BOOK remarks, they prove nothing beyond single communications, LXXV. and partial emigrations. Of geographical connexion, they and Ameri are almost completely destitute; and, without this concatenation, how is it possible to deduce from them any rational conclusion? We have revised the researches of the three above named learned individuals, and, although we have not any very extensive materials at our disposal, we obtained results which, at one time, led us to believe, that we were on the point of demonstrating, as an historical truth, the entirely Asiatic origin of the languages of America. At first, we discovered the undeniable geographical conOrigin of the Asiatic nexion of many of the principal words, that have been can words. propagated from Caucasus and the Ural mountains, to the Cordilleras of Mexico and Peru. Nor is it to be imagined. that these are mere syllables, which we force into a resemblance by dint of etymological dexterity; for, they are entire words, disfigured only by terminations, or the inflexions of sound, and of which our readers might almost trace the steps of emigration. The most striking objects in the heavens, and on the earth; the most interesting relations of human nature; the earliest wants of life;-such are the links by which many of the languages of America are connected with those of Asia. Some affinities even, of a more metaphysical description, are observed in the pronouns and numerals. Here, however, the chain is more frequently broken. But, this is not all; during our researches this geographical concatenation has often presented itself under the form of a double and triple line of communication. Sometimes these lines are confounded together at intermediate points, about Behring's Straits and in the Aleutian Islands; but they are distinguished by their terminal links. The number of established analogies is more than double what had been previously observed. In fact, it is not a single denomination of the sun, the moon, the earth, the two sexes, the parts of the human body-which has passed from one continent to the other; there are two, three, four, denominations, derived from languages of Asia, acknowledged to belong to differ- BOOK ent roots.* So many unlooked for affinities-and such, too, as had not been detected by our predecessors, might almost have induced us to maintain, with a certain degree of confidence, the purely Asiatic orgin of many of the languages of America. But, sincerely devoted to the interests of truth, we will not attempt to erect an imposing and hazardous assertion on the mere basis of our own observations, on the contrary, we will candidly avow, that the analogy between the idioms of the two continents, although raised by our researches to a new degree of certainty and importance, merely authorizes us to draw the following conclusions: LXXV. these re 1st, Asiatic tribes, connected by descent and idiom with Result of the Fins, the Ostiacs, the Permian, and Caucasian nations, searches. have emigrated towards America, by following the coasts of the Frozen Sea, and by crossing Behring's Straits. This emigration extended to Chili and Greenland. 2d, Asiatic tribes, connected by descent and by idiom with the Chinese, the Japanese, the Ainos, and the Kourilians, have passed into America, by proceeding along the shores of the Great Ocean. This emigration extended at least as far as Mexico. 3d, Asiatic tribes, connected by descent and idiom with the Tongusians, the Mantchoos, the Mongols, and the Tartars, have extended themselves, by following the heights of the two continents, as far as Mexico and the bay of Apalachia. 4th, None of these three emigrations have been sufficiently numerous to efface the original character of the indigenous nations of America. The languages of this continent have received their development, their grammatical formation, and their syntax, independently of all foreign influence. 5th, These emigrations have taken place at an epoch at which the Asiatic nations only knew how to count as far Consult the following Table of the Geographical Connection of the Languages of America and Asia. ༠ BOOK as two, or, at most, three, and had not completely formed LXXV. the pronouns of their languages.* It seems probable that the emigrants of Asia brought with them merely their dogs, and, perhaps, their hogs; and that they knew how to construct canoes and huts; but they did not give any particular name to the divinities which may have been the objects of their worship, nor to the constellations, nor the months of the year. 6th, Some Malay, Javanese, and Polynesian words may have been conveyed to South America by a colony from Madagascar, with greater facility than by the Great Ocean, where the winds and currents do not favour an easterly navigation. 7th, A certain number of African words appear to have been introduced by the same channel as the Malay and Polynesian terms; neither the one nor the other, however, have yet been detected in sufficient numbers to form the basis of an hypothesis.† 8th, The words of the European languages which seem to have passed into America, are derived from the Finnish, and Lettent languages; and are connected with the new continent by the Permian, Ostiac, and Youkagire. Nothing in the Persian, German, or Celtic; nothing in the Shemitic languages, or in those of western Asia; nothing in those of northern Africa, indicates former emigrations towards America. This is the result of our researches and of those of our predecessors. Some Asiatic idioms have penetrated into America; but the general aggregate of the languages of this continent-like the race of people by which they are spoken-presents a distinct and original character. We will now proceed to consider their general affinity. * See the numbers and the pronouns in the table. † See the note at the end of the table. A dialect of Lithuania, spoken in Riga, Courland, Jager, and Livonia. Zeitungs, cap. 684. See vol. 1. p. 670. Extent and ent idioms. America. Among the prodigious number of very different idioms BOOK which are met with in the two Americas, some of them ex- LXXV. tend themselves over a vast expanse of country. In South America, Patagonia and Chili appear, in some measure, analogy of to possess only one single language. Dialects of the lan- the differguage of the Guaranis are diffused from Brazil to Rio Negro, and even, by means of the Omagua idiom, as far as Quito itself. There is an analogy between the languages of the Lule and of the Vilela; and a still greater between those of Aymar and of Sapibocona, which decidedly have almost the same numeral terms. The Quichua lan- 1. In North guage, the principal one of Peru, partakes equally with those last mentioned in many numeral terms, exclusive of the analogies which it offers with the other languages of the neighbouring country. The idiom of Maipuri is intimately connected with those of Guipunavi and of Caveri. It has likewise considerable affinity with the Avanais, and has given rise to the idioms of Meepure, of Parene, of Chirrupa, and of many others that are spoken on the banks of the Rio Negro, the higher Orinoco, and the Amazon.* The Caribbeans, after having exterminated the Cabres, extended their language with their empire, from the equator to the Virgin islands. According to the assertion of a missionary, the Galibi language enabled him to communicate with all the natives of this coast, the Cumangoles alone excepted. Gily considers the Caribbean as the parent language of twenty others, and particularly of that of Tamanaca, by which he was able to make himself understood almost everywhere on the lower Orinoco. The Saliva language is the original of the Ature, Piaroa, and Quaqua idioms; and the Taparita comes from the Oto таса. America. In North America, the language of the Aztequas extends 2. In North from the lake Nicaragua to the 37th degree, along an extent of four hundred leagues. It is less sonorous, but * Vater, p. 141. + Pelleprat, in the Galibi Dictionary, pref. p. vii. Dict. Polyglotte d'Hervas. Humboldt, Essai Polit. t. II. p. 445. BOOK fully as rich as that of the Incas. The sound tl, which, Lxxv. in the Aztequa, is only added to nouns, is met with in the idiom of Nootka as the termination of verbs. In the idiom of Cora, the principal forms of the verb are similar to the Aztequa conjugations, and the words present some affinities. * After the Mexican, or Aztequa language, that of the Otomites is the one that is most generally spoken in New Spain. But, besides these two principal languages, there are, between the isthmus of Darien and the 23d degree of latitude, a score of others, to fourteen of which we are already in possession of very complete grammars and dictionaries. The greater number of these languages, far from being mere dialects of one only, are at least as different the one from the others as the Greek is from the German, or the French from the Polish. It is only between the Aztequa idiom and that of Yucatan, that some resemblance is discovered. New Mexico, California, and the north-west coast, form a region which is still but little known; and it is precisely from these that Mexican tradition derives the origin of many nations. The languages of this region would constitute a very interesting subject of research; yet we scarcely possess more than a vague idea of them. There is a great conformity of language between the Osages, the Kanses, the Otos, the Missouris, and the Mohawks. The guttural pronunciation of the fierce Sioux, is common with the Panis. The language of the Appaches and the Panis extends from Louisiana to the sea of California. The Eslenes, and the Runselen, in California, likewise speak a widely extended idiom. The Tancards, on the banks of the Red River, are remarkable for a peculiar clucking sound; and their language is so poor that they express one half of their ideas by signs.t Hervas, Saggio Pratico di Lingue, art. IV. p. 71. + Pike's Voyage, French translation, t. II. p. 95. 218. 258, &c. t Pike. II. 159. |