Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/445

 AMERICAN INDIANS (LANGUAGES) 413 chuas, but differ from them in manners and lan- guage. This, though it has many harsh sounds, words, and grammatical forms, is spoken by the descendants of Europeans at La Paz, and by about 400,000 aborigines. It is rich in many modified expressions (having for instance 12 homonyms of the verb to carry), abounds in postpositions, and has several dialects. There are grammars by L. Bertonio (Rome, 1613) and D. de Torres Rubio (Lima, 1616). 3. The Atacamas, numbering about 8,000, on the W. slope of the Andes. 4. The Changes, about 1,000, on the Pacific. On the E. declivity of the Andes, in Bolivia, the Antisian family (so called from the eastern of the three Cordillera ranges, and from which the word Andes is ap- plied to all the ranges) contains five tribes with their own tongues, viz. : the Yuracares (yurac, white, and cari, men), Mocetenes (Chunchos), Tacanas, Maropas, and Apolistas; about 15,000 in all. (Tscnudi, Antiguedades Peruanas, Vienna, 1852.) N. W. of Bolivia, on the Uca- yali, are the Panos, who used a sort of hiero- glyphics, and the Carapuchos, who seem to bark in speaking. On the pampas of La Plata, drained by the Parana and both Salados, there are about 40 tribes, especially in the forests of Chaco, of which we mention the most prom- inent. The Abipones, the centaurs of South America, seem to sing their long words ; they have a peculiar sound, half r and half g (like the Arabic ghairi), and count in their language only as far as three. The Mbayas (Guaycurus), on the Paraguay, also great horsemen, had an ancient idiom, and speak now the Enacagas, without nasals or gutturals ; they have also a woman language (man, for instance, is called hulegre by men, but aguina by women) and castes, and are called Lenguas by the Spaniards. The Moxos, about 13,000, in Bolivia and the Brazilian province of Matto Grosso, have a mild harmonious tongue, many modified forms of verbs, and very few numerals. There is a grammar and vocabulary by P. Marban (Lima, 1701). The Chiquitos, about 15,000, in S. E. Bolivia, near the Argentine Gran Chaco, have many nasal and guttural sounds, the French u, and an idiom for females, as well as a language of etiquette used in addressing God and superiors. In the vast regions E. of the river Paraguay, and of a line from its sources to the mouth of the Orinoco, thence bounded by the shores of the Atlantic and on the S. by the Plata, there is, so to speak, an archipelago of tongues in the ocean of the Gua- rani family. In Brazil alone Texeira counted 150 and Spix and Martius 300 tribes, with as many languages ; but, as their affinities cannot be determined clearly, owing to the paucity of their consonant elements, it is impossible to know which of them are languages and which are dialects, or merely local idioms. Hervas reports 51 languages as different from the Tupi, and 16 as akin to it. This Tupi is one of the three great branches into which the language of the Guaranis is divided, viz. : 1. Eastern Guarani (the lingoa geral, general language of Brazil), which lacks/, I, *, and r>, but has Ger- man ch, English j, French u (written y) and nasals, Spanish fl and II ; also mb, rib, nd, ng. Cases: aba, homo; abaupe, homini; abdki, ho- mine. There is no plural flexion. The com- parative is formed by the suffix ete. Numerals do not go beyond 4, 5 being expressed by the word hand (ambo), 10 by two hands (opacombo), and higher numbers in Spanish. Pronouns: yxe, I, my ; nde, thou, thy ; ae, he ; y, his ; oro, we (I and he) ; yande, we (I and you) ; pee, you, pe, your. Verbs: a-juca, occido; ere-ju- ca, occidis ; o-juca, occidit, &c. Tenses are in- dicated by adverbs ; voices and many kinds of verbs by intercalating particles. There is no substantive verb. Examples of phrases: Co nanga xe reminbota (Lat. hcec omnino mihi vo- luntas), I wish'it ; Ne marangatu (mihi boni- tas), I am good ; Ori rub ybaqype tec-oar, imo- ete-pyram nde rera, Our Father heaven-in be- ing, hallowed-be thy name. There are gram- mars by Anchieta (Coimbra, 1595) and Figuei- ra (Lisbon, 1687), a dictionary by the latter author, and a recent one by Dias (Leipsic, 1858). 2. Southern Guarani (Guarani proper), on the rivers Parana, Paraguay, and Uruguay ; spoken by many tribes. See a Vocdbulario in Franca's Chrestomathia Brazilica (Leipsic, 1859). 3. Western Guarani, spoken by the Chiriguani (lat. 18 to 22 S.) on the Pilcomayo, the Guarayi in the missions of the Chiquitos, the Cirionos near Santa Cruz, and in 160 vil- lages between the Chaco and Mapayo streams, in its purity. That dialects of the Tupi once prevailed over many districts is evident from the names of several tribes, such as the Tupi- nambas, Tupininquins, Tapiguas, Tummimirj, &c. ; BO that it became the most extended na- tive idiom in South America, and was adopted by the Europeans, as well as by many hetero- geneous tribes, as the medium of communica- tion. Its analogy with the other branches of the same family and with the Caribbean aided its extension. Here also the style of female speech differs in some particulars from that of men. The Omaguas, formerly a most powerful association of tribes, were the Phoenicians of the Amazon, Japura, &c., being spread inland as far as the Rio Napo, on the affluents of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, to the S. in Solimoens, on the Para, &c. Their language differs from all others in South America. It is monosylla- bic, has nasal and guttural sounds, no gender, and a very simple conjugation. The same word has many significations, according to its tone ; reciprocal verbs are formed by the suffix ca, and active verbs from nouns by ta. It points to the Otomi as well as to trans-Gangetic lan- guages. Between the Madeira and the Tapajos the Mundurucus and Tocantins speak a tongue akin to the preceding. Other tribes on the Amazon have idioms which are related to either the Guarani or the Omagua. There are gram- mars of the Guarani by A. Ruiz de Montoya (Madrid, 1639), and P. Restivo, from Bandini,