G 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



eminent philologists of his time, being of opinion that the 

 difference existing between the agglutinative and incorpor- 

 ative classes, was hardly sufficiently pronounced to allow 

 of their being distinguished as separate divisions, merged 

 the two into one, and substituted three classes instead of 

 four, these three being the isolating, agglutinative and 

 inflectional. 10 



This classification has been also adopted by Professor Max 

 Miiller. The last mentioned illustrious savant describes it 

 at length in his well-known lectures on the science of 

 language. 11 



" The first stage, in which each root preserves its indepen- 

 dence, and in which there is no formal distinction between a 

 root and a word, I call the 'Radical stage. This stage is best 

 represented by ancient Chinese. Languages belonging to this 

 first or Radical stage have sometimes been called Monosyllabic 

 or Isolating. The second stage, in which two or more roots 

 coalesce to form a word, the one retaining its radical indepen- 

 dence, the other sinking down to a mere termination, I call the 

 Terminational stage. This stage is best represented by the 

 Turanian family of speech, and the languages belonging to it 

 have generally been called agglutinative, from gluten, glue. The 

 third stage, in which roots coalesce so that neither the one nor 

 the other retains its substantive independence, I call the Inflec- 

 tional stage. This stage is best represented by the Aryan and 

 Semitic families, and the languages belonging to it have some- 

 times been distinguished by the name of amalgamating or organic" 



The distinguished Dravidian scholar Bishop Caldwell 12 

 admits also a tripartite classification of languages, but differs 

 in a peculiar manner from the last mentioned. 



(10) In his works <Zur vergleichenden Sprachgeschichte,' page 10; 

 " DieSprachenEuropa's," page 6, and the " Compendium der vergleichenden 

 Grammatik der indo-germanischen Sprachen," dritte Auflage, pages 2-4. 



(11) See Lectures on the Science of Language, seventh edition, 1873, Vol. 

 I, pages 330-332. 



(12) See Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family 

 of Languages, second edition, 1875, page 88. " The manner in which various 



