Passing on now from the question of number to that of character, we have first to meet the question—What _are_ these roots? Are they the actually primitive words of pre-historic languages, or are they what Max Müller has aptly termed “phonetic types”? Here again we encounter a difference of opinion among philologists. Thus, for instance, Professor Whitney tells us that the Indo-European languages are all descended from an original monosyllabic tongue, and, therefore, that “our ancestors talked with one another in simple syllables, indicative of ideas of prime importance, but wanting all designation of their relations.”[173] On the other hand, it is objected to this view that “such a language is a sheer impossibility;”[174] that “there could be no hope of any mutual understanding” with a language restricted to such isolated and general terms, &c.[175] On this side of the question it is represented that “roots are the phonetic and significant types discovered by the analysis of the comparative philologist as common to a group of allied words;”[176] that “a root is the _core_ of a group of allied words,”[177] “the naked kernel of a family of words.”[178] Or, to adopt a simile previously used in another connection, we may say that a root as now presented by the philologist is a composite photograph (or _phonogram_) of a number of words, all belonging to the same pre-historic language, and all closely allied in meaning. The difference of authoritative teaching thus exhibited is not a matter of much importance for us. Nor, indeed, as we shall subsequently see, is it a difference so great as may at first sight appear. For even the phonetic-type theory does not doubt that all the aboriginal and unknown words, out of the composition of which a root is now extracted, must have been genetically allied with one another, and exhibited the closeness of their kinship by a close similarity of sound. Therefore, it does not make any practical difference whether we regard a root as itself a primitive word, which was used in some such way as the Chinese now use their monosyllabic terms; or whether we regard it as a generalized expression of a group of cognate words, all closely allied as to meaning. In fact, even so strong an adherent of the phonetic-type theory as Professor Max Müller very clearly states this, where he says that, although “the mere root, _quâ_ root, may be denied the dignity of a word, as soon as a root is used for predication it becomes a word, whether outwardly it is changed or not.”[179] Seeing, then, that this difference of opinion among philologists is not one of great importance for us, I will henceforth disregard it. And, as it will be conducive to brevity, if not also to clearness, I will speak of roots as archaic words, although by so doing I shall not intend to assume that they are more than phonetic types, or the nearest approach we can make to the words out of which they were generated.