THl KTHftOXOQT OF EASTI-K N APIA. 



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cendantfl of one Asiatic tribe we must ascend through thousands 

 of years to the point of time at which they wflrfl united in that 

 tribe; and a complete separation of the diverging emigrants during 

 periods so great and in regions so different in every physical 

 characteristic, that animal and vegetable life have no reser 4 hian<ie J 

 must prepare us for an almost total obliteration of the primitive 

 vocabulary. If anything of the ancient language has been pre- 

 served tf» must rather expect to find it in the mental and phonetic 

 tendencies and habits which produced that ancient language itself. 

 The linguistic faculty of each tribe will retain the direction which 

 it received in the bosom of the original community, and continue 

 to work in a nvuiner analogous to that in which it produced the 

 primitive language. But there will be little identity in actual 

 words, and even in phonology and structure there will be much 

 diversity. The proof of common descent will depend on the 

 accumulation of ethnic facts of all kinds, and a great departure by 

 a particular language in any direction will not militate against the 

 conclusiveness of the entire body of the evidence. It is to be 

 anticipated that particular languages may be selected which will 

 exhibit striking differences, and which, if considered by themselves, 

 it will be difficult or impossible to refer to a common origin. 

 But it may also be anticipated that other languages of the family 

 will enable us to discover the natural laws by which these 

 diversities have been occasioned, and thus lead to a reconciliation 

 of both with the mother tongue and with each other. The 

 general comparison which we intend to make, as accessary to the 

 more immediate purpose of this paper, will prepare the way for 

 the establishment of some of these laws, and, if it have no other 

 result, uiil, we hope, at least help To awaken more general attention 

 in this pan of the Turanian region to the high ethnological 

 importance of accurate observations of languages.* 



In our 2nd introductory essay we expressed our conviction that 

 phonetic comparisons were of more value than merely structural, 



• Hie materials that have been accumulated for a a full linguistic review are 

 meogiv. Many languages of the Indian Archipelago and the adjacent regions have 

 not oceu described at all. The amount of information which we possess oi the 

 others varies extremely. A'ot one had bwn thoroughly analyzed. The same 

 Temarks apply to the Continental language. In America, Eastern Asia and 

 Africa there are hundreds of languages of which we have hardly any knowledge or 

 are entirely ignorant. With few exception* the grammars and structural noticed 

 of those that have been mobi fully investigated are empirical or me n ly formal. 

 Their method Is not merely extremely narrow bat in most cases k positively false. 

 Instead of viewing each language as a great and complex natural phenomenon, 

 and seeking to penetrate into the laws of its phonetic and ideologic organism by a 

 scientific observation of the facts of all kinds through which the»e laws are mani- 

 fested, each writer has come to the task predetermined to dL«eover a repetition of 

 European grammatical forms and nothing else. All we <jan do therefore for the pre- 

 sent is to select a few of the principal tongues In each resloa, notice their leading 

 characteristics so far as these have been ascertained, compare them with the other 

 known languages of the region, and inquire how far the facts thus brought together 

 prove or suggest alUaocea leading to a knowledge of the ethnological place of the 

 different East Asian and Asiantsian languages. 



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