The interest
of the Empress Catharine in her collection of linguistic
materials was very strong, and her influence is seen in the fact
that Washington, to please her, requested governors and generals
to send in materials from various parts of the United States and
the Territories. The work of Hervas extended over the period from
1735 to 1809: a missionary in America, he enlarged his catalogue
of languages to six volumes, which were published in Spanish in
1800, and contained specimens of more than three hundred
languages, with the grammars of more than forty. It should
be said to his credit that Hervas dared point out with especial
care the limits of the Semitic family of languages, and declared,
as a result of his enormous studies, that the various languages
of mankind could not have been derived from the Hebrew.
While such work was done in Catholic Spain, Protestant
Germany was honoured by the work of Adelung. It contained the
Lord's Prayer in nearly five hundred languages and dialects, and
the comparison of these, early in the nineteenth century, helped
to end the sway of theological philology.
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