Brintou.l ^ [Oct. 2, 



the Tupi ; and the modem Ma}^a, as it appears in the volumi- 

 nous religious writings of Father Joaquin Ruz, is pronounced 

 by so excellent a judge as Senor Pio Perez (author of the Maya 

 Dictionary) and others to be almost a different tongue from the 

 real spoken Maya of the natives themselves.* 



The generalization that American languages constitute in cer- 

 tain essential structural features an independent group of 

 tongues was first propounded in the second decade of this cen- 

 tury by Mr. Peter Stephen Duponceau, at one time President of 

 the American Philosophical Society, and his statements to this 

 effect first saw the light in the publications of that society. He 

 did not, indeed, fully analyze these features, and from this de- 

 ficiency in comprehending them, was led to retract their appli- 

 cation in certain examples (especially the Othomi) in which I 

 shall endeavor to show they are actually present. He named, 

 indeed, only one of them, to wit, poly synthesis, although it is 

 evident that he perceived the second and equally important pro- 

 cess, now known to linguists by the term incorporation. 



As even quite prominent authorities have seriously misunder- 

 stood these processes, and in some instances have done grave 

 injustice to their discoverer, I shall give an outline of their 

 history. 



Mr. Duponceau first developed his theory of the structure of 

 American languages in his correspondence with the Rev. Mr. 

 Heckewelder, in the summer of 1816. Referring to the forms 

 of the Delaware verb as set forth by Zeisberger in his Grammar 

 of that tongue, he observes: " I am inclined to believe that these 



* Crescencio Carrillo writes in his Disertacion sobre la Historia de la Lengua 

 Maya, sec. xvii, " El estilo del P. Ruz, como escritor maya, no ha sidode buena 

 y general acceptacion en el pais: h&sele censurado por falta de claridad, y de 

 que ha forzado mucho y de una manera extrafia el giro y caricter proprio y 

 genuine- de la lengua yucateca." This was not through ignorance, for Father 

 Ruz was thoroughly conversant with the Maya; but he wished to force it into 

 accordance with the rules and structure of European tongues — a not uncom- 

 mon tendency of missionary writers, and one quite as much to be watched lor 

 by the student of American languages as the simple ignorance of such authors 

 as Campanius. 



