56 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION 



As the genderless term of consanguinity, depending on the 

 descent from a common mother, has been previously com- 

 mented upon, we need not recur to it. 



We therefore distinguish between two different kinds of 

 concrete languages. The first contains special words used 

 in case persons of different sex address each other ; the 

 second does not possess such peculiar terms, and males and 

 females use, when conversing with each other, the same words 

 as if they were speaking with persons belonging to their own 

 sex. We call the first division heterologous, because hetero- 

 geneous persons use different words or speech {heteroys logoys), 

 and the second homologous, because they use in this case the 

 same words or speech Qiomoioys logoys). 



Each division is again subdivided into three classes as 

 follows: (1) the first class marks the difference existing between 

 elder and younger consanguinity by adopting special terms for 

 each, and the difference of sex by adding either the words male 

 and female, or by modulation of sound; (2) the second possesses 

 special terms for elder brother and elder sister, but one in 

 common for younger brother and younger sister; (3) the third 

 has four distinct terms for each of these varieties of kinship. 



These are the principal varieties in which concrete languages 

 express the relationship between brothers and sisters. They 

 represent approximately the different stages of development 

 of thought which can be observed in the growth of the 

 respective languages. The principle of concretion remains 

 every where intact and distinct, but it appears in various 

 phases of refinement corresponding to the mental capabili- 

 ties of men. How this progress originates, how it grows, 

 and where and why it stops, are questions difficult or impos- 

 sible to be answered. All we know is, that dialects, which 

 have started from one common source have, in consequence 

 of later digressions, been changed to such an extent that 

 they must be assigned to different classes. Occasionally 

 languages afford us a means of tracing the common origin and 



