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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 07 
graduated scales, each fitted with a sliding gnomon. Taking the corner of the room 
as‘a convenient perpendicular, the scales are fixed against the wall at a certain di- 
stance from the floor and corner of the room and at certain angles. 
On the Ethnography of America. By R. G. Latuam, M.D. 
_ It is considered that the line of demarcation drawn between the Esquimaux lan- 
guages and those of the rest of America is too broad and definite. The same remark 
applies to the Esquimaux tongues and those of Asia. By exaggerating these distinc- 
tions the primé facie view of the Indian population of America has been disturbed. 
Further complications have also been introduced, by insisting upen the general gram- 
matical analogy between the American languages as a point of contrast to the dif- 
ference in their glossarial details. There is however for the whole of America, North 
and South, a glossarial as well as a grammatical affinity. 
The Esquimaux, Athabascan, Colooch, Oregon, Californian and Mexican groups 
run so much into each other that no definite line of separation can be drawn. 
These, dealt with en masse, have general affinities with the Algonkin and Iroquois 
groups. Isolated tongues, like the Blackfoot, Riccaree, Uchee, &c., have miscella- 
neous affinities with the American tongues in general, and contain Esquimaux words 
proportionate to the extent of their vocabularies. The North and South American 
tongues pass into each other. No Scuth American tongue is isolated in the way 
that the Basque is isolated in Europe. Even the Warow and Fuegian have words 
common to the other groups, and to the Esquimaux. 
On the side of Asia the languages most akin to the Esquimaux are the Curule, 
Corean and Japanese ; after these the Kamskadale, Koriack and Jukageer. Still, the 
affinity (although undoubted) is less close on the Asiatic than the American side. The 
difference between the American numerals is explicable on the following hypothesis. 
Where we count by pure abstract terms like one, two, three, &c., there is a greater 
uniformity fer the numerals than for other words; whilst in those ruder languages, 
where we count by common names, as pair, couple, leash, the numerals differ where 
the rest of the language coincides. 
On the Ethnography of the Chinese and Indo-Chinese Nations. 
By R. G. Laruam, M.D. 
The distinction between the languages of Thibet and China, as exhibited by Klap- 
roth, must be only provisional. Over and above the grammatical analogy there is 
an absolute glossarial affinity. Of the languages of the transgangetic peninsula the 
same may be asserted. Where languages are monosyllabic slight changes make 
palpable differences. The vocabularies of Brown, for more than a score of the Bur- 
mese and Siamese tongues, have provided us with data for ethnographical compari- 
sons. © By dealing with these collectively, we find in one dialect words which had 
beem lost in others. The Chinese, Thibet, Bhootan, Burmese, Siamese, and all the 
so-called monosyllabic languages hitherto known, are allied to each other. The'ge- 
neral affinities of the Indo-Chinese tongues are remarkable. With Marsden’s and 
Sir Stamford Raffles’s tables on the one side, and those of Brown and Klaproth on 
the other, it can be shown that a vast number of Malay roots are monosyllabic. The 
Malay languages are monosyllabic ones, with the superaddition of inflections evolved 
out of composition, and euphonic processes highly developed. 
The next class of tongues akin to the monosyllabic is that of Caucasus. The 
numerous languages of this class have long been reduced to four groups; the Geor- 
gian, the Lesgian, the Circassian, the Mizdzhegi. That these four are fundamentally 
One, may be seen from Klaproth’s tables, whose classification seems only provisional, 
These tongues, dealt with en masse, have their affinities with the monosyllabic 
tengues. As with the Malay language, the monosyllabic character is modified by 
the evolution of agglutinational and inflectional processes, but not much by euphonic 
processes. An original continuity of language, displaced at present by the Turkish 
and Mongol, is thus assumed for parts between Caucasus and Thibet. 
ows 
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