78 DANIEL WILSON ON THE HUEON-IROQUOIS OP 



the native "VVyaudot historian, they were Wyaudots or Hurous, and Senecas. That they 

 were Huron-Iroqiiois, at any rate, and not Algonkins, is readily determined. We owe to 

 Cartier two ])rief vocabularies of their language, which, though obscured probably in 

 their original transcription, and corrupted by false transliterations in their transference to 

 the press, leave no doiibt that the people spoke a Huron-Iroquois dialect. To which of 

 the divisions it belonged is not so obvioiis. The languages, in the various dialects, differ 

 only slightly in most of the words which Cartier gives. Sometimes they agree with 

 Huron, and sometimes with Iroquois equivalents. The name of Hochelaga, " at the 

 beaver-dam," is Huron, and the agreement as a whole preponderates in favor of a Huron 

 rather than an Iroquois dialect. But there was probably less difference between the two 

 then, than at the more recent dates of their comparison. In dealing with this important 

 branch of philological evideace, I owe to the kindness of my friend, Mr. Horatio Hale, a 

 comparative analysis of the vocabulary supplied by Cartier, embodying the results of long 

 and careful study. He has familiarized himself with the Huron language by personal 

 intercourse with members of the little band of civilized "Wyandots, settled on their reserve 

 at Anderdon, in Western Ontario. The language thiis preserved by them, after long separa- 

 tion from other members of the widely scattered race, probably presents the nearest 

 approximation to the original forms of the native tongue, as spoken on the Island of 

 Montreal and the lower St. Lawrence. In the following comparative table the Wyandot 

 equivalents to the words furnished in Cartier's lists are placed along side of them, so as to 

 admit of easy comparison. The resemblances which are discernible to the experienced 

 philologist may not stiike the general reader with the like force of conviction. Allowance 

 has to be made for varieties of dialect among the old occupants of the lower valley of the 

 St. Lawrence, and also for the changes wrought on the Huron language in the lapse of 

 three and a half centuries, not simply by time, but also as the resirlt of intercourse and 

 intermixture with other peoples. The habit of recruiting their numbers by the adoption of 

 prisoners and broken tribes could not fail to exercise some influence on the common 

 tongue. The k or hard g of Cartier is, in the Wyandot, frequently softened to a y ; and on 

 the other hand, the n is strengthened by a d sound, as in Cartier's pregnant term Canada, 

 the old Hochelaga word for a town, which has become in the Wyandot Yandata ; and so in 

 other instances. When the siielling of Cartier's words A'aries in different places or editions 

 of his narrative, the various forms are here given. In writing the Wyandot words the 

 consonants are used with their English sounds, except that the J is to be pronounced as 

 in French (English z in " azure"), and n has the sound of the French nasal n. The vowels 

 have the same sounds as in Italian and G-erman. 



Some of the Wyandot words placed in the following lists alongside of those furnished 

 by Cartier are not, as will be seen, transformations of the old forms, but synonyms, or 

 ec[uivalents now in use. Others, however, show the changes which have taken place, 

 under the novel circumstances which have affected the scattered Huron fugitives in the 

 intentai of upwards of three centuries. This is particularly noticeable in the numerals, 

 where the greater number of the modern words are imperfect abbreviations of the original 

 forms. This process of phonetic change and decay is more fully illustrated in subsequent 

 tables of Huron-Iroquois numerals. 



