1885.] ^43 [Brinton. 



London, to bring into relation " the Masaya language of 

 Nicaragua with the Sioux language." The words he quotes as 

 from Masaya are all from the Nagrandan of Subtiaba, near 

 Leon. There is really no relationship between the Nagrandan 

 and Mangue, and although Dr. Latham has attempted to indi- 

 cate some few analogies,* they must be deemed quite accidental. 



A comparison of about 125 words of the Mangue with the 

 Mixteca, which I find among the Berendt MSS., reveals only 

 about half a dozen similarities, all apparently accidental. 



Phonetics. The Mangue words in this paper are principally in 

 letters with the Spanish powers, some of the semi-vowels being 

 in smaller type. The h is pronounced as an aspirate, and is 

 equivalent to thej, which has its aspirated Spanish value. 



All syllables are open ; that is, they all end in a vowel sound. 

 Thus nim.bu, water, is to be divided ni-mbu. In this respect it 

 resembles the Cherokee, the Japanese, etc. 



Dr. Berendt stated that the Chapanec dialect was the most 

 difficult ot any American language he had ever studied, on 

 account of the obscurity and uncertainty of its sounds. It is 

 greatly syncopated, and terminal syllables are often pronounced 

 in so low a tone that they escape the unpracticed ear. The 

 vowels are not distinct, and many of the consonants are " alterna- 

 ting" as it is called, that is, one may be substituted for another 

 without altering the meaning of the word. Thus, evil spirit 

 (demonic-) may be either tixdmbi' or sistfmbH, these two being 

 the same word pronounced indifferently, either way, by the same 

 individual. This is by no means without parallel in American 

 languages. 



The curious frequency in the Mangue of the " resonants " n 

 and m will strike every observer. This is also the case in the 

 Chapanec. Albornoz regards it as a phonetic phenomenon only, 

 and remarks, " Whenever a word begins with 6, g, y or d, an n 

 must be written before it, which is pronounced with the word 

 itself." Dr. Berendt calls it an " article " which appears as n, 

 na, ni, or m, especially before the letter b. As such, I may 

 suggest its similarity to the Nahuatl in, and the Othomi na, both 

 of which are demonstratives worn down almost to articles. 



There is a similar resonant nasal in various South American 



* Latham, Essays, chiefly Philological and Ethnographical, p. 373 (London, 1800). 



