718 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 488. 



vowel-harmony. For instance, an impor- 

 tant feature of the vowel-harmony of the 

 latter group of languages consists of the 

 adaptation of the suffix vowels to the vowel 

 of the root, which never changes. The 

 vowel of the first syllable thus governs all 

 the rest of the vowels, no matter what their 

 number may be. In the harmony of the 

 Yukaghir language, the root-vowel fre- 

 quently adapts itself to the vowel of the 

 suffix. Besides, in the plural forms of the 

 personal pronouns (met, mit; tet, tit; 

 tudel, titel) an attempt may be noticed in 

 the language to derive new forms by means 

 of changes of vowels within the root (the 

 method of Semitic languages) without any 

 additions from outside, a feature of which 

 traces may be found in two other so-called 

 'isolated' Siberian languages— that of the 

 Kott and the Ostyak from Yenisei. 



The difJerence in the conjugation of 

 transitive and intransitive verbs which we 

 have in the Yukaghir language is a feature 

 common to almost all American languages. 

 The same may be said of the capacity of 

 bases of transitive verbs to change into 

 intransitive by means of suffixes, and vice 

 versa. 



Suffixes of purely verbal forms are dif- 

 ferent from case-suffixes, and they can not 

 be brought in connection with personal 

 pronouns. 



A necessai"y element of plurality is the 

 sound p ; while that of futurity, t. In the 

 Chukehee and Eskimo languages t consti- 

 tutes the element of plurality, and in the 

 Koi-yak language it forms the element of 

 the dual number. 



Adjectives, being verbal forms, do not 

 undergo any inflections. 



There is no difference betAveen animate 

 and inanimate objects, as is the case in 

 some Indian dialects. 



The feature known as ' polysynthesis ' in 

 American dialects, and which consists of a 

 combination of two or more uninflected 



bases into one word, in which one of the 

 bases expresses the principal idea, and is 

 put at the end of the word, while the other 

 bases figure as secondary definitive ideas, 

 is also to be met with in the Yukaghir lan- 

 guage. 



It is true that there is no actual in- 

 corporation to be found in the language; 

 neither pronouns nor nouns, when direct 

 or indirect objects, are incorporated in 

 the predicate; but the nature of the syn- 

 tactical construction of the Yukaghir lan- 

 guage is akin to incorporation. The verb 

 plays the main part in the sentence. It 

 is always placed at the end of the sen- 

 tence, being preceded, first by the subject 

 with all its modifiers, then by the direct 

 and indirect objects with their modifers, 

 then by the adverbs. If the subject is not 

 accompanied by any modifiers, and it is 

 known from the sense of the story who the 

 acting person is, then it is usually dropped. 

 The subject very often does not assume the 

 element of plurality, though there are 

 many acting persons, as long as the sense 

 of plurality is expressed by the verb. 

 The Horizontal Plane of the Skull: Dr. 



Feanz Boas, New York. 



Evening Session — 8 o'clock. 

 At the Free Museum of Science and Art, 

 University of Pennsylvania, President 

 Smith in the chair. 



Pompeii and Saint Pierre: an Examination 

 of the Plinian Narration, and other 

 Studies (with lantern slide ilhistra- 

 tions) : Professor Angelo Heilprin, 

 Philadelphia. 



A reception was given in honor of the 

 members of the society and the ladies ac- 

 companying them, at 9 o'clock, at the Free 

 Museum of Science and Art. 



FRIDAT, APRIL, 8. 



Morning Session— 10 o'clock. 

 Vice-President Barker in the chair. 



