1885.] 0\Jj [BrintoD. 



ties, probably never subject to foreign influence, offer for this 

 branch of linguistic study specially favorable material. There 

 are in America as many as thirty little known languages for 

 "which we have means of study, each of which is like a new 

 natural species, besides many others whose data ai-e less ample."* 



In his memoir, read two years later, " On the Origin of Gram- 

 matical Forms, and their Influence on the Development of 

 Ideas," he chose most of his examples from the idioms of the 

 New World ;| and the year following, he read the monograph 

 on the Verb in American languages, which is printed for the 

 first time with the present essay. 



In a later paper, he announced his special study of this group 

 as still in preparation. It was, however, never completed. J lis 

 earnest desire to reach the fundamental laws of language led 

 him first into a long series of investigations into the systems of 

 recorded speech, phonetic hieroglyphics and alphabetic writing, 

 on which he read memoirs of great acuteness. 



In one of these he again mentions his studies of the American 

 tongues, and takes occasion to vindicate them from the current 

 charge of being of a low grade in the linguistic scale. " It is 

 certainly unjust," he writes, "to call the American languages 

 rude or savage, although their structure is widely different Irom 

 those perfectly formed. "| 



In 1828, there is a published letter from him making an ap- 

 pointment with the Abbe Thavenet, missionary to the Canadian 

 Algonkins, then in Paris, "to enjoy the pleasure of conversing 

 with him on his interesting studies of the Algonkin language. "|1 

 And a private letter tells us that in 1831 he applied himself with 

 new zeal to mastering the intricacies of Mexican grammar.§ 



About 1827, he found it indispensable to subject to a critical 

 scrutiny the languages of the great island world of the Pacific 



* From his memoir Ueber das verglcichende Sprachisludiwn in Beziehung auf 

 die verschiedenen Eimchen der Sprachenlwicklung , Bd. iii, s. 2J9. 



t He draws examples from the Carlb, Lule, Tiipl, Mbaya, Huasteca, Nahuatl, 

 Tamanaca, Ablpone, and Mixteca; Uebcr das Entslehen der grammalischen For- 

 men, und ihren Elnfluss auf die Ideenenlwicklung , Bd. ill, ss. 269-306. 



X Ueber die Buchstabenschrifl und ihren Zusummenhang mit dem Sprachbau' 

 Bd. vl, s. 526. 



II This letter Is printed in the memoir of Prof. E. Teza, Tntorno agli StiuU de 

 Thavenet sulla Lingua Atgonchina, in the Annali delle Universiid toscane,Tomo 

 xvili (Pisa, ISSO). 



§ Compare Prof. Adler's Essay, above njentloued, p. 11. 



