ABSTRACT
IIHEconclusionstobedrawnfromtheforegoing remarksareobvioustoanyonewhoisserious
inhisresearches,andhasresolutelylaidasideall prejudices.Thegrammaticalaffinitiesbetweenthe AccadianandTuranianorAltaiclanguagesfaroutweighthedifferenceswhichmightbediscovered, evensupposingtheleastofthesetobereckoned. Besides,theaffinitiesarecertainlyofamuchmore essentialandorganiccharacterthanthedifferences. Thelatterarebynomeansincompatibilities,whateverpeoplewhoknownothingatallaboutthe Accadianmayaffirm.Theymustneedsomedegree ofaudaciousfrivolityandignorance,whowould ventureuponsuchanassertion.Now,ineach instanceinwhichtheAccadiandepartsfromthe ordinaryrulesoftheAltaicdialects,wefinda parallelpeculiarityappearingsporadicallyinsome orotherofthelanguagesofthisfamily.Suchexceptionscannotthereforeberegardedasentirely foreign,andcertainlynotascontrarytothefunda-
mentalgeniusofthegreatlinguisticfamily.We hadsomedifficulty,Iown,infindingananalogous casetotheprepositiveconjunction,whichconstitutes oneofthemoststrikingpeculiaritiesoftheAccadian, andwefounditatlastattheoppositeextremityof thegeographicaltractoverwhichtheAltaicdialects extend.ButourcomparisonwithMantchoowas justifiedbytheopinioncertainillustriousphilologists hadpreviouslyexpressed,thatthislanguagewasa monumentofthemostancienttypeoftheTuranian verbalconjugation.AknowledgeoftheAccadian isthereforeofgreatuseinthegeneralphilology oftheAltaiclanguages,byconfirmingdecisively M.Castren'sopinion.Wecannowdiscernthatthe languagesbelongingtothisfamilymusthavepassed throughthreesuccessivestages,withregardtothe pronominalsubjectoftheverb.
