“It appeals not only to specialists, but to all who concern themselves
with that most fascinating of modern questions, the origin and
development of speech. The opening chapter shows us the independent
thinker and original investigator. Throughout, the destructive
criticism is clear, incisive, and cogent. It cannot fail to affect
in time even the manual-mongers and the examiners who expect the
innocent school to reproduce the fictions of the cram-books. A
philologist, who sees with his own eyes and sees straight, is a rare
combination.”--_Journal of Education._
“Mr. Jespersen, who is still young, has long ago gained a high
reputation as a phonetician. The introductory essay prefixed to the
tracts before us will, we believe, secure for him a distinguished
position among philological thinkers. It is long since we read so
brilliant a performance of its kind.”--_Academy._
“Our readers will find the book as instructive as it is far removed
from the dryness characteristic of most philological treatises. It
furnishes material for deep thought and may almost be called a new
starting-point in philology.”--_Asiatic Quarterly Review._
“The book is historical in its method, and attempts to show, by
an examination of the typical characteristics of languages in all
stages of development, what the general drift of language has
been.”--_Guardian._