. Introduction to the natural history of language . e Indo-European family of languages representso many local dialects, or amalgamations of local dialects,of the common original. Doubtless many others, originallyinterlinking with these in a complicated chain-work, andserving as continuous transition-steps, have died out or beenabsorbed, until the surviving divisions are marked by com-paratively wide divergences. In any case, philologists nolonger hold the view (largely due to the assumption of anAsiatic starting-place) that, from time to time, a largecontingent (A, B, etc.) of the hitherto li
. Introduction to the natural history of language . e Indo-European family of languages representso many local dialects, or amalgamations of local dialects,of the common original. Doubtless many others, originallyinterlinking with these in a complicated chain-work, andserving as continuous transition-steps, have died out or beenabsorbed, until the surviving divisions are marked by com-paratively wide divergences. In any case, philologists nolonger hold the view (largely due to the assumption of anAsiatic starting-place) that, from time to time, a largecontingent (A, B, etc.) of the hitherto linguistically homo-geneous people broke off in a certain direction from theoriginal home, developed certain characteristics of its own inconsequence, and then split again in the same manner intominor branches {b, c, etc.), each of which after a timedeveloped new features in virtue of its isolation. In otherwords, the probable course of linguistic separation of theIndo-European branches is not to be represented bysuch a diagram as the following :—. 256 Natural History of Language Such a history is, doubtless, readily conceivable, andmay actually have occurred in the case of this or thatfamily of languages, but it is contrary to the evidence inthe case of Indo-European. It could be upheld only bya distinct gradation in the affinities of the several branches,and that gradation is not to be found in fact. We cannot(except with Italic and Celtic) take any two branches and,from the total argument of their vocabularies, grammar,and phonetics, relate them more closely as against a , for example, we discover an apparently special affinitybetween Greek and Latin in respect of vocabulary, weimmediately appear to see no less special an affinitybetween Greek and Indo-Eranian. If the Baltic-Slavictongues exhibit a marked phonetic characteristic in whichthey are at one with the Aryan branch, in another respectof phonetics they will disagree with the Aryan and agreewith the Greek or T
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