MACFARLANE- 
—EXACT 
ANALYSIS AS 
THE BASIS 
OF 
LANGUAGE. 
10 
10* 
10 3 
10* 
Iff 
10“ 
10 7 
etc., 
bep 
bip 
bop 
blip 
lap 
lep 
lip 
etc., 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
10 
Iff 
10 3 
10* 
10 5 
10“ 
Iff 
etc. 
ben 
bin 
bon 
bun 
lan 
len 
lin 
etc. 
For example, 123 thousand would be vocalized by bcbibo bop , and 
45 hundredths by buia bin. In this system it is not 1,000,000 nor 1000 
but 10, which is made the basis of the denominations. 
Some years ago, in a series of papers on An Analysis of the Rela¬ 
tionships of Consanguinity and Affinity,* I devised a working nota¬ 
tion, both literal and graphic, and indicated a corresponding nomen¬ 
clature. I propose to take this analysis and construct upon it another 
specimen of a scientific language, and test the efficiency of Volapuk 
by the system of words it provides for such relationships. A study of 
this problem shows clearly that a scientific language cannot spring 
suddenly into perfect form like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, but 
must be a thing of gradual growth ; hence a natural language which 
adapts itself freely to scientific development is more likely to become 
universal than an entirely artificial language. 
Let a denote the relationship of parent and e the reciprocal relation¬ 
ship of child, by forming the different permutations of those letters we 
get expressions for the several compound relationships. Those of the 
second order are : 
Notation. 
General Meaning. 
Irreducible Meaning. 
aa. 
Parent of parent. 
Grandparent. 
ae. 
Parent of child. 
Consort. 
ea. 
Child of parent. 
Brother or sister. 
ee. 
Child of child. 
Grandchild. 
The meaning given in the third column may not coincide exactly with 
that given in the second ; where a reduction of the expression is possi¬ 
ble—that is, where a is followed by e ox e by a —the special or reduced 
meaning is excluded; thus, ae and ea, each in its most general meaning 
includes self; when the special meaning of self is excluded, parent oj 
child becomes consort , and child of parent becomes brother or sister. 
Similarly the relationships of the third order are : 
*Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., Vol. X, p.224; Vol. XI, pp. 5 and 162. Phil. 
Mag., June 1881, and Journal of the Anthrop. Inst, of London, for 1882, 
