THE TIMUCUA LANGUAGE. 



By Albert S. Gatschet. 



(Read before the American Philosophical Society, April 6, 1877.) 



The science of linguistics, glottics, or as it was at first called, of compar- 

 ative philology, is of very recent date. Classical antiquity ignored it and 

 it became a science only through the introduction of Sanscrit into the cir- 

 cle of those time-honored languages, of which the study was considered of 

 importance. Modern geography, history, arclueology and ethnology then 

 availed themselves conscientiously and with signal success of this new 

 help. One of the greatest triumphs obtained by linguistics is the disclosure 

 of the primordial social state of the Semitic race and of our remotest Indo- 

 European ancestors. Undoubtedly the antiquity of the two American con- 

 tinents could be disclosed by zealous scientists in the same manner, that is, 

 by comparative researches on their languages, if reliable material is pre- 

 viously collected to a sufficient amount, so that the linguist can light his 

 torch and proceed smoothly along the ethnological pathway of inquiry. 



To similar researches I intend to furnish a small contribution by pub- 

 lishing some notices on the Timucua language, which is perhaps that idiom 

 spoken within the present boundary of the Union in wliich the oldest 

 writings of some extent have been published. As a nation, the Floridian 

 Timucuas are now extinct, but their idiom is preserved in a shape which 

 promises the possibility of its total restoration. 



Historical and Ethnological Remarks. 



At the time of its discovery the Floridian peninsula was inhabited by 

 four principal and a number of minor nations, engaged in continual war- 

 fare among themselves. The Apalachcs dwelt from the Suwannee River 

 down to Tampa Bay ; the southwestern coast was held by the ferocious 

 Colusas, the southeastern parts and the Bahama Islands by the Tegestas, 

 while nations speaking Timucua dialects extended from the neighborhood 

 of Cape Caiiaveral to the mouth of St. John's River and occui)ied many 

 regions of the interior. 



To avoid errors we must carefully distinguish between the three areas of 

 territory to which the name Timucua is at present applied. 



First, we have the area of the original Timucua tribe and of its dialect, 

 around San Augustine. It is called by the early writers " Proviucia timu- 

 quana." 



i^erondly, Ave have the area of a commonwealth of vassal chiefs central- 

 ized under one monarch, of which the above Timucua tribe formed a por- 

 tion, and was probably its mo.'it powerful i^art. For want of another his- 

 torical or more comi)rehensive name this oligarchic commonwealth or 

 monarchy was called by tlie same name of Timucua. 



Thirdly, we iiave the area of the Innf/u/if/e xtock, to which the dialect of 

 the Timucua tribe belonged. Tins area has probably extended far beyond 



