OCR Text |
Show 58 CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS. the philologer. The use of words in formulation, still more in terminology, is so wide a departure from primitive conditions as to be incompatible with the only primordial language yet discovered. No dictionary of signs will be exhaustive for the simple reason that the signs are exhaustless, nor will it be exact because there cannot be a correspondence between signs and words taken individually. Words and signs both change their meaning from the context. A single word may express a complex idea, to be fully rendered only by a group of signs, and, vice versa, a single sign may suffice for a number of words. The list annexed to the present pamphlet is by no means intended for exact translation, but a^ a suggestion of headings or titles of signs arranged alphabetically for mere convenience. It will be interesting to ascertain the varying extent of familiarity with sign- language among the members of the several tribes, how large a proportion possess any skill in it, the average amount of their vocabulary, the degree to which women become proficient, and the age at which children commence its practice. The statement is made by Titchkemdtski that the Kaiowa and Comanche women know nothing of the sign- language, while the Cheyenne women are versed in it. As he is a Cheyenne, however, he may not have a large circle of feminine acquaintances beyond his own tribe, and his negative testimony is not valuable. A more general assertion is that the signs used by males and females are different, though mutually understood, and some minor points of observation may be indicated, such as whether the commencement of counting upon the fingers is upon those of the right or the left hand, and whether Indians take pains to look toward the south when suggesting the course of the sun, which wou] d give the motion from left to light CLASSIFICATION AND ANALYSIS. An important division of the deaf- mute signs is into natural and methodical, the latter being sometimes called artificial and stigmatized as parasitical. But signs may be artificial- that is, natural, but improved and enriched by art- and even arbitrary, without being strictly what is termed methodical, the latter being part of the instruction of deaf- mutes, founded upon spoken languages, and adapted to the words and grammatical forms of those Ian- |