ABSTRACT
Languages may be classified on a totally different basis from that used to determine genealogical relationship, that is, by attention to their type. In typological classification, selected features may be used to sort out languages, or for that matter any items of human culture, such as tools or social systems, for example, those employed in kinship systems. Linguistic classification by types has the advantage that a language of any period may be sorted into a specific group; languages attested only today can be so treated, as well as languages attested several millennia ago. Moreover, it has become clear that determination of types provides understanding of the structure of a given language. It is also obvious that such understanding is in accordance with the bases selected for typological classification. Over the past three and more centuries different bases have been selected, and different procedures have been employed, with gradual improvement in methods and results.
