In the Wihinasht, words occur sometimes in which an unusual number of vowels are combined—paöaíu, great; long words are also not infrequent, like pimatiyimwaiákin, salt.[V'-4] A short comparative vocabulary to show the connection between these languages, is given further on.
AZTEC TRACES NORTH OF MEXICO.
Let us now consider the often discussed but ill understood question of the Aztec language in the north. Torquemada and Vetancvrt narrate the expedition of Juan de Oñate, who invaded New Mexico during the last years of the sixteenth century. Father Roque de Figueredo, who accompanied the expedition, says that while searching for a lost mule, at the Rio del Tizon, the Mexican muleteers met certain natives who addressed them in their own language, and who, on being asked whence they came, answered that they came from the north, where that language was spoken. Clavigero, who repeats the above, also asserts, that during the expedition made by the Spaniards, in 1606, to New Mexico, when north of the Rio del Tizon, they saw some large houses, and near them certain natives who spoke the Mexican language. Then we have the statement of Father Gerónimo de Zárate, that while searching for the Laguna de Copala, he was informed, among other things, that the country in its vicinity was densely peopled by men who spoke a language similar to that of his Aztec servants. Zárate was at this time at the Rio del Tizon, and the natives, who are close observers in such matters, assured the Spaniards that they detected in the speech of the servant certain words common to both his own and the language of the people of the Laguna de Copala. And again, in the region toward the east, Acosta says that "of late they have discovered a new land, which they call New Mexico, where they say is much people that speake the Mexican tongue."
Vater, in his Mithridates, intimates that the Mexican language spread far northward, through the roamings of wild tribes, particularly the Chichimecs; but when we remember that the term Chichimec was applied by the early Spaniards to all the immense unknown nomadic hordes north and west, this mention carries with it but little weight. Mr Anderson, who accompanied Captain Cook to the north-west coast, in 1778, fancied he detected a resemblance between the Aztec and the language of the Nootkas. "From the few Mexican words," he says, "I have been able to procure, there is the most obvious agreement, in the very frequent terminations of the vowels in l, tl, or z, throughout the language." And remarks the editor, "may we not, in confirmation of Mr. Anderson's remark, observe, that Opulszthl, the Nootka name of the Sun; and Vitziputzli, the name of the Mexican Divinity, have no very distant affinity in sound." Now the absurdity of all idle speculations is apparent when we encounter such far-fetched comparisons as this. In the first place, there is no affinity in the sounds of the two words, and in the next place there is no such Aztec god—Huitzilopochtli probably being the god meant. Neither has this last word any resemblance to the sun; it is composed of the two words, huitzilin, an abbreviation of the Mexican huitzitzilin, which signifies 'humming-bird,' and opochtli, that is to say 'left.' Vater also draws analogies between the Aztec and the Nootka, and Ugalenze, which on close comparison do not hold good.
Regarding the affinity of the Aztec language with those of the Pueblos, Moquis, Apaches, Yumas, and others of New Mexico and Arizona, Ruxton ventures the assertion, "all these speak dialects of the same language.... They likewise all understand each other's tongue. What relation this language bears to the Mexican is unknown; but my impression is, that it will be found to assimilate greatly, if not to be identical,"—in all of which assertions Mr Ruxton is greatly in error.
All this, as evidence, does not amount to much; it only indicates the origin of a popular belief which placed a Mexican language in various parts of the north, while at the same time it shows upon how slender a thread hangs this belief, and how the vaguest traditionary rumors come, by repetition, to be accredited as fixed facts.
Buschmann asks himself the question whether the Aztec words, in any considerable number, are not found in any other languages of the great Mexican empire—in the Zapotec, Miztec, Tarasco, Otomí, or Huastec—and the answer is no; he has discovered a few accidental word-similarities, such as may be found between the Aztec and other American languages, or between any two languages of the world, but nothing which, by any possibility, could denote relationship.
From another class of evidence we approach a little nearer the truth. Andres Perez de Ribas, missionary to Sinaloa writing about 1640, says, that while studying the language of his people, he noticed many Mexican words particularly radicals, and also words which appeared to have been originally Mexican, but which had been so altered that only one or two syllables in them could be recognized as Aztec.
Father Ortega, in 1732, wrote a vocabulary of the Cora language, in which he says, the people had incorporated in their language many words of the Mexican and some few of the Spanish languages, and this at a period so early that at the time of his writing they were regarded as belonging to the original language.
Hervas, whose work appeared in 1787, says that the Tarahumara language is full of Mexican words. Vater, writing early in the nineteenth century, affirms that the Cora is remarkable for its relation to the Mexican, and that the Tarahumara, which is a more polished language than its neighbors, contains some words similar to the Aztec. In his Mithridates, Vater notices a relationship between the Cora and the Aztec, furthermore asserting that the conjugations of the two are so alike as plainly to prove the connection.