114 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



language as elaboi'ate, varied, and complete as the Ai'abic or the 

 Sanscrit — or as any of those still more remarkable languages of 

 which an account has now to be given, in response to the other class 

 of incjuiries 1 



The opinion which prevails widely among scholars, and is sustained 

 by many treatises on philology of very high reputation, that the lan- 

 guages of the Aryan and Semitic families are the only tongues in 

 which genuine inflections are found, and that the variations in all 

 other languages are of a purely agglutinative character* — which some- 

 times merely simulates inflection — is an opinion which, though once 

 seemingly warranted, could only have retained its hold through the 

 neglect of students to investigate fully the facts that have been 

 steadily accumulating during the last half-centuiy. It is now time 

 to prove by the highest evidence, accepted by the best authorities, 

 that this opinion is utterly erroneous. If it can be shown that lan- 

 guages as clearly inflectional and as happily expressive as any of the 

 Aryan or Semitic tongues ai'e spoken by tribes in a low, almost the 

 lowest, stage of barbarism — in regard to whom the idea of a gradual 

 growth of linguistic development by slow accessions of culture would 

 be an litter absurdity — the propositions required by our theory will 

 probably be deemed to be sufliciently established. 



When, many years ago, it fell to my charge to make the first eth- 

 nographical survey of Oregon, I found in that region several families 

 of languages remarkaVjle for the great numbei-, variety, and expressive- 

 ness of their grammatical vai'iations. Among these, the most strik- 

 ing, so far as the knowledge which I then gained would enable me to 

 judge, was the Sahaptin family, comprising two principal languages 

 and several dialects. Of the leading language, the Sahaptin — then 

 spoken by a tribe of about two thousand persons, commonly known 

 among the whites as the Nez-perc^s, — I was so fortunate as to oV^tain 

 a complete account from a very able and accomplished American 

 missionai'y, the Rev. A. B. Smith, who had resided three years 

 among them, and who kindly placed in my hands his manuscript 

 grammar, comprising one of the most thorough and profound analyses 

 ever made of an unwritten tongue. Its accuracy I had good oppor- 

 tunity of testing, while procuring an extensive vocabulary from the 

 natives, with the aid of another highly educated and indefatigable 



