VIII.] THE NORTHERN MONGOLS. 295 



through foreign (Russian) influence, and that the few traces still 

 perceptible are survivals from a time when all the Ural-Altaic 

 tongues were subject to progressive vowel harmony 1 . 



But however this be, Dean Byrne is disposed to regard the 

 alternating energetic utterance of the hard, and Lan 

 indolent utterance of the soft vowel series, as an and Racial 



, . . . Characters. 



expression of the alternating active and lethargic 

 temperament of the race, such alternations being themselves due 

 to the climatic conditions of their environment. " Certainly the 

 life of the great nomadic races involves a twofold experience of 

 this kind, as they must during their abundant summer provide for 

 their rigorous winter, when little can be done. Their character, 

 too, involves a striking combination of intermittent indolence and 

 energy ; and it is very remarkable that this distinction of roots is 

 peculiar to the languages spoken originally where this great dis- 

 tinction of seasons exists. The fact that the distinction [between 

 hard and soft] is imparted to all the suffixes of a root proves that 

 the radical characteristic which it expresses is thought with these ; 

 and consequently that the radical idea is retained in the con- 

 sciousness while these are added to it 2 ." 



This is a highly characteristic instance of the methods followed 

 by Dean Byrne in his ingenious but hopeless attempt to explain 

 the subtle structure of speech by the still more subtle temperament 

 of the speaker, taken in connection with the alternating nature of 

 the climate. The feature in question cannot be due to such 

 alternation of mood and climate, because it is persistent through- 

 out all seasons, while the hard and soft elements occur simulta- 

 neously, one might say, promiscuously, in conversation under all 

 mental states of those conversing. 



The true explanation is given by Schleicher, who points out 

 that progressive vocal assimilation is the necessary result of 



1 De r Harmonic des Voyelles dans les Langucs Uralo-Altaiques, 1874. p. 

 67 sq. 



- General Principles of the Structure of Language, 1885, Vol. I. p. 357. 

 The evidence here chiefly relied upon is that afforded by the Yakutic, a pure 

 Turki idiom, which is spoken in the region of extremes! heat and cold (Middle 

 and Lower Lena basin), and in which the principle of progressive assonance 

 attains its greatest development. 



