248 



GRAMMAR OP THE LANGUAGE 



[concluding note.] 



6. Of Calling, as 

 Hu ! yuhuh ! 



7. Of Answering, as 

 Vu ! yo ! oh ! oho ! 



8. Of Approbation, as 

 Eh ! eh ! kehella ! gohan ! 



9. Of Admiration, as 

 Ekayah ? hoh ! quatschee ! ekee ! ekisah ' 



10. Of Exclamation, as 

 Ohoh, ho ! wo ! 



CONCLUDING NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



J_ HIS Grammar exhibits a language, entirely the work of the children 

 of nature, unaided by our arts and sciences, and what is most remark- 

 able, ignorant of the art of writing. Its forms are rich, regular, and 

 methodical, closely following the analogy of the ideas which they are 

 intended to express; compounded, but not confused; occasionally ellip- 

 tical in their mode of expression; but not more so than the languages 

 of Europe, and much less so than those of a large group of nations on. 

 the Eastern Coast of Asia, I mean the Chinese and those which possess 

 analogous idioms. The terminations of their verbs, expressive of num- 

 ber, person, time, and other modifications of action and passion, while 

 they are richer in their extension than those of the Latin and the Greek, 

 which we call emphatically the learned languages, appear to have been 

 formed on a similar but enlarged model, without any aid than that 

 which was afforded by nature operating upon the intellectual faculties of 

 man. To what cause are these phenomena to be attributed 1 



I hope I shall be excused for saying that this question, which I think 

 of the highest importance, as it leads immediately to that of the origin 

 of the variety of human languages, and perhaps of language itself, has 

 not received, either in America or Europe, all the attention that it de- 

 serves. In Europe, an idea appears generally to prevail, that the gram- 

 matical forms of languages have proceeded, if not entirely, at least in a 

 very great degree, from the operation or influence of the art of writing, 

 which is saying, in other words, that these forms have been produced or 

 essentially modified by the arts of civilization. A celebrated French 

 philologist, to whose varied talents and extensive acquirements no man 

 pays a more willing homage than myself, M. Abel llemusat, expresses 



