Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human RaceJohnes, Arthur James
History
Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race
Johnes, Arthur James
Ethnology; Human beings -- Origin; Language and languages; Monogenism and polygenism
The Philological objections to the proposition that the North American
Tribes are of Asiatic origin have by many writers been regarded as
insuperable. Du Ponceau, who has given profound attention to the subject,
dwells, 1, On the differences in words among the American languages
themselves; 2, On the failure which he imputes to those writers who have
attempted to identify the Indians with some one individual Asiatic nation,
as the Chinese, the Tartars, or the Jews, &c.; and 3, On the differences
in the Grammars of the North American dialects and those of the languages
of the Old World, which he treats as a conclusive refutation of all
arguments in favour of original unity! Mr. Catlin also lays great stress
on the first of these considerations, viz. the great differences he found
in the words of the dialects of the Tribes he visited.
To every one of these objections the general principles developed in the
previous pages will be found to involve a complete answer. 1. The
differences apparently fundamental in the words of American languages may
be accounted for in the same manner as similar differences in the
languages of the old world (the Gothic and Celtic for example,) have
already been explained, viz. by the tendency to abandon different
synonymes. 2. That attempts to prove a close specific relation between the
North American dialects and any one Asiatic language, such as the Chinese
or the Hebrew, should have failed, was to be expected as a consequence of
the same tendency. 3. Finally, differences of Grammar have been shown to
be fallacious evidence viewed separately and without due regard to other
features of language.(137) Moreover, it will presently appear clearly
that, even as regards the Grammar of the Indian Dialects, Du Ponceau’s
impressions can be distinctly proved to be erroneous, an extended
comparison serving to render manifest the interesting fact that, as
respects the elements of Grammar, these dialects perfectly agree with the
Asiatic and European languages, while in the mode of combining those
elements, they do not differ from those languages more widely than the
latter differ among themselves.
If the ancestors of the American Indians emigrated at a remote period from
the opposite Asiatic Coasts, we have no right to anticipate in their
dialects a complete conformity to any one language of the old world, but
general and varying features of resemblance to several. The kindred
dialects of the same Continent after the lapse of a considerable time do
not exhibit any other kind of resemblance! Now this is the species of
relation which the North American Indian dialects actually display when
compared to the Languages of the Old World!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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