THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE. 117 



More remarkable, in certain respects, is the substantive verb. The 

 common oj^inion, expressed in philological compendiuuis, is that the 

 verb of pure existence is the highest outcome of culture and i^eflection 

 in the Aryan and Semitic languages ; and scholars have exhausted 

 their ingenuity in tracing its supposed origin and primitive mean- 

 ing. In the Sahaptin w«i find this verb used frequently, as the 

 missionaries affirm, and in precisely the same sense as in Gi'eek and 

 English. By a curious coincidence, its form bears a remarkable re- 

 semblance to that of the Aryan verb. Its root is ash. In Sanscrit, 

 the corresponding root is as, which some philologists suppose to have 

 ■originally meant either *' to breathe," or " to dwell." But the ex- 

 ample of the Sahaptin would seem to show that there is no necessity 

 for resorting to any such derivation, and that the verb may well 

 have been an original invention of tlie earliest makers of each tongue. 

 The first three tenses in the conjugation of this verb will show that 

 its forms are as completely inflectional as those of the Sanscrit, the 

 Oi'eek, or the German : 



PRESENT TENSE, 



wash, I am washih, we are 



aioash, thou art athwashih, ye are 



hiioash, he, she, or it is hmshih, they are 



PRESENT PAST TENSE. 



wctka, I have just been wdsheka, we have just been 



aiodka, thou hast etc. athwdsheka, ye have, etc. 



hiwdka, he has, etc. hiusheka, they have, etc. 



REMOTE PAST TENSE. 



wcika, I was washina, we were 



awdka, thou wast athwashina, ye were 



hiwdka, he was hiushina, they were 



Wdka, I have just been, difters fx'oni wa,ka, I was, solely in the dif- 

 ferent shade of the principal vowel sound, the d in the former having 

 the sound of a in " wall," and the a in the latter the sound of a in 

 '' father." A clearer instance of a pure inflection of the Semitic cast 

 •could not be found in any language. 



Another very curious coincidence between this verb and the Aryan 

 •substantive verb deserves to be mentioned. The Sahaptin ash, like 



