Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/446

 414 AMERICAN INDIANS (LANGUAGES) (1724). Montoya also published a vocabulary. Between the rivers Doce and Pardo, and be- tween the Atlantic and the province of Minas Geraes, we find the Botocudos, who have a language of their own, with many nasal and other peculiar sounds, although scarcely any gutturals ; they use a great many vowels, but confound many articulations, as t and d, and I, n, and r, together; for instance, Taru, or Talu God. Most of their words are mono- syllabic. They have many onomatopoeias and various figurative expressions, and they double many words;- thus, nac-nac, sea gull; eng- eng, woodpecker. There are two cases, nom- inative and oblique, as taru-ti-po (courser of heaven), the sun; taru-niep (heaven-rest), the moon. The plural and comparative are denoted by ruhu, more; the superlative by yikaram, most. In conjugation there are two moods, infinitive and particfples. There is no substantive verb ; thus : he mung, he gone ; e reha, it good, &c. Among the Brazilian tongues is that of the Camacans on the river Pardo, in the province of Bahia, with extremely long words, very abrupt peculiar final sounds, and many gutturals ; and that of the Macharis in Porto Seguro, with most peculiar palatals and many nasals. For materials on the Brazil- ian languages, see the works of Lery (1578) ; Mimiani, on the Kiriris (1695); F. de Azara (1781); Prince Maximilian of Neuwied-(1815- '17); Spix and Marthas (1 81 7-'20); Von Esch- wege's vocabularies of the Puris, Coroados, Coropos, &c. ; and the travels of D'Orbigny and Auguste St. Hilaire. The Araucanian or Chilidugu, Chili language, formerly extended more northward, and is spoken by the Picun- ches, from Coquimbo as far as Santiago, by the Puelches about Mendoza (E. of the Cordillera), by the Iluilliches on the Biobio and Valdivia, and by the independent Aucas in the south of Chili, with dialectic variations. This is prob- ably the most harmonious and the most culti- vated language among the indigenous races; its purity and elegance being so cherished, that even a preacher is often upbraided by his hearers if he commits a solecism in his sermon. It has not the Spanish aspirated j, g, nor x, z, b,f; but has a nasal n and u as in French. In the north, d and r are used for, and conversely in the south. Words end in vowels and in the mild consonants, b, d, g,f, I, m, n, r ; only about 20 in s or 2. There is no gender ; the signs of sexes are alca, male, and domo, female. The <;ases are three, formed by adding Hi, genitive ; mo, men, ablative ; egu, instrumental. Dual, engu ; plural, ica, egn, or by prefixing pu, or intercalating que between adjective and sub- stantive. Persons : inche, I ; eimi, thou ; taye, he ; dual : inchu, 1st ; eimu, 2d ; taye epu, 3d ; plural : inchifl, we ; eimn, you ; taye culd, they. Personal suffixes to verbs: 1, n; 2, imi; 3, i; dual, yu, imu, igu ; plural, in, imn, ign. The imperfect tense is formed by intercalating nu ; future, a. The infinitive ends in n; gerunds in uam, uum ; the participle active in lu, pas- AMERICANISMS sive in el; the conjunctive in li, optative in lichi ; passive voice in ngen (thus, aiun, to love ; aiungen, to be loved) ; negation inter- calates la (imperative quel). There are more than 20 forms of transition for all sorts of modifications in the verb (more than in the Altaic languages). In short, some of the best traits of the Indo-European and the polysynthetic languages are combined in the Chilidugu. It has geometrical terms, and is skilfully employed as a rhetorical and poetical idiom. There are grammars and vocabularies by L. de Valdivia (Lima, 1607), A. Febres (1765, 1846), and B. Havestadt (Munster, 1777). The Patagonians (Tchuelhets) are divided into sev- eral tribes, such as the Tchuel-cunny (South- men), Tchuan-cunny, (North-men), &c. Falk- ner, an English Jesuit, gave a grammar and vo- cabulary of the Moluches (Hereford, 1774). It is supposed that an idiom similar to theirs is spoken by the Yacanacus, who inhabit Tierra del Fuego and the southern margin of the con- tinent, as well as the Brunswick peninsula. AMERICANISMS. There were peculiarly strong influences in America to cause variations in the English language from the standard of the mother country, such as the thinness of popu- lation ; the novelty of numerous objects, of the mode of life, and of the system of government ; the vast influx of persons speaking the lan- guages of continental Europe and Africa ; inter- course with the red men ; the want of a me- tropolis, a court, and permanently wealthy fam- ilies, which might serve as authorities ; and the adoption by newspaper editors of the slang words of the multitude. But there have also been very strong influences at work to protect the English language in America from varia- tions. These influences have been, a more ex- tensive and thorough popular education than that of any other country, the almost universal habit of reading, an intercourse between dis- tant districts by travelling unequalled in any other part of the world, and the extensive use of dictionaries. The consequence is, that there is more uniformity in the English language as spoken in the United States than in the tongue of any other people equally numerous ; every American can with ease understand every other one; and it may safely be said that as a people the Americans speak English better than the English themselves. But the stand- ard of the correct language still remains in the use of the learned and educated people of Eng- land. Americanisms are of various kinds, viz. : First, new words, such as sparse, back- woods, caucus. Secondly, old English words in new meanings, as block, meaning the land or houses enclosed between four streets in a town or city ; realize, meaning to conceive as actu- al, and section, meaning a square mile of land. Thirdly, words which were provincial in Eng- land adopted in general American use, as wilt for wither. Fourthly, words which have re- tained in America the meaning they had in Eng- land several hundred years ago, while in the