Music, and Astronomy. Their language was consequently very copious, and many Grammars and Dictionaries of it have been composed, from the Vocabulary and Grammar of DE MOLINA (1571) to the Grammar of SANDOVAL (1810). Grammars have also been formed of the Potonaka, Huaxteca, Otomi, and Tarasca tongues, spoken in the adjoining countries. In California are found the Waikur, and its sister tongue, the Cora. The Tarahumara, in New Biscay, is cognate with the Mexican, and has received a Dictionary from STEFFEL (1791), and a Grammar from TELECHEA (1826). 38. The remaining Languages of America occupy that continent North from the North of New Mexico to the Frozen Ocean. Exclusive of America. the English tongue, now dominant throughout nearly the whole of this vast extent, numerous native languages and dialects are still spoken, and several have become extinct, leaving few memorials of their existence. In classifying, or even enumerating, these different modes of speech, one great difficulty arises from the various names given to the Tribes by themselves and by foreigners, and from the confusion of generic with specific distinctions. Thus the Upsarokas are called by the English Crows, by the French, Souliers noirs, and by the Mandans, Wattasun; and are divided into the Ahnahaways, Kikatsas, and Allakaweahs, the latter of whom are named by the English Paunch Indians, and by the French, Ventrus. So, those who call themselves Nadowessis and Dahkotahs, are by others termed Asseenaboines, Assinipoils, Asseeneepoytuks, Sioux, Escabs, and Stone Indians; and similar varieties occur in the designation of almost all the native tribes of North America. Many collections of vocabularies have been made, particularly by scientific bodies in the United States, and by individuals, especially Missionaries. President Jefferson is said to have collected fifty vocabularies of the aboriginal tribes within his reach. The American Philosophical Society possesses many Dictionaries and Grammars of a like nature. Grammars of various native Dialects have also been compiled, and Translations of the Scriptures and religious tracts composed, in those dialects. In 1666, the Missionary ELIOT published his 'Indian Grammar begun;' a work, as the title implies, merely elementary. After a long lapse of time, Dr. JONATHAN EDWARDS wrote his paper on the Mohégan dialect. In the then state of Glossology this was a contribution of some importance; but its value was much lessened by the imperfect views which the reverend Author had taken of grammatical principle. He was succeeded by other Missionaries, ZEISBERGER, HECKEWELDER, and HowSE, who will be hereafter noticed. Among the writings of a more general nature, on these languages, may be remarked those of Messrs. SMITH BARTON, DUPONCEAU, PICKERING," and 1 New Views of the Tribes of America. 1797. Floridian. Delaware. GALLATIN. The classifications adopted by these and other writers are as yet far from concordant; nor is any one of them perfectly satisfactory; which, indeed, in the imperfect state of information on this subject, could not reasonably be expected. We may, however, in a loose and general way, distinguish several languages or dialects, some in the southern part of the United States, as Floridian; some advancing in a north-eastern direction, as Delaware; others inclining rather to the north-west, as Iroquois; and the most northerly of all, as Esquimaux. But besides these great branches, there are some on the west coast, and some in the interior and central parts of North America, of which too little is known to place them in any distinct Class. 39. The Floridian tongues may be divided, according to Bartram, into three classes, of which he names the principal dialects, the Creek, the Uche, and the Stincard. The Creeks, otherwise called Muskogulge, came (as he thinks) from the south-west, beyond the Mississippi to the northern part of the Floridian Peninsula; and their tongue was pleasing in sound, with a gentle and musical pronunciation altogether avoiding the letter R. The Cherokees, on the contrary, sound that letter fully, and their speech is loud and somewhat rough. The Chickasaw and Choctaw dialects are reckoned among the Floridian; but they seem to differ considerably from the Creek. Besides the tribes here mentioned others of the Floridian class were the Shawanese, Natchez, Kikkapoos, Otakapas, &c., some of whom have now become extinct. 40. The term Delaware, by which I have distinguished a whole class of languages, is strictly applicable only to a portion of them otherwise called the Lenni Lenape. The former name, however, has become known in Europe, as having been illustrated by the grammar of ZEISBERGER, and by the speculations of DUPONÇEAU, PICKERING, W. HUMBOLDT, and VAIL. The country once occupied by numerous tribes speaking cognate languages called Algonkin, Chippeway Mohegan, Lenni Lenape, Cree, &c., lies between the fortieth and sixtieth degrees of North latitude, and extends westward from the upper part of the Mississippi to the Atlantic. The earliest attempt to reduce these languages to rule was in GRAVIERS' 'Illinois Grammar' (1690). Of the Algonkin a Dictionary was contained in the 'Voyages' of La HONTAN (1735). Of the Chippeway a vocabulary was given by LONG, with "a table showing the analogy between the Algonkin and Chippeway languages" (1791). The Mohegan, or language of the Muhaeekaneew (i. e. Eastern people), was treated at large, as before said, by Dr. JONATHAN EDWARDS (1788). ZEISBERGER'S Grammar of the Lenni Lenape was translated from the German MS. by Mr. Duponceau (1827). HECKEWELDER wrote on the same language; and an excellent Grammar of the Cree language by Mr. Howse, with an analysis of the Chippeway dialect, from the notes of Mr. PETER JONES, was published (1844). 41. The Mohawks, who dwelt far to the west, near the falls of Iroquois. Niagara, claimed pre-eminence in the celebrated confederacy of the five, and afterwards six nations, called by the French Iroquois, and by the Dutch Maquas, Mengwe, or Mingos. The members of this confederacy were the Mohawks, Senecas, Onondagos, Oneidas, Kayugas, and, subsequently, the Tuskaroras. Connected with them were several minor tribes, the Hurons, Hochelagas, Canaways, Nanticokes, &c. Heckewelder considers the Sioux to belong to this class; but his opinion seems incorrect. Primers have been framed in the languages of the Mohawks and Senecas. A vocabulary of the Huron dialect was given by LA HONTAN in his 'Mémoires de l'Amerique' (1704), and a complete Grammar of the Onondago was compiled by the zealous missionary HECKEWELDER. 42. The term Esquimaux is said to be borrowed from the Algonkin Esquimaux. language, and is applied to tribes dwelling along the northern coast of America from Behring's Straits to Labrador and Greenland, who call themselves Innuit. Their language has been distinguished into the Karalite or Greenland; the Eastern Esquimaux, on the coasts of Labrador, and sometimes reaching to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and the Western Esquimaux from the mouth of the river Mackenzie to Norton Sound. Of these latter, or related to them, many various tribes are met with, as the Kinnai and Ugualyashmutzi, in Russian North America, the Ahwhacknanhelett, the Ootkooseckkalingmaoot, the Kangorrmæoott, &c. Captain WASHINGTON compiled for the use of the Arctic expeditions (1850), a vocabulary, in three parallel columns, of the dialects spoken in Kotzebue Sound on the west, Melville Peninsula in the centre, and the coast of Labrador on the east. Of the Greenland tongue several Grammars have been formed, from that of EGEDE (1750), to that of KLEINSCHMIDT (1851).3 43. Besides the North American languages which may safely be Uncertain. referred to one or other of the classes above mentioned, there are some of which it is doubted whether they can enter into this classification, or are of a totally different origin, thus HECKEWELDER reckons the Sioux or Nadowassie as an Iroquois dialect; but L. CASS showed it to be a separate and independent language. The last-mentioned Glossologist, too, considered the Pawnee to be a language belonging to no one of the classes above enumerated. Of the language of the Killamucks on the West Coast, south of the Columbia, the origin does not seem clear. And, finally, there are, in the interior, tribes of whose speech too little is known to give them any place in classification. 1 Gabelentz, Dakota Sprache. 1852. 2 Grammatica Grænlandica Danico Latina. 1750. Language and Dialect CHAPTER II. OF DIALECTS. 44. THE terms "Language," and "Dialect," which occur, in the very confounded. outset of Glossology, as distinctive, have nevertheless been left, by the generality of writers, without any strict definition. Dialects local and personal. A Language 66 "the The word Language," when used as an universal term, signifying a power which man possesses, in contradistinction to brutes, is sufficiently intelligible; but the case is different, when the same word is used as a particular term, signifying the mode in which that power is exercised by certain bodies of men, as "the English language," Algonkin language," &c. In this latter sense, taking a language as an integer, we may consider a Dialect as a fractional part of it, and an Idiom as another fraction; but if we inquire minutely what it is that constitutes " a Language," as distinct from "a Dialect; " we shall often find great diversities of opinion among eminent glossologists. Many persons regard the Scottish tongue, for instance, as a dialect of the English; but Dr. JAMIESON, a very able, though somewhat prejudiced writer, strenuously contends for its antiquity, as a separate Language. Similar diversities of opinion occur, as to the relation of the Portuguese to the Spanish, of the Provençal to the Northern French, &c. So Vater says of the Indo-Chinese tongues, "whether they are to be called descendants of the Chinese language, or mere compounds or that and others, must, on account of our imperfect knowledge of them, remain for the present undecided.” 45. By the term Dialect, the Italian Dialetto, or the German Mundart, most writers intend only a provincial, or, at least, a local peculiarity of speech; but Vater has, I think, judiciously ranked, with these, other peculiarities, which may be called personal, consisting either of vulgarisms (or at least low colloquialisms); or of technical terms and phrases; or of obsolete words and expressions. All these bear to the standard language of the country, where they are spoken, a relation similar to that which the local dialects bear; and, like the latter, they often help to elucidate identity of origin in different languages, and to show gradual transitions, as well of signification as of sound, in them all. 46. In the general survey of Languages and Dialects, contained in and a Dialect the preceding chapter, these systems of speech are not attempted to be reduced to separate and permanent classes; because the distinction Litteratura, p. 178. relative. If a between a Language and a Dialect is not positive but relative. certain system of speech be taken as a Language, then it may serve as a standard to which some subordinate systems, agreeing with it in the main but differing in minor points, may be referred as Dialects. Thus if we assume an Hellenic language as having existed in ancient times, it may be regarded as the standard to which the Ionic, Doric, Æolian, and Attic Dialects may be referred. But the system which has been taken as a standard on one assumption, may be deemed a Dialect with reference to some more comprehensive standard, and vice versa. For instance, it may be supposed that there was, at a period beyond the reach of history, an Indo-Grecian language, of which the Hellenic and Pelasgic were but Dialects. And, on the other hand, if we assume the Doric to be a language cognate to the Ionic, as the Danish is to the Swedish, or the Portuguese to the Spanish, then we may regard as subordinate Dialects of it the Laconic, the Cretan, and the Sicilian. In my remarks on particular systems of speech, which stand to each other in relations that I have described as integral and fractional, I shall call those belonging to the former category, Standard Languages, and those belonging to the latter, Dialects. 47. Dialects may differ from each other, and from their common How dialects standard, in sound, signification, construction, or general effect. They differ. may differ in sound, as to articulation of vowels, or consonants (including in the latter what the Greeks call breathings), or as to length of sound, or pitch, or emphasis. They differ in signification, when they employ different words for the same meaning, or give different meanings to the same word. They differ in construction, when they omit or insert words differently in a sentence, or employ the parts of speech differently, or in a different order; and, lastly, they may differ as to general effect, in point of expressiveness, gravity, vehemence, harmony, or the like. The comparisons which may be instituted between them, in these particulars, must be conducted in the same manner, and be governed by the same principles, as the comparison of Languages, which will form the subject of a future chapter. them. 48. It has been sometimes objected to the study of Dialects, that it Use of tends to perpetuate the corruptions of a standard Language, and studying employs, on a comparatively worthless object, that time and those abilities, which should rather be directed toward refining the modes of speech, already raised by cultivation to a high degree of regularity, energy, and beauty. But though this objection is not altogether without weight, yet there are other considerations which recommend the study, within proper limits, to serious attention. To the Glossologist it often opens interesting views, not only of the connection of one language with another, but of the formation, utterance, and arrangement of words, in language generally. In respect to general literature, we may observe, that in some languages certain authors devote themselves to the dialect of their age or province; and consequently their works can neither be relished nor indeed understood |