The Pima occupy a still wider territory, extending on the south into Cinaloa, on the east in to the Province of Taraumara. The Upper Pima are found far to the north
living by the Sobahipuris to its outlet, and on both banks of the Gila to the Tomosatzi, in vales of luxuriant beauty, and in wastes of sand and sterility between those rivers and the sea,—having still other tribes beyond them using the same language in different dialects. The Lower Pima are in the west of the Province, having many towns extending to the frontier of the indomitable Seri, who live some thirty leagues to the north of the mouth of the Hiaqui and have their farthest limit inland, some dozen leagues from the sea, finding shelter among the ridges, and in the neighboring island of Tiburon.[[2]] Those of the Pima who reside on the south, in the Province of Cinaloa, the history of their migration thither is of the earliest, and belongs to that which should relate the closing scene in the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, with the strange success that eventually, at the close of a century, attended his Christian purpose.
All these nations, save the last, and all others who inhabit the country excepting the Apaches—including a numerous people on the Gila and on the farther bank of the Colorado—speak the same language, with so slight differences, say the missionaries, that they who shall have attained the one of the Opata and Eudeve with little difficulty will master the rest. And for this we have that early authority referred to, of three centuries since: “They made known to us what they would say by means of a language they have among them through which we and they understood each other. Those to whom it properly belongs we call Primahaitu, which is equivalent to when we say Biscayans. We found it in use over more than four hundred leagues (miles?) of our travel, without another in the whole extent.” The name thus given by the narrator of the Naufragios seemingly exists in these words, their definitions taken from a dictionary in MS. of the Pima language written by a missionary. No, pima: Nothing, pim’ haitu. Ques. What, Ai? Ans. Pimahaitu (nihil).
GRAMMAR OF THE HEVE LANGUAGE.
PART I: ORTHOGRAPHY.
It has been thought proper to use nineteen characters in the language, among which are not included f, j, k, w, x, y, nor l, although the sound of l is somewhat heard in the soft enunciation given by the Indian to the letter r.
The k is sufficiently supplied in the syllabic sounds que and qui, where the u is silent, although gue and gui are each of two syllables. There has been a disposition to omit the g also, the sound of which, as in go, if the natives had not originally, they certainly possess at present, got from the Spaniards. This should excuse its appearance here. The sound of z is strong as heard in fits.
The vowels are sounded as in tar, bear, silk, doe, rue.