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of sounds would be found to have its peculiar character, 
distinguishing it from other sets of sounds ; and the character 
and laws of variation of one set would be found to approxi- 
mate more or less to those of some of the other sets, and to 
differ more or less notably from those of others. And it 
would soon occur to a thoughtful mind that those various sets 
of sounds might be grouped, and the groups subdivided with 
reference to the greater or less similarity of their character and 
laws. Such grouping would be a “ Philology,” or Dialectology. 
What we have fancied as presenting itself to the mind of 
our thinker at Novgorod, has occurred to the minds of men 
who have observed the similarities and differences of the 
various modes of communication by articulate sounds in use 
among mankind; and the result has been that science of 
classification of languages which we term Comparative 
Philology. ^ . 
Philologers have as yet definitely pointed out only certain 
great families of languages, which they distinguish from one 
another mainly by their grammatical characteristics. 
1. The simply monosyllabic, in which one word of one 
syllable stands for one idea, and these words are never altered, 
but relation is expressed by their arrangement in order in the 
sentence. The type of these is the Chinese. 
2. Those in which relation is expressed by attaching to the 
original root a number of monosyllabic or dissyllabic suffixes, 
the root remaining almost or entirely unchanged. These are 
termed agglutinative, and the family .is usually named 
Turanian. The type of them is the Turkish. 
3. Those which express relation by a system of prefixes and 
suffixes, joined to a root mostly monosyllabic, but variable in 
form. These are termed Hamitic, and their type is the 
Coptic. The family seems to extend through the whole of 
Africa; but as the great majority of these modern African 
tongues are entirely without literature, and none are written, 
their classification is by no means easy, nor has the task yet 
been carried very far. 
4. Those which express relation by a system of suffixes 
almost entirely monosyllabic, and a very few prefixes, joined 
to a root normally dissyllabic, and very slightly variable. These 
are termed Shemitic, and their type is Arabic or Hebrew. 
5. Those in which relation is expressed by variations m the 
middle or ending of a root primarily monosyllabic, but deriva- 
tively polysyllabic. These are called Aryan, and the type of 
the family, a very large and varied one, is Sanskrit. 
6. To these we may add the family of languages spoken m 
the islands of the Pacific. They have not yet been regularly 
