Chapter 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 that 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 confined to the 

 area, though the Siouan and Caddoan are chiefly 

 found within its bounds. The others (Algonkin, 

 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 

 Algonkin-speaking Plains-Cree, 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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