Racial Geography Of Europe

In place of infiectioti, the Basque maíces use largely of the so-ealled principie of agglutination. Tlie different meanings are expressed by the compoilDding of severa] worde into one, a tlevice not unknown, to be sure, in Ai'3'íin tougues ; bot in the Basque this is earried mncil further. The verb liabitually includes all pronouns, adverbs, and olher allied parta of speech. The noun comprehends the prepositioDS and adjectives in a like mai.ner. As an example of the terrific complexity possible as a result, Blade gives h'fty forme in the third peraon singular of the prerent indicative of the regular verb "to give" alone. Another classical example of the effect of such agglutination occurs in the Basque word meaning "the lower field of the high hill of Azpicuelta," which runs Azpilcuelagaraycosaroyarenbetecolarrea This simple phrase is an even match for the Cherokee word instanced by Whitney : " "Winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawneletisesti." meaning "they will by this time liave come to the end of their (favorable) declaration to you and me." It justifies also the proverb among the French peasants that the devil studied the Basque language seven years and only learned two words. The problem is not rendered easier by the fact that very little Basque literature existed in the ritten form ; that the pronunciation is peculiar; and that the language, being a spoken one, thereby varies from village to village. There are in the neighborhood of twenty-five distinct dialects in all. Xo wonder a certain traveler is said to have given up the study of it in despair, clatming tbat its words were all "written Solomon and pronounced Nebnchadnezzer." - Prof. W. Z. Ripley, in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly for September. a