oa 
epee 
v: 
ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 185 
be several degrees of resemblance. In some languages the words are 
so feeble, consisting largely of vowels, that the comparison of any 
two such languages in different parts of the world gives but unsatis- 
factory results, unless some law governing the variation of vowel- 
sounds could be discovered. In Iroquois, Choctaw, and in the Penin- 
sular tongues words are generally strong, with a good deal of the 
bold Koriak-Cherokee character and Tchuktchi-Choctaw independ- 
ence, so that the framer of a comparative vocabulary, into which 
one of these languages enters, will find little difficulty in deciding 
questions of likeness. There are, however, two things which render 
comparison less simple in the case of the Iroquois languages than in 
that of the Choctaw. The first of these has already been alluded to— 
it is the absence of labials, and, in this connection the uncertain 
power of w in English and French renderings of Iroquois words. If 
it were always the equivalent of a labial, as it sometimes undoubtedly 
is, much of the difficulty would be removed. At times it seems to 
represent the liquid m, which is also a labial. The second hindrance 
is found in the additions to the original root which appear in the 
Iroquois as we compare it with the Choctaw and Peninsular 
languages, and which is evident even in comparing the older with the 
newer Wyandot forms. The Iroquois word has grown uncomfortably 
by means of prefix, affix and reduplication of syllables, sometimes 
apparently for purposes of euphony, at others, it would seem in a 
retrogade direction to evolve by synthesis a concrete out of a com- 
paratively abstract term. Were I better acquainted with the less 
known members of the Peninsular family of languages with which 
the Iroquois stands in the closest relation, I might have to modify this 
opinion. 
I am not at present aware of any Asiatic names with which to 
associate those of the Wyandot family. The word Wyandot, like 
Oneida, Onondaga, Nottoway, may relate to the Esquimaux term 
innuit and the Samoied ennete, meaning man. In Arrapaho, one of 
the Algonquin dialects, man is enanitah. The Wyandot forms for 
man are oonquich, ungouh, aingahon, ungue, nenekin, (r)onkwe, 
(l)onque, hajinah, hauj-eenoh, onnonhoue, aneehhah, nehah, eniha, 
aineehau, (r)aniha—etschinak, ita-atsin, entequos, agint, (r)atsin, 
(r)atzin, &e. Still, Esquimaux and Samoied forms appear—the 
Esquimaux enuk and Samoied nienee. But the Aino aino and 
the Japanese hito, otokv, may be found in the second and third groups. 
