There can be but little doubt that a combination of sounds expressed by the letters t'hl in the Dieguno tongue, represents the sound of the Mexican tl; a sound of which the distribution has long drawn the attention of investigators. Common in the languages of Mexican, common in the languages of the northern parts of Oregon, sought for amongst the languages of Siberia, it here appears—whatever may be its value as a characteristic—as Californian. The names of the Indians whose language is represented by the specimens just given are not ascertained with absolute exactitude. Mofras mentions the Yumas and Amaquaquas.
The Mission of San Luis Rey de Francia (to be distinguished from that of San Luis Obispo) comes next as we proceed northwards.
Between 33-1/2° and 34°, a new language makes its appearance. This is represented by four vocabularies, two of which take the designation from the name of the tribe, and two from the Mission in which it is spoken. Thus, the Netela language of the United States Exploring Expedition is the same as the San Juan Capistrano of Dr. Coulter, and the San Gabriel of Dr. Coulter the same as the Kij of the United States Exploring Expedition.
The exact relation of these two languages to each other is somewhat uncertain. They are certainly languages of the same group, if not dialects of the same language. In the case of r and l, a regular letter-change exists between them. Thus Dr. Coulter's tables give us
| English. | San Gabriel. | San Juan Capistrano. |
|---|---|---|
| moon | muarr | mioil. |
| water | paara | pal. |
| earth | ungkhur | ekhel. |
| salt | ungurr | engel. |
| hot | oro | khalek. |
whilst in the United States Exploring Expedition we find—
| English. | Kij. | Netela. |
|---|---|---|
| moon | moar | moil. |
| star | suot | suol. |
| water | bar | pal. |
| bear | humar | hunot. |
Of these forms of speech the San Gabriel or Kij is the more northern; the San Juan Capistrano or Netela being the nearest to the Dieguno localities. The difference between the two groups is pretty palpable. The San Gabriel and San Juan numerals of Mofras represent the Netela-Kij language.
It is remarked in Gallatin's paper that there were certain coincidences between the Netela and the Shoshoni. There is no doubt as to the existence of a certain amount of likeness between the two languages.
Jujubit, Caqullas, and Sibapot are the names of San Gabriel tribes mentioned by Mofras. The Paternoster of the three last-named missions are as follows:—