the American languages argjfound: in the ^stern s o f veâ>aî
conjugation, which are so various* and elaborate,-«« to W e
induced Mi Du Poneeau^to give tothe whole «lass of American
languages P o l y a y n t t e ^ ' These traits are
common to the-American languages. In th e old world they
have only been discovered in the E uskariak • Some additional
circumstances o f resemblance have been observed by Humboldt:
“ The comparison/’ says this writer,.“ which ; Vater
has instituted, js in the., highest-degree striking and interest-
ingy It admits of an extension beyond -what relates-to the
conjugation n f verbs, the point to which Vater had- principally
adverted, and displays itself^-in particulars which .appear
more arbitrary. For example, the sound of ƒ is wanting in
most of the American languages, as it is in the .Basque^and
in both there prevails a strong dislike to the immediate, junc-?
tion of the mute and liquid consonants. JBut these, analogies
are by no means sufficient .- to j nstify ms aniSUsauming-. an. ini,
mediate ç o n n ^ o n between the jresjaeé^ve race^of menj-.-ocdu
deriving ©ne from the others and those who persist, mjsidedu-4-
cing such an inference, must at least gWpiack^to .t f f e w s i
remotp. period of dark antiquity, beyond-the leach of h isto ric ^
traditions and in which the disiributioiv ^ofeseas/andUab^l
was very different from the present.”* The .differences-..Ix*
tween the Euskarian and the- American languages appeared
to M. du Ponceau to be almost as striking as their* analogfesl
This great philologer- says, that he once with: Pmfess'oT
Vater believed the forms - of the American- verbs^to be -
similar to those' of the Basque, but that -he modified that
opinion when he became better acquainted with a language
which has mo parallel in all the rest of the World. “ This
language/’ he observes, « preserved in a corner of Europe, by’
Siich an hypothesisTias been maintained in a work published in America,
and ^ yet little known itf Europe, This work is entitled Researches on Ame-
TTcay hang an attempt to settle some points relatives the Aborigines of America,
by J H. Macculloh, Junr. J ff.D ., Baltimore, 1817. The 'author maintains
that there were formerly lands scattered through 1 1 Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
whicli, tom and separated by the deluge, were yet sufficiently continuous to aid
the passage of men and animals from different parts of tKe old to'the^ew conti,
nent. — Humboldt’s Untersuchungen. • ’•
a, few thousand mountaineers; is the sole remaining fragment
of, perhaps^a" hundred ^dialects, constructed on the same
plan, which' prbba&bly* existed®.and were Universally spoken at
a;;remote period -in.that quarter of the world. Like the bones
of fhe mammoth, and the^dhes bf unknown races which have
perished?,.4t remains a -monuölexlt- of the destruction, produced
by a r su-cCe'skon, off ages, Itostand'sisffigfe and alone of its
kindss,surrounded by' idicxms whose1 modern construction
bears no kind of analogy .to iff'- I t #is;a singular language;
like those^shf the A m e r i c a n h i g h l y artificial in its
foiifiSj- and so compounded as to express many ideas a t the
same?time; but when,-its forms are compared with those óf
the American languages, ifesis;impossible not toifierebive an
immense difference which* exists between them/’ .The most
striking, difference pointed out by M. du P#i#S§u and M. chi
Humboldt, between the Euskarian and the American
languages, consists in the fact, that th e latter arej entirely deficient
in auxiliary verb®.; “ There are no words/’ says M.
du. Poncea%- “ that I know, in any American idioms, ex-
' pres sing j i abs-tra cte d ly, the ideas signified by these, two verbs«.
They havëi'tfe verb sto, 1 am, in a particular situation or
place, but not the verb sum; the ,vé‘rbs possidèöjteueo, but
r nbt Aa&co, in the “Vague sense that we affix to it/ On the
/ contrary*.jn the conjugation of the Basque verbs, these twb
auxiliaries are every thing; it is on them that is lavished all
that profusion- bf forms, which enables them to express together
the relative ideas connected with the verb; while the
principal action or passion is expressed separately and by
itself, by means of a participle. For instance, I love him, is
a transitive verb, and is rendered in the Basque by maitetuba
.dot, which »^laterally.; means amatum ilium habea ego*
Maitetuba is the word which expresses the participial form
amatum t the three other, words are comprised in the monosyllable
dot, the first letter of which, d, stands for ilium ;
o is,the root of'the auxiliary verb habeo, and * represents the
personal pronoun ego. It! may be said, indeed^ that these
forms ate complicated, like those of the Indian, verbs, and that
like them, they serve to express complex ideas; at the same
time the difference in their arrangement is so great, that it