The limited amount of the data must be borne in mind. As has been stated, no vocabularies beyond those of the four works enumerated were used. Had the comparison been more extended, the evidence of the Tibetan affinities of the languages under notice would have been stronger. That this would have been the case has since been proved.
In 1849, just before the publication of my Varieties of Man, I found from my friend Mr. Norris that, upon grammatical grounds, he had come to the same conclusion. A reference to the, then, recently published contributions of Rosen satisfied me that this was the case. The following is an abstract of his exposition of the structure of (1) the Iron, and (2) the Circassian.
(1)
IRON.
The Declension of Substantives is as follows;
| Singular. | Plural. | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | fid (father) | fid-t`-a |
| Gen. | fid-i | fid-t`-i |
| Dat. | fid-én | fid-t`-am |
| Abl. | fid-éi | fid-t`-éi |
| Nom. | moi (husband) | moi-t`-a |
| Gen. | moi-i | moi-t`-i |
| Dat. | moi-én | moi-t`-am |
| Abl. | moi-éi | moi-t`-éi. |
The Comparative Degree is formed by the addition of -dar; as chorz=good, chorz-dar=better.
The pronouns of the two first persons are as follows;
1. Az=I. Defective in the oblique cases. Man or ma, defective.
2. Di=Thou. Defective in the nominative singular.
| Sing. | Plural. | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | — | mach |
| Gen. | man-i | mach-i |
| Dat. | man-an | mach-én |
| Accus. | man | mach |
| Abl. | man-éi | mach-éi. |
| Nom. | di | si-mach |
| Gen. | daw-i[9] | si-mach-i |
| Dat. | daw-on | si-mach-én |
| Accus. | daw | si-mach |
| Abl. | daw-éi | si-mach-éi. |