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 Philology naturally led up to the comparison of one tongue with another, to comparative grammar. Franz Bopp, early in the 19th century, although not the first to do good work of the kind yet rendered useful service in showing the affinities between Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, and the Germanic tongues. The forms of one language are clarified by an exposition of paradigms selected from another.

Following Bopp’s came Jacob Grimm’s well-known work before the middle of the 19th century; and then the researches of Pott, Kuhn, and others. In the train appeared Max Müller and his school, with the result that a great deal was added to the knowledge of language. Müller, especially, did much to popularize the subject. In due course Schleicher accomplished considerable in the detailed codification of his own and previous research. He systematized indeed the work of Bopp and that of other predecessors.