16 ON THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 
choice of a word to express his idea to think of a multiplicity of things 
which have no connection with that which he wishes to express. 
A Ponka Indian, in saying that a man killed a rabbit, would have to 
say the man, he, one, animate, standing, in the nominative case, pur- 
posely killed, by shooting an arrow, the rabbit, he, the one, animate, 
sitting, in the objective case; for the form of a verb to kill would have 
to be selected, and the verb changes its form by inflection and incor- 
porated particles to denote person, number, and gender as animate or 
inanimate, and gender as standing, sitting, or lying, and case; and the 
form of the verb would also express whether the killing was done acci- 
dentally or purposely, and whether it was by shooting or by some other 
process, and, if by shooting, whether by bow and arrow, or with a gun; 
and the form of the verb would in like manner have to express all of 
these things relating to the object; that is, the person, number, gender, 
and case of the object; and from the multiplicity of paradigmatic forms 
of the verb to kill this particular one would have to be selected. Per- 
haps one time in a million it would be the purpose to express all of these 
particulars, and in that case the Indian would have the whole expres- 
sion in one compact word, but in the nine hundred and ninety-nine thou- 
sand nine hundred and ninety-nine cases all of these particulars would 
have to be thought of in the selection of the form of the verb, when no 
valuable purpose would be accomplished thereby. 
In the development of the English, as well as the French and German, 
linguistic evolution has not been in vain. 
Judged by these criteria, the English stands alone in the highest 
rank; but as a written language, in the way in which its alphabet is 
used, the English has but emerged from a barbaric condition. 
