

( Ihaptek V. 

 LANGUAGE. 



AS STATED at the outset, it is customary to 

 classify peoples according to their languages. The 

 main groups are what are called stock languages, 

 or families. Under such heads are placed all languages 

 thai seem to have had a common origin regardless of 

 whether they are mutually intelligible or not. Thus 

 English and German are distinct forms of speech, yet 

 they are considered as belonging to the same stock, or 

 family. In North America, there are more than fifty 

 such families, of which seven have representatives in the 

 Plains. Only one, however, the Kiowa, is entirely con- 

 fined to the area, though the Siouan and Caddoan are 

 chiefly found within its bounds. The others (Algon- 

 kian, Shoshonean, Athapascan, and Shahaptian) have 

 much larger representation elsewhere, which naturally 

 leads us to infer that they must have migrated into the 

 Plains. Though this is quite probable, it cannot be 

 proven from the data at hand, except possibly for the 

 Algonkian-speaking Plains-Ojibway and Cheyenne, 

 of whose recent movement out into the Plains, we have 

 historic evidence. These tribes are of special interest 

 to students, since in a comparatively short period of 

 time, they put away most of their native culture and 

 took on that of their neighbors in the Plains. 



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