AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 59 



these and many other singularities, which so eminently characterize the American 

 idioms, we naturally ask ourselves the question : Are languages formed on this 

 model to be found in any other part of the earth ?" 



Mr. Duponceau gives the following summary of the products of philological 

 research at that period, in his notes on Eliot's Grammar, printed by the Massachu- 

 setts Historical Society, in 1822. 



" Before I proceed to the language of the Massachusetts Indians, I may be per- 

 mitted to show what fruits have been derived from our science, since it has begun 

 to be considered an interesting object of study. 



" By the labors of the illustrious Adelung, a census, as it were, has been taken of 

 all the languages and dialects (that are known to us) existing on the surface of the 

 earth ; they have been all registered and enumerated, and it is now ascertained, as 

 nearly as possible, that their aggregage number amounts to 3,004 ; of which Africa 

 has 276 ; Europe, 587 ; Asia, 987 ; and America, 1214 — being more than Asia and 

 Africa together, and nearly as many as the whole of the old continent, Africa 

 excepted." 



" It is ascertained, at least nothing has yet appeared to the contrary, that the 

 languages of our American Indians are rich in words and grammatical forms; that 

 tbey are adequate to the expression of even abstract ideas ; and that they have a 

 mode (different from our own), by which they can easily combine their radical 

 sounds with each other, so as to frame new words whenever they stand in need of 

 them. What is still more extraordinary, the model of these languages has been 

 found to be the same from north to south ; varieties being only observed in some of 

 the details, which do not affect the similarity of the general system ; while, on the 

 eastern continent, languages are found, which, in their grammatical organization, 

 have no relation whatever with each other. And yet our American idioms, except 

 where they can be traced to a common stock, differ so much in point of etymology, 

 that no affinity whatever has been yet discovered between them." 



" It has been, moreover, ascertained, that one nation at least, on the eastern con- 

 tinent of Asia, the Sedentary TschuJdschi, speak an American language (a dialect of 

 the Eskimaux). On the other hand, no nation has yet been discovered on this 

 continent that speaks an Asiatic language." 



" It has been also ascertained that from the peninsula of Malacca, in Asia, to the 

 Cocos Island, and through the various clusters in the South Sea, and also in the 

 island of Madagascar, dialects of the same language (the Malay) are spoken. No 

 traces of this language have been yet discovered on the coast of the American con- 

 tinent ; but they may appear on further research." 



One of the greatest obstacles to a successful and satisfactory comparison of Indian 

 vocabularies, was caused by the capricious and ever varying orthography adopted 

 by writers of different nations. The elementary sounds were often so variously repre- 

 sented that the same word could not be recognized in the dissimilar combinations 

 of letters employed to express it. Thus, for example, if the letter j was used by an 

 Englishman, to a German or Italian it would represent the sound of our !/; to a 

 Frenchman or Portuguese, that of zh or s in pleasure; while a Spaniard would give 

 it the strong guttural accent of his country. As the tables of words were collected 



