70 L^02] TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Some reasons which strongly militate in favor of the theory 

 that the tribes of the Maskoki race never crossed the Mississippi 

 river from west to east, are deducible from the phonology and 

 morphology of their languages. These reasons do not prove the 

 fact with the cogency of mathematic deduction, but they are per 

 suasive upon the principle of ethnic analogy. 



For the comparison of languages of the Gulf States we have to 

 select only those which appear indigenous to the country^ as the 

 Timucua, Yuchi, Naktche, Tonica, Shetimasha, Atakapa and 

 Tonkawe, and exclude the intrusive ones, as the Dakotan and Sho- 

 honi dialects (Kataba, Biloxi, Kappa, Comanche). The Cheroki 

 is an Iroquois dialect from Northern parts, but was settled in the 

 Apalachian mountains from times immemorial. Now it is a 

 remarkable fact, that the sounds f and,'/ (the palatalized /) are 

 found only east of the Lower Mississippi river, in Yuchi, Nak- 

 tche and the Maskoki languages ; Cheroki has at least '/, which 

 alternates there with //, and Timucua has f. But west of the 

 Lower Mississippi these two sounds do not occur until we reach 

 New Mexico and the Apache country, which is inhabited by an 

 intrusive people also. On the other side some languages west of 

 that river have the sound r and the vocalic r, which is not heard 



to the east of it, except in Timucua. The synopsis of these 

 sounds is as follows : 



East — Maskoki dialects : y, '/, no r. 

 Yuchi language : /", V, no r. 



Cheroki language: no/", but '/.■ r in otie dialect. 

 Naktche language : f, 'A no r. 

 Timucua language : f, r, no 7. 



West — Shetimasha language : y, '/, ;', all wanting. 

 Tonica language : r and r, no y nor '/. 

 Atakapa language : '/, no f nor r. 



Caddo and other Pani dialects : r or r, but no f nor '/. 

 Tonkawe language : r, r\o f nor 7. 

 Comecrudo language : y 7, r, all wanting. 



The most striking feature of this table is the presence of J" 

 and '/, the absence of r east of the Mississippi river, and the pres- 

 ence of r or r coupled with the absence of y" and '/ in the ma- 



