LANGUAGE OF ABORIGINAL INDIANS. 365 



I would suggest, iu the first place, the preparation of a far more copi- 

 ous vocabulary, to be based ou the ideas exhibited iu the languages 

 already known. The words should be arranged not alphabetically but 

 according to subjects, as the only mode consistent with intelligent in- 

 quiry, and as permitting the distribution of special or local words; 

 for instance, objects familiar to one nation and not to another. Such 

 a vocabulary should consist of not less than fifteen hundred words, and 

 an even greater number would be advisable. In selecting these words, 

 particular reference should be had also to such as are radical or contain 

 radicals, and plain instructions be given by which the collector, if he has 

 leisure and inclination, may dissect them. 



Secondly. A large number of well-digested phrases, based upon these 

 words, calculated to draw out the different forms of speech, and from 

 which the grammatical structure of the language can be deduced. 



Thirdly. The i)reparation of a succinct and popular statement of 

 the most striking peculiarities of some of the diftereut languages as 

 derived from grammars already i^ublished and of well-known authority. 

 ]^o one who has ever attempted, for the first time, to acquire an Indian 

 language but has been foiled, over and again, by a want of knowl- 

 edge how to direct his inquiries ; and the most intelligent student has 

 labored for a long time without success, where a slight clew would have 

 guided him. Although there are certain characteristics which pervade 

 almost all American languages, they yet differ greatly from one another 

 in the degree in which these are marked, and often in the method iu 

 which they show themselves. Some languages, also, have evidently 

 reached a far higher degree of culture, so to sj^eak, than others. Iu 

 fact, there is as much difference in the grammar and syntax of differ- 

 ent Indian languages as in those of the Indo-Germauic stock. In 

 many of them a modification of the nnmerals takes i^lace according to 

 the nature of the object counted, sometimes indicating whether the 

 object is animate or inanimate, at others various other qualities, as form, 

 &c. ; and the number of these modifications varies from two in the Selisli 

 (one applied to the first, the other to the second class) to over forty in 

 the Cakchiquel. In the Otchipwe, or Chippeway, language, on the other 

 hand, where the nouns are all divided into animate and inanimate, there 

 are a variety of changes in the cardinals, but none ou that principle; 

 while in their place there are certain numeral verbs which are animate 

 or inanimate according to the object expressed. In the Cherokee this 

 principle is not found either in the nouns or numerals, nor are the latter 

 modified at all ; but the modifications, which are numerous, including 

 animate and inanimate, are confined to the verbs, many of which change 

 according to the quality of the object in which the action terminates. 

 For example, the verb " to take" is in English simple, no matter what 

 is the nature of the thing taken, but in Cherokee there is one form 

 signifying to take a pliable object, another to take a long object, others 

 to take a liquid, an upright, or a living object, and the particles indi- 



