Abstract
WE have already had occasion to review at length the original French text of this work, which is now presented in an English dress. M. Hovelacque is one of the most distinguished representatives of the school of comparative philologists who would include their study among the physical sciences, and his book illustrates both the faults and the excellences of the view he upholds. In spite of the limitations thus introduced into the science of language, in spite, too, of the many inaccuracies which occur in his descriptions of the various groups of language at present existing in the world, the clearness and vigour of his style make his book one well worth translating, and it is satisfactory to see that it has been put into competent hands. Mr. Keane has added to the value of the work by a philological map, and a tabulated list of the languages described by M. Hovelacque, together with their characteristics and geographical position. From time to time, too, he has introduced foot-notes and even insertions in the text; many of these give fresh information or correct the statements of the author; others of them, however, had better been left unwritten. Thus his reference to Raabe's attempt to connect Aryan and Semitic grammar is not very happy, and he is unfair towards his author when he accuses him of inconsistency in being at once a Darwinian and a polygenist. No doubt “the impossibility of reducing man now to, say a mollusc, is no argument against the original identity of man with a mollusc” (or rather of his descent from the same form of life as a mollusc); but that is because there are intermediate links and stages of development between the mollusc and man, and M. Hovelacque believes—and with good reason—that such intermediate links do not exist between the manifold families of speech that are scattered over the world.
The Science of Language.
By Abel Hovelacque. Translated by A. H. Keane. (Chapman and Hall, 1877.)
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Our Book Shelf . Nature 17, 464 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/017464a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017464a0