LANGUAGE in aboriginal America may be pronounced a mystery of mysteries and a Babel of Babels. Mr. Bancroft has catalogued nearly six hundred distinct languages, existing between northern Alaska and the Isthmus of Panama. Many of these, however, scarcely deserve to be called more than dialects; while each has its individuality, it is true that all have certain characteristics in common, a fact which by some has been considered sufficient ground for belief in the unity of the American race, a hypothesis which is by no means tenable. The geographical division and intermixture of languages, for instance, in California, is without a parallel elsewhere in the world. By the accidents attendant upon savage life, resulting from ceaseless hostilities and the frequent inroads of tribes upon their neighbors, a nation has often been scattered in fragments, and its refugees, separated into small bands, have taken up their residence in the midst of other tribes at localities far removed from their central home. In a generation or two a modification of the parent speech has been brought about by the surrounding influences, all of which vary in the several localities in which the refugees have found their new homes. New tribes thus formed, soon become unintelligible to their brothers, who have developed a dialect under different influences from theirs. When we consider that for thousands of years this wholesale division and subdivision of tribes and languages has been going on, as the result of ceaseless hostilities, we can easily account for the multitude of languages and dialects on the one hand, and the existence of a thread of unity or similarity on the other, said to run through them all. Supposing the continent to have received its population from several different quarters, the natural expectation would be that in the course of time this process of general intermixture would result in developing in each language much that was common to the others—hence the foundation for the hypothesis of their unity of origin. In the study of American languages it has often been a matter of surprise that their structure and expressiveness indicates a degree of perfection far in advance of the civilization out of which they had sprung. This superiority, we think, can be accounted for on the principle, first, that the evolution of languages on this continent has been more active and constant here than elsewhere, though unfortunately not always operating under favorable conditions; and second, that in the frequent catastrophes which have resulted from inter-tribal warfare, even in language, the law of the survival of the fittest is apparent, in the preservation of those etymological forms and principles of structure which are most useful. We by no means agree with the eminent philologist Dr. W. Farrar, F.R.S., chaplain to the Queen, and others who, taking but a partial and second-hand view of American languages, pronounce their elaborateness a childish excess, and their vaunted wealth a concealment of their poverty.[701] An examination of the poems of Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcuco, recorded by Ixtlilxochitl, will afford sufficient proof of the expressiveness and richness of the Aztec language.[702] The song on the “Mutability of Life” and the ode on the tyrant Tezozomoc have often been translated and admired.[703] One of the leading characteristics of American language, it has been said, is “agglutination,” but we must add that the term employed is not sufficiently comprehensive. “Agglutination,” says Farrar, “may be described as that principle of linguistic structure which consists in the mere placing of unaltered roots side by side; as when to express ‘discipline’ the Chinese say ‘law-soldier,’ or for ‘elders’ ‘father-mother,’ or for ‘enjoyment’ ‘luxury-play-food-clothes.’”[704]
The term polysynthesis, the synthesis of many words into one, with a little explanation will describe the characteristic, so prominent, to which we allude. In their polysynthesis, the syllables or words which are compressed into one long word, no longer retain their individual forms, but are clipped and altered so as to be scarcely recognizable. A sentence by this process of fusion is compressed into a single long word. Dr. Farrar cites the following example from the Aztec: achichillacachocan, means “the place where people weep because the water is red.” The component parts are: atl “water,” chichiltic “red,” tlacatl “man,” chorea “weep,” all of which have nearly lost their identity in the inflection and contraction necessary in the synthesis.[705] As in the Aryan and other families, Grimm’s system of Lautverschiebung—sound changing, or shunting—better known by Prof. Max Müller’s designation as “Grimm’s law” prevails, so there are groups or families in northern Mexico pointed out by Buschmann to which this law is clearly applicable. No doubt the number of relationships already established between aboriginal languages, as the result of classification, will be greatly augmented when, if ever, the subject receives special attention.[706] Mr. Bancroft classifies the languages in his catalogue under three great families, namely, the Tinneh, Aztec and Maya. The first, which covers the territory around the northern extremity of the Rocky Mountains, and sends its offshoots as far south as northern Mexico, only concerns us incidentally in treating the ancient languages of North America.[707] The two families (and their far-reaching branches) in which we are interested, are the Maya and the Aztec, the latter the survivor of the speech of the Nahuas.
To the Maya, or rather, the Maya-Quiché stock, no doubt belongs the greatest antiquity assignable to any language or languages on the continent. The mother tongue, the Maya, prevails throughout all of Yucatan, and together with its dialects extends itself over Tabasco, Chiapas and Guatemala, and is even present in the states of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz, in the Huastic and Totonac languages. Numerous catalogues of the branches of this family have been made, but the most recent, and we think the most complete, is one constructed in 1876 on Señor Pimentel’s classification by the Mexican scholar, Señor Garcia y Cubas. It is as follows: 1. Yucateco or Maya; 2. Punctunc; 3. Lacandon or Xochinel; 4. Peten or Itzae; 5. Chañabal, Comiteco, Jocolobal; 6. Chol or Mopan; 7. Chorti or Chorte. 8. Cakchi, Caichi, Cachi or Cakgi; 9. Ixil, Izil; 10. Coxoh; 11. Quiché, Utlatec; 12. Zutuhil, Zutugil, Atiteca, Zacapula; 13. Cachiquel, Cachiquil; 14. Tzotzil, Zotzil, Tzinanteco, Cinanteco; 15. Tzendal, Zendal; 16. Mame, Mem, Zaklohpakap; 17. Poconchi, Pocoman; 18. Atche, Atchi; 19. Huastic, and probably 20. the Haytian, Quizqueja or Itis, with their affinities, the Cuban, Boriguan and Jamaican languages.[708]
The author of the above list has compensated us for its length by giving each of the names with its variation in orthography according to different writers. The classification is altogether superior to any other. The Maya is of peculiar interest to us, especially since within the territory over which it extends are found the most celebrated architectural remains known to Central American archæology. The majority of the sculptured tablets which are preserved are no doubt in the Maya or some of its dialects. What is most satisfactory to us, is the probability that the language is spoken to-day by the mass of the native population of Yucatan as it was anciently, for says Señor Pimentel, “the Indians have preserved this idiom with such tenacity that to this day they will speak no other,” and he adds that it is necessary for the whites to address them in their own tongue in order to communicate with them.[709]
Señor Orozco y Berra furnishes us evidence that little change has taken place in the language since the earliest times, in the statement that all the geographical names of the peninsula are Maya, which is considered proof in his judgment that the Mayas were the first occupants of the country.[710] It is but a reasonable expectation, therefore, that at no distant day, by the aid of Landa’s alphabet, the inscriptions will be compelled to reveal their mysterious contents. The Tzendal, the language in which Votan is said to have written a history of the foundation of his city, and still spoken near the ruins of Palenque, is said to have been the oldest of American languages, but linguistic investigations have proven that it is an offshoot from the Maya, the mother tongue.[711] It is probable that the Maya was first planted at some point in the territory which it now occupies, and gradually extended its domain until its colonies reached northern Vera Cruz and southern Nicaragua. Whether at any time it was the language of a people inhabiting central and southern Mexico at a date anterior to the arrival of the Nahuas, is unknown though probable. Señor Orozco y Berra has shown by linguistic studies that probably the Mayas occupied the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, having in their migration passed from the Floridian peninsula to Cuba and thence to the other Caribbean isles, and to Yucatan. He states that the Mayas possess traditions of a northern home from which they passed by means of the islands of the Gulf to Yucatan. Both he and Señor Pimentel agree that the languages of the West Indies belong to the Maya family.[712]
The characteristics of the Maya-Quiché languages are; flexibility, expressiveness, vigor, approximating harshness, yet on the contrary rich and musical in sound. The Maya itself has more than once been compared to the Greek, and even said to be derived from it. Dr. Le Plongeon, who for four years has been exploring the ruins of Yucatan and especially of Chichen-Itza, writes thus in connection with the discovery of a well-sculptured bear’s head at Uxmal: “When did bears inhabit the peninsula? Strange to say, the Maya does not furnish the name for bear. Yet one-third of this tongue is pure Greek. Who brought the dialect of Homer to America? Or who took to Greece that of the Mayas? Greek is the offspring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya? Or are they coeval? A clue for ethnologists to follow the migrations of the human family on this old continent. Did the bearded men whose portraits are carved on the massive pillars of the fortress at Chichen-Itza, belong to the Mayan nations? The Maya is not devoid of words from the Assyrian.”[713] He does not hesitate to say that “the Maya, containing words from almost every language, ancient or modern, is well worth the attention of philologists,” a statement which might with but little breach of propriety be made as well concerning almost any other language. In referring to its antiquity, the writer says, “I must speak of that language which has survived unaltered through the vicissitudes of the nations that spoke it thousands of years ago, and is yet the general tongue in Yucatan—the Maya. There can be no doubt that this is one of the most ancient languages on earth. It was used by a people that lived at least 6000 years ago, as proved by the Katuns, to record the history of their rulers, the dogmas of their religion, on the walls of their palaces, on the façades of their temples.”[714] The Mexican scholar, Señor Melgar, is convinced that he sees resemblances between the names employed by the Chiapenecs in their calendar, and the Hebrew, and furnishes comparative lists to sustain his hopeless theory.[715]
The speculations of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg are none the less remarkable and about equally as plausible as those of Dr. Le Plongeon or Señor Melgar. The Abbé after years of study among the peoples of Central America, was convinced beyond a doubt that a marked relationship existed between the Quiché-Cakchiquel and Zutugil and the languages of the north of Europe. He considers the evidence sufficient that peoples speaking the Germanic and Scandinavian languages migrated to Central America and infused their idioms into the Maya.[716]
With Mr. Bancroft we agree that no value can be attached to these speculations, until impartial comparisons are made by scholars who have no theories to substantiate. It is worthy of note that several eminent scholars have observed the remarkable similarity of grammatical structure between the Central American and certain transatlantic languages, especially the Basque[717] and some of the languages of Western Africa.[718] Dr. Le Plongeon, after several years spent amid the antiquities of Peru and in the study of the Quichua language, says, “The Quichua contains many words that seem closely allied to the dialects spoken by the nations inhabiting the regions called to-day Central America, and the Maya tongue.” In referring to the mural paintings at Chichen-Itza, he further remarks, “By comparing them with those of the Quichuas, I cannot but believe that Manco’s ancestors emigrated from Xilbalba or Mayapan, carrying with them the notions of the northern country.”[719] Interesting as these speculations are, they must be received with allowance and viewed with doubt, until thorough linguistic researches test their value.
The most important features of Maya grammar are as follows: The letters of the alphabet are, a b c ɔ e, ch, ch, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, p, ó, pp, t, th, tz, u, x, y, y, z. The letter ɔ is pronounced like the English dj, h is not aspirated, th is hard, and the k guttural. Much of the beauty of the pronunciation depends on the elision of certain vowels and consonants, as for instance instead of ma in kati they say min kati, or instead of ti ca otoch they would say ti c otoch. The plural is distinguished from the singular by the addition of ob (those). Verbs ending in an take tac in the plural. The masculine of rational beings is denoted by the prefix ab, the feminine by ix. The words xibil and chupul, signifying male and female respectively, are used to express the gender of animals. The case of nouns is determined by their position in the sentence and their relation to the prepositions, the most frequent of the latter being ti, which has various significations. Adjectives accompanying substantives always precede them, but the number is only expressed by the substantive. The comparative is formed by adding l to the adjective, sometimes il, and prefixing u or y the pronoun of the third person. The superlative is formed by prefixing hach to the positive.
The Maya pronouns are as follows: