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Show 340 public. Loew has studied four of its dialects, while before him only the Mohave ami the Tuma proper, ( or Yuma- Cuchan, as I call it,) were known to a certain extent, and a few vocables only had been published of the Diegeiio ( Comoyei) and Maricopa. ( See Reports on Pacific Railroad, vol. III.) The dialects which constitute the Yuma family of languages are spoken east and west of the Lower Colorado and on Gila River. The Yuma family has kept itself pretty independent from extraneous influence, for it did adopt only a very few terms, if any, from the neighboring Santa Barbara, Kanvuya, Payute, Pueblo, Apaobe, Pima, from Opata, and other Sonora dialects. Owing to the prevalence of the vocalic element, Yuma is sonorous and not unpleasant to ears unaccustomed to aboriginal speech. Though words often end in consonants, vocalic terminations prevail in initial syllables and in syllables of the middle part of the word. The elements of which Yuma syllables are mainly made up are a consonant followed by a vowel. The counting system is the quinary one, and the numbers from six to ten disagree considerably in the different dialects. The words of the six dialects of which we have the vocabularies illustrate and explain each other mutually, and many forms can be truly understood only by referring to a parallel from another dialect. To show their phonetic differences, the best means will be to quote some terms coinciding in their radicals. nose heard hand arrow knife sun fire water earth stone black large I two to drink Mohave. ihu yavume ipa* akhkvue anya" &- aua akha amata avi vanilgh vattf- im inie- na havik akbathim Haalapai. yaiya yavenime- e sal ap£- a kva- a inytf- a tuga ahtf- a mat uvi niagh vat£ ga any&- a hovak akhathiga Diegefio. khu aleme* i- salgh bal akhgoa* inya" £~ ua akb* mat u- nil nilgh kvatai inyau 6ak kisi Caelum. ih6s yabo- fne i- saltche n'yeptf n'yatch aa- w6 ah& ODlllt ovl n'yulk otaike n'yat havik has lie Tonto. hu yanimi sh£ Ia ana akv£ nya ho- o aha mata vui nya vete nya- a uake hasi Maricopa. yehe- utche yebomits n'yats £ hutch bet& obi inytfts We now turn our attention to the Mohave dialect, of which about 120 sentences and over 400 words were transmitted by Dr. O. Loew. MOHAVE. The individuals using this dialect are at present located upon two reservations. About 1,540 Mohaves, 600 Hnalapais, 540 Chemenuevis, 180 Cocopas, and as many Kauvuyas are tilling the ground in the Colorado River agency on the eastern shore of the river; and about 400 Mojaves were removed in 1875, with 678 Tontos and 500 Cuchans from Camp Verde to the White Mountain reserve on the Gila River. They are a peaceably disposed, laborious set of Indians, who seem to have forgotten the fierce wars formerly-waged by them against their aggressive neighbors. They tattoo the whole of their body in various colors. Their name is also written Mahhaos, Mo-< Sav, in Spanish Mojaves. They do not nasalize or alter their vowels, which are to the number of five, u, o, a, e. it and five diphthongs: au; at, « , ui, oi. They possess all our consonants except /, and though they have a very complete series of them, they rarely double them. The series is as follows: Gutturals: Palatals : Linguals: Dentals: Labials: Not aspirated. tch t , d p, b Aspirated. kh, gh th Spirants. h p » y sh 8 V Nasals. Dg n m R and I sounds. r. n1 « Heterogeneous vowels often meet, and produce hiatus: £- uva, tobacco; kahu- eilk, etc r and d seldom occur. No other consonants can end a word but the following: - g, - gh - fc, - I, - m, - n, - p. We find in this dialect the following combinations of consonants: 5fc, Ik, tk, tkk, mk, rky vk, lgt shg, thp, gv, nqv, ngb, mb, all of which are of easy pronunciation. The accent generally rests on the final syllable of the word- stem; inflective termin- |
