ISSl.l 



91 



IBrinton. 



accounts. Their country is stated to have been populous, their towns 

 built of wood and not of stone, they were skillful with the bow and arrow, 

 and were bold warriors. They formed small independent tribes united in 

 a sort of confederacy, the "cabeza desenorio," or chief clan, being at "the 

 famous town of Guazacapam, " and its four dependents or allies are named 



as, 



Nestiquipaque, Guaimango, and 



Chiquimulilla, Guanagazapa. 



The liaguistic materials I offer are vocabularies of three dialects of the 

 Xinca. 



The first, from Sinacantan, was obtained from a native of that place by 

 the distinguished historian and antiquary, Don Juan Gavarrete, of Guate- 

 mala, in 1868. The other two were obtained for him in the same year by 

 Don Sebastian Valdez, Cura of Jutiapa. As according to Dr. Stoll, the 

 originals of these have disappeared, no one knows where, since Senor 

 Gavarrete's death, the present publication seems the more appropriate, 

 presenting as it does the only specimens of the Xinca language known to 

 be in existence. I would not omit to add that they came into my hands, 

 together with other valuable documents, in the collection of the late Dr. 

 C. Hermann Berendt. 



Phonology of the Xinca. 



The language is vocalic, and with few gutturals or harsh palatals, con- 

 trasting in this respect with the Cakchiquel and other Maya dialects. The 

 labials, b, f, and v, are absent, although b is found in two or three words 

 of the accompanying vocabulary. The Unguals are not prominent, the 

 d and th not appearing at all. The semi-vowels r and I are convertible in 

 the dialects and occasionally alternate with n. 



In the vocabularies, the letters have the powers of the Spanish alphabet, 

 except that x is pronounced like sh in she, the v is the neutral vowel as in 

 bat, the z is the same as the s, and the compounds csh and sch appear to 

 have the value of the x (= sh). 



Vocabulary of the Xinca Language. 



