Chapter XIV: Appendix: To Macgillivray's Voyage of the (4)

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--