to other Branches of Knowledge, 333 



was laid before the Ethnological Section of the British As- 

 sociation by Dr Latham, two years ago, at York. 



The languages of America, as yet generally known, be- 

 long to one type as far as grammatical structure is con- 

 cerned, and that a very peculiar one, and strongly marked. 

 It is possible that exceptions may hereafter occur to this 

 remark, and Dr Buschmann, the learned editor of Baron 

 William von Humboldt's posthumous works, who has for 

 several years been employed in preparing for the press a 

 work on the American languages, written partly by William 

 Humboldt, and partly, as I believe, by himself, informs me 

 that he has found exceptions to the general character of 

 these languages, though he does not consider as such the 

 Othomi language which Naxera, a Mexican writer, supposed 

 to be a monosyllabic idiom, and therefore very unlike the 

 polysyllabic and polysynthetic languages, as they have been 

 termed, of America. Several of the learned cultivators of 

 philology, who have done credit to the rapidly increasing 

 literature of the United States, have succeeded in classi- 

 fying the native languages of North America, and referring 

 them to a comparatively small number of families of great 

 extent. These families are regarded by M. Gallatin as dis- 

 tinct from each other in relation to their vocabulary. Dr 

 Latham, who has attentively studied their vocabularies, is of 

 opinion that there is a greater connection between the differ- 

 ent mother-tongues of the American nations, if we may use the 

 expression, than M. Gallatin supposed. On this question I 

 am unable to offer an opinion ; but certainly the probability 

 is on Dr Latham's side, since it is very unlikely, though per- 

 haps the fact is not without example, that languages which 

 have so great a similarity in structure as the American 

 idioms, should yet display no proofs of affinity in their vo- 

 cabulary. 



I need not observe that the conclusion to be drawn in re- 

 gard to the community or diversity of origin between the 

 different American languages, is one very interesting in an 

 ethnological point of view, especially if we take into account 

 the very considerable physical differences which separate 



