1896.] 



203 



[Brinton, 



Mr. Granger took occasion of an enforced delay at their hamlet 

 to collect some words of their language, which he sent me for ex- 

 amination. On comparison it proves to be a dialect of the Choco 

 stock, evidently the Noanama, that being the name of the tribe 

 which, in recent years, was located on the upper waters of the Rio 

 San Juan. 



The statement that it is unintelligible to their neighbors need 

 cause no surprise, as this is apt to be asserted of closely related dia- 

 lects of the same family. From this habit, the old writers were ac- 

 customed to believe that in America, especially South America, as 

 Cieza de Leon averred, each day's journey brought them into a 

 totally different language. In fact, the modern studies of South 

 American tongues are rapidly diminishing the linguistic stocks of 

 that continental area. This vocabulary is valuable, therefore, not 

 only for itself but as dispelling another delusion of this nature. 



Man, Woman. — In all the Choco dialects these are compound 

 words, having the same second element {eda, era, ena, ira), which 



