rgans, the larynx and
tongue, and with the functions of the brain. Hence it will be quite
natural to find in the evolution and classification of languages the
same features as in the evolution and classification of organic species.
The various groups of languages that are distinguished in philology as
primitive, fundamental, parent, and daughter languages, dialects, etc.,
correspond entirely in their development to the different categories
which we classify in zoology and botany as stems, classes, orders,
families, genera, species and varieties. The relation of these groups,
partly coordinate and partly subordinate, in the general scheme is just
the same in both cases; and the evolution follows the same lines in
both." (Haeckel, "The Evolution of Man", page 485, London, 1905. This
represents Schleicher's own words: Was die Naturforscher als Gattung
bezeichnen wurden, heisst bei den Glottikern Sprachstamm, auch
Sprachsippe; naher verwandte Gattungen bezeichnen sie wohl auch als
Sprachfamilien einer Sippe oder eines Sprachstammes... Die Arten einer
Gattung nennen wir Sprachen eines Stammes; die Unterarten einer Art sind
bei uns die Dialekte oder Mundarten einer Sprache; den Varietaten
und Spielarten entsprechen die Untermundarten oder Nebenmundarten und
endlich den einzelnen Individuen die Sprechweise der einzelnen
die Sprachen redenden Menschen. "Die Darwinische Theorie und die
Sprachwissenschaft", Weimar, 1863, page 12 f. Darwin makes a more
cautious statement about the classification of languages in "The Origin
of Species", page 578, (Popular Edition, 1900).) These views were set
forth in an open letter addressed to Haeckel in 1863 by Schleicher
entitled, "The Darwinian theory and the science of language".
Unfortunately Schleicher's views went a good deal farther than is
indicated in the extract given above. He appended to the pamphlet a
genealogical tree of the Indo-Germanic languages which, though to a
large extent confirmed by later research, by the dichotomy of each
branch into two other branches, led the unwary reader to suppose their
phylogeny (to use Professor Haeckel's term) was more regular than our
evidence warrants.

Without qualification Schleicher declared languages to be "natural
organisms which originated unconditioned by the human will,
developed according to definite laws, grow old and die; they also are
characterised by that series of phenomena which we designate by the
term 'Life.' Consequently Glot