GENERAL REMARKS 
148 
The Lapponic tongue has been fo little attended to by foreign¬ 
ers, the miffionary obferves, that it is hardly underftood even by 
the Norwegians bordering on Lapland; although it is not lets 
worthy of being reduced to fixed grammatical rules, and rendered 
intelligible to other nations, than the other living languages of 
Europe. It is particularly recommended by an elegant brevity, 
which expreffies in one word what in other languages would re¬ 
quire feveral. For example, my little loaf is expreffed by the fingle 
Lapponic word lacbatzhiam. This term lacbatzhiam is analyfed 
in the following manner: it is made up of the noun fubftantive 
laibe, a cake or loaf; the diminutive atz ; and the pronoun am, 
which fignifies mine. The Lapponic admits of a commutation of 
confonants, namely of the labials B and P, B and M, F and V; 
the gutturals G and K; the dentals S and Z; the linguals D and 
N, D and T; the labial letter F, and the guttural K, are alfo ex¬ 
changed with one another: the letters gn, joined together in the 
fame fyllable, are pronounced with an afpiration. 
The miffionary, in farther iiluftration of the genius and charac¬ 
ter of the Lapponic, goes at very confiderable length through all the 
parts of fpeech of which it is compofed, viz. noun, pronoun, verb, 
prepofition, and the particle. There are but few of my readers, 
I prefume, who would thank me for following that author 
through the whole of his differtations on the elements of the Lap- 
landifh tongue ; and I fhall content myfelf with the ftatement of 
a few particulars that probably will not be unacceptable. 
The firfl ten numbers in the Laplandifh table of notation are— 
Auft 
O 
