Brinton.| 4o [Oct. 2, 



On Polysynthesis and Incorporation as Characteristics of Ameri- 

 can Languages. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 



{Read before the American PhilosopJiical Society, October 2, 1S85.) 



Synopsis. 



Races of mankind as co-extensive with linguistic groups. — Problems of 

 American languages. — History of the doctrines of Polysynthesis and 

 Incorporation. — Preliminary cautions. — Erroneous statements about 

 aboriginal tongues. — Teachings of Duponceau. — Of Wilhelm von 

 Humboldt. — Of Francis Lieber. — Of H. Steinthal. — Of Lucien Adam. 

 — Of Friedrich Miiller. — Of J. W. Powell. — Definitions of Polysyn- 

 thesis, Incorporation and Holophrasis. — Examples of these processes. 

 — Examinations of American tongues in which they are alleged to be 

 absent. — (1) The Othomi and associated dialects — (2) The Bri-Bri 

 and other Costa Rican dialects — (3) The Tupi-Guarani dialects — (4) 

 The Mutsun. — Conclusions. 



The division of the species Man into subspecies or races is 

 not as yet a settled point in ethnology. The tendency, however, 

 is to return to the classification proposed by Linnaeus, which, in 

 a broad way, subdivides the species with reference to the con- 

 tinental areas mainly inhabited by them in the earliest historic 

 times. This is found to accord with color, and to give five sub- 

 species or races, the White or European, the Black or African, 

 the Yellow or Mongolian (Asiatic), the Brown or Malayan 

 (Oceanic), and the Red or American Races. 



No ethnologist nowadays will seek to establish fixed and ab- 

 solute lines between these. They shade into one another in all 

 their peculiarities, and no one has traits entirely unknown in the 

 others. Yet, in the mass, the characteristics of each are promi- 

 nent, permanent and unmistakeable ; and to deny them on account 

 of occasional exceptions is to betray an inability to estimate the 

 relative value of scientific facts. 



In the Science of Language it becomes of the highest impor- 

 tance to ascertain whether any such general similarity can be 

 demonstrated between the tongues spoken by members of the 

 same race. 



