AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 67 



and collected in his summary of Indian history, in course of publication by the 

 United States Government. His philological treatises contain rich stores of 

 information ; but they do not aggregate the materials in a manner to admit of 

 conclusions that are well defined, and at the same time so universal as to be free 

 from important exceptions. 



A series of essays upon the languages of the Indians, some of them accompanied 

 with vocabularies, was commenced in the second part of his general history, and 

 has been continued in subsequent volumes; but the facts and views presented are 

 either partial, being derived from an investigation of particular dialects, or, if 

 general, are brief, and by no means intended to be absolute or conclusive. The 

 article entitled "Plan of Thought of the American Languages," by Dr. Lieber, 

 occupies but four pages, and is chiefly devoted to the suggestion and recommenda- 

 tion of a new term for expressing a prominent idiomatic feature. 



Mr. Schoolcraft's prolonged and familiar acquaintance with various Indian tribes, 

 and his connection with the race, seem to give him almost unequalled advantages 

 for such investigations, and the fruits of his local studies are of superior importance. 

 It remains to be seen whether the state of his health will permit him to prepare, 

 for a future volume, a comprehensive view of the whole subject, from which may 

 be deduced some formula? exhibiting, with satisfactory clearness, the principles of 

 organization that constitute the distinctive genius of American speech. The idea 

 is held up, however, throughout his work, that the time has not yet come for that 

 most desirable consummation. 



Mr. Gallatin commenced his latest endeavor to point out some striking features com- 

 mon to all the numerous dialects, with the following disclaimer of qualification : 



"The process by which languages are gradually formed, and a clear conception 

 of the fundamental principles which distinguish those of America from those of 

 other parts of the world, are subjects beyond my competence. Although I per- 

 ceive, and am satisfied of, the similarity of character in the structure of all the 

 known American languages, I cannot define with precision the general features 

 common to all. I can only state those which, on a very superficial view of the 

 subject, have struck me as characteristic; and it is with unfeigned diffidence that 

 I submit some general and desultory observations." 1 



The peculiarity most frequently mentioned, as characteristic of the Indian 

 idioms, is a tendency to accumulate a multitude of ideas in a single word. This 

 process was called by William Von Humboldt, and by other philologists after him, 

 agglutination. Mr. Duponceau preferred the term poly synthetic. Dr. Lieber sug- 

 gested encapsulated (which is explained by Mr. Schoolcraft as applicable to those 

 cases that are "clustered or botryoidal, thought exfoliating thought, as capsule 

 within capsule, or box within box"), but endeavored to show that holophrastic — 

 from two Greek words, signifying to speak or express the whole — best conveys a 

 correct idea of the principle. 2 



1 Trans, of Ethnol. Soc, II, 120. 



a "Coalescence" is the word employed by Governor Cass. "The power of coalescence, if it may be 

 so termed, possessed by the Indian languages, is one of their most extraordinary features. Words, 



