A Record of Study in Aboriginal American Languages

by Daniel G. Brinton

68. Further Notes on the Betoya dialects. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, October, 1892.

69. The Linguistic Cartography of the Chaco Region. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, October, 1898.

70. Further Notes on Fuegian Languages. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1892.

71. On two recent, unclassified Vocabularies from South America. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, October, 1898.

The library of the American Philosophical Society contains a MS. copy of the Arawack vocabulary of the missionary Schultz, the same work, apparently, which was edited from another copy by M. Lucien Adam in 1882. A study of this MS. led me to discover the identity of the so-called “Lucayan” of the Bahamas, the language of Cuba, fragments of which have been presented, and the “Taino” of Haiti, with the Arawack. They had previously been considered either of Mayan or Caribbean affinities. The results are presented in ([63]).

The “Studies” in ([64]) are ten in number. No. I. is on the Tacana language and its dialects, and is the only attempt, up to the present time, to determine the boundaries and character of this tongue. Texts and a vocabulary in five of its dialects are given. No. II. is on the Jivaro or Xebero tongue, and is entirely from unpublished sources. A grammatical sketch, texts and a vocabulary give a moderately complete material for comparison. No. III. presents the first printed account of the Cholona language on the River Huallaga, drawn from MSS. in the British Museum. In No. IV. is a discussion of the relations of the Leca language spoken on the Rio Mapiri. No. V. contains a text of some length in the Manao dialect of the Arawack stock, the original MS. being in the British Museum. The Bonaris are an extinct tribe of the Carib stock. No. VI. contains the only vocabulary which has been preserved of their dialect. On a loose sheet in the British Museum, among papers on Patagonia, I found a short vocabulary in a tongue called “Hongote,” which I could not locate and hence published it in No. VII. It subsequently proved to be one of the North Pacific Coast languages. The same “Study” presents a comparative vocabulary in fourteen Patagonian dialects, with notes (Tsoneca, Tehuelche, Puelche, Tekennika (Yahgan), Alikuluf, etc.). In Study No. VIII. are discussed the various dialects of the Kechua or Quichua tongue of Peru, with an unpublished text from the Pacasa dialect. No. IX. examines the affinities which have been noted between the languages of North and South America, especially in the Mazatec and Costa Rican dialects of the northern Continent. Finally, No. X. aims to define for the first time the linguistic stock to which belong the dialects of the Betoyas, Tucanos, Zeonas and other tribes on the rivers Napo, Meta, Apure and their confluents. Further information on this stock is given in ([68]).

The Choco stock extends widely over the northwest angle of the southern continent. In ([65]) and ([66]) I have printed short vocabularies of some of its dialects secured for me from living natives by Mr. Henry G. Granger.

The Puquina language of Peru was quite unknown to linguists when, in 1890, I published the article ([67]) containing material in it from the extremely rare work of Geronimo de Ore, entitled Rituale Peruanum (Naples, 1607). Since then an extended essay upon it has been written by M. de la Grasserie.

In the “Further Notes on the Fuegian Languages” ([70]), I have printed an Alikuluf vocabulary of 1695, with comparisons, and given a vocabulary of the idiom of the Onas, pointing out some affinities with the Yahgan.

Few linguistic areas on the continent have been more obscure than that called “El Gran Chaco,” in northern Argentina and southern Bolivia. In ([69]) I have mapped the area from 20° to 30° south latitude and 56° to 66° west longitude, defining the boundaries of each of the seven linguistic stocks which occupied it, to wit, the Ennima, Guaycuru, Lule, Mataco, Quechua, Samucu and Tupi, with discussions of some uncertain dialects, as the Calchaqui, Lengua, Querandi, Charua, Payagua.