Brinton.] 4U4: [Dec^ g, 



else in common than that they are not Aztec, and, therefore, all 

 were called by the Aztecs foreign and barbarous. The article 

 further mentions that Dr. Berendt had succeeded in obtaining a 

 vocabulary of the " Chontales of Matagalpa," and reported that, 

 while he found in it various words identical with those in neigh- 

 boring tongues, he saw no reason to believe it related to any of 

 them.* The number of natives speaking it he estimated at 10,000 

 or 12,000. 



Dr. Berendt never published any portion of this material, and 

 after his death it came into my possession. I found it to consist of 

 a vocabulary of ninety-four words and a few phrases furnished by 

 the Rev. Victor Noguera, a priest ordained in 1853, and who had 

 paitially learned the tongue while curate at Matagalpa and San 

 Jorge shortly after that date. 



I studied it sufficiently to be persuaded that Dr. Berendt was 

 probably right in considering it a tongue without genealogical rela- 

 tions to its neighbors, though deeply indebted to them lexico- 

 graphically. These neighbors, I may here say, were the Nahuatl 

 or Aztec on the south, the Lencan to the west, the Ulvan to the 

 north and the Moscan or Musquito to the east. Other stocks are 

 not far off, as the Chortis of Honduras speaking a Maya dialect, the 

 Xicaques in the same State, and the Mangues in Nicaragua. 



In accordance with this view, in my linguistic classification of 

 the American race, published in 1891, I placed it as a separate 

 stock, giv^ing it the name of " Matagalpan." To illustrate its 

 character, I inserted a vocabulary of sixteen nouns and the first 

 five numerals. f Previous to this, in the Appendix to an article pub- 

 lished in the Compte rendu of the Congres International des Ameri- 

 canistes of 1890, concerning the true meaning of the names Chon- 

 tales and Popolucas and a specification of the diverse tribes in- 

 cluded under them, I inserted a portion of Noguera's list.f 



Knowing the somewhat uncertain source of the material, and hav- 

 ing no other authority with which to compare it, I deemed it in- 

 sufficient for a special study. I am glad to say that now that diffi- 

 culty has been removed, and I am able to present an enlarged and 

 corrected vocabulary and a brief grammatic analysis of the tongue. 



*" Doch giebt dasselbe keineu Anhaltspunkt fiir Schliisse auf Yerwandtschaft rnit 

 anderen Sprachen." 



fD. G. Brinton, The American Race: A Linguistic CloBsiflcation and Ethnographical De- 

 tcriptim, of the Native Tribes of North and South America, pp. 149, 342 (New York, 1891). 



t Congres International des Americanistcs, Compte-Eendu de la VIII Session, pp. 556-563. 



