1 

 in Asia, in the Caucasus, in Africa, in the south of Abyssinia, 

 in Wadai (where there are twenty), in Bornou (where there are 

 thirty), and in Andamana, where Barth 2 has distinguished some 

 thirty distinct languages. The island Timor possesses, accord- 



1 Hale, p. 197. 



2 " Zeitsch. d. Deutsch. Morgenl. Ges./' vi, p. 412. 



