30 Dr. Hotlgkin on the Importance qf Studying and 



tion ofpi?it and pison for point and poison. It is by no means 

 improbable that some of these peculiarities of pronunciation 

 and the predominance or suppression of certain sounds in par- 

 ticular districts, although proceeding from physical causes, and 

 therefore to be regarded as distinct from those characters 

 which indicate connexion with a particular stock, may never- 

 theless be characteristic of a particular race, the organic pe- 

 culiarity prevailing, like those of colour, form of the head, ex- 

 pression of countenance, stature, and the like, from hereditary 

 transmission. That peculiar dialect of English spoken by 

 negroes when living as an enslaved or otherwise oppressed 

 race amongst the English or their descendants, though partly 

 to be ascribed to the neglect of their education and to the en- 

 couragement which whites give to this dialect, by themselves 

 falling into it when conversing with negroes, is doubtless prin- 

 cipally to be ascribed to the same physical causes which give 

 a characteristic softness to several of the languages on the west 

 coast of Africa, and thus, like the colour of their skin and the 

 form of their features, indicates the stock from whence they 

 are derived, independently of any infusion of words from their 

 own languages with which they may have corrupted the 

 English. The investigation and classification of these 

 changes, influenced by physical causes, might greatly faci- 

 litate the labour of those who may apply themselves to the 

 acquisition of several languages, as well as aid those investi- 

 gations which more particularly fall under the class of which 

 I am next to speak. 



The fourth and last division of the subject may perhaps be 

 called the Natural History of Language, its object being to 

 investigate and classify the numerous languages which are 

 spoken upon the face of the globe ; to refer them, as far as 

 they admit of being so traced, to different primitive stocks or 

 languages, from which there is reason to apprehend that many 

 of them have proceeded as from a parent or common stock ; 

 and to discover, as far as inherent and collateral evidence can 

 render possible, the modifications which the intermixture of 

 language derived from a different stock may have produced, 

 and the time and mode by which these changes by infusion 

 have been brought about. These inquiries are perhaps the most 

 important which can be undertaken for the elucidation of the 

 physical history of man ; this division of the subject may there- 

 fore be regarded as one of the most interesting and important 

 in which man can be engaged. Although the arduous and suc- 

 cessful labours of many distinguished philologists, amongst 

 whom must be especially mentioned Herder, Adelung, Vater, 

 W. and A. Humboldt, Rask, Klaproth, Prichard, Mars- 



