FIFTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 6 



captivity in eastern New Mexico in 1867 and 1868. During this 

 captivity, dialects were evidently jostled together, and resettlement 

 by the United States Government further dislocated them. 



Field work during the latter part of the summer was done with 

 more than 10 of the leading Navaho interpreters. In a tribe of more 

 than 45,000 population, there are many educated speakers, including 

 university graduates, and with them were explored special features 

 of the language which could not have been obtained from the tongues 

 of poor and uneducated tribes without much greater expenditure of 

 time. 



The Navaho language was found to have only 4 vowels and 34 

 consonants, making it a true consonantal language. The sounds of 

 Navaho were found to be almost identical with those of the other 

 languages of the Southwest, for instance, with those of the neighbor- 

 ing Tewa language. Also many words were found to be the same 

 as in Tewa. Navaho was found to have, for practical purposes, 

 a high and a low tone, and a falling and rising tone only on long 

 vowels and diphthongs. One of the most peculiar developments 

 to be found in any language is the hardening in Navaho of almost 

 any consonant by placing a sound of German ch after it if it is 

 voiceless, and of open g (gh) after it if it is voiced. There are also 

 traces of a hardening of 1 to n, and the like. 



Returning to Washington late in the fall. Dr. Harrington continued 

 his study of the Navaho, until it now constitutes a finished manuscript 

 of more than 1,200 pages. Throughout the work there has been a 

 constant revelation that Navaho and related languages are not as 

 unlike other American Indian languages as has been thought by early 

 vocabulary makers and classifiers. 



At the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, 1940, Dr. Frank H. H. 

 Eoberts, Jr., was engaged in a continuation of excavations at the Lin- 

 denmeier site, a former Folsom camping ground, in northern Colorado. 

 From August 1 to 31 he was on leave and during that period, in ac- 

 cord with the Smithsonian Institution's policy of cooperation with 

 other scientific organizations, directed the excavation program of the 

 advanced students at the University of New Mexico's Chaco Canyon 

 Research Station. 



From Chaco Canyon, N. Mex., Dr. Roberts went to Boulder City, 

 Nev., to inspect a large cave located in the loAver end of the Grand 

 Canyon of the Colorado River at the upper reaches of Lake Mead. 

 The trip to the cave was made by m_otorboat from Pierce's Ferry in 

 company with officials of the National Park Service's Boulder Dam 

 Recreational Area. Rampart Cave is situated in the south wall of 

 the canyon at the top of a steep talus 600 feet above the present water 

 level. It is of unusual interest because of its extensive deposits of 



