Notwithstanding the great diversity of tongues encountered in the regions of the north, the confusion increases ten-fold on entering California. Probably nowhere in America is there a greater multiformity of languages and dialects than here. Until quite recently, no attempt has been made to bring order out of this linguistic chaos, owing mainly to a lack of grammars and vocabularies. Within the last few years this want has, in a measure, been supplied, and I hope to be able to present some broader classifications than have hitherto been attempted. Through the researches of Mr Powers, who has kindly placed his materials at my disposal, and the valuable information communicated by Judge Roseborough, the dialects of northern California have been reduced to some sort of system, yet there remains the fact that, in central and southern California, hundreds of dialects have been permitted to die out, without leaving us so much as their name.[IV'-1]
In attempting the classification of Californian tongues, no little difficulty arises from the ambiguity of tribal names. So far as appearances go, some peoples have no distinctive name; others are known by the name of their chief alone, or their ranchería; the affiliation of chief, ranchería, and tribe being identical or distinct, as the case may be. Some writers have a common name for all tribes speaking the same, or dialects of the same, language; others name a people from each dialect. Last of all, there are nations and tribes that call themselves by one name, while their neighbors call them by another, so that the classifier, ethnologic or philologic, is apt to enumerate one people under two names, while omitting many.[IV'-2]
We have seen in the Columbian languages, as we approach the south, that they become softer and less guttural; this is yet more observable among Californians, whose speech, for the most part, is harmonious, pronounceable, and rich in vowels; and this feature becomes more and more marked as we proceed from northern to southern California. On this point, Mr Powers writes: "Not only are the California languages distinguished for that affluence of vowel sounds, which is more or less characteristic of all tongues spoken in warm climates; but most of them are also remarkable for their special striving after harmony. There are a few languages found in the northern mountains which are harsh and sesquipedalian, and some on the coast that are guttural beyond the compass of our American organs of speech; but with these few exceptions, the numerous languages of the state are beautiful above all their neighbors for their simplicity, the brevity of their words, their melody, and their harmonious sequences."[IV'-3]
RULES OF EUPHONY IN CALIFORNIA.
Throughout California, much attention is paid to the euphony of words; and if, in the inevitable manufacturing process, a syllable does not sound well, or does not exactly harmonize according to the native ear, it is ruthlessly sacrificed. In many languages these elisions are made in accordance with fixed rules, while others, again, obey no other mandate but harmony.
Concerning the languages of northern California, Judge Roseborough writes: "In an ethnological view, the language of these various tribes is a subject of great interest. They seem to be governed by the geographical nature of the country, which has had much influence in directing the migrations and settlement of the various tribes in this state, where they have been found by the whites; and there have been in remote times at least three currents, or lines of migration, namely—first, one along the coast southward, dispersing more or less towards the interior as the nature of the country and hostile tribes permitted. In so broken and rough a country the migrations must have been slow, and the eddies numerous, leaving many fragments of aboriginal tribes here and there with language and customs wholly dissimilar. Second, that along the Willamette Valley, over the passes of the Calapooya, across the open lands of the Umpqua, southward through Rogue River Valley into Shasta and Scott valleys. As an evidence of this trace I may mention that all the tribes on this line, from the Calapooya mountains southward to the head of Shasta and Scott valleys, speak the same language, and were confederate in their wars with the tribes on Pitt River, who seem to have arrested their progress southward. In this connection I may mention two facts worthy of remark, namely, first, in this cataclysm of tribes, there have been some singular displacements; for instance, the similarity of language and customs of the Cumbatwas and other cognate tribes on Pitt River denotes a common origin with a small tribe found on Smith River, on the north-west coast: and secondly, the traditions of the Shastas settled in Shasta and Scott valleys, the advance of this line of migrations, show that a former tribe had been found in possession of those valleys and mountains, and had been driven out. The remains of their ancient villages, and the arrangements still visible in their excavations confirm the fact, and also the further fact that the expelled tribes were the same, or cognate to those which the whites found in occupation of the Sacramento Valley. For instance, in all of these ancient villages, there was one house of very large dimensions, used for feasts, ceremonious dances, etc., just as we found on the settlement of California, in the valley of Sacramento. The existing tribes in those mountains have no such domicil and no public houses. They say, when asked, that the villages were built and inhabited by a tribe that lived there before they came, and that those ancient dwellers worshiped the great snowy Mount Shasta, and always built their villages in places from which they could behold that mountain. Thirdly, another wave of migration evidently came southward along the Des Chutes River, upon the great plateau of the lakes, which conclusion is borne out by a similarity of languages and customs, as well as by traditions."[IV'-4]
In support of this theory, Judge Roseborough states that the languages spoken on Smith River, and extending thence forty miles along the coast, are radically and wholly different from those of the neighboring tribes. The former are harsh, guttural, irregular, and apparently monosyllabic, while on the other hand, the neighboring tribes inhabiting the coast southward to Humboldt Bay, and along the Klamath as far up as the mouth of the Trinity, speak a language very regular in its structure; copious in its capacity for expressing ideas and shades of thought, and not unpleasing to the ear, being free from harsh and guttural sounds. Of all the languages spoken in this part, that which prevails along the Klamath River, as far up as Happy Camp, and along the Salmon to its sources, is by far the most regular and musical. In fact, for its regular and musical accents it occupies among the Indian tongues of the continent the same preëminence that the Spanish does among the Caucasian languages. For instance, their proper nouns for persons and places are very euphoneous, as, euphippa, escassasoo, names of persons, and tahasoofca, cheenich, panumna, chimicanee, tooyook, savorum, names of noted localities along the river.
As an example of the copiousness and richness of the coast languages above Humboldt Bay, Judge Roseborough cites the following, for one, two, three, four, they say, kor, nihhi, naxil, chohnah; so for to-morrow they say, kohchamol; for the day after to-morrow, nahamohl; three days hence, naxamohl; four days hence, chohnahamol. Nor do they stop here; mare, being five, and marunimícha, fifteen; the fifteenth day from the present is, marunimîcháhamohl.
Mr George Bancroft in his Indianology erroneously asserts that the sound of our letter r does not occur in any of the aboriginal languages of America. A similar assertion has been made with regard to Asiatic tongues, that there is not a people from the peninsula of Hindostan to Kamchatka who make use of this sound. Although this idea is now exploded, evidence goes to show the rarity of the use of the letter r in these regions; yet, Judge Roseborough assures me that in these northern Californian dialects the sound of this letter is not only frequent, but is uttered with its most rolling, whirring emphasis; that such words as arrarra, Indian; carrook, or cahroc, up; eurook, or euroc, down; seearrook, across and up; micarra, the name of a village; tahasoofcarrah, that is to say the village of upper Tahasoofca, are brought forth with an intensity that a Frenchman could not exceed.
On both sides of the Oregon and Californian boundary line is spoken the Klamath language; adjoining it on the north is the Yakon, and on the south the Shasta and the Palaik. A dialect of the Klamath is also spoken by the Modocs. Herewith I give a short comparative table, and although no relationship between them is claimed, yet many of the words which I have selected are not without a similarity.[IV'-5]