92                   ORIGIN OF THE


PARTICULARITIES OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES.



  Although it is generally allowed that all the dialects
which are spoken in North America, are derived from the
three primitive languages which we mentioned above,
stfill it does not follow that these three are original, or of



the first institution of:
Indian is so marked wi
which some languages
Asia are particularly
some persons stood ft
North American India



languag
th thos
spoker
noted.
irward
ns from



be sufficient without any othe
sophic mind, inthe absence of
language has a copiousness,
perhaps not to be found unite
guages that we know. It hi
that those whose native tonguE
elevation of soul, which agree
language. Some have fanciei
ilitude with the Hebrew; othl



res. The discourse of the
e figurative expressions, for
x in the north-east parts of
Upon this ground alone,
to derive the origin of the
t Asia, and this clue should
r proof to satisfy the philo-
a surer guide. The Huron
an energy, and a sublimity
d in any of the finest lan-
is frequently been asserted,
e it is, are endowed with an
is with the majesty of their
d they found in it some simm
ers have said that it had the



same origin as the Greek; but nothing could be inore
trifling than the proofs they bring forward.  Gabriel
Saghard imagined he had made wonderful discoveries in
his vocabulary; James Cartier, and Baron de la Hontan
were equally enthusiastic in their researches. These three
authors took at random some terms, some of which were
Huron and others Algonquin, signifying quite different
from what they asserted. They pretended from a simi-
larity of sound in a few words, to have discovered a ra-
dical connexion between the Indian languages and the
Hebrew.
  The Algonquin language has not so much force as the
Huron; but it has- more sweetness and elegance, and may
with great propriety be denominated the Italian of the
western continent; for it abounds with vowels, which ren-
ders it soft, musical, and harmonious. Both the /Allgon-