In the pursuance of this investigation I noticed a two-fold curiosity which may be worthy of mention. Throughout the great Northwest, as well in most of the many Tinneh vocabularies as elsewhere, is found the Aztec word for stone, tetl, sometimes slightly changed but always recognizable, and to which the same meaning is invariably attached; while on the other hand the Tinneh word for fire, cun, or coon, appears in like manner in several of the Mexican languages, and I even noticed it in the vocabulary of a Honduras nation. This may be purely accidental, but both being important words I thought best to draw attention to the fact.
INLAND AND COAST LANGUAGES.
The larger linguistic families are for the most part found inland, while along the sea-shore the speech of the people is broken into innumerable fragments. Particularly is this the case along the shores of the Northwest. South of Acapulco, as we have seen, the Aztec tongue holds the seaboard for some distance; but again farther south, as well as on the gulf coast, there is found a great diversity in languages and dialects. In California the confusion becomes interminable; as if Babel-builders from every quarter of the earth had here met to the eternal confounding of all; yet there are linguistic families even in California, principally in the northern part. It is not at all improbable that Malays, Chinese, or Japanese, or all of them, did at some time appear in what is now North America, in such numbers as materially to influence language, but hitherto no Asiatic nor European tongue, excepting always the Eskimo, has been found in America; nor have affinities with any other language of the world been discovered sufficiently marked to warrant the claim of relationship. Theorizers enough there have been and will be; for centuries to come half-fledged scientists, ignorant of what others have done or rather have failed to do, will not cease to bring forward wonderful conceptions, striking analogies; will not cease to speculate, linguistically, ethnologically, cosmographically and otherwise to their own satisfaction and to the confusion of their readers. The absurdity of these speculations is apparent to all but the speculator. No sooner is a monosyllabic language, the Otomí, discovered in America than up rises a champion, Señor Nájera, claiming the distinction for the Chinese, and with no other result than to establish both as monosyllabic, which was well enough known before. So the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, who has given the subject more years of study and more pages of printed matter than any other writer, unless it be the half-crazed Lord Kingsborough, first attempts to prove that the Maya languages are derived from the Latin, Greek, English, German, Scandinavian, or other Aryan tongues; then that all these languages are but offshoots from the Maya itself, which is the only true primeval language. So much for intemperate speculation, which, whether learned or shallow, too often originates in doubt and ends in obscurity. In all these hypotheses, argument assumes the form of analogies drawn between the peoples with whom a relationship is attempted to be established—no difficult matter, truly, when we consider that all mankind are formed on one model, and that innumerable similarities must of necessity exist among all the races of the globe.
ACCIDENTAL WORD-SIMILARITIES.
To show the futility of such attempts, let me give a few words, analogous both in signification and sound, selected from American, European, Asiatic, and other languages, between which it is now well established that no relationship exists. For the German ja we have the Shasta ya; for komm, the Comanche kim; for Kopf, the Cahita coba; for weinen, the Cora vyeine; for thun, the Tepehuana duni; for nichts, nein, the Chinook nixt, nix. For the Greek κόραξ, there is the Tarahumara colatschi; for ἔμαθον , μαθεῖν, the Cora muatê; for γυνή, the Cahita cuna. For the Latin hic, vas, we have the Tepehuana hic, vase; for mucor, the Cora mucuare; for lingua, the Moqui línga; for vallis, the Kalapooya wallâh; for toga, manus, the Kenai togaai, man. For the French casser, we find the Tarahumara cassníaler; for tâtonner, the Tepehuana tatame. For the Spanish hueco, the Tarahumara hoco; for tuétano, the Cora tûtana. For the Italian cosi, the Tarahumara cossi; for the Arabic âchar, the Tarahumara ajaré; for the Hawaiian po, the Sekumne po (night).
For the Sanscrit da, there is the Cora ta (give); for eké, the Miztec ec (one); for mâ, the Tepehuana mai (not) and the Maya ma (no); for masâ (month), the Pima mahsa (moon); for tschandra (moon), the Kenai tschane (moon); for pada (foot), the Sekumne podo (leg); for kamâ (love), the Shoshone kamakh (to love); for pâ, the Kizh paa (to drink). For the Malay tâna, we have the Tepehuana tani (to ask); for hurip, tabah, the Cora huri (to live), tabá (to beat); for hômah, the Shasta óma (house), and so on.
These examples I could increase indefinitely and show striking similarities in some few words between almost any two languages of the world. When there are enough of them similar in sound and signification in any two tongues to constitute a rule rather than exceptions, such languages are said to be related; but where, as in the above-cited instances, these similarities are merely accidental, to prove them related would prove too much, for then all the languages of the earth might be said to be related.
CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGES.
In treating of the languages of the Pacific States, commencing with those of the north and proceeding southward, I make it a rule to follow them wherever they lead, without restricting myself to place or nation. One nation may speak two languages; the same language may be spoken by a dozen nations, and if the evidence is such as to imply the existence of the same language, or traces of it, in Alaska and in Sonora, I can do no less than step from one place to the other in speaking of it. Besides the names and localities of languages and linguistic families, I shall endeavor to give some idea of their several peculiar characteristics, their grammatical construction, with such specimens of each as will enable the student to make comparisons and draw inferences. In the following table I have attempted a classification of these languages; but in some instances, from the lack of vocabularies taken before the intermixtures that followed the advent of Europeans, any classification can be but approximative.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE ABORIGINAL LANGUAGES OF THE PACIFIC STATES.