Part 31

The value of these two divisions is, of course, uncertain; and, in the present state of our knowledge, it would be premature to define it. Equally uncertain is the value of the subdivisions of the first class. All that can be said is, that out of four mutually unintelligible tongues, three seem rather more allied to each other than the fourth.

Besides the vocabulary of the Nagrandan of Mr. Squier, there is a grammatical sketch by Col. Francesco Diaz Zapata.

_Veragua_--We pass now from the researches of Mr. Squier in Nicaragua to those of Mr. B. Seemann, Naturalist to the Herald, for the Isthmus of Panama. The statement of Colonel Galindo, in the Journal of the Geographical Society, that the native Indian languages of Honduras, Nicaragua, San Salvador, and Costarica, had been replaced by the Spanish, has too implicitly been adopted; by no one, however, more so than the present writer. The same applies to Veragua.

Here, Dr. Seemann has supplied:--

1. The Savaneric, from the northernmost part of Veragua.

2. The Bayano, from the river Chepo.

3. The Cholo, widely spread in New Grenada. This is the same as Dr. Cullen's Yule.

Specimens of the San Blas, or Manzanillo Indians, are still desiderated, it being specially stated that the number of tribes is not less than four, and the four languages belonging to them as different.

All that can at present be said of the specimens before us is, that they have miscellaneous, but no exact and definite affinities.

_Mexicans of Nicaragua._ From the notice of these additions to our _data_ for Central America in the way of raw material, we proceed to certain speculations suggested by the presence of the Mexicans of Nicaragua in a locality so far south of the city of Mexico as the banks and islands of the lake of that name.

First as to their designation. It is not _Astek_ (or _Asteca_), as was that of the allied tribes of Mexico. Was it native, or was it only the name which their neighbours gave them? Was it a word like _Deutsch_ (applied to the population of Westphalia, Oldenburg, the Rhine districts, &c.), or a word like _German_ and _Allemand_? Upon this point no opinion is hazarded.

Respecting, however, the word _Astek_ (_Asteca_) itself, the present writer commits himself to the doctrine that it was _no_ native name at all, and that it was a word belonging to the _Maya_, and foreign to the Mexican, class of languages. It was as foreign to the latter as _Welsh_ is to the language of the British Principality; as _German_ or _Allemagne_ to the High and Low Dutch forms of speech; as _barbarus_ to the languages in contact with the Latin and Greek, but not themselves either one or the other.

On the other hand, it was a Maya word, in the way that _Welsh_ and _German_ are English, and in the way that _Allemand_ is a French one.

It was a word belonging to the country into which the Mexicans intruded, and to the populations upon which they encroached. These called their invaders _Asteca_, just as the Scotch Gael calls an Englishman, a _Saxon_.

_a._ The form is Maya, the termination-_eca_ being common whereever any form of the Maya speech is to be found.

_b._ It is too like the word _Huasteca_ to be accidental. Now, _Huasteca_ is the name of a language spoken in the parts about Tampico; a language separated in respect to its geographical position from the other branches of the Maya family, (for which Guatemala and Yucatan are the chief localities) but not separated (as is indicated in the _Mithridates_) from these same Maya tongues philologically. Hence _Huasteca_ is a Maya word; and what _Huasteca_ is, _Asteca_ is likely to be.

The isolation of the _Huasteca_ branch of the Maya family indicates invasion, encroachment, conquest, displacement; the invaders, &c. being the Mexicans, called by themselves by some name hitherto undetermined, but by the older occupants of the country, _Astek_.

It is believed, too, though this is more or less of an _obiter dictum_, that nine-tenths of the so-called Mexican civilization, as indicated by its architecture, &c., was Maya, _i. e._ was referable to the old occupants rather than to the new invaders; standing in the same relation to that of the Mexicans, strictly speaking, as that of Italy did to that of the Goths and Lombards.

Whence came these invaders? The evidence of the _phonetic_ part of the language points to the parts about Quadra and Vancouver's Island, and to the populations of the Upper Oregon--populations like the Chinuk, the Salish, the Atna, &c. Here, for the first time, we meet with languages where the peculiar phonesis of the Mexican language, the preponderance of the sound expressed by _tl_, reappears. For all the intermediate parts, with one or two exceptions, the character of the phonesis is Maya, _i. e._ soft, vocalic, and marked by the absence of those harsh elements that characterize the Mexican, the Chinuk, and the Atna equally. The extent to which the glossarial evidence agrees with the phonetic has yet to be investigated, the doctrine here indicated being a suggestion rather than aught else.

So is the doctrine that both the Nicaraguan and Mexican invasions were _maritime_. Strange as this may sound in the case of an ordinary American population, it should not do so in the case of a population deduced from the Chinuk and Salish areas and from the archipelago to the north of Quadra's and Vancouver's Island. However, it is not the fact itself that is of so much value. The principle involved in its investigation is weightier. This is, that the distribution of an allied population, _along a coast_, _and at intervals_, is _primâ facie_ evidence of the ocean having been the path along which they moved.

NOTE (1859).

For exceptions to the doctrine here suggested see Notes on the last paper.

NOTE UPON A PAPER OF THE HONOURABLE CAPTAIN FITZROY'S ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA,

PUBLISHED IN THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

NOVEMBER 25. 1850.

_On the Language of Central America._

In Yucatan the structure and details of the language are sufficiently known, and so are the ethnological affinities of the tribes who speak it. This language is the Maya tongue, and its immediate relations are with the dialects of Guatemala. It is also allied to the Huasteca spoken so far N. as the Texian frontier, and separated from the other Maya tongues by dialects of the Totonaca and Mexican. This remarkable relationship was known to the writers of the Mithridates.

In South America the language begins to be known when we reach the equator; _e. g._ at Quito the Inca language of the Peruvian begins, and extends as far south as the frontier of Chili.

So much for the extreme points; between which the whole, intermediate space is very nearly a _terra incognita_.

In Honduras, according to Colonel Galindo, the Indians are extinct; and as no specimen of their language has been preserved from the time of their existence as a people, that state is a blank in philology.

So also are San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; in all of which there are native Indians, but native Indians who speak Spanish. Whether this implies the absolute extinction of the native tongue is uncertain: it is only certain that no specimens of it are known.

The Indian of the Moskito coast _is_ known; and that through both vocabularies and grammars. It is a remarkably unaffiliated language--more so than any one that I have ever compared. Still, it has a few miscellaneous affinities; just enough to save it from absolute isolation. When we remember that the dialects with which it was conterminous are lost, this is not remarkable. Probably it represents a large class, _i. e._ that which comprised the languages of Central America _not_ allied to the Maya, and the languages of New Grenada.

Between the Moskito country and Quito there are only two vocabularies in the Mithridates, neither of which extends far beyond the numerals. One is that of the dialects of Veragua called Darien, and collected by Wafer; the other the numerals of the famous Muysca language of the plateau of Santa Fé de Bogota. With these exceptions, the whole philology of New Grenada is unknown, although the old missionaries counted the mutually unintelligible tongues by the dozen or score. More than one modern author--the present writer amongst others--has gone so far as to state that all the Indian languages of New Grenada are extinct.

Such is not the case. The following vocabulary, which in any other part of the world would be a scanty one, is for the parts in question of more than average value. It is one with which I have been kindly favoured by Dr. Cullen, and which represents the language of the Cholo Indians inhabiting part of the Isthmus of Darien, east of the river Chuquanaqua, which is watered by the river Paya and its branches in and about lat. 8° 15´ N., and long. 77° 20´ W.:--

ENGLISH. CHOLO.

Water _payto_ Fire _tŭboor_ Sun _pesea_ Moon _hedecho_ Tree _pachru_ Leaves _chītŭha_ House _dhē_ Man _mochĭna_ Woman _wuēna_ Child _wōrdŏchē_ Thunder _pā_ Canoe, or } _habodrooma_ Chingo } Tiger, _i.e._ jaguar _imāmă_ Leon, _i.e._ large tiger _imāmă pooroo_ River _thō_ River Tuyra _tŏgŭrooma_ Large man _mochĭnā dĕăsīra_ Little man _mochĭnā zache_ An iguana _ipŏga_ Lizard _horhe_ Snake _tamā_ Turkey, wild _zāmo_ Parrot _carre_ Guacharaca bird _bulleebullee_ Guaca bird _pavŏra_ Lazimba _toosee_

The tide is rising _tobiroooor_ The tide is falling _eribudo_ Where are you going _amonya_ Whence do you come _zamabima zebuloo_ Let us go _wonda_ Let us go bathe _wondo cuide_

The extent to which they differ from the languages of Venezuela and Colombia may be seen from the following tables of the words common to Dr. Cullen's list, and the equally short ones of the languages of the Orinoco:--

English _water_ Cholo _payto_ Quichua _unu_ Omagua _uni_ Salivi _cagua_ Maypure _ueru_ Ottomaca _ia_ Betoi _ocudù_ Yarura _uvi_ Darien _dulah_ Carib _touna_

English _fire_ Cholo _tŭboor_ Quichua _nina_ Omagua _tata_ Salivi _egustà_ Maypure _calti_ Ottomaca _nùa_ Betoi _fului_ Yarura _coride_ Carib _onato_

English _sun_ Cholo _pesea_ Quichua _inti_ Omagua _huarassi_ Salivi _numesechecoco_ Maypure _chiè_ Betoi _teo-umasoi_ Yarura _do_ Muysca _suâ_ Carib _veiou_

English _moon_ Cholo _hedecho_ Quichua _quilla_ Omagua _yase_ Arawak _cattehee_ Yarura _goppe_ Betoi _teo-ro_ Maypure _chejapi_ Salivi _vexio_ Darien _nie_ Zamuca _ketokhi_

English _man_ Cholo _mohina_ Quichua _ccari_ ---- _runa_ Salivi _cocco_ Maypure _cajarrachini_ ---- _mo_ Ottomaca _andera_ Yatura _pumè_ Muysca _muysca_ ---- _cha_ Carib _oquiri_

English _woman_ Cholo _wuēna_ Quichua _huarmi_ Maypure _tinioki_ Yarura _ibi_ ---- _ain_ Betoi _ro_ Ottomaca _ondua_

NOTE.

Exceptions to the statement concerning the New Grenada, the San Salvador, and the Moskito languages will be found in the Notes upon the next paper.

ON THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN, WESTERN, AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

READ MAY 9TH. 1856.

The present paper is a supplement to two well-known contributions to America philology by the late A. Gallatin. The first was published in the second volume of the Archæologia Americana, and gives a systematic view of the languages spoken within the _then_ boundaries of the United States; these being the River Sabine and the Rocky Mountains, Texas being then Mexican, and, _à fortiori_, New Mexico and California; Oregon, also, being common property between the Americans and ourselves. The second is a commentary, in the second volume of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, upon the multifarious mass of philological _data_ collected by Mr. Hale, during the United States Exploring Expedition, to which he acted as official and professional philologue; only, however, so far as they applied to the American parts of Oregon. The groups of this latter paper--the paper of the Transactions as opposed to that of the Archæologia--so far as they are separate from those of the former, are--

1. The Kitunaha. 2. The Tsihaili-Selish. 3. The Sahaptin. 4. The Waiilatpu. 5. The Tsinuk or Chinook. 6. The Kalapuya. 7. The Jakon. 8. The Lutuami. 9. The Shasti. 10. The Palaik. 11. The Shoshoni or Snake Indians.

To which add the Arrapaho, a language of Kansas, concerning which information had been obtained since 1828, the date of the first paper. Of course, some of these families extended beyond the frontiers of the United States, so that any notice of them as American carried with it so much information respecting them to the investigators of the philology of the Canadas, the Hudson's Bay Territory, or Mexico.

Again--three languages, the Eskimo, and Kenai, and Takulli, though not spoken within the limits of the United States, were illustrated. Hence, upon more than one of the groups of the papers in question there still remains something to be said; however much the special and proper subject of the present dissertation may be the languages that lay beyond the pale of Gallatin's researches.

The first groups of tongues thus noticed for the second time are--

I. THE IROQUOIS, and

II. _The Sioux._--I have little to say respecting these families except that they appear to belong to some higher class,--a class which, without being raised to any inordinate value, may eventually include not only these two now distinct families, but also the Catawba, Woccoon, Cherokee, Choctah, and (perhaps) Caddo groups,--perhaps also the Pawni and its ally the Riccaree.

III. THE ALGONKIN GROUP.--The present form of this group differs from that which appears in the Archæologia Americana, by exhibiting larger dimensions. Nothing that was then placed within has since been subtracted from it; indeed, subtractions from any class of Gallatin's making are well-nigh impossible. In respect to additions, the case stands differently.

Addition of no slight importance have been made to the Algonkin group. The earliest was that of--

_The Bethuck._--The Bethuck is the native language of Newfoundland. In 1846, the collation of a Bethuck vocabulary enabled me to state that the language of the extinct, or doubtfully extant, aborigines of that island was akin to those of the ordinary American Indians rather than to the Eskimo; further investigation showing that, of the ordinary American languages, it was Algonkin rather than aught else.

A sample of the evidence of this is to be found in the following table; a table formed, not upon the collation of the whole MS., but only upon the more important words contained in it.

_English_, son. Bethuck, _mageraguis_. Cree, _equssis_. Ojibbeway, _ninqwisis_} ---- _negwis_ } = my son. Ottawa, _kwis_. Micmac, _unquece_. Passamaquoddy, _n'hos_. Narragansetts, _nummuckiese_ = myson. Delaware, _quissau_ = his son. Miami, _akwissima_. ----, _ungwissah_. Shawnoe, _koisso_. Sack & Fox, _neckwessa_. Menomeni, _nekeesh_.

_English_, girl. Bethuck, _woaseesh_. Cree, _squaisis_. Ojibbeway, _ekwaizais_. Ottawa, _aquesens_. Old Algonkin, _ickwessen_. Sheshatapoosh, _squashish_. Passamaquoddy, _pelsquasis_. Narragansetts, _squasese_. Montaug, _squasses_. Sack & Fox, _skwessah_. Cree, _awâsis_ = child. Sheshatapoosh, _awash_ = child.

_English_, mouth. Bethuck, _mamadthun_. Nanticoke, _mettoon_. Massachusetts, _muttoon_. Narragansetts, _wuttoon_. Penobscot, _madoon_. Acadcan, _meton_. Micmac, _toon_. Abenaki, _ootoon_.

_English_, nose. Bethuck, _gheen_. Miami, _keouane_.

_English_, teeth. Bethuck, _bocbodza_. Micmac, _neebeet_. Abenaki, _neebeet_.

_English_, hand. Bethuck, _maemed_. Micmac, _paeteen_. Abenaki, _mpateen_.

_English_, ear. Bethuck, _mootchiman_. Micmac, _mootooween_. Abenaki, _nootawee_.

_English_, smoke. Bethuck, _bassdik_. Abenaki, _ettoodake_.

_English_, oil. Bethuck, _emet_. Micmac, _memaye_. Abenaki, _pemmee_.

_English_, sun. Bethuck, _keuse_. Cree, &c., _kisis_. Abenaki, _kesus_. Mohican, _kesogh_. Delaware, _gishukh_. Illinois, _kisipol_. Shawnoe, _kesathwa_. Sack & Fox, _kejessoah_. Menomeni, _kaysho_. Passamaquoddy, _kisos_ = moon. Abenaki, _kisus_ = moon. Illinois, _kisis_ = moon. Cree, _kesecow_ = day. Ojibbeway, _kijik_ = day and light. Ottawa, _kijik_ = ditto. Abenaki, _kiseoukou_ = ditto, Delaware, _gieshku_ = ditto. Illinois, _kisik_ = ditto. Shawnoe, _keeshqua_ = ditto. Sack & Fox, _keeshekeh_ = ditto.

_English_, fire. Bethuck, _boobeeshawt_. Cree, _esquitti_, _scoutay_. Ojibbeway, _ishkodai_, _skootae_. Ottawa, _ashkote_. Old Algonkin, _skootay_. Sheshatapoosh, _schootay_. Passamaquoddy, _skeet_. Abenaki, _skoutai_. Massachusetts, _squitta_. Narragansetts, _squtta_.

_English_, white. Bethuck, _wobee_. Cree, _wabisca_. ----, _wapishkawo_. Ojibbeway, _wawbishkaw_. ----, _wawbizze_. Old Algonkin, _wabi_. Sheshatapoosh, _wahpou_. Micmac, _ouabeg_, _wabeck_. Mountaineer, _wapsiou_. Passamaquoddy, _wapiyo_. Abenaki, _wanbighenour_. ----, _wanbegan_. Massachusetts, _wompi_. Narragansetts, _wompesu_. Mohican, _waupaaeek_. Montaug, _wampayo_. Delaware, _wape_, _wapsu_, _wapsit_. Nanticoke, _wauppauyu_. Miami, _wapekinggek_. Shawnoe, _opee_. Sack & Fox, _wapeskayah_. Menomeni, _waubish keewah_.

_English_, black. Bethuck, _mandzey_. Ojibbeway, _mukkudaiwa_. Ottawa, _mackateh_. Narragansetts, _mowesu_. Massachusetts, _mooi_.

_English_, house. Bethuck, _meeootik_. Narragansetts, _wetu_.

_English_, shoe. Bethuck, _mosen_. Abenaki, _mkessen_.

_English_, snow. Bethuck, _kaasussabook_. Cree, _sasagun_ = hail. Ojibbeway, _saisaigan_. Sheshatapoosh, _shashaygan_.

_English_, speak. Bethuck, _ieroothack_. Taculli, _yaltuck_. Cree, _alhemetakcouse_. Wyandot, _atakea_.

_English_, yes. Bethuck, _yeathun_. Cree, _ahhah_. Passamaquoddy, _netek_.

_English_, no. Bethuck, _newin_. Cree, _namaw_. Ojibbeway, _kawine_. Ottawa, _kauween_.

_English_, hatchet. Bethuck, _dthoonanyen_. Taculli, _thynle_.

_English_, knife. Bethuck, _eewaeen_. Micmac, _uagan_.

_English_, bad. Bethuck, _muddy_. Cree, _myaton_. Ojibbeway, _monadud_. ----, _mudji_. Ottawa, _matche_. Micmac, _matoualkr_. Massachusetts, _matche_. Narragansetts, _matchit_. Mohican, _matchit_. Montaug, _mattateayah_. Montaug, _muttadeeaco_. Delaware, _makhtitsu_. Nanticoke, _mattik_. Sack & Fox, _motchie_. ----, _matchathie_.

_The Shyenne._--A second addition of the Algonkin class was that of the Shyenne language--a language suspected to be Algonkin at the publication of the Archæologia Americana. In a treaty made between the United States and the Shyenne Indians in 1825, the names of the chiefs who signed were Sioux, or significant in the Sioux language. It was not unreasonable to consider this a _primâ-facie_ evidence of the Shyenne tongue itself being Sioux. Nevertheless, there were some decided statements in the way of external evidence in another direction. There was the special evidence of a gentleman well-acquainted with the fact, that the names of the treaty, so significant in the Sioux language, were only translations from the proper Shyenne, there having been no Shyenne interpreter at the drawing-up of the document. What then was the true Shyenne? A vocabulary of Lieut. Abert's settled this. The numerals of this were published earlier than the other words, and on these the present writer remarked that they were Algonkin (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1847,--Transactions of the Sections, p. 123). Meanwhile, the full vocabulary, which was in the hands of Gallatin, and collated by him, gave the contemplated result:--"Out of forty-seven Shyenne words for which we have equivalents in other languages, there are thirteen which are indubitably Algonkin, and twenty-five which have affinities more or less remote with some of the languages of that family." (Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. p. cxi. 1848.)

_The Blackfoot._--In the same volume (p. cxiii), and by the same author, we find a table showing the Blackfoot to be Algonkin; a fact that must now be generally recognized, having been confirmed by later _data_. The probability of this affinity was surmised in a paper in the 28th Number of the Proceedings of the present Society.

_The Arrapaho._--This is the name of a tribe in Kansas; occupant of a district in immediate contact with the Shyenne country.

But the Shyennes are no _indigenæ_ to Kansas. Neither are the Arrapahos. The so-called Fall Indians, of whose language we have long had a very short trader's vocabulary in Umfreville, are named from their occupancy which is on the Falls of the Saskatshewan. The Nehethewa, or Crees, of their neighbourhood call them so; so that it is a Cree term of which the English is a translation. Another name (English also) is _Big-belly_, in French _Gros-ventre_. This has given rise to some confusion. _Gros-ventre_ is a name also given to the Minetari of the Yellow-stone River; whence the name Minetari itself has, most improperly, been applied (though not, perhaps, very often or by good authorities) to the Fall Indians.

The Minetari _Gros-ventres_ belong to the Sioux family. Not so the _Gros-ventres_ of the Falls. Adelung remarked that some of their words had an affinity with the Algonkin, or as he called it, Chippeway-Delaware, family, _e. g._ the names for _tobacco_, _arrow_, _four_, and _ten_.

Umfreville's vocabulary was too short for anything but the most general purposes and the most cautious of suggestions. It was, however, for a long time the only one known. The next to it, in the order of time, was one in MS., belonging to Gallatin, but which was seen by Dr. Prichard and collated by the present writer, his remarks upon it being published in the 134th Number of the Proceedings of this Society. They were simply to the effect that the language had certain miscellaneous affinities. An Arrapaho vocabulary in Schoolcraft tells us something more than this; viz. not only that it is, decidedly, the same language as the Fall Indian of Umfreville, but that it has definite and preponderating affinities with the Shyenne, and, through it, with the great Algonkin class in general.

ENGLISH. ARRAPAHO. SHYENNE.