The importance of these non-radical syllables in the numerals has been indicated by the present writer in the appendix to Mr. M'Gillivray's 'Voyage of the Rattlesnake.' There we find several well-selected specimens of the languages of the Louisiade archipelago. The fact of certain affinities between these and the New Caledonian is there indicated. Each has its prefix. In each the prefix is a labial.
| English. | Two. |
|---|---|
| Louisiade | paihe-tuan. |
| New Caledonia | wa-teen &c. |
Now the Tana and Mallicolo tongues have a prefix also, but this is not a labial. It is rather a vowel or k (guttural or palatal). Here lies a difference—a difference of detail. Yet the same change can now be shown to be within the pale of the New Caledonian itself, as may be seen by comparing par-roo and par-gen (pah-gen?) with he-luk and he-yen.
The change from r to l creates no difficulty. In one of the Tana vocabularies one = li-ti, in another r-eedee.
These points have been gone into for the sake of guarding against such exaggeration of the differences between the languages of the parts in question as the apparent differences in the numerals have a tendency to engender.
AMERICA
(NORTH).
ON THE LANGUAGES OF THE OREGON TERRITORY.
READ
BEFORE THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
ON THE 11TH DECEMBER 1844.