Brinton.] 66 [Oct. 2, 



Ximenez in his Quiche Grammar gives twenty-four variations 

 of the theme bak, bored, all by suffixes, as :* 



bak, first passive. 



bakatuh, second passive. 



bakou, first absolute. 



bakon, second absolute. 



bake, first neuter. 



baker, second neuter, etc., etc. 



While the genius of American languages is such that they per- 

 mit and many of them favor the formation of long compounds 

 which express the whole of a sentence in one word, this is by no 

 means necessary. Most of the examples of words of ten, twenty 

 or more syllables are not genuine native words, but novelties 

 manufactured by the missionaries. In ordinary intercourse such 

 compounds are not in use, and the speech is comparatively 

 simple. 



Of two of the most synthetic languages, the Algonkin and the 

 Nahuatl, we have express testimony from experts that they can 

 be employed in simple or compound forms, as the speaker prefers. 

 The Abbe Lacombe observes that in Cree " sometimes one can 

 employ very long words to express a whole phrase, although the 

 same ideas can be easily rendered by periphrasis. "f In the sylla- 

 bus of the lectures on the Nahuatl by Prof. Agustin de la Rosa 

 of the University of Guadalaxara I note that he explains when 

 the Nahuatl is to be employed in a synthetic, and when in an ana- 

 lytic form. J 



I shall now proceed to examine those American tongues which 



* Gramatica de la Lengua Quiche. Ed. Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 8 (Paris, 1862). 



f"Ces exemples font comprendre combien qnelquefois on pent rendre des 

 mots tr&s longs, pour exprimer toute une phrase, quoiqu' aussi on puisse facile- 

 ment rendre les mernes idees par des periphrases." Laconibe, Qrammaire de la 

 Langue des Oris, p. 11 (Montreal, 1874). 



J " Se explicara la razon nlos6flca de los dos modos de usar.las palabras en 

 Mexicano, uno componiendo de varlas palabras lino solo, y otro dejandolas 

 separadas y enlazandolas solo por el regimen " From the programme of Prof. 

 A. de la Rosa's course in 1870. It is greatly to be regretted that the works of this 

 author on the Nahuatl, though recent, are so scarce as to be unobtainable. 



