MooNEYl DIALECTS RELATED TRIBES 17 



were the first to I't'cl tin* shock of war in th(> riunjiaiirns of 17t>t> and 

 I77(i. witli the result tiiat before the elose of tiie KeNolutioii tliey had 

 lieeii coiiiiilitcly exiirpatcil t'roiii theii' origTiial territory and scattered 

 as refu<;'ees aiuont,'' the more western towns of th(> tribe. The eun- 

 se((uence was that they lost their distinctive dialect, wliich is now 

 practically extinct. In ISSS it was spoken by liut one man on tiie 

 reser\-iition in North Carolina. 



Tile Middle dialect, which might properly be desiynated the Kituhwa 

 dialect, was originsdly spoken in the towns on tlu> Tuckasegee and the 

 iieadwaters of the Little Tennessee, in the very heart of tlie Cherokee 

 country, and is still spoken by the great majority of those now living on 

 the Qualla reservation. In some of its phonetic forms it agrees with 

 thi> Eastern dialect, but resend)les the Western in having the / sound. 



The Westei'n dialect was spoken in most of tlie towns of east Ten- 

 nessee and upper Georgia and uiion Hiwassee and Clieowa rixcrs in 

 North Carolina. It is the softest and most nuisical of all the dialects 

 of this musical language, having a frequent li(|uid / and eliding many 

 of the harsher consonants found in the other forms. It is also the 

 literary dialect, and is spoken l)y most of thos(^ now constituting the 

 Cherokee Nation in the West. 



Scattered among the other Cherokee aiv individuals whose pronun- 

 ciation and occasional peculiar terms for familiar objects give indica- 

 tion of a fourth and perhaps a Hfth dialect, which can not now be 

 localized. It is possible that these differences may come from for- 

 eign admixture, as of Natcln^z, Taskigi, or Shawano blood. 'I'here is 

 some reason for believing that the people living on Nantahala river 

 differed dialectically from their neighbors on either side (3). 



The Iroquoian stock, to wdiich the Cherokee belong, had its chief 

 home in the north, its tril)es occupying a compact territory which 

 comprised portions of Ontario, New York, Ohio, and Penn.syhania, 

 and extendi'd down the Sus(juehanna and Chesapeake bay almost to (he 

 latitude of Washington, .\nother body, including th(> Tuscarora. 

 Nottowa}', and perliaps also the Meherrin, occupied territory in norlh- 

 eastern North Carolina and the adjacent jjortion of AHi-ginia. The 

 Cherokee themsehcs constituted the third and soutiiernniost body. It 

 is evident that tribes of couuuon stock must atone time have occupied 

 contiguous territories, and such we find to be tlie case in this instance. 

 The Tuscarora and Meherrin. and presumal)ly also the Nottoway, are 

 known to have come from the north, while traditional and historical 

 evidence concur in assigrnng to the Cherokee as th(>ir early home tlu; 

 region about the headwaters of the Ohio, innnediately to the south- 

 ward of their kinsmen, but bitter enemies, the Iroquois. The theory 

 which brings the Cherolvce from northern Iowa and the lro([uois from 

 Manitoba is unworthy of .serious consideration. (4) 



The most ancient tradition concerning the Cherokee appears to be 



r.) i:tu— 01 2 



