Languages. The American languages show considerable
variety in phonetics and structure. While some are vocalic and appear
melodious to our ear, others contain many consonant sounds to which we
are unaccustomed and which seem to give them a harsh character.
Particularly frequent are sounds produced by contact between the base
of the tongue and the soft palate, similar to the Scotch ch in loch, and a number of
explosive l's, which are produced by pressing the tongue against the
palate and suddenly expelling the air between the teeth. harshness
produced by clustering consonants is peculiar to' the N. NV. coast of
America. Sonorous vocalic languages are found in a large part of the
Mississippi basin and in California. Peculiar to many American
languages is a slurring of terminal syllables, which makes the
recording of grammatical forms difficult.
Contrary to the prevalent notion, the vocabularies are rich and their
grammatical structure is systematic and intricate. Owing to the wealth
of derivatives it is difficult to estimate the number of words in any
American language; but it is certain that in every one there are a
couple of thousand of stem words and many thousand words, as that term
is defined in English dictionaries.
A considerable variety of grammatical structure exists, but there are
a few common traits that seem to be characteristic of most American
languages. The complexity of grammar is often great because many ideas
expressed by separate words in the languages of other continents are
expressed bygramrnatical processes in the languages of the Indians.
The classification of words differs somewhat from the familiar
grouping in Indo-European languages. The demarcation between noun and
verb is often indistinct, many expressions being both denominative and
predicative. Often the intransitive verb and the noun are identical in
form, while the transitive verb only is truly verbal in character. In
other languages the transitive verb is nominal, while the intransitive
only is truly verbal. These phenomena are generally accompanied by the
use of possessive pronouns with the nominal and of personal pronouns
with the verbal class of words. In other cases the verbal forms are
differentiated from the noun, but the close relationship between the
two classes is indicated by the similarity of the pronominal forms.
The intransitive verb generally includes the ideas which Indo-European
languages express by means of adjectives. Independent pronouns are
often compounds, and the pronoun appears in most cases subordinated to
the verb.
In the singular are distinguished self (or speaker), person addressed,
and person spoken of; in the plural, corresponding to our first
person, are often distinguished the combination of speaker and persons
addressed, and speaker and persons spoken of, the so-called inclusive
and exclusive forms.
The demonstrative pronouns are analogous to the personal pronoun in
that they are generally developed in three forms, indicating
respectively the thing near me, near the, near him.
Their develnpncent is seinetiuces even inure exuberant, visibility
and invisibility, present and past, or location to the right, left,
front and back of, and above and below the speaker, being
distinguished.
The subordination of the pronoun to the verb is often carried to
extremes. In many languages the pronominal subject, the object, and
the indirect object are incorporated in the verb, for which reason
American languages have often been called "incorporating languages."
There are, however, numerous languages in which this pronominal
subordination does not occur. In some the process of incorporation
does not cease with the pronoun; but the noun, particularly the
nominal object, is treated in the same manner. Where such
incorporation is found the development of nominal cases is sight,
since the incorporation renders this unnecessary.
The occurrence of other classes of words depends largely on the
development of another feature of American languages, which is
probably common to them all, namely, the expression of a great number
of special ideas by means of either affixes or stem modification. On
account of the exuberance of such elements American languages have
been called " polysynthetic." The character of the subordinated
elements shows great variations. In some languages most of the ideas
that are subordinated are instrumental (with the hand, the foot, or
the like; with the point or the edge of something, etc.); in others
they include all kinds of qualifying ideas, such as are generally
expressed by auxiliary verbs, verbal compounds, and adverbs. The
Eskimo, for instance, by composition of other elements with the stein
"to see," may express "he only orders him to go and see"; a Chiuimesyan composition with the verb to go is, "he went with him
upward in the dark and came against an obstacle." The existence of
numerous subordinate elements of this kind has a strong effect in
determining the series of stein words in a language. Whenever this
method of composition is highly developed many special ideas are
expressed by stems of very general significance, combined with
qualifying elements. Their occurrence is also the cause of the
obviousness of Indian etymologies. These elements also occur sometimes
independently, so that the process is rather one of coordinate
composition than of subordination. The forms of words that enter
composition of this kind sometimes undergo considerable phonetic
modification by losing affixes or by other processes. In such cases
composition apparently is brought about by
apucope, or decapitation of words; but c n ust. of these seec u t e he
red uci b l e' to regular processes. In many languages poly_ synthesis
is so highly developed that it almost entirely sculptresses adverbs,
prepositions, and conjunctions.
The categories of Indo-European languages do not correspond strictly
to those of Indian languages. This is true particularly of the ideas
of gender and plurality. Grammatical gender based on sex distinction
is very rare in America. It is based oil other qualities, as animate
and inanimate, or noble and ignoble, and often relates only to shape,
as round, long, or flat. Complete absence of such classification is
frequent. Plurality is seldom clearly developed; it is often absent
even in the pronoun; its place is taken by the ideas of collectivity
and distribution, which are expressed more often than plurality. Tense
is also weakly developed in many languages, although others have a
complex system of tenses. Like other adverbial ideas tense is often
expressed by affixes. bloods and voice of the verb are also sometimes
undeveloped and are expressed by adverbial elements.
In the use of grammatical processes there is great diversity. Suffixes
occur almost everywhere; prefixes are not quite so frequent. Infixes
seem to be contiiced to the Siouan languages, although in fixation by
metathesis occurs in other languages also. Reduplication is frequent,
sometimes extending to triplication; but in some groups of languages
it does not occur at all. Other forms of modification of stem also
occur.
Indian languages tend to express ideas with much graphic detail in
regard to localization and form, although other determining elements
which Indo-European languages require may be absent. Those languages
are, therefore, not so well adapted to generalized statements as to
livt'ly description. The power to form abstract ideas is nevertheless
not lacking, and the development of abstract thought would find in
every one of the languages a ready means of expression. Yet, since the
Indian is not given to purely abstract speculation, his abstract terms
always appear in close connection with concrete thought; for instance,
qualities are often expressed by nominal terms, but are never used
without possessive pronouns according to the types of culture served by the languages we find
holophrastic terms, expressing complex groups of ideas. These,
however, are not due to a lack of power to classify, but are rather
expressions of form of culture, single terms being intended for those
ideas that are of prince importance to the people.
The differentiation of stocks into dialects shows great variation,
some stocks comprising only one dialect, while others embrace many
that are mutually unintelligible. While the Eskimo have retained
their language in all its Minor features for cent tines, that of the
Salish, who are confined to a small area is the N. Pacific region,
is split up into innumerable dialects. The fate of each stock is
probably due as much to the morphological traits of the language
itself as to the effects of its contact with other languages. Wherever
abundant reduplication, phonetic changes in the stem, and strong
phonetic modifications in composition occur, changes seem to be more
rapid than where grammatical processes are based on simple laws of
composition. Contact with other languages has had a far-reaching
effect through assimilation of syntactic structure and, to a certain
extent, of phonetic type. There is, however, no historical proof of
the change of any Indian language since the time of the discovery
comparable with that of the language of England between the 10th and
lath centuries.
A few peculiarities of language are worth mentioning. As various
parts of the population speaking„ modern English differ somewhat in
their forms of expression, so similar variations are found in American
languages. One of the frequent types of difference is that between
the language of men and that of women. This difference may be one of
pronunciation, as among some Eskimo tribes, or may consist in the use
of different sets of imperative and declarative particles, as among
the Sioux, or in other differences of vocabulary; or it may be more
fundamental, due to the foreign origin of the women of the tribe. In
incantations and in the formal speeches of priests and shamans a
peculiar vocabulary is sometimes used, containing many archaic and
symbolic terms. See Chinook Jargon, Linguistic
