Brinton.] t>8 rQct. 2 , 



language, called by themselves nhidn hiu,, the fixed or current 

 speech* (nhidn, speech, hiu, stable,, fixed), presents extraordinary 

 phonetic difficulties on account of its nasals, gutturals and ex- 

 plosives. M. A. Pinart has informed me that of the many Ameri- 

 can tongues which he has studied from the lips of the natives, 

 it is far the most difficult to catch. 



It is one of a group of related dialects which may be arranged 

 as follows : 



C The Othomi. 



J The Mazahua. 



} The Pame and its dialects. 



I The Meco or Jonaz. 



It was the opinion of M. Charencey, that another member of 

 this group was the Pirinda or Matlazinca ; a position combatted 

 by Senor Pimentel, who acknowledges some common property in 

 words, but considers them merely borrowed. f 



At the outset, it is well to express a caution about accepting 

 without reserve Naxera's opinions on the tongue. No doubt 

 he had practical familiarity with it in its modern and 

 rather corrupt form, but his treatise was largely written to 

 prove that it was not only structurally similar but lexico- 

 graphically related to the Chinese : — and we all know how 

 such a prepossession obscures the judgment. Thus, part of his 

 object was to prove that every syllable of the polysyllabic words 

 had an independent meaning which it always retained in the 

 compound. It is easy to think out deceptive etymologies of this 

 kind, especially in languages where there are many monosyl- 

 lables. Thus the participle rowing might plausibly be com- 

 pounded of the two monosyllables row, and wing, as the oarmen 

 are seated in a row, and the blade of the oar resembles a wing. 



*This is the orthography of Neve. The terminal vowels are both nasals; 

 nhidn is from the radical hid to breathe, breath. 



fSee the "Comparacion del Othomi con el Mazahua y el Pirinda," in the 

 Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparative de /as Lenguas Tndigenas ile Mexico, por Fran- 

 cisco Pimentel. Tomo iii, pp. 431-415 (Mexico, 1875). 



