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It is evident that this paper covers but a very small portion of the field of inquiry. Some of the branches of the Aryan family of which no mention has been made, as for instance Russian, may present much closer analogies than any which have been adduced, and no reference has been made to resemblances in points of grammar, which are not entirely wanting and deserve to be investigated. Nor has the subject of the Turanian languages cognate to Japanese been taken up. Such languages might be expected to aid the inquiry by furnishing intermediate forms which would assist in identifying roots apparently different and in many other ways. The difficulty, however, is to find a cognate language with a sufficient resemblance to Japanese for this purpose. In so far as I am aware, Japanese has no near relation among the other languages of Asia, and it has certainly none whose relationship has been clearly established. There seems to be no such close affinity between the branches of the Turanian family as there is between the members of the Aryan family of languages, and it is doubtful whether any other language of Asia resembles Japanese as closely as the most widely separated branches of the Aryan family resemble each other. There are several which present striking analogies with it in point of construction and grammar, but when we come to the vocabulary, but little resemblance can be traced. The Aino language is perhaps the most promising in this respect, but hardly enough is known of it to enable one to speak with confidence.
