

78 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



WORK IN PHILOLOGY. 



Throughout a considerable part of the year the Director was occupied in 

 developing and applying the system of linguistic classification foreshad- 

 owed in the last report. Primarily, languages are devices for the expres- 

 sion of thought; secondarily, they are mechanisms for shaping thought. 

 The simplest languages are emotional and largely demonstrative, compris- 

 ing not only articulate vocal utterances, but inarticulate sounds, gestures, 

 facial expressions, etc., and these spontaneous expressions of feeling and 

 thought grow into the four leading lines of linguistic development. The 

 simplest of these is gesture language (or sign language), which arises largely 

 in pantomime, but matures under favorable conditions in highly complex 

 systems such as those investigated by the late Colonel Mallery and more 

 recently by Maj. H. L. Scott (whose studies were unfortunately interrupted 

 by the Spanish-American war). Afar more important line of linguistic 

 development is that of oral speech, and the activities of expression have 

 been so long and so vigorously exercised in this line as to have developed 

 a series of special organs differing widely in refinement of function and 

 delicacy of structure from those of lower animals. By means of these 

 organs the speaking animal, Man, makes mastery of sound, which is 

 created at will and reduced to vocables, notes, sentences, in such manner 

 as to convey ideas of the utmost complexity with hardly perceptible loss 

 of meaning; and with the development of words and sentences lexicology 

 and grammar arise, while etymology and sematology gradually acquire 

 importance. The third line of linguistic development is that of written 

 language, which first involved manual adaptation, together with a revolu- 

 tion in mode of thought, and afterward involved the invention of that long 

 series of mechanical devices now forming the sign and measure of higher 

 intellectuality. The last line of linguistic development is that represented 

 by characters expressing quantitative values; it may be styled logistic lan- 

 guage. Although based primarily on the rich records of aboriginal Amer- 

 ican languages preserved in the archives of the Bureau, the system of 

 linguistic classification has been shaped by extended comparisons with the 

 various languages of Europe and Asia, together with some of those of 

 Australia, Africa, and Polynesia. The system has been freely discussed 

 with students and has been published in preliminary form for the purpose 

 of eliciting further suggestion and criticism; it is expected that the matter 

 will be incorporated in full in an early report. 



In connection with the linguistic classification, the Director has con- 

 tinued to study the recorded languages of the Mexican and Central Amer- 

 ican tribes, with a view to the classification of these tribes by linguistic 

 affinities in a manner corresponding to that already adopted for the Ameri- 

 can tribes north of Mexico (and published in the Seventh Annual Report) . 

 In this work he had the constant assistance of Dr. Cyrus Thomas, whose 

 familiarity with the literature of the southern districts of North America 

 proved invaluable. Before the end of the year a preliminary classifica- 

 tion was made and mapped; but it is deemed unwise to submit the matter 

 for publication pending reexamination of various critical points. It has 

 been the good fortune of the Bureau to see the classification and mapping 







