THIRTEENTH ORDINARY MEETING. 161 
ably of Hittite origin in the Old World and in the New. Iu che 
remainder of this paper, I propose chiefly to set forth the relations of 
the Aztec language, by means of which I transliterated the Hittite 
inscriptions, with the Caucasian tongues, which of all Khitan forms 
of speech are in closest geographical propinquity to the ancient habi- 
tat of the Hittite nation. Before doing so I may set forth the prin- 
cipal members of the Khitan family at the present day. 
THE KHITAN FAMILY. 
1.;OLD Wortp Diviston, 
Basque. 
Caucasian = Georgian, Lesghian, Circassian, Mizjeji. 
Siberian = Yeniseian, Yukahirian, Koriak, Tchuktchi, Kamtchadale. 
Japanese = Japanese, LooChoo, Aino, Corean. 
2. AMERICAN DIVISION. 
Dacotah. 
Huron-Iroquois including Cherokee. 
Choctaw-Muskogee including Natchez. 
Pawnee including Ricaree and Caddo. 
Padueca —=Shoshonese, Comanche, Ute, &c. 
Yuma =Yuma, Cuchan, Maricopa. 
Pueblos = Zuni, Tequa, &c. 
Sonora = Opata, Cora, Tarahumara, &ce. 
Aztec including Niquirian. 
Lenca —=Guajiquiro, Opatoro, Intibuca. 
Chibcha or Muysca. 
Peruvian = Quichua, Aymara, Cayubaba, Sapibocono, Atacameno, &c. 
Chileno = Araucanian, Patagonian, Fuegian, &c. 
The Nahuatl, or language of the Aztecs, as distinguished from 
other tribes of diverse speech inhabiting Mexico, has long been a 
subject of no little difficulty to philologists. It is not that its gram- 
matical construction is peculiar, but because its vocabulary exhibits 
combinations of letters or sounds that have come to be regarded as its 
almost peculiar property. The most important of these is the sound 
represented by ¢/, whether it be initial, medial or final. The Aztecs 
of Nicaragua drop the ¢# altogether or reduce it to ¢; hence some 
writers have supposed theirs to be the true form of the language, and 
the literary tongue of Mexico a corruption. Upon this an argument 
has been founded for the southern origin of the Nahua race. But, 
as Dr. Buschmann and others have shewn, a mere casual survey of 
the languages of more northern peoples, the Sonora and Pueblo 
tribes, and the great Paduca family, reveals the fact that they con- 
