The following example will serve to illustrate the great changes verbs undergo in their conjugations;—ksitapatsitup maha, I love thee; tsitapintsuo kok, I love him; himtapintsiwata tsii kak, he loves me; hintsitapintsiwata tsii, dost thou love me?[III'-49]

The Yamkally is spoken at the sources of the Willamette River. A comparison of the Yamkally and Calapooya vocabularies shows a certain relationship between them.[III'-50]

COLUMBIAN AND MEXICAN COMPARISONS.

I have said that certain affinities are discovered between the Waiilatpu and Mollale, and also between the Watlala and Chinook; in these, as well as in the Calapooya and Yamkally, Buschmann discovers faint traces of the Aztec language. Others have discovered a fancied relationship between the language of the Mexicans and those of more northern nations, but Mr Buschmann believes that, descending from the north, the peoples mentioned, whose lands are drained by the Columbia, are the first in which the Aztec, in dim shadows, makes its appearance. These similarities, he discovered not alone by direct comparisons with the Aztec, but also by detecting resemblances between these Columbian dialects and those of certain nations which he calls his Sonora group and its affiliations, all of which contain elements of the Aztec tongue. Yet Mr Buschmann does not therefrom claim any relationship between the Aztecs and Columbians, but only notices these few slight assimilations.[III'-51]

Herewith is a comparative table, containing a few similar words:

Comparative Table, showing Similarities between the Columbian and Mexican Tongues.

ENGLISH.WAIILATPU.MOLLALE.WATLALA.CHINOOK.CALAPOOYA.AZTEC.SONORA FAMILY.
Yesiiaaahhe, aw e, ha
Toothtenif tantitlantli
Red tkhlpaltkhlpolpol tlapalli
Wind ikkhalaitskhakhikhalaehecatlheicala
Black tkhloltkhlalukh tlilli
Water wematkhlwebatkhl atl
I naikanëe ne
Chiefiatoiangiakant iout, iauta

ANALYSIS OF THE CHINOOK JARGON.

The Chinook jargon is employed by the white people in their intercourse with the natives, as well as by the natives among themselves. It is spoken throughout Oregon, Washington Territory, on Vancouver Island, and extends inland into Idaho and some parts of Montana. It is more than probable that, like other languages de convenance, it formed itself gradually, first among the natives themselves, and that in the course of time, in order to facilitate their intercourse with the aborigines, trappers and traders adopted and improved it, until it was finally brought into its present state. Indeed, so great was the diversity of languages in this vicinity, and so intricate were they, that without something of this kind there could have been but little intercourse between the people.

A somewhat similar mixture I have already mentioned as existing in Alaska. Father Paul Le Jeune gives a short account of a jargon in use between the French and the Indians, in the north-eastern part of America, as early as the year 1633.[III'-52] In Europe a similar mixture, or patois, prevails to this day, the lingua franca, used by the many nationalities that congregate upon the shores of the Mediterranean. In China, and in the East Indies, the so-called pigeon English occupies the same place; and in various parts of Central and Southern America, neutral languages may be found. To show how languages spring up and grow, Vancouver, when visiting the coast in 1792, found in various places along the shores of Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver Island, nations that now and then understood words and sentences of the Nootka and other tongues, some of which had been adopted into their own language.