OF THE HUMAN FAMILY 201 



Bay Territory, south of the Siskatchewiui and Nelson's Ilivcr, was the same. New 

 England, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and the eastern parts of Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia, and North Carolina, formed a part of the area of occupancy of this 

 branch of the Ganowiinian family. Along the Mississippi, from Lake Pepin to the 

 mouth of the Ohio, and eastward to Indiana, including a part of the latter State, 

 Illinois, Michigan, and the greater part of Wisconsin, the same people were dis- 

 tributed ; while one nation, the Shawnees, occupied south of the Ohio, in the 

 western part of the present State of Kentucky. Their eccentric spread southward 

 along the Atlantic coast was forced by the development of the Iroquois nations 

 within the central part of their area; and their spread down the Mississippi was, in 

 like manner, probably due to the pressure of the Dakota nations upon the western 

 boundaries of their area. The Algonkins were essentially a northern people, the 

 main thread of their occupancy being the chain of lakes and the St. Lawrence. 



In its development, the Algonkin ranks as the equal of the Dakotan languages. 

 The more advanced dialects of the former are less vigorous and rugged in their 

 pronunciation and accentuation than the equally improved dialects of the latter, 

 and consequently are smoother and softer, as may be seen, to some extent, by a 

 comparison of their respective vocables in the Tables. In the Shawnee, the Cree, 

 and the Ojibwa are found the highest specimens of the Algonkin speech. 



There is one peculiarity of Indian languages deserving of attention. It is found 

 in the individualization of each syllable. In each word every syllable is pronounced 

 with a distinctness so marked as to tend to its isolation. Instead of an easy transi- 

 tion of sound from one syllable into the next, the change is so abrupt as to result in 

 hiatus rather than coalescence. The general effect is heightened by the vehemence 

 of the accent, which is another characteristic of the most of the Ganowanian lan- 

 guages. This may be illustrated by the word Gii-sJco'-sa-go, which is the name for 

 Rochester in the Seneca-Iroquois. It would be difficult to form and put together 

 four syllables which would maintain to a greater extent the individuality of each 

 in their pronunciation. Between the penult and antepenult the transition is the 

 easiest ; but the effect is arrested by the intervention of the accent. These two 

 features are strongly impressed upon the principal dialects east of the Rocky 

 Mountain chain. If the Ganowanian languages were characterized as syllabical 

 rather than agglutinated, the term would be more accurate.^ 



' The present classification of the languages of mankind into monosyllabical, agglutinated, and 

 inflectional does not seem to be well founded. The principal objection lies to the last term as 

 distinctive of the Aryan and Semitic languages. Inflection is a not less striking characteristic of 

 the Ganowanian languages than agglutination. Conjugation, which is the all-controlling principle 

 of these languages, together with agglutination, are continually submerging the word ; whilst in the 

 Aryan and Semitic languages the word is more definite and concrete. There is a decisive tendency 

 in the inflectional languages, so called, to lessen inflection, and, so to speak, to solidify its words. 

 This is shown by the development of the present Aryan languages into their modern forms. They 

 are languages of complete and perfect words, as distinguished from the monosyllabical and poly syl- 

 labical, which are yet, in some sense, in the syllable stage. The three forms appear to give — 1. The 

 language of single syllables; 2. The language of many syllables ; and 3. The language of words. 

 26 March, 1870. 



