338 RECORDS. 



years' study of the Yukaghir language, being mainly a*sketch 

 of theLolyma dialect. The phonetic and morphological pecu- 

 liarities of the former are rather insignificant, but the Tundra 

 dialect has absorbed a considerable number of Tungus stems, 

 which in their use in word -formation have been subjected to the 

 rules of the Yukaghir grammar. These investigations show that 

 the Yukaghir language stands isolated from the Siberian lan- 

 guages of the so-called Ural-Altaic group, and that it has many 

 similarities to the languages of the American Indians. 



The chief phonetic and morphological differences that distin- 

 guish the Yukaghir languages from the Ural-Altaic languages 

 are the following: i. It has not the intricate system of vowel 

 harmony that is found in Ural-Altaic languages. 2. We do not 

 find that the vowel of the root is unchangeable — an important 

 rule in Ural-Altaic phonetics. 3. The Ural-Altaic possessive 

 suffixes of nouns and verbs are wholly absent in Yukaghir verbs, 

 and present in nouns only for the purpose of expressing owner- 

 ship of the third person. 4. Words are formed by means of 

 suffixes and prefixes, while the Ural-Altaic languages use suf- 

 fixes only. 



The chief points of similarity between the Yukaghir language 

 and Indian languages are : i. The existence of a simple har- 

 monic law in the use of vowels. 2. The use of prefixes. 3. 

 Adjectives are morphologically identical with verbal forms. 4. 

 The verb-bases are mostly stems, consisting of a single vowel 

 or a small group of consonants, while the noun bases are almost 

 always derivatives of verbal-forms. 5. The conjugation of 

 transitive verbs is clearly distinguished from that of intransitive 

 verbs. 6. Transitive verbs may be changed into intransitive 

 verbs by means of suffixes, and vice versa. 7. We find in the 

 Yukaghir language the polysynthesis of the American languages. 

 8. Although there is not the actual incorporation of the Amer- 

 ican languages, the syntactical construction of the Yukaghir 

 sentence is akin to it. 



James E. Lough, 



Secretary. 



