II. The Tiribi and Terraba, principally on the head-waters of the Rio Telorio and south of the mountains.
III. The Bri-Bri and Cabecar on the head-waters of the Rio Tiliri. The Biceitas (Vizeitas) or Cachis, near the mouth of the same stream, are off-shoots of the Bri-Bris; so also are the small tribes at Orosi and Tucurrique, who were removed to those localities by the Spaniards.
The Bri-Bri and Cabecar, although dialects of the same original speech, are not sufficiently alike to be mutually intelligible. The Cabecars occupied the land before the Bri-Bris, but were conquered and are now subject to them. It is probable that their dialect is more archaic.
The Bri-Bri is a language of extreme poverty, and as spoken at present is plainly corrupt. Gabb estimates the whole number of words it contains as probably not exceeding fifteen hundred. Some of these, though Gabb thinks not very many, are borrowed from the Spanish; but it is significant, that among them is the pronoun “that,” the Spanish ese.
Let us now examine the Bri-Bri verb, said to be so singularly simple. We are at once struck by Mr. Gabb’s remark (just after he has been speaking of their unparalleled simplicity) that the inflections he gives “have been verified with as much care as the difficulties of the case would admit.” Evidently, then, there were difficulties. What they are, becomes apparent when we attempt to analyze the forms of the eighteen brief paradigms which he gives.
The personal pronouns are
| je, I. | sa, we. |
| be, thou. | ha, you. |
| ye, he, etc. | ye-pa, they. |
These are both nominative and objective, personal and, with the suffix cha, possessives.
The tenses are usually, not always, indicated by suffixes to the theme; but these vary, and no rule is given for them, nor is it stated whether the same theme can be used with them all. Thus,
| To burn, ĭ-norka, | present, | i-nyor-ket-ke. |
| To cook, i-lu’. | “ | ĭ-luk. |
| To start, i-be-te. | “ | i-be-te. |