only four radical languages, even including the language of Groenland. İf however, it should be true, as Humboldt thinks, that there are several hundreds of primitive American languages, it would only afford stronger proof of the truth of the position, in support of which the existence of three radical languages has been mentioned; namely, that the Indians are not the descendants of the twelve tribes.

I feel very great diffidence in appearing to call in question so high an authority, yet I cannot help suggesting the probability, that the more our knowledge of Indian languages is extended, the greater will be the affinities we shall discover; and that many will be found to be related, which are now considered as totally distinct.

Even in written language, to trace etymologies is, in many cases, a difficult task; and requires an extensive knowledge of the philosophy of human speech. But this difficulty is immeasurably increased, when languages are merely oral, and are represented in foreign characters, not by the natives themselves, but by persons who are often ignorant of all other tongues but their own, who are confessedly unacquainted with that which they endeavour to write, and whose power of discriminating sounds is not always the most acute.

When a language is written, the writing continues unaltered through all the changes of pronunciation; when it is only spoken, the deviations from the original become rapid and various, in proportion as the imperfections are more or less extensive, of the bodily organs and the mental faculties.

As, therefore, languages merely oral tend inevitably to corruption, so the attempts made to reduce them to writing, are subject to corresponding imperfections. The alphabets in which they are represented, may vary in themselves, and be severally incompetent to convey an exact idea of their powers. Persons who use the same alphabet may employ different combinations of letters to represent the same sounds. "I have frequently found," says the celebrated circumnavigator, Captain Cook, "that the same words, written down by two or more persons from the mouth of the same native, on being compared together, differed not a little." Voyages, vol. 2. p. 521. Lond. 1785. 4to. And even if the sounds be perfectly represented, we know, from our own experience, the confusion, with regard to etymology, which would arise from making pronunciation the standard of orthography. The anomalies of English pronunciation are so great, that if we were to write it as it is spoken, to trace its etymologies would require the powers of an Edipus.

Under such disadvantages, we certainly ought to be cautious not to form hasty opinions with regard to the affinities of Indian languages. Our means of information are, at present, too limited, and we must patiently wait the result of those inquiries, which, though commenced too late, have,

at length, been happily begun by the American Philosophical Society. The collection of information from distant and independent sources, will lead, by a gradual approximation, to the most accurate results; and we shall probably be able to apply to the subject, the remarks of the great lexicographer of our language, that in proportion" as books are multiplied, the various dialects of the same country will always be observed to grow fewer and less different."

Perhaps I ought not to dismiss this subject without observing, that Mr. Jefferson long ago made the same remark as M. Von Humboldt, with regard to the great number of American languages, in his Notes on Virginia. "Arranging them," says he, "under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced; and doing the same by those of the red men of Asia, there will be found, probably, twenty in America for one in Asia, of those radical languages, so called, because, if they were ever the same, they have lost all resemblance to one another. A separation into dialects may be the work of a few ages only, but for two dialects to recede from one another till they have lost all vestiges of their common origin, must require an immense course of time; perhaps, not less than many people give to the age of the earth. A greater number of those radical changes of language having taken place among the red men of America, proves them of greater antiquity than those of Asia.”—Notes on Virginia, Query 11. Aborigines.

The acute and scientific author might have contented himself with stating the fact, and have spared the slur upon Revelation. It is by no means certain, that the same phenomenon does not exist in Asia, The languages spoken in the immediate neighbourhood of the Caucasian mountains, have little more in common than their geographical situation. Except the Armenian and Georgian," say the Quarterly Reviewers after Adelung, “they are scarcely ever employed in writing; and, principally perhaps from this cause, they exhibit as great a diversity in the space of a few square miles, as those of many other nations do, in as many thousands." Q. R. vol. x. p. 285. Rev. of the Mithridates. But admitting that it is confined to America, is there no way of solving the difficulty, but by attacking the Scriptures? And if it be inexplicable, shall we surrender all the stupendous evidences of Divine Revelation, because we are unable to account for a fact which is comparatively insignificant? This is a kind of minute philosophy, unworthy of so distinguished a name, which can be compared only to the calculations of the Canon Recupero in Brydone, who sought to determine the world's age by enumerating the lavas of Etna.

NOTE D.

There may be an affinity among languages in two ways; in etymology, and in grammatical construction. Where there are etymological affini

ties, there will of course be a similarity in grammatical forms. On the other hand, languages may be entirely different as to etymology, and yet similar in grammatical construction. The question, with regard to the descent of the Indians from the Hebrews, must rest upon both these affinities; for although resemblances in grammatical construction will not prove a common origin, yet differences in grammar afford the strongest evidence of the converse of the proposition.

ETYMOLOGY.

TABLE I.-Delaware, and Iroquois words of the Onondago dialect,

It may not be amiss to make some remarks upon the pronunciation of this and the following specimens. In Zeisberger's vocabulary, the powers of the German Alphabet are employed to express the pronunciation of Indian words. Ch has the guttural sound of the Greek X. When the consonants are doubled, it is merely to denote that the preceding vowel is short, as a in man. I and j before a vowel have the power of y which I have therefore in most cases taken the liberty to substitute. Sch is equivalent to the English sh. The apostrophe after n k and s denotes the contraction of a vowel, as n'pommauchsi, for ni pommauchsi. Que and ke differ; the former being pronounced like kwe. W before a vowel, as in English. In representing the Hebrew in English letters, I have followed the points, which give, I am inclined to believe, the traditional representation of the original vowel sounds. These remarks will apply to all the specimens, excepting those from Adair, of which I can say nothing.

* Cherokee, Kóra, according to Adair.

TABLE II.

NUMERALS.-1. The Onondago dialect of the Iroquois, from Zeisberger. 2. The Lenapé, or Delaware, from Zeisberger. (Transactions, Hist. and Lit. of Am. Phil. Soc. ut sup. p. 374.) 3. The Floridian, being the Cherokee, Chickesaw and Choctaw, and Creek or Muskohgee, from Adair's Hist. p. 78.

We know so little of the Floridian languages, that nothing can be said of them, at present, with any certainty. The variation in the numerals, however, must not lead us hastily to suppose, that there are no etymological affinities between the Cherokee and the other languages here mentioned. Adair says, that Tahre, the Cherokee word for two, signifies in Muskohgee, a stone. So, Ishka, five, signifies in the latter a mother. Adair confesses, that he had not much skill in the Muskohge dialect. It is very observable, that the numerals of the Minsi and Unami tribes of the Lenapé, vary nearly as much as those of the Chickesaws and Muskohgees. The specimen of the Lenapé above exhibited, is of the Unami, which is considered as the pure or mother tongue. The following are the numerals of the Minsi dialect:-1. Gulli; 2. Nischa; 3. Nacha; 4. Newa; 5. Nalan; 6. Guttasch; 7. Nischoash; 8. Chaasch; 9. Nolewi; 10. Wimbat.

GRAMMATICAL FORMS.