1898.] BRINTOX— LIXGUISTIC CARTOGRAPPIY. 181 



Yet in some passages (xi, p. xliii) he dismisses the criterion of 

 the affixes, and in maintaining the affinity of Quechua and Guaycuru 

 says their contrast in this respect is unimportant ! 



I do not question the general value of pronominal pre-position 

 and post-position; but it is not sufficiently fundamental to be 

 adopted as a single criterion for classification/ 



Another feature to which Mr. Lafone Quevedo has given close 

 study is the permutation of sounds in these tongues. Undoubtedly 

 he has here shown regular and frequent changes between the dia- 

 lects. But there will be few to follow him in such an equation as : 



coz= hoz= hti = hy ^y (Tavolini, i, App., p. 26). 



With such liberty, any two words could be brought into genetic 

 relation. 



This laxity of method naturally leads him to assert linguistic 

 affinities between all stocks ; these he claims the Guaycuru has with 

 the Guarani, the Mataco with the Carib, and all with the Arawack 

 (L. Q., ii, pp. 56, 58). 



Such conclusions are regretable, and it were to be desired that 

 students of American languages should be as cautious in asserting 

 analogies as are the leading scholars in the Aryan and Semitic fields. 



The Mataco Linguistic Stock. 



The lincruistic studv of the tribes of this vast area has had the 

 usual effect of constantly reducing the number of its linguistic 

 stocks by recognizing as dialects what earlier observers believed to 

 be independent languages. To this result, I shall also contribute 

 somewhat in the present article. 



It has been long recognized that most of the Chaco region was 

 occupied at the discovery by two great groups of related idioms. 



One of these was central, extending in unbroken continuity 

 from the river Paraguay to the foothills of the Andes, and from 

 S. lat. 21° to 26^. This was the Mataco stock, so called from its 

 central and principal tribe."- It is noticeable that all its members 



1 Prof. Friederich Miiller observes that while there are a number of suffix-lan- 

 guages, there is, in fact, no example of a true prefix-language, <' da neben ihr 

 immer die Suffix-Bildung zur Anwendung kommt " (^Grtindriss der Sprachivis 

 sei7schaft,'Qd. i,p. 129). This illustrates how uncertain such a criterion must be. 

 Prof. Hovelacque remarks that linguistically the position of the pronominal affix 

 *'n'a aucune importance " (Ztz Linguistiqice, p. 174.) 



2 The Matacos refer to themselves as vicqiiii -=1 viri, men. 



