The Chinantecs inhabited Chinantla, which is a part of the state of Oaxaca, situated in the Sierra Madre, on the frontiers of the province of Vera Cruz. Their neighbors on the south were the Zapotecs and Mixes, and on the north and east the Nahuas. They lived in secluded valleys and on rough mountain sides, and their language was one of great difficulty to the missionaries on account of its harsh phonetics. Nevertheless, Father Barreda succeeded in writing a Doctrina in it, published in 1730, the only work which has ever appeared in the tongue. The late Dr. Berendt devoted considerable study to it, and expressed his conclusions in the following words: “Spoken in the midst of a diversity of languages connected more or less among themselves, it is itself unconnected with them, and is rich in peculiar features both as to its roots and its grammatical structure. It is probable that we have in it one of the original languages spoken before the advent of the Nahuas on Mexican soil, perhaps the mythical Olmecan.”[178]
The Chinantecs had been reduced by the Aztecs and severely oppressed by them. Hence they welcomed the Spaniards as deliverers. Their manners were savage and their disposition warlike.[179] Other names by which they are mentioned are Tenez and Teutecas.
8. THE CHAPANECS AND MANGUES.
In speaking of the province of Chiapas the historian Herrera informs us that it derived its name from the pueblo so-called, “whose inhabitants were the most remarkable in New Spain for their traits and inclinations.”[180] They had early acquired the art of horsemanship, they were skillful in all kinds of music, excellent painters, carried on a variety of arts, and were withal very courteous to each other.
One tradition was that they had reached Chiapas from Nicaragua, and had conquered the territory they possessed from the Zoques, some of whom they had rendered tributary, while others had retired further into the Sierra. But the more authentic legend of the Chapas or Chapanecs, as they were properly called from their totemic bird the Chapa, the red macaw, recited that their whole stock moved down from a northern latitude, following the Pacific coast until they came to Soconusco, where they divided, one part entering the mountains of Chiapas, the other proceeding on to Nicaragua, where we find them under the name of Mangues, or Chorotegans, along the shores of Lake Managua.[181] Here they occupied a number of populous villages, estimated by the historian Oviedo to contain about forty thousand souls.[182] They were agricultural and sedentary, and moderately civilized, that is, they had hieroglyphic books, wove and spun cotton, were skilled in pottery and had fixed government. They are described as lighter in color than most Indians, and wearing long hair carefully combed. A small band wandered still further south, to the vicinity of Chiriqui Lagoon.[183]
The Chapanec language is one of marked individuality. Its phonetics are harmonious, but with many obscure and fluctuating sounds. In its grammatical construction we find a singular absence of distinction between subject and object. While the appreciation of number in the form of nouns is almost absent, their relations are expressed with excessive particularity, so that a noun may have different forms, as it is used in different relations.[184] There is comparatively slight development of the polysynthetic structure which is generally seen in American languages.
CHAPANEC LINGUISTIC STOCK.
- Chapanecs, on Rio Grande in Central Chiapas.
- Chorotegans, see Mangues.
- Dirians, in the mountains south of Lake Managua.
- Guetares, in Costa Rica.
- Mangues, on Lake Managua, Nicaragua.
- Orotinans, on the Gulf of Nicoya.
9. CHONTALS AND POPOLOCAS; TEQUISELATECAS AND MATAGALPAS.
According to the census of 1880 there were 31,000 Indians in Mexico belonging to the Familia Chontal.[185] No such family exists. The word chontalli in the Nahuatl language means simply “stranger,” and was applied by the Nahuas to any people other than their own. According to the Mexican statistics, the Chontals are found in the states of Mexico, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tobasco, Guatemala and Nicaragua. A similar term is popoloca, which in Nahuatl means a coarse fellow, one speaking badly, that is, broken Nahuatl. The popolocas have also been erected into an ethnic entity by some ethnographers, with as little justice as the Chontallis. They are stated to have lived in the provinces of Puebla, Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Mechoacan, and Guatemala. Sometimes the same tribe has been called both Chontales and Popoloras, which would be quite correct in the Nahuatl tongue, since in it these words are common nouns and nearly synonymous in signification; but employed in an ethnographic sense, they have led to great confusion, and the blending into one of distinct nationalities. I shall attempt to unravel this snarl as far as the linguistic material at my command permits.