1898-99.] DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 209 
present. By extracts from a previous paper published elsewhere, he 
seeks to shew the radical agreement of the American families here 
affiliated, and their radical disagreement with the Iroquois and the great 
group of languages to which it belongs. 
“There are three important differences in structure which separate 
Algonquin from Iroquois grammar. The former frequently makes use 
of prepositions like the Aryan and Semitic languages; the latter 
invariably employs postpositions, like the (northern) Turanian tongues 
Thus, in Cree, one of the most widely distributed Algonquin dialects, 
tchik-tskutek means ‘near the fire, ¢chzk being the preposition ‘near ;’ 
but, in Iroquois, the same expression is translated by ontchzcht-akta, in 
which @kZa, ‘ near, is a postposition. The place of the temporal index 
in the order of the verb is a second distinguishing feature of the two. 
grammatical systems. In the Iroquois the mark of time is final, 
although it is sometimes implemented by a prefix to the initial personal 
pronoun ; thus in £e-xontwe-s, 1 love, ke-nonwe-skwe, | loved, wake-nonwe- 
hon, | have loved, and enke-nonwe-ne, 1 shall love, s, skwe, hon, and ne 
are the indices of present, imperfect, perfect and future time, onwe 
being the verbal root, and e, the pronoun. But in Algonquin, the 
temporal index is, in the more important tenses at least, prefixed to the 
verbal root ; so that in zzz-g7-sakiha, | have loved, and xzn-ga-sakiha, | 
shall love, gz and ga are the indices of the perfect and future respectively, 
saktha, the verbal root, and zzz, the personal pronoun. A third 
peculiarity of Algonquin grammar is that the accusative or direct 
regimen follows the verb. It is true that the same order appears fre- 
quently in Iroquois, but the principle of the group of languages it 
represents, as exemplified in the case of pronominal accusatives, is to 
place the verb after its regimen. As regards phonology, the difference 
between the Algonquin dialects and those of the Iroquois is well 
marked. The soft vocalic forms of the Ojibbeway, the Nipissing, the 
Cree, the Delaware, present a remarkable contrast to the more manly, 
but harsh and guttural utterances of all the members of the Iroquois 
family.” 
“In Central America there is an important family of languages, known 
as the Maya-Quiche. Of the Maya, Dr. Daniel Wilson (the late Sir 
Daniel), in his address before the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science says: ‘ It strikingly contrasts in its soft vocalic 
forms with the languages of the nations immediately to the north of its 
native area. Here then is the same phenomenon that is presented by 
the Algonquin languages. I do not propose to make the Mayas 
Algonquins, nor the Algonquins Maya-Quiche, but simply to indicate 
