200 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



subject, the phonetic system of the Ute language, are presented. 

 The investigation on which they are based was made at the Southern 

 Ute Indian Agency, at Ignacio, Colorado, in March and April, 1910, 

 under the auspices of the University of Colorado. The dialect is 

 that of the Moguache (Ute: mraqatjym) and Capote (Ute: kapuita) 

 bands of "Southern Ute," which differs only in unimportant details 

 from the other dialects of the language. I wish to mention here 

 with especial gratitude the names of the Regents, of President Baker, 

 and Professors Henderson and Thompson, of the University of 

 Colorado, Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, of the Archaeological Institute of 

 America, Mr. E. G. Fine, of Boulder, Colorado, Mr. Charles F. 

 Werner, superintendent of the Southern Ute Indian Agency, and 

 Mr. James A. Turner, teacher of the Indian day school at Ignacio, 

 Colorado, who have helped to make this study possible and success- 

 ful. Other results of the investigation will be published at a later 

 date. 



The Utes belong linguistically to Brinton's " Uto-Aztecan " family 

 of American languages, which is supposed to include many tongues 

 of the Great Basin area, of the southwestern United States, and 

 northern and central Mexico — notably the Ute and Paiute, Sho- 

 shoni and Comanche, Hopi, Pima and Papago, Tarahumare, Huichol 

 and the "Nahuatl," the latter spoken by the Aztecs and other tribes 

 of Mexico and Central America. Not one of these languages, not 

 even that of the Aztecs, has been as yet thoroughly studied or accu- 

 rately recorded. According to their material culture the Utes are 

 supposed to resemble the Plains tribes in many respects. They 

 appear to be closely related in every way to their western and northern 

 neighbors, the Paiute and Shoshoni. The study of the Utes is 

 certain to throw new light upon the problems connected with the 

 prehistoric sedentary " cHff-dwellers " of Colorado, New Mexico 

 and Arizona. The Hopi, a typical sedentary cHff-dwelling Pueblo 

 people, speak a language closely related to Ute. 



It appears that the Utes have no general name for themselves 

 other than nmtjy, person, plural nmtjym, people, of which Spanish 

 "Yuta" and English *'Ute" is possibly a corruption. The Utes 



