1346 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



sameness of character, as to bear witness to 

 the similarity of their internal source. 



The affinities between languages are sought 

 by philologists in two entirely different di- 

 rections ; namely, in their vocabularies, and 

 in their methods of grammatical construction. 

 In comparing the former, it is of course ne- 

 cessary to make due allowance for the pos- 

 sible influence of conquest, intermixture, or 

 frequent intercourse, in modifying the original 

 tongues ; but the experienced enquirer may 

 generally eliminate this source of error, by 

 placing his chief reliance on what are termed 

 primary words, i. e. on words which serve to 

 represent the universal ideas of a people in 

 the most simple state of existence. Such are 

 the terms expressive of family relations ; the 

 names of the most striking objects of the 

 visible universe, the sun, moon, stars, trees, 

 rivers, &c. ; terms distinguishing the prin- 

 cipal parts of the body, as the head, eyes, 

 hands, and feet ; the numerals, up to five, ten, 

 or twenty ; and verbs descriptive of the most 

 common sensations and bodily acts, such as 

 seeing, hearing, eating, drinking, sleeping. 

 Such primary words are never wanting in the 

 language of any nation ; and it has been ascer- 

 tained by observation, that they are the last 

 to undergo change, either in the spontaneous 

 modifications which take place in the course 

 of time, or under the disturbing influence 

 of a foreign idiom ; so that a conformity in 

 primary words affords very strong evidence of 

 a community of origin among the nations 

 which exhibit it. The evidence afforded by 

 conformity in grammatical construction, re- 

 quires a more intimate acquaintance than is 

 needed for the preceding, with what is some- 

 times called the genius of the language ; but 

 when it has been gained, it is frequently even 

 more important than that furnished by the 

 vocabularies. For there are many cases in 

 which the latter are so continually under- 

 going important changes (the want of written 

 records allowing them to possess no more 

 than a traditional permanence), that the diver- 

 gence of tongues becomes so great, in the 

 course of even a few generations, as to prevent 

 tribes descended from a common ancestry 

 from understanding one another ; and yet the 

 system of grammatical construction, which 

 depends more upon the grade of mental de- 

 velopment, and upon the habits of thought, 

 exhibits a remarkable permanence. 



The following are the principal types of 

 construction, or " methods by which the re- 

 lation between the different words that con- 

 stitute sentences is indicated," according to a 

 very recent and distinguished authority.* 



1. The Aptotic type, of which the Chinese 

 is an example. In this, there is a total ab- 

 sence of inflections ; and the words which, in 

 languages of the classical form, do the work of 

 the inflections, that is, express the relations 

 of the principal words to each other, are 

 themselves most commonly the names of 



* Dr. E. G. Latham, on the Natural History of 

 the Varieties of Man, p. 9. 



objects and actions, i. e., nouns and verbs. 

 " Thus if," says Dr. Latham, " instead of say- 

 ing, / go to London, figs come from Turkey, 

 the sun shines through the air, we said I go 

 end London, Jigs come origin Turkey, the sun 

 shines passage air, we should discourse after 

 the manner of the Chinese." This is the 

 lowest grade of linguistic development. 



2. The Agglutinate type, which is carried 

 to its fullest extent in the American lan- 

 guages. These possess inflexions, which can 

 be generally shown to have arisen out of the 

 juxta-position and composition of different 

 words, the incorporation not having been suf- 

 ficiently complete wholly to disguise the ori- 

 ginally independent and separate character of 

 the inflexional addition. This may be re- 

 garded as a decided advance in development. 



3. The Amalgamate type, of which the 

 classical languages are the most perfect ex- 

 amples. These possess a very complete system 

 of inflexions, which express the relation be- 

 tween the fundamental idea denoted by the 

 term, and some other ; and these inflexions 

 are so completely incorporated with the root 

 with which they are conjoined, that their 

 existence as separate and independent words 

 cannot be demonstrated, and can only be sup- 

 ported upon the analogy of the agglutinate 

 languages. Thus, " in a word like hominem, 

 there are two parts, homin, radical ; em, in- 

 flexional. In the word te-tig-i, there are the 

 same. The power of these parts is clear. 

 The tig- and homin- denote the simple action 

 or the simple object. The te- denotes the 

 time in which it takes place ; the i, the agent. 

 In the proposition te-tig-i homin-em, the em 

 denotes the relation between the object (the 

 man touched) and the action (of touching). 

 Logically, there are two ideas, e. g. that of 

 the action or object, and that of the super- 

 added conditions in respect to time, agency, 

 and relation." 



4. The Anaptotic type, of which the English 

 is an example. This designation is given to 

 languages which were once inflexional, but 

 which have in great part ceased to be so. 

 In such we find that the auxiliary words 

 which do the work of the Greek and Latin 

 inflexions, are not names of objects and 

 actions like those of the Chinese language, 

 but possess (generally speaking) a purely 

 abstract value, having a meaning only when 

 in context with other words. Thus, where 

 the Roman said te-tig-i, we say, / have 

 touched; where the Roman said pair i, we say 

 to father; where a Roman said tangam, we 

 say, / will (or shall) touch. In many of these 

 auxiliary words, however, an independent 

 meaning can be clearly seen ; thus have and 

 will are obviously verbs in their own right ; 

 and the conjunction if is a corruption of the 

 Saxon gj/Xgive). Moreover, the inflexions are 

 seldom or never wholly disused ; so that these 

 anaptotic languages always preserve relations 

 of affinity to those of the two preceding 

 types, of which they may be considered a 

 peculiar development. 



To one or other of these types, or to trail- 



