RELATIONSHIP OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES.
The researches of the few philologists who have given American languages their study have brought to light the following facts. First, that a relationship exists among all the tongues of the northern and southern continents; and that while certain characteristics are found in common throughout all the languages of America, these languages are as a whole sufficiently peculiar to be distinguishable from the speech of all the other races of the world. Although some of these characteristics, as a matter of course, are found in some of the languages of the old world—more of them in the Turanian family than in any other—yet nowhere on the globe are uniformities of speech carried over vast areas and through innumerable and diversified races with such persistency, as in America; nowhere are tongues so dissimilar and yet so alike as here. In this general similarity would be a strong ground-work for a theory of common origin, either indigenous or foreign, but for the fact that while the languages of America appear distinct from all other languages of the world, and do indeed in certain respects bear a general resemblance one to another throughout, yet at the same time I may safely assert that on no other continent can there be found such a multitude of distinct languages which definitely approach one another in scarcely a single word or syllable as in America. It is as easy to prove from language that the nations of the New World were originally thrown together from different parts, and that by intermigrations, uniformity in customs and climate, and the lapse of long ages the people have become approximately brethren in speech, while their incessant wars have at the same time held them asunder and prevented a more particular uniformity, as it would be to prove a common origin and subsequent dispersion; without further light both theories are alike insusceptible of proof, as are, indeed, all hypotheses concerning the origin of the native races of this continent. Another fact which naturally becomes more apparent the more we investigate the subject, particularly as regards the nations inhabiting the western half of North America, is, that the innumerable diversities of speech found among these tribes constantly tend to disappear, tend to range themselves under broad divisions, coalescing into groups and families, thereby establishing more intimate relationship between some, and widening the distance between others. The numbers of tongues and dialects, which at the first appeared to be legion, by comparison and classification are constantly being reduced. Could we go back, even for a few thousand years, and follow these peoples through the turnings and twistings of their nomadic existence, we should be surprised at the rapid and complete changes constantly taking place; we should see throughout this broad continent the tide of human life ebbing and flowing like a mighty ocean, surging to and fro in a perpetual unrest, huge billows of humanity rolling over forest, plain, and mountain, nations driving out nations, absorbing, or annihilating, only to be themselves inevitably driven out, absorbed, or annihilated; we should see as a result of this interminable mixture, languages constantly being modified, some wholly or in part disappearing, some changing in a lesser degree, hardly one remaining the same for any considerable length of time. Even within the short period of our own observation, between the time of the first arrival of Europeans and the disappearance of the natives, many changes are apparent; while we are gazing upon them we see their boundaries oscillate, like the play of the threads in network. On the buffalo-hunting inland plains I have seen aggregations of tribes driven out from their old camping-ground, in some instances a thousand miles away, and their places occupied by others; in the narrower limits of the north-western mountains I have seen numerous tribes extirpated by their neighbors, a remnant only being kept as slaves. While such was the normal condition of the aborigines it is not difficult to perceive in some degree at least, the effect upon languages. Yet while American languages are indeed, as Whitney terms them, "the most changeful human forms of speech" there are yet found indestructible characteristic elements, affiliations which no circumstances of time or place can wholly obliterate.
LONG WORDS IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES.
One of these characteristic elements is the frequent occurrence of long words. Even the Otomí, the only language in America which can be called monosyllabic, consisting as it does, for the most part, of etymons of one syllable, contains some comparatively long words. This frequency of long words, the method of their construction, and the ease with which they are manufactured constitute a striking feature in the system of unity that pervades all American languages. The native of the New World expresses in a single word, accompanied perhaps by a grunt or a gesture, what a European would employ a whole sentence to elucidate. He crowds the greatest possible number of ideas into the most compact form possible, as though in a multitude of words he found weakness rather than strength—taking their several ideas by their monosyllabic equivalents, and joining them in one single expression. This rule is universal; and so these languages become as Humboldt expresses it "like different substances in analogous forms," in which, as Gallatin observes, there is "an universal tendency to express in the same word, not only all that modifies or relates to the same object or action but both the action and the object, thus concentrating in a single expression a complex idea or several ideas, among which there is a natural connection." This linguistic peculiarity is called by various names. Duponceau terms it the polysynthetic stage or system, Wilhelm von Humboldt the agglutinative, Lieber the holophrastic; others the aggregative, the incorporative, and so on. As an illustration of this peculiarity, take the Aztec word for letter-postage, amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxtlahuilli, which interpreted literally signifies, 'the payment received for carrying a paper on which something is written.' The Cherokees go yet further and express a whole sentence in a single word—a long one it is true, but yet one word—winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawnelitisesti which translated forms the sentence, 'they will by that time have nearly finished granting favors from a distance to thee and me.' Other peculiarities common to all American languages might be mentioned, such as reduplications, or a repetition of the same syllable to express plurals; the use of frequentatives and duals; the application of gender to the third person of the verb; the direct conversion of nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbs, and their conjugation as such; peculiar generic distinctions arising from a separation of animate from inanimate beings, and the like.
The multiplicity of tongues, even within comparatively narrow areas, rendered the adoption of some sort of universal language absolutely necessary. This international language in America is for the most part confined to gestures, and nowhere has gesture-language attained a higher degree of perfection than here; and what is most remarkable, the same representatives are employed from Alaska to Mexico and even in South America. Thus each tribe has a certain gesture to indicate its name, which is understood by all others. A Flathead will make his tribe known by placing his hand upon his head; a Crow by imitating the flapping of the wings of a bird; a Nez Percé by pointing with his finger through his nose, and so on. Fire is generally indicated by blowing followed by a pretended warming of the hands, water by a pretended scooping up and drinking, trade or exchange by crossing the fore fingers, a certain gesture being fixed for everything necessary to carry on a conversation. Besides this natural gesture-language there is found in various parts an intertribal jargon composed of words chosen to fit emergencies, from the speech of the several neighboring nations; the words being altered, if necessary, in construction or pronunciation to suit all. Thus in the valley of the Yukon we find the Slavé jargon, and in the valley of the Columbia the Chinook jargon, which latter arose originally, not as is generally supposed conventionally between the French-Canadian and English trappers and the natives of the north-west solely for purposes of trade, but which originated among the tribes themselves spontaneously and before the advent of Europeans, though greatly modified and extended by subsequent European intercourse. Thus has been laid, no doubt, the foundation of many permanent languages and dialects; and thus we may easily perceive the powerful and continued effect of one language upon another.
As to the number of languages in America much difference of opinion exists. Hervás, before half the country was discovered, felt justified in classifying them all under seven families, while others find, on the Pacific side of the northern continent alone, over six hundred languages which thus far refuse to affiliate. The different dialects are countless; and yet, notwithstanding the formidable array of names which I have gathered at the end of this chapter, probably not one-fourth of their real number are or ever will be known to us.
LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC STATES.
Many of the Pacific States' languages bear resemblances to one another, and may therefore be brought more or less under groups and classes. These languages, however, resemble one another too slightly to be called dialects, and in the majority of cases no affiliations of any kind can be traced. But four great languages are found within our territory, or, if we exclude the Eskimo, which is not properly an American language, there remain but three, the Tinneh, the Aztec, and the Maya. Of the lesser tongues there are many more, as will appear further on. The Eskimos skirt the shores of the north polar ocean and belong more to the old world than to the new. The Tinneh, Athabasca, or Chepewyan family covers the northern end of the Rocky Mountain range, sending its branches in every direction, into Alaska, British Columbia, British America, Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico. The Aztec language, whose seat is Central Mexico, is found also in Nicaragua and other parts of Central America. Traces moreover appear in some parts of Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Chihuahua, Texas, Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. The Maya is the chief Central American tongue, but traces of it may be found as well in Mexico. Thus we see that while the cradle of the Tinneh tongue appears to be in the centre of British North America, its dialects extend westward and southward, lessening in intensity the further they are removed from the hypothetical original centre, suddenly dying out in some directions, fading gradually away in others, and breaking out at disconnected intervals in others. So with the Aztec language, whose primitive centre, so far as present appearances go, was the valley of Mexico; we find it extending south along the shores of the Pacific as far as Nicaragua, while northward its traces grow fainter and fainter until it disappears. And so it is with the Maya, which, covering as it does a less extent of territory, is more distinctly marked and consequently more easily followed.
In classifying the languages of the Pacific States, the marks of identification vary with different families. Thus the linguistic affiliations of the Tinneh family are founded not so much on certain recurring grammatical rules, as on the number of important words occurring under the same or slightly altered form. In the Aztec language the reverse of this is true; for although to some extent, in the establishing of relationships, we are governed by verbal similarities, yet we also find positive grammatical rules which carry with them much more weight than mere word likenesses.
For example, in the north, wherever Aztec traces are found, the Aztec substantive endings tl and tli are either abbreviated or changed according to a regular system into ti, te, t, de, re, ki, ke, ca, la, ri. Aztec numerals are used by these northern nations, but in greatly modified forms; personal pronouns are there found but little changed, while demonstrative, interrogative, and indefinite pronouns likewise show signs of Aztec origin. The ending ame, which, attached to the verb, designates the person acting, can be plainly traced; while among these same northern nations of which I am speaking, is found that certain system of Lautverschiebung or sound-shunting, originally discovered by Grimm in the Indo-Germanic family, and by Professor Max Müller called Grimm's law.