MOONEV] MOBILIAN TRADE LANGUAGE 1S7 



RiCKAHocKAXS. Lederer, W72, DisfoviTies, 2(5, reprint of ISfll ("st'c jin'rciliiig 



explanation). 

 Rickohockam. Map, ibid. 

 Reclidhecriatix. Drake, Biiok of Indian>i, hocik 4, 22, 1848 (from old Virginia docu- 



ment.s ) . 

 Rechchecriaiix. Rafinesque, in Marsihall, Kentucky, i, 36, 1824. 

 M.\STEh.\.<v'. Gatschet, Catawba MS, 1881, Bnr. Am. Ethn. (Oatawba name. Pee 



preceding explanation). 

 „ fPotier, Racines Huronnes et Grammaire, MS, 1751 (Wvandot 



EnTARIRONNON. rru c t T i XJ Vt • • i" . i 



_ , { names. The nrst, aecordmg to Hewitt, i.« ciiuivalent to 



OCHIE TARIRONNON. ,, . , ^ . , ,,, 



I ridge, or mountain, people ) . 

 T'k\ve°-tah-e-u-h.\-ne. Reauehamp, in Journal Am. Folklore, v, 225, 1<S92 (given ai? 



the Onondaga name and rendered, "people of a beautiful red color"). 

 C ugacole(?). Fontanedo, about 1575, Memoir, translated in French Hist. Colls., 



II, 257, 1875 (rendered "wicked people"). 



(2) MoBiLiAN TRADE LANGUAGE (page 1(5): This trade jargon, liased upon Choctaw, 

 but borrowing also from all the neighboring dialects and even from the more north- 

 ern Algonquian languages, was spoken and understood among all the tribes of the t iulf 

 states, probat)ly as far west as Matagorda bay and northward along both banks of 

 the Mississipin to the Algonquian frontier alxjut the entrance of the Ohio. It was 

 called Mobilienne by the French, from Mobile, the great trading center of the (iulf 

 region. Along the Mississippi it was sometimes known also as the Chickasaw trade 

 language, the Chickasaw being a dialect of the Choctaw language proper. Jeffreys, 

 in 17(51, compares this jargon in its uses to the lingua franca of the Levant, and it 

 was evidently ]>y the aid of this intertrilial me<lium that De Soto's interpreter from 

 Tam])a bay could converse with all the tribes they met until they reached the Missis- 

 sippi. Some of the names used by Fontanedo about 1575 for the tribes northward 

 from Appalachee bay seem to be derived from this source, as in later times were the 

 names of the other tribes of the Gulf region, without regard to linguistic affinities, 

 including among others the Taensa, Tunica, Atakapa, and Shetimasha, representing 

 as many different linguistic stocks. In his report upon the southwestern trilies in 

 1805, Sibley says that the "Mobilian" was spoken in addition to their native lan- 

 guages by all the Indians who had come from the east side of the Mississi|ipi. 

 Among those so using it he names the Alabama, Apalachi, Biloxi, Chactoo, Pacana, 

 Pa.scagula, Taensa, and Tunica. Woodward, writing from Louisiana more than fifty 

 years later, says: "There is yet a language the Texas Indians call the Mobilian 

 tongue, that has been the trading language of almost all the tribes that have inliali- 

 ited the country. I know white men that now speak it. There is a man now livin<r 

 near me that is fifty years of age, raised in Texas, that speaks the language well. It 

 is a mixture of Creek, Choctaw, Chickasay, Netches [Natchez], and Ai)elash [.\jia- 

 lachi] " — Reminiscences, 79. For further information see also (Tat.schet, Creek 

 ^Migration Legend, and Sibley, Report. 



The Mobilian trade jargon was not uniijue of its kind. In America, as in other 

 parts of the world, the common necessities of intercommunication have resulted in 

 the formation of several such mongrel dialects, prevailing sometimes over wide 

 areas. In some cases, also, the language of a predominant tribe serves as the com- 

 mon medium for all the tribes of a particular region. In South America w'e find the 

 lingoa geral, based upon the Tiipi' language, understood for everyday purposes by 

 all the tribes of the immense central region from Guiana to Paraguay, including 

 almost the whole Amazon basin. On the northwest coast we find the well-known 

 "Chinook jargon," which takes its name from a small tribe formerly residing at the 

 mouth of t\n: Columbia, in common use anioug all the tribes fi-oni Cabfornia far up 



