130 Si/an and Horsok Vocabularies. [No. 2. 



them necessarily compounds — and compounds of no unskilful contri- 

 vance — as by the scantiness and infantine simplicity of the contri- 

 vances by which those terms are held together in sentences. Nay, 

 if we look carefully to what has been so well done in one's own day 

 for the elucidation of our own language, we shall discern that the 

 new lights have been principally etymological, borrowed from, as 

 thrown upon, the construction and composition of words, not of 

 sentences. 



Perhaps it will be urged that, after all, the structural analogy I 

 have established between the Gyarung and Circassian tongues be- 

 longs rather to the etymological than to the syntactic department of 

 language. Let it be granted, and I would then ask whether the 

 analogy be therefore less important ? And is it not singular and a 

 proof wherein resides the essential genius and character of these 

 tongues, and where therefore we are to seek for their true and closest 

 relations, that my scanty knowledge of the Himalayan and Tibetan 

 group of them should enable me unhesitatingly to analyse the words 

 of the Caucasian group, of which I know nothing and to pronounce, 

 for instance, Didi to be a reduplicate root, and Dini to be a root and 

 servile prefix, with perfect confidence and, as I doubt not, with equal 

 accuracy ? That will at all events be known by and bye, and should 

 the result be such as I look for, the consequent affinity of the Cauca- 

 sian and Mongolian tongues will take an unquestionable shape and 

 stand on the unassailable basis of words similarly constructed in all 

 their parts and similarly employed throughout. 



I must, however, whilst thus insisting on the pre-eminent import- 

 ance of Mongolidan vocables, freely admit that those of all my present 

 series are by no means entitled to equal confidence, my access to the 

 individuals who furnished the Sokpa and Gyami words in particular 

 having been deficient for such analytic dissection as I hold by, and 

 the competence of my informants, moreover, not beyond question, I 

 am likewise much in want of adequate original information respecting 

 the Altaic group, and of the books that might supply it. Neverthe- 

 less, I think, I may safely affirm upon the strength of my vocabularies 

 that the Sokpo of the Tibetans are, as has been already assumed in 



and Davong commands, et sic de ceteris. Compare the disjunctive we, so common 

 in these tongues. 



