The name Timuquana, otherwise spelled Timuaca, Timagoa, and Timuqua, in which we recognize the Thimogona of the French colonists, was applied to the tongue prevalent in the immediate vicinity of St. Augustine and toward the mouth of the St. Johns. It was also held in estimation as a noble and general language, a sort of lingua franca, throughout the peninsula. Pareja remarks, “Those Indians that differ most in words and are roughest in their enunciation (mas toscos), namely those of Tucururu[238] and of Santa Lucea de Acuera, in order to be understood by the natives of the southern coast, who speak another tongue, use the dialect of Moscama, which is the most polished of all (la mas politica), and that of Timuquana, as I myself have proved, for they understood me when I preached to them.”[239]
This language is remarkable for its singularly numerous changes in the common names of individuals, dependent on mutual relationship and the varying circumstances of life, which, though not the only instance of the kind in American tongues, is here extraordinarily developed, and in the opinion of Adelung seems to hint at some previous, more cultivated condition (in gewissen Hinsicht einen cultivirteren Zustand des Volks anzeigen möchte).[240] For example, iti, father, was used only during his life; if he left descendants he was spoken of as siki, but if he died without issue, as naribica-pasano: the father called his son chiricoviro, other males kie, and all females ulena. Such variations in dialect, or rather quite different dialects in the same family, extraordinary as it may seem to the civilized man, were not very uncommon among the warlike, erratic hordes of America. They are attributable to various causes. The esoteric language of the priests of Peru and Virginia might have been either meaningless incantations, as those that of yore resounded around the Pythian and Delphic shrines, or the disjecta membra of some ancient tongue, like the Dionysiac songs of Athens. When as among the Abipones of Paraguay, the Natchez of Louisiana, and the Incas of Peru, the noble or dominant race has its own peculiar tongue, we must impute it to foreign invasion, and a subsequent rigorous definition of the line of cast and prevention of amalgamation. Another consequence of war occurs when the women and children of the defeated race are alone spared, especially should the males be much absent and separated from the females; then each sex has its peculiar language, which may be preserved for generations; such was found to be the case on some of the Caribbee islands and on the coast of Guiana. Also certain superstitious observances, the avoidance of evil omens, and the mere will of individuals, not seldom worked changes of this nature. In such cases these dialects stand as waymarks in the course of time, referring us back to some period of unity, of strife, or of migration, whence they proceeded, and as such, require the greatest caution to be exercised in deducing from them any general ethnographical inferences.
What we are to judge in the present instance is not yet easy to say. Hervas does not hesitate to assert that abundant proof exists to ally this with the Guaranay (Carib) stock. Besides a likeness in some etymons, he takes pains to lay before the reader certain similar rites of intermarriage, quotes Barcia to show that Carib colonies actually did land on Florida, and adds an ideal sketch of the Antigua configuracion del golfo Mexicano y del mar Atlantico, thereon proving how readily in ancient ages, under altered geological conditions, such a migration could have been effected.
Without altogether differing from the learned abbé in his position, for it savors strongly of truth, it might be well, with what material we have at hand, to see whether other analogies could be discovered. The pronominal adjectives and the first three numerals are as follows;—
| na | mine | mile | our |
| ye | thine | yaye | your |
| mima | his | lama | their |
| minecotamano | one | ||
| naiuchanima | two | ||
| nakapumima | three |
Now, bearing in mind that the pronouns of the first and second persons and the numerals are primitive words, and that in American philology it is a rule almost without exception that personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives are identical in their consonants,[241] we have five primitive words before us. On comparing them with other aboriginal tongues, the n of the first person singular is found common to the Algonquin Lenape family, but in all other points they are such contrasts that this must pass for an accidental similarity. A resemblance may be detected between the Uchee nowah, two, nokah, three, and naiucha-mima, naka-pumima. Taken together, iti-na, my father, sounds not unlike the Cherokee etawta, and Adelung notices the slight difference there is between niha, eldest brother, and the Illinois nika, my brother. But these are trifling compared to the affinities to the Carib, and I should not be astonished if a comparison of Pareja with Gilü and D’Orbigny placed beyond doubt its relationship to this family of languages. Should this brief notice give rise to such an investigation, my object in inserting it will have been accomplished.
The French voyagers occasionally noted down a word or two of the tongues they encountered, and indeed Laudonniére assures us that he could understand the greater part of what they said. Such were tapagu tapola, little baskets of corn, sieroa pira, red metal, antipola bonnasson, a term of welcome meaning, brother, friend, or something of that sort (qui vaut autant à dire comme frère, amy, ou chose semblable).[242] Albert Gallatin[243] subjected these to a critical examination, but deciphered none except the last. This he derives from the Choktah itapola, allies, literally, they help each other, while “in Muskohgee, inhisse, is, his friends, and ponhisse, our friends,” which seems a satisfactory solution. It was used as a friendly greeting both at the mouth of the St. Johns and thirty leagues north of that river; but this does not necessarily prove the natives of those localities belonged to the Chahta family, as an expression of this sort would naturally gain wide prevalence among very diverse tribes.
Fontanedo has also preserved some words of the more southern languages, but none of much importance.
CHAPTER IV.
LATER TRIBES.
§ 1. Yemassees.—Uchees.—Apalachicolos.—Migrations northward.