Opuscula: Essays chiefly Philological and Ethnographical

by R. G. Latham

Now, not to mention the fact of this phonesis being an overvalued character, there is clear proof in the recent additions to the comparative philology of California that its distribution is, by no means, what it was, originally, supposed to be. This may be seen from the following lists.

From the North of California.

(1.)

English.	Wish-osk.	Wiyot.
boy	ligeritl	kushama.
married	wehowut'l	haqueh.
head	wutwetl	metwet.
hair	pah'tl	paht'l.
face	kahtsouetl	sulatek.
beard	tseh'pl	cheh'pl.
body	tah	hit'l.
foot	wehlihl	wellih'tl.
village	mohl	katswah'tl.
chief	kowquéh'tl	kaiowuh.
axe	mahtl	mehtl.
pipe	maht'letl	mahtlel.
wind	rahtegut'l	ruktagun.
duck	hahalitl	hahahlih.

(2.)

English.	Hupah.	Tahlewah.
neck	hosewatl	——
village	——	wah'tlki.
chief	——	howinnequutl.
bow	——	chetlta.
axe	mehlcohlewatl	——

In the South of California.

English.	Duguno.		Cuchan.
leg	ewith'l		misith'l.
to-day	enyat'l		——
to-morrow	matinyat'l		——
bread	meyut'l		——
ear	hamat'l		smyth'l.
neck	——		n'yeth'l.
arm	}	selh	iseth'l.
hand
friend	——		nyet'l.
feather	——		sahwith'l.

I cannot conclude without an expression of regret that the great work of Adelung is still only in the condition of a second, or (at best) but a third edition. There is Vater's Supplement, and Jülg's Supplement to Vater. But there is nothing that brings it up to the present time.

Much might be done by Buschmann and perhaps others. But this is not enough. It requires translation. The few French writers who treat on Ethnological Philology know nothing about it. The Italians and Spanish are, a fortiori, in outer darkness as to its contents. The Russians and Scandinavians know all about it—but the Russians and Scandinavians are not the scholars in whose hands the first hand information falls first. The Americans know it but imperfectly. If Turner has had easy access to it, Gallatin had not: whilst Hales, with great powers, has been (with the exception of his discovery of the Athabaskan affinities of the Umkwa and Tlatskanai, out of which Turner's fixation of the Apatch, Navaho, and Jecorilla, and, afterwards, my own of the Hoopah, seems to have been developed,) little more than a collector—a preeminent great collector—of raw materials. Nevertheless, the Atna class is his.