BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMEEICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 45 



all these cases, phonetics, details of grammatical structure, and 

 vocabulary will show far-reaching similarities. 



Comparison of Distinct Languages 



The problem becomes much more difficult when the similarities in 

 any of these traits become less pronounced. With the extension of 

 our knowledge of primitive languages, it has been found that cases 

 are not rare in which languages spoken in certain continuous areas 

 show radical differences in vocabulary and in grammatical form, 

 but close similarity in their phonetic elements. In other cases the 

 similarity of phonetic elements may be less pronounced, but there 

 may exist a close similarity in structural details. Again, many 

 investigators have pointed out peculiar analogies in certain words 

 without being able to show that grammatical form and general 

 phonetic character coincide. Many examples of such conditions may 

 be given. In America, for instance, the phonetic similarity of the 

 languages spoken between the coast of Oregon and Mount St. Elias 

 is quite striking. All these languages are characterized by the occur- 

 rence of a great many peculiar Tc sounds and peculiar I sounds, and 

 by their tendency towards great stress of articulation, and, in most 

 cases, towards a clustering of consonants. Consequently to our ear 

 these languages sound rough and harsh. Notwithstanding these 

 similarities, the grammatical forms and the vocabularies are so 

 utterly distinct that a common origin of the languages of this area 

 seems entirely out of the question. A similar example may be given 

 from South Africa, where the Bantu negroes, Bushmen, and Hotten- 

 tots utilize some peculiar sounds which are produced by inspiration — 

 by drawing in the breath, not by expelling it — and which are ordi- 

 ,narily called ''clicks." Notwithstanding this very peculiar common 

 trait in their languages, there is no similarity in grammar and hardly 

 any in vocabulary. 



We might also give the example of the Siouan and the Iroquois 

 languages of North America, two stocks that have been in proximity, 

 and which are characterized by the occurrence of numerous nasal- 

 ized vowels; or the phonetic characteristics of Calif ornian languages, 

 which sound to our ear euphonious, and are in strong contrast to the 

 languages of the North Pacific coast. 



It must be said that, on the whole, such phonetic characteristics 

 of a limited area appear in their most pronounced form when we 



