The Indo-European language is one of the most highly organized families of tongues that exist, and its greatest power lies (in modern English, etc.) in its mixed structural and material character. So to the Indo-European family belongs incontestably the first place, and for many reasons,—the historical position of the peoples speaking its dialects, who have now long been the leaders in world history, the abundance, variety and merit of its literatures ancient and modern and, most of all, the great variety and richness of its development. These have made it an illustration of the history of human speech, which is extremely valuable and the training ground of comparative philology. W. D. Whitney gives the following linguistic groups in order of their importance from a literary standpoint: 1. Indo-European (Indo-Germanic). 2. Semitic. 3. Hamitic. 4. Monosyllabic or Southeastern Asiatic. 5. Ural-Altaic (Scythian, Turanian). 6. Dravidian or South Indian. 7. Malay-Polynesian. 8. Oceanic— _a._ Australian and Tasmanian. _b._ Papuan and Negrito, etc. 9. Caucasian— _a._ Circassian. _b._ Mitsjeghian. _c._ Lesghian, Georgian. 10. European Remnants— Basque. Etruscan? Lydian? 11. South African, Bantu. 12. Central African. 13. American. The first ten groups are families. So little is or was known about the last three groups that the author of the article classed together what are now known to be vast agglomerations of families. For instance, the American languages include several hundred distinct stocks, of which fifty are found in California alone. These are all, according to our present knowledge, utterly unrelated. It is known that the central African tongues belong to a different group than the southern, and it would be advisable to consult Sir Harry Johnston’s recent large work on the Bantu languages. The subdivision of the Indo-European family into cognate languages is given here to show the great diversity of tongues that may spring from one ancestor. Not all the dialects, nor even languages, have been included, but only those best known: I. Centum (European). 1. Greek. ANCIENT MODERN { Latin. Portuguese { Oscan. Spanish. 2. Italic. { Umbrian Catalan. { Minor dialects of Provençal. { ancient Italy. French. { Tuscan. Italian. { Calabrian. Friulian. Ladin. Romansch. Rumanian.