194 Languages of the various tribes inhabiting the [March, 



parts of speech. The writer's object on the present occasion, has there- 

 fore been, to show how people, who make use of none, or but few of 

 these inflections, make their language subserve the same purposes to 

 them, which languages abounding with inflections accomplish for other 

 nations, and this, if fully done, he trusts will lay open the peculiar 

 grammar of each language sufficient for all purposes of investigation. 



In attempting to do this, however, with the languages selected for 

 examination, a difficulty meets us at the very onset. 



In a cultivated language there generally exists a certain fixed mode 

 of expression, used in standard works of literature, which may be con- 

 sidered as the standard of style, — deviations from which must be sensi- 

 bly perceived, and regarded as uncouth and improper. Where such 

 works exist, examples taken from them amply suffice for exemplifying 

 the various peculiarities of grammar ; but the following remarks can 

 be deduced from no such solid principles. In languages so rude as to 

 have never been reduced to writing, our examples of grammar must be 

 drawn from conversation, often incorrect, and always fluctuating. Add 

 to this, the speakers themselves are so ignorant of the theoretical con- 

 struction of their own language that they are unable to give the en- 

 quirer the least information respecting its grammatical principles. The 

 only plan left the writer therefore, was to collate a number of words 

 and sentences arbitrarily, and then by patiently comparing these sen- 

 tences together to deduce from them the system on which they are 

 founded. 



Part I. 



Having offered these preliminary remarks, we proceed now to the 

 consideration of the Bhotia Language, more commonly designated 

 The Thibetan, 



A copious and elaborate grammar of this language has been already 

 laid before the public by M. Alexander Csoma De Koros, and to that 

 work, the student must be referred for a clear exposition of all its pecu- 

 liarities. Our remarks therefore will be very concise, touching only on 

 those points on which information may be requisite to aid in instituting 

 a comparison between this language and the dialects spoken by the 

 adjoining tribes. 



Facts seem to indicate, that there was a time when all the countries 

 west and south of China, up to the very borders of Bengal, used the 



