1880.] 4<J [Gatschet. 



Dialects of the Timucua Language. 



This is a topic on which very few indications were transmitted to us by the 

 authors. But we are told by Pareja that dialects spoken by one tribe were 

 intelligible to tribes speaking other dialects. He mentions several dialectic 

 differences, f. L, that between ichali and puyu fish-weir, yame and yaman- 

 chu brother-in-law, amitina and chirima my younger sister. 



The dialects to which he refers, are : 



1. The dialect of Timoga or Timagoa, on Lower St. John's River. 



2. That of Potano, west of St. John's River. 



3. That of Itafl. 



4. That of the Fresh-water District. 



5. The dialect of Tucururu, on the Atlantic coast. 



6. The dialect of Santa Lucia de Acuera, a short distance south of Cape 



Canaveral. 



7. The dialect of Mocama, a term which means : "on the coast." 

 Many other dialects and sub-dialects must have been spoken throughout 



the vast interior of the peninsula, of which we have no knowledge. The 

 most instructive passage on this subject is found in Hervas, Catalogo de las 

 Lenguas conocidas, I, p. 388, who quotes Pareja, of whose writings lie 

 had seen none but the catechism of 162"< : "Los indies que tienen mas dife- 

 rencia de vocables y mas toscos que son los de Tucururu y Santa Lucia de 

 Acuera, por participar de la costa del Sur, que es otra lengua, entienden a 

 los de Mocama, que es la lengua mas politica, y a los de Timuqua, como lo 

 he experimentado, pues me ban entendido predican doles. " 



Thus Pareja declares the coast dialect of Mocama (which latitude?) 

 to be the most polished of all and a medium of intercommunication with 

 the southernmost dialect with its rude pronunciation. Otra lengua does 

 not necessarily mean "a language of a different stock," but only an idiom 

 differing from ours. 



Grammatic Notes. 



On account of the unsatisfactory state of the Timucua texts at hand, 

 our grammatic and lexical knowledge of this idiom can increase but 

 slowly. Pareja's " Arte" or grammar would considerably help our inves- 

 tigations, but no trace could as yet be discovered of its manuscript or of 

 the book itself, if it has ever been printed. 



The following remarks contain the result of my studies on the gram- 

 matic part of the idiom. Many of them may be revoked in doubt or cor- 

 rected by further research, for the state of the texts often admits several 

 interpretations of the wording. For this reason I have even hesitated for 

 a while, whether it would be justifiable to publish them or not. 



In phoneics the most prominent feature is the alternation of some 

 vocalic sounds among themselves, and of the consonants pronounced with 

 the same phonic organ of the vocal tube. 



Other changes are very frequent also, especially those produced by con- 

 traction, viz. : synizesis, syncope, ekthlipsis. 



