56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 68 
TUNICA M—CHITIMACHA AND ATAKAPA N (AND N) 
Tunica Chitimacha Atakapa 
maka, grease, oil, fat... ..-| niki, neki, grease, oil, fat..| efi, grease, oil, fat. 
WGGLO MUN trea a eee ini, to pursue 2s ss ane in, to hunt. 
MoO Gap ce. 5 eee etc ne, and (between nouns)-..| n, and (between nouns). 
TUNICA AND CHITIMACHA TC OR TS—ATAKAPA C 
WUXtCky WOMEN 2255 So yor kites, WOMaHL. 2s ose. ce kic, woman. 
a xtenysal tes see, ete as tease calf eee eee cick, salt. 
Of 63 correspondences between consonants in all three languages 
13 are between t,1,n, r, and y; 11 between s, c, ts, and tc; 4 between 
n, fi, and m; and 3 between p, m, and w. 
CONCLUSION 
From the above data I conclude that we have in the so-called 
Tunican, Chitimachan, and Atakapan stocks merely widely divergent 
dialects of one stock. All three agree closely in structure, there being 
no grammatical category, and no feature of composition of any con- 
sequence in one not represented in at least one of the other two. Of 
17 phonetic features exhibited by the pronouns and pronominal 
affixes of the three languages 14 are found to be shared in common 
by at least two. Of the remaining affixes more than two-thirds 
possessed by each language are present in at least one of the others. 
Of the independent stems in any way comparable we find resemblances 
in between one-fourth and one-third of the cases. It is not likely 
that all of the correspondences entered in my list would be found valid, 
granted more extensive information, but I believe that the number 
of resemblances found in such comparatively fragmentary material 
tells in favor of the relationship rather than against it. If the 
relationship is admitted, and I think it must be, we find that we 
now have one linguistic group formerly occupying a long, narrow ter- 
rain extending from the Gulf coast with but slight interruption as far 
up the Mississippi River as the northwestern counties of the State of 
Mississippi, and with a westerly arm almost at right angles, running 
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi 
to Galveston Bay and inland still farther toward the west. The 
impression created is of a body of Indians from the west pushed east 
and south by the expansion of the Caddoan peoples. It remains to 
be seen whether the connection ends here, or whether the newly 
identified group is affiliated with the Muskhogean stock to the east or 
the smaller stocks of central and southern Texas. 
In order not to complicate our nomenclature I suggest that the 
term Tunican, the oldest of the three in point of usage, be extended 
over the new stock, the three sections being known by their simple 
names, Tunica, Chitimacha, and Atakapa. 
O 
