It is also advisable to deal cautiously with the Sussee language. Umfreville's vocabulary is short, and consisting almost exclusively of the names of articles of commerce. Lists of this sort are of little value in ethnography. Still, upon the whole, it confirms the current opinion as to the place of the Sussee language, viz. that it is[32] Athabascan. At any rate, it has certain miscellaneous affinities.
Laying these two languages aside, and reserving the Blackfoot for future inquiries, the other vocabularies are referrible to two recognized groups. The Nagail and Taculli are what Gallatin calls Athabascan. All the[33] rest are what Prichard calls Nootka-Columbian. Respecting the former class, the evidence is unequivocal, and the fact generally admitted. Respecting the latter, the statement requires consideration.
At first glance, Mr Tolmie's vocabularies differ materially from each other; and only a few seem less unlike each other than the rest. Such are the Kliketat and Shahaptan, the Calapooiah and Yamkallie, the Kawitchen and Tlaoquatch, the Chenook and Cathlascou. Besides this, the general difference between even the allied vocabularies is far more visible than the general resemblance. Finally, the numerals and the fundamental terms vary in a degree beyond what we are prepared for, by the study of the Indo-European tongues.
Recollecting, however, the compound character of the most fundamental words, characteristic of all the American language; recognising, also, as a rule of criticism, that in the same class of tongues the evidence of the numerals is unimportant in the determination of differences, and comparing the sixteen Oregon vocabularies of Mr Tolmie with each other, we may satisfy ourselves as to the radical unity of the group. To these lists, and to the accompanying paper of Dr. Scouler, reference is accordingly made. The value of these groups (the Athabascan and the Nootka-Columbian) is a different and a more difficult question. The maximum difference between any two known languages of the Athabascan group is that between English and German. The maximum difference between the most unlike languages of the Nootka-Columbian group is that between the modern Greek and Portuguese, i. e. the most distant tongues of the classical stock of the Indo-European tribe. Hence, the terms in question are equivalent to the more familiar terms, Gothic, Celtic, Slavonic, &c. All this, however, is illustration, rather than absolute arrangement; yet it serves to give definitude to the current opinions upon the subject.
To the current views, however, the writer takes exception. He considers that the groups in question have too high a value; and that they are only equivalent to the primary subdivisions of stocks like the Gothic, Celtic, and Classical, rather than to the stocks themselves. Still less can they have a higher and more exaggerated value, and be dealt with as equivalent to groups like the Indo-European.
Hence, the differences between the Athabascan languages of the Oregon and the Nootka-Columbian languages of the Oregon, are the differences between the Latin and Greek, the Welsh and Gaelic, the German and Icelandic, rather than those between the German and Russian, the Latin and Persian, the Greek and Lithuanic, &c.
In determining the higher and more comprehensive class, we must take in a third group of languages. These are those of Russian America. They have generally been referred to two groups of uncertain value, viz. the Kolooch and the Eskimo; the former, for the part about Sitca, or Norfolk Sound, the latter for the parts about the Island of Cadiack, and the Peninsula of Aliaska.
Now, the Athabascan languages are undoubtedly Eskimo; a fact stated by the writer, at the meeting of the British Association at York, and founded upon the comparison of the Athabascan vocabularies of Mackenzie and Dobbs, on the one side, with the Western Eskimo ones, on the other.
And the Kolooch languages are equally Eskimo with the Athabascan. This may be seen by reference to Lisiansky's vocabularies, and a comparison between the Sitca and Cadiack.