e left as he originally wrote them, with mere
corrections as to grammar--that we should then, in fact, have had
_Indian_ information. For Heckewelder thought and felt like a Delaware,
and believed all their stories.[89]
[Footnote 89: This admission of the re-composition of Mr. Heckewelder's
letters, and the excellent missionary's general deficiency, furnishes a
striking confirmation of the views and sagacity of a critic of the
_North American Review_, writing on that topic, in 1825. And the more
so, as those views were conjectural, but they were the conjectures of
one who had personally known Mr. Heckewelder.]
MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGE.--_G_. You have asserted that all the Indian roots
are monosyllables.
_S_. Most of them, not all. This is a branch to which I have paid
particular attention; and if there is anything in Indian philology in
which I deem myself at home, it is in the analysis of Indian words, the
digging out of roots, and showing their derivatives and compounds.
_G_. The societies would print your observations on these topics. They
are of much interest.
ORIGIN OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGE.--_S_. The Hebrew is based on roots like
the Indian, which appear to have strong analogies to the Semitic family.
It is not clearly Hindostanee, or Chinese, or Norse. I have perused
Rafn's Grammar by Marsh. The Icelandic (language) clearly lies at the
foundation of the Teutonic.
_G_. I have not seen this. The grammatical principles of the Hebrew [90]
are widely different (from the Indian). There is, in this respect, no
resemblance. I think the Indian language has principles akin to the
Greek. The middle moods, or voices, in the Greek and Indian dialects are
alike; they make the imperfect past, or _aorist_, in a similar manner.
[Footnote 90: Mr. G. did not understand the Hebrew, and was not aware
that the person he addressed had made a study of it in particular
reference to the Indian.]
PATOIS.--_G_. The great impediment to popular instruction in France, is
the multiplicity of _patois_, and the tenacity of the peasantry for
them. The same objection exists to the use of so many Indian dialects by
such numbers of petty tribes. Pity these were not all abolished. They
can never prosper without coming on to general grounds in this respect.
CHINESE.--Mr. Duponceau had published Col. Galindo's account of the
Ottomic of Mexico, and likened it to the Chinese. It was the
very reverse.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--_S_. The English la
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