50 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



The prepositional particles perform the function of indi- 

 cating a great variety of subordinate relations, like the 

 prepositions used as distinct parts of speech in English. 



By the demonstrative function of some of the pronominal 

 particles, they are closely related to adverbial particles, and 

 adverbial particles are closely related to prepositional parti- 

 cles, so that it will be sometimes difficult to say of a particu- 

 lar particle whether it be pronominal or adverbial, and of 

 another particular particle whether it be adverbial or prepo- 

 sitional. 



Thus the three classes of particles are not separated by 

 absolute planes of demarkation. 



The use of these particles as parts of the verb ; the use of 

 nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions as intransitive 

 verbs ; and the direct use of verbs as nouns, adjectives, and 

 adverbs, make the study of an Indian tongue to a large ex- 

 tent the study of its verbs. 



To the extent that voice, mode, and tense are accom- 

 plished by the use of agglutinated particles or inflections, to 

 that extent adverbs and verbs are undifferentiated. 



To the extent that adverbs are found as incorporated par- 

 ticles in verbs, the two parts of speech are undifferentiated. 



To the extent that prepositions are particles incorporated 

 in the verb, prepositions and verbs are undifferentiated. 



To the extent that prepositions are affixed to nouns, prepo- 

 sitions and nouns are undifferentiated. 



In all these particulars it is seen that the Indian tongues 

 belong to a very low type of organization. Various scholars 

 have called attention to this feature by describing Indian 

 languages as being holophrastic, polysynthetic, or synthetic. 

 The term synthetic is perhaps the best, and may be used as 

 synonymous with undifferentiated. 



Indian tongues, therefore, may be said to be highly syn- 

 thetic in that their parts of speech are imperfectly differen- 

 tiated. 



In these same particulars the English language is highly 

 organized, as the parts of speech are highly differentiated. 

 Yet the difference is one of degree, not of kind. 



