178 Wiscoyisin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



ON THE PLACE OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES IN 

 THE STUDY OF ETHNOLOGY.* 



BY PROF. J. B. FETTLING PH. D. 

 Professor of Comparative Philology ia the University of Wisconsin. 



Physical ethnology lias slaown tliat all the different tribes of 

 Indians constitute but one race from tlie Arctic Ocean to Cape 

 Horn. Bnt physical evidence of race is as incomplete without 

 tbe confirmation of linguistic evidence, as is tbe latter without 

 the former. Race and language run parallel only in prehis- 

 toric times, or at the very dawn of history. The connection 

 therefore between physical ethnology and linguistic ethnology 

 consists in giving mutual advice and suggestions. Accommo- 

 dation and mutual concessions should not enter here. 



As languages change more rapidly than races, it seems often 

 impossible, even in languages whose current we are able to 

 ascend beyond the dawn of tradition, to gather up the con- 

 necting links between language and race, or to point out, 

 when, where or how they separated. Besides we must be 

 careful in drawing conclusions fi'om facts, which may be the 

 " result of accident." All this must be borne in mind by the 

 student the more carefully, as the philological details are very 

 scanty and insufhcient. Although the affinity between the 

 Indian languages, as determined by their vocabularies, is not 

 less real than that inferred from the analogies of their gram- 

 matical forms, it would not be a conclusive evidence for the 

 original unity of the various tribes, because we have no his- 

 torical documents, and tradition is silent as to the existence of 

 a " specific centre." If we had documentary evidence of the 



* The loss, by accident, of this paper, as originally presented, has necessitated its pub- 

 lication in the form of a brief abstract. 



