The publication in 1816 of Bopp's UEber das Conjugationssystem can be considered the beginning of a systematic comparison of Indo-European languages, and thus as having led too the development of the study of language as a science, distinct from philology. The Analytical Comparison (1820) represents not merely a translation into English, as has been claimed in the literature, but a significant advance in theoretical clarity and methodological soundness.
This reprint is accompanied by a bio-bibliographical account of Bopp by J. D. Guigniaut, an introduction to Analytical Comparison by Friedrich Techmer, and a letter to Bopp by Wilhelm von Humboldt. Furthermore, the editor, E. F. K. Koerner, has added a Foreword, select bibliography, and index.