REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 



before tbe disappearance of the primitive languages. Only a sin:ill part of the 

 material so collected has been published; but the vaults of the Bureau are ricb in 

 data pertaining to the languages of many tribes representing most of tbe linguistic 

 stocks of the American Indians. Perhaps on no other continent has tbe linguistic 

 diversification of primitive peoples been wider than in northern America, aud the 

 dialectic variations are hardly less striking. The aboriginal languages of this con- 

 tinent accordingly give an admirable opportunity for the study of the facts and 

 causes of linguistic development; and from the beginning it was deemed important 

 to collect the largest possible body of material for examination and discussion in its 

 bearing on the general subject. Carrying out the general policy, only subordinate 

 attention has been given to publication, and publication has been made only in 

 cases in which the material seemed especially typical or exceptionally complete. 

 Tbus, while the amount of linguistic material iiublished is not voluminous, the 

 manuscripts constantly accessible I'or purposes of study are abundant — richer, it is 

 believed, than any other body of linguistic records of a primitive people. 



Mr. A. S. Gatschet devoted the entire year to linguistic work. Early in the year 

 he Avas employed in translating texts and in extracting lexic aud grammatic ele- 

 ments of the Peoria and .Shawano languages, recorded by hiiu during the preceding 

 two years. This work gave abundant opportunities for comparing the two tongues 

 with the forty or fifty other dialects of the Algouquian stock, and the interesting 

 results of the comparison were embodied in a comparative vocabulary of the Algon- 

 (^uian languages. By this comparison the intimate relations between the dialects is 

 strikingly shown and at the same time the multiplicity of forms into which the 

 original tongues has been diversified has been brought out. Morphologically the 

 Algonquian tongue is built on a purely nominal basis, yet in the various dialects a 

 wide variety of ideas are expressed with surprising perfection. In all the Algon- 

 quian dialects verbal roots combine with other verbal roots in a single word giving 

 a peculiar and forcible expression to the verbal form. The compounding of words is 

 further extended by numerous adjectival suffixes descriptive of quality, these suffixes 

 indicating whether the noun qualified by such an adjective is an animate or inani- 

 mate subject, and showing whether comjilexion, size, age, or other qualities are to 

 be determined. This method of adjectival suffixes extends also to the numerals, and 

 in some dialects there are special suffixes to qualify numeral cardinals as determin- 

 ing aninuite or inanimate objects in the plural. Mr. Gatschet's recent studies have 

 brought out the fact that the Algonquian languages of the western group (Arapahoe, 

 Cheyenne, and Siksika) differ considerably in their jihonetics from the eastern dia- 

 lects, these differences being-- especially shown in the nasalization found among the 

 western representatives of the stock. 



Mr. J. Owen Dorsey spent the earlier part of the year in office work on the Biloxi 

 language, completing its systematic arrangement for preservation and reference. 

 He also revised the proofs of Contributions to North American Ethnology, Volume IX 

 (Riggs's " Dakota Grammar, Texts, and Ethnography"), as well as his own memoir, 

 entitled "A Study of Siouan Cults," in the eleventh annual report of the Bureau. 

 Both of these documents have now been published. The month of January was 

 spent on the Kwapa Reservation in Indian Territory in investigating the social organ- 

 ization of the tribes and recording their myths and traditions in the form of texts. 

 Alter his return from the field these texts were translated literally, but the prepara- 

 tion of explanatory notes and free translations was deferred. Some time was spent 

 in the elaboration of a list of the characters required for recording the various sounds 

 in the Siouan, Athapascan, and other linguistic families; in this work he had for a 

 time the assistance of a skilled oriental linguist, Dr. J. J. Nouri, from whom he 

 obtained for comparative purposes many of the peculiar sounds of tbe Semitic and 

 other Eastern languages. Some time was spent also in the examination of supposed 

 linguistic aflinities between the Maya and Malay languages, and during the year bo 

 recorded in final form eight Winnebago texts, dictate^ hy Philip Longtail. Suh§§. 



