Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/22

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THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

6.—Among all languages, the Aryan or Indo-European family is the only one, which has been well studied by linguists, in the present condition of our knowledge of the matter. This preference of studies, which has brought forth the best results to science, is quite justified by the capital reason, that in that family of language sare found the richest scientific and literary monuments of the three classical languages of mankind, Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin.

« In relation to the study of the other languages, «Semitic, monosyllabic and agglutinative » we may affirm, that our scientific knowledge about it is yet entirely unsatisfactory, and does not enable the philologist to profer a conscientious decision on the very important problem of their reciprocal relations among themselves, and to the Aryan family.

« Leaving aside the group of isolating languages, represented by the Chinese and by the Indo-Chinese, who lead their lives, separately from other people; it is true, that the greatest