305 
cording to Fick.* * * § Cnrtiust has treated of tlie chronological 
development of the Proto-Aryan, which he divides into seven 
periods, namely, (1) Period of monosyllabic roots, — what are 
now called “ roots, ^ being merely, according to many philo- 
logists, the most primitive words; (2) Period of the deter- 
minatives, i.e., the suffixes added to the primary roots ; (3) 
Primary verbal period ; (4) Period of stem-formation ; (5) 
of compounded verbal forms; (6) of case-formation; and (7) 
the adverbial period, adverbs and prepositions being originally 
nouns which became fixed in a particular case.J Amongst 
other writers on this subject may be mentioned Ascoli, 
Bergaigne, Delbriick, Douse, § Lottner, Friedrich Muller, 
Schmidt, Steinthal, and Windisch. Thus a vast body of 
scientific literature, as yet very little known in England, has 
of late years sprung into existence ; many once-difficult pro- 
blems are solved, whilst many others still await solution. 
Evidence is being accumulated, and even intelligent errors 
have frequently proved of no little service. Such, in brief, 
is the present state of comparative Aryan philology, which is 
now engaged in debating, What was the primitive form of 
the noun-cases ? Has the inflexional Aryan language pre- 
viously passed through the phases or avatars of isolation || 
and agglutination ?1| and in similar abstruse and important 
inquiries. 
Lastly, the vast and most fascinating problem of the origin 
of language has been attempted by Geiger,** * * §§ Chavee,tt and 
Ludwig Noire. As yet, however, the sphinx cannot be said 
to have revealed her secret ; but she has certainly indicated, 
although dimly, the method of discovery. §§ Several very 
* Appendix B. 
t Zur Chronologie tier indo-germanischen Sprachforschung, second edition 
(Leipzig, 1873). 
+ E.g. the Greek adverb aei, ctiei , is originally the dative case of a lost 
Greek noun, aios. Vide inf., sec. 20. 
§ Grimm’s Law: a Study (London : Triibner, 1876). 
|| The Radical or Monosyllabic stage, in which there is no distinction 
between a root and a word. 
The Terrainational stage, in which two or more roots unite to form a 
word. In favour of such an evolution of language may be mentioned 
Schleicher, Max Muller, and Whitney ; against, — Pott, Kenan, and Sayce. 
** Ur sprung der Sprache, etc. 
ft Ideologic Lexicologique des Langues Indo-Europeennes (Paris, 1878). 
Max Muller and the Philosophy of Language (London : Longmans, 
1879). 
§§ “ There is no reason to despair of our eventually determining this pro- 
blem of problems ” (Rev. Prof. Sayce, The Principles of Comparative 
Philology , Preface, xviii.). 
