Page:The Brasilian language and its agglutination.pdf/9

 PREFACE

The principal object of the present elementary book is: (1) to verify if several opinions suggested by philologists and linguists, as the peculiar characteristics of the so-called « agglutinative languages » are, indeed, found in the Brazilian language;—(2) to contribute, by some informations on the grammatical elements and processes of this language, for the progress of Comparative Grammar.

« We use the terms « Brazilian language », as embracing the several dialects spoken in Brasil by the savage tribes, since the discovery of the country.

Among those dialects, the Guarany and the Tupy are the most important. They hold the same close relation, as is found between High and Low German. — Guarany was spoken,