OF LANGUAGES. 



43 



Tungusian Akmu is elder brother, Ekmil elder sister; in 

 Teleutish the same relations are called Aga and Ege. In 

 Finnish Ukko is " old man" and Africa " old woman." With 

 this coincides Hungarian, where Ak stands for elder brother 

 and Uk for grandmother (old woman). In the Dakota 

 language Cinski means son, Cunski daughter ; Cin elder 

 brother, Gun elder sister ; Hepan second son, Hapan second 

 daughter. 42 The language of the Abipones furnishes addi- 

 tional proof of this noteworthy peculiarity. In this concrete 

 tongue the pronoun of the third person varies according to 

 the situation of the person of whom we speak. If that 

 person is present, and is a man, he is called Eneha; if a 

 woman, she is called Anaha ; if he be sitting the right term 

 is Hiniha, if she be sitting it is Haniha ; if he be walking 

 and seen it is Ehaha, if she walking and seen it is Ahaha.^ 



The most important difference existing between children 

 when regarded from a parental view, is offered undoubtedly 

 by sex. Concrete languages do systematically exclude 

 gender, they do not — a very few instances excepted — possess 

 equivalent terms for such abstract words as " boy " or n son/' 

 " girl" or " daughter," but preferring as their starting-point 

 the genderless or neutral expression " child," join to it the 

 sexual determinatives " male " or ' ' female." Occasionally 

 even the word child is omitted, and the terms male or female 

 are deemed sufficient to denote son or daughter. E.g., in the 

 Yoruba, Hawaian, Karen and Telugu languages " child" is 

 respectively expressed by Oma, Kaiki, Pho and Bidda, 

 <e male " by kuri, kana, khwa and moga, and " female " by 

 here, vahina, mu and dda. A boy is therefore respectively 

 called Oma kuri, Kaiki kana, Pho khwa and Moga bidda, and 



(42) Compare F. L. 0. Rohrig, 1. c. 



(43) See : An Account of the Abipones from the Latin of Martki Dobriz- 

 hoffer. London, 1822, Vol. II, page 1G6. 



