The present state of American Ethnography is the excuse for the
miscellaneous character of the following notices. What remains just now
to be done consists chiefly in the addition of details to an outline
already made out. Such communications, however, are mainly intended
to serve as isolated points of evidence towards the two following
statements:--
1. That no American language has an isolated position when compared
with the other tongues _en masse_, rather than with the languages of
any particular class.
2. That the affinity between the languages of the New World, as
determined by their _vocabularies_, is not less real than that inferred
from the analogies of their _grammatical structure_.
Modifications of the current doctrines, as to the value of certain
philological groups and classifications, are involved in the positions
given above.
_The Sitca and Kenay Languages._--That these languages are Esquimaux
may be seen by reference to the comparative vocabularies in Lisiansky's
Voyages and Baer's Statistische und Ethnographische Nachrichten, &c.
_The Ugalyachmutsi._--In the work last quoted this language is shown
to be akin to the Kenay. It is termed _Ugalenz_, and is spoken in
Russian America, near Mount St. Elias. It has hitherto been too much
disconnected from the Esquimaux group.
_The Chipewyan and Nagail._--That these were Esquimaux was stated by
the author in the Ethnological subsection of the British Association
at York. The Taculli is also Esquimaux. The Sussee, in the present
state of our knowledge, is best left without any absolute place. It has
several miscellaneous affinities.
The bearing of these notices is to merge the groups called _Athabascan_
and _Kolooch_ in the Esquimaux.
It has been communicated to the Ethnological Society, that a majority
of the languages of Oregon and New Caledonia are akin to each other
and to the Esquimaux; a statement applying to about forty-five
vocabularies, amongst which are the three following, hitherto
considered as isolated:--
1. _The Friendly Village vocabulary of Mackenzie._ See Travels.--This
is a dialect of the Billechoola.