OCR Text |
Show 150 EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND. the word on examination is found to be made up in this manner:' k the second pe;sonal pronoun ; uli, part of the word wulet, pretty; gat, part of th~ word ~ichgat,. sig nifying a leg or paw ; sch1:s, conveying. the Idea o~ littleness. In the same tonO'ue, a youth IS called pilape, a word compounded from the tirst part of pilsit, innocent, and the latter part of lenape, a man. Thus, it will be observed, a number of parts of words are taken a?d thrown together, by a process which has been hapP.tly termed agglutination, so as to form one word, conveying a complicated idea. There is also an elab?rate sys~em of inflection: in nouns, for instance, there 1s one lnnd of inflection to express the presence or absence of vitality, and another to express numbers. The genius of the lan· guage has been described as accumulative: it '~ t~nds rather to add syllables or letters, making further distinctions in objects already before the mind, than to introduce new words."* Yet it has also been shown very distinctly that these languages are based in words of one syllable, like those of the Chinese and Polynesian families; all the primary ideas are thus expressed: the elaborate system of inflection and agglutination is shown to be simply a further development of the language-forn1ing principle, as it may be called-or the Chinese system may be de· scribed as an arrestment of this principle at a particular early point. It has been fully shown that between the structure of the American and other fan1ilies sufficient affinities exist to make a comtnon origin or early connex- _jon extremely likely. The verbal affinities are also very considerable. Humboldt says, "In eighty-three American language~ examined by Messrs. Barton and Vater, one hundred and seventy words have been found, the roots 0f which appear to be the same; and it is easy to perceive that this analogy is not accidental, since it does not rest merely upon imitative harmony, or on that conformity of organs which produces almost a perfect identity in the first sounds articulated by children. Of these one hundred and seventy words which have this connexion, three-fifths resemble the Manchou, the Tongouse, the Mongal, and the Samoyed; and two-fifths, the Celtic and Tchoud, the Biscayan, the Coptic and Congo lan· l guages These words have been found by cotnparing + Schoolcraft. EARLY HISTORY OF MANXIND, lbl :~e 'vhol~ of the ~merican la~guages with the ·whole of _ose of the o.ld w.Ol:ld; for hitherto we are acquainted ~lth no A men can tdte' _.n which seems to have an exclustv~ correspondence with any of the Asiatic, African or Em opean. tongues."* H~mboldt and others consid~red these wmd~ as bro~1ght Into America by recent immigrants; an Idea restmg on no proof, and which seems at onc.e refuted by the common words being chiefly th which l'epresent primary ideas; besides we now l·n~!e what was not. f?rmerly perceived or ad~itted, that ther~ are g~eat affinities ~f structure also. I may here refer to a curwus.mathema.tical calculation by Dr. Thomas Youngt ../L?< J to the effec.t, .that If three words coincide in two different -:; 1.• }~nguages, It Is ten to one they m~st be derived in both cases rom some la1:ent language, or Introduced in some other manner. Six words would give more" he says "than ~even teen hundred t<? one, and eight ne;r 100,000,' so .. that In these c~ses the evidence would be little short of absolute certainty<' He instances the following words to 's~ow a connexwn between the ancient Egyptian and the 1scayan: New A dog Little Bread . A wolf. Seven . • BISCAY AN. Beria Ora Gutchi Ognia Otgsa Shashpi EGYPTIAN. Beri. Whor. Kudchi. Oik. Ounsh. Shashf . ~~w, as there are, _according to Humboldt, one hundred ~~ 8eventy words In ~ommon between the languages of 1 e n.ew and old continents, and many of these are ex~ esslv,e of the ~ost primitive ideas, there is, by Dr oung ~ calculallon, overpowering proof of the originai tonne.xwn of the American and other human famil. b Th1s ~ompl~tes the_ slight outline which I hav~e~~en a ~e to give of the ev1dence for the various ra~es of men oeing desc~11ded from one stock. It cannot be considered as conclu8IVe, ~nd. there are many eminent persons who deem the opposite 1dea the more probable· but I mu t that, without the least regard to any oth~ kind o? e~i.Y_ .. Views of the Cordilleras |