364 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



system throughout the New World. But time is still more 



imperiously demanded by the vast number of stock 



Languages, languages, many already extinct, many still current 



all over the continent, all of which differ profoundly 



in their vocabulary, often also in their phonesis, and in fact have 



nothing in common except this extraordinary polysynthetic groove 



in which they are cast. The most moderate calculations allow at 



least 150 such stock languages for the whole region, probably as 



many as in all the rest of the world. 



But even that conveys but a faint idea of the astonishing 

 diversity of speech prevailing in this truly linguistic Babel. Prof. 

 Powell, who has himself determined as many as 58 stock languages 

 for North America alone 1 , points out that the practically distinct 

 idioms are far more numerous than might be inferred even from 

 such a large number of mother tongues. Thus, in the Algon- 

 quian 2 linguistic family he tells us there are about forty, no one 

 of which could be understood by a people speaking another ; in 

 Athapascan from 30 to 40 ; in Siouan over 20 ; and in Shoshonean 

 a still greater number 3 . It is the same, or perhaps even worse, 

 in Central and in South America, where the linguistic confusion 

 is so great that no complete classification of the native tongues 

 seems possible. Sir Clements R. Markham has given a tolerably 

 full list of the Amazonian tribes, with altogether 905 entries 4 , 

 and even after allowing for a large number of synonyms and sub- 

 branches, there still remain some 625 tribal groups, each with at 

 least a distinct dialect. Indeed, but for such linguistic differences, 

 large numbers of these groups would be quite indistinguishable 

 from each other, so great is the prevailing similarity in physical 

 appearance and usages in many districts. Thus Ehrenreich tells 

 us that, " despite their ethnico-linguistic differences, the tribes 

 about the head-waters of the Xingu present complete uniformity 







1 Indian Linguistic Families of America north of Mexico, Washington, 1891. 



2 Following this ethnologist's convenient precedent, I use both in Ethnology 

 and here the final syllable an to indicate stock races and languages in America. 

 Thus Algonquin \h& particular tribe and language of that name; Algonqiiiau 

 the whole family ; Iroquois, Iroquoian ; Carib, Cariban, etc. 



3 Forum, Feb. 1898, p. 683. 



4 Joitr. Anthrop. Inst, 1895, p. 236 sq. 



