NA TURA L HIS TOR V OF CREA TION. 2 1 7 



has also been shown very distinctly, that these lan^i^unges 

 are based in words of one syllable, like those of the 

 Chinese and Polynesian families ; all the primary ideas 

 are thus expressed : the elaborate system of inflection 

 and agglutinatioti is shown to be simply a farther 

 development of the language-forming principle, as it may 

 be called — or the Chinese system may be described as an 

 arrestment of this principle at a particular early point. 

 It has been fully shown, that between the structure of 

 the American and other families, sufficient affinities exist 

 to make a common origin or early connexion extremely 

 likely. The vei-bal affinities are also very considerable. 

 Humboldt says, " In eighty-three American languages 

 examined by Messrs. Barton and Vatei-, one hundred 

 and seventy words have been found, the roots of which 

 appear to be the same ; and it is easy to perceive that 

 this analogy is not accidental, since it does not rest 

 merely upon imitative harmony, or on that conformity of 

 organs which pi-oduces almost a perfect identity in the 

 first sounds articulated by children. Of these one 

 hundred and seventy words which have this connexion, 

 three-fifths resemble the Manchou, the Tongouse, the 

 Mongal, and the Samoyed ; and two-fifths, the Celtic 

 and Tchoud, the Biscayan, the Coptic, and Congo lan- 

 guages. These words have been found by comjoaring 

 the whole of the American languages with the whole 

 of those of the Old World ; for hitherto we are 

 acquainted with no American idiom which seems to 

 have an exclusive correspondence with any of the 

 Asiatic, African, or European tongues." * Humboldt 

 and others considered these words as brought into 

 America by recent immigrants ; an idea resting on no 

 proof, and which seems at once refuted by the common 

 * "Views ot' the (.'ordilleraH." 



