THOMAS] INDIAN LANGUAGES OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 61 
CENTRAL AMERICA 
As here defined, Central America includes not the group of repub- 
lics to which the name is usually applied, but the geographical and 
ethnic Central America, lying between the Isthmus of Tehuantepec 
and the South American continent. 
CHIAPANEC 
Chiapanec was spoken in the interior of the state of Chiapas. 
Brasseur de Bourbourg (2: civ, cxcrx) places the tribe between the 
Zotziles or Quelenes on the south [east] and the Zoques on the north 
[west]; Orozco y Berra (1:172) says, in Acala district ‘‘del Centro,’’ 
and in the village of Chiapa, and in Suchiapa, district of the west. 
Pinart (in preface to Albornoz and Barrientos, 5) says, probably fol- 
lowing Orozco y Berra, that this language was spoken in the village 
of Chiapa, at Acala, Suchiapa, and some other villages of the same _ 
locality, in the department of Chiapas. 
The language, although as yet not thoroughly studied, is sufficiently 
known to make it the type of the small stock bearing the name 
Chiapanecan, which is represented at some two or three points far- 
ther south. 
CHONTAL! (oF 'TABASCO) 
As stated above, there has been much confusion in the use of the 
name Chontal, which has been applied to tribes in Oaxaca, Tabasco, 
Guatemala, and Nicaragua, belonging to three or four different lin- 
guistic stocks. Those here referred to are, or were, resident in what is 
now the state of Tabasco. Herrera says (11,dec.3, 211) that in Tabaseo 
three languages were spoken: Chontal, used by the greater part of the 
inhabitants; Zoque, spoken in the sierras; and Mexican, which was 
brought into this region by the garrisons of the two forts Monte- 
zuma had established in it, namely, Zimatlan and Xicalango. That 
Orozco y Berra has mistaken the application of the name is evident, 
yet it does not follow that his map is incorrect as to the areas marked 
thereon. : 
Doctor Brinton (3: 149) informs us that it is seen from a manu- 
script vocabulary of the language by Doctor Berendt, that the Chontal 
of Tabasco belongs to the Mayan family and is practically identical 
with the Tzental dialect. Doctor Berendt (2:137) confirms this and 
states that it shows only a dialectic variation from Tzental and 
Zotzil. This corresponds with Stoll’s classification, whose vocabulary 
shows that it belongs to the same group as the Tzental and Chol. 
Although Carl Sapper (2:359 and Carte vim et al.) recognizes 
1This dialect and those which follow as far as Maya, inclusive, except Tapachulteca, belong to the 
Mayan linguistic family. 
