OF THE LENNI L.ENAPE INDIANS. 77 



the western. Here we find no monosyllablic language like 

 tht* Chinese*, and its cognate idioms; no analytical lan- 

 guages like those of the north of Europe, with their nume- 

 rous expletive and auxiliary monosyllables ; no such contrast 

 is exhibited as that which is so sti ikin*z; to the most su- 

 perficial observer, between the complication of the forms 

 of the Basque language and the comparative simplicity of 

 those oils neighbours the French and Spanish; but a uni- 

 form system, with such differences only as constitute vari- 

 eties in natural objects, seems to pervade them all, and this 

 genus of human languages has been called polysynthetic, from 

 the numerous combinations of ideas which it presents in the 

 form of words. It has also hem shewn that the American 

 languages arc rich in words and regular in their forms, and 

 that they do not yield in those respects to any other idiom. 

 These facts have attracted the attention of the learned in 

 Europe, as well as in this country; but they have not been 

 able entirely to remove the prejudices that have been so 

 long entertained against the languages of savage nations. 

 The pride of civilization is reluctant to admit facts like these 

 in thcii utmost extent, because they shew how little philoso- 

 phy and science have to do with the formation of language. 

 A Vague idea still prevails that the idioms of barbarous tribes 

 must begieatl) interior to those of civilized nations, and rea- 

 sons are industriously sought for to prove that inferiority, not 

 only in point of cultivation, which would readily be admitted, 

 but also to shew thai their organization is comparatively 

 in perfect. Thus a learned member of the Berlin Acade- 



* By a monosyllabic language, I do doI mean one every word of which 

 consists of a single syllable, but one of which ever] syllable is a complete 



word. The learned M. !!■• sat has satisfactorily proved in his M hinges 



. I.tiiilii/urs. vol. J. p. it. .iiiii in the third volume of the Mines de VI rant, 

 thai the Chinese language is not monosyllabic in the first of these sensi s; 

 but ;ii the same time, I think it cannot be denied that it is so in the second, 

 its polysyllabic words being formed l>\ the junction of two or more vo- 

 cables, each consisting only of one syllable, in the same manner as our 

 compound English words welcome, welfare, &c. There may be a few 

 exceptions; but they prove nothing against the general rule. 

 vol. in. — u 



