66 



GLOSSOLOGY. 



The following is the Russian alphabet; with which our notice 

 of the European languages must be closed. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BARBAROUS LANGUAGES. 



UNDER the branch of Barbarous languages, we comprehend the 

 original tongues of America ; of Africa, excepting Egypt and Ethio- 

 pia ; and of Oceanica, or the Islands south and east of Asia. The 

 name is derived from the Greek, Bapfapos, a term which was applied 

 to all foreigners, and thence to all who did not pronounce the Greek 

 language accurately; and ultimately to all ignorant and savage na- 

 tions. The languages of this branch, though more numerous than all 

 the preceding, are of much less importance ; being devoid of litera- 

 ture ; unwritten, except by recent missionaries ; and each spoken 

 only over a small region, by a single tribe. In the little which can 

 here be said of them, we shall divide these languages into three 

 groups ; the American, African, and Oceanic ; according to their 

 geographical localities; which also accord with their analogies to 

 each other. 



1. The native American, or Ind-American languages, are 

 mostly polysynthetic, and polysyllabic : several of our words being 

 expressed by one of theirs ; and this one consisting of several sylla- 

 bles. Humboldt grouped them in two classes ; the Apalachian, in 

 the north ; and the Toltecan, in Mexico and the south. For the 

 knowledge of them now possessed, we are much indebted to the 

 labors of Hecke welder, and the researches of Duponceau. Con- 

 cerning their origin, nothing certain is known : but they may proba- 

 bly be traced back to Asia ; and many of them are said to be copious, 

 precise, and artificial in their structure. They have been gradually 

 supplanted ; by the English, in North America ; the Portuguese, in 

 Brazil ; and the Spanish, in Mexico, and the South American Re- 

 publics ;* so that some of them are already extinct. 



The Esquimaux, or Karalit language, is spoken by the Indians 



