A Record of Study in Aboriginal American Languages

III. Mexican and Central American Languages

30. The Native Calendar of Central America and Mexico. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, November, 1893.

31. The Lineal Measures of the Semi-civilized Nations of Mexico and Central America. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, January, 1885.

32. On the Chontallis and Popolucas. In the Compte Rendu du Congrés des Américanistes, 1890.

33. The Study of the Nahuatl Language. In the American Antiquarian, January, 1886.

34. The Written Language of the Ancient Mexicans. In Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1889.

35. The ancient phonetic alphabet of Yucatan. In American Historical Magazine, 1870.

36. The Graphic System and ancient Records of the Mayas. In Contributions to American Ethnology, Vol. V., Washington, 1882.

37. The Phonetic Elements in the Graphic Systems of the Mayas and Mexicans. In American Antiquarian, November, 1886.

38. On the “Ikonomatic” Method of Phonetic Writing. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1886.

39. A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics. pp. 152. Boston, 1895.

40. What the Mayan Inscriptions tell about. In American Archæologist, 1894.

41. On the “Stone of the Giants” near Orizaba, Mexico. In Proceedings of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, 1889.

42. On the Nahuatl version of Sahagun’s Historia de la Nueva España, at Madrid. In the Compte Rendu of the Congrés International des Americanistes, 7eme Session.

43. On the words “Anahuac” and “Nahuatl.” In American Antiquarian, November, 1893.

44. On the so-called Alagüilac Language of Guatemala. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, November, 1887.

45. The Güegüence; a Comedy Ballet in the Nahuatl-Spanish Dialect of Nicaragua. pp 94. Philadelphia, 1883.

46. Ancient Nahuatl Poetry; Containing the Nahuatl Text of Twenty-seven Ancient Mexican Poems; With Translation, Introduction, Notes and Vocabulary. pp. 177. 1887.

47. Rig Veda Americanus. Sacred Songs of the Ancient Mexicans, with a Gloss in Nahuatl. With Paraphrase, Notes and Vocabulary. pp. 95. Illustrated. Philadelphia, 1890.

48. A notice of some Manuscripts of Central American Languages. In the American Journal of Science and Arts (New Haven), March, 1869.

49. The Maya Chronicles. pp. 279. Philadelphia, 1882.

50. The Books of Chilan Balam, the Prophetic and Historic Records of the Mayas of Yucatan. In the Penn Monthly, March, 1882.

51. The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths. pp. 38. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1881.

52. On the Chane-abal (Four-Language) Tribe and Dialect of Chiapas. In the American Anthropologist, January, 1888.

53. A Grammar of the Cakchiquel Language of Guatemala. Translated from an Ancient Spanish MS., with an Introduction and numerous Additions. pp. 67. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1884.

54. The Annals of the Cakchiquels. The Original text, with a Translation, Notes and Introduction. pp. 234. Illustrated. Philadelphia, 1885.

55. On some Affinities of the Otomi and Tinné Stocks. International Congress of Americanists, 1894.

56. Observations on the Chinantec Language of Mexico and the Mazatec Language and its Affinities. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1892.

57. Notes on the Mangue dialect. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, November, 1885.

58. On the Xinca Indians of Guatemala. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, October, 1884.

59. The Ethnic Affinities of the Guetares of Costa Rica. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, December, 1897.

60. On the Matagalpan Linguistic Stock of Central America. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, December, 1895.

61. Some Vocabularies from the Mosquito Coast. In Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, March, 1891.

The Popol Vuh, or “sacred book” of the Quiches of Guatemala was published by the Abbé Brasseur in 1861. The study (51) is an effort to analyze the names of the gods which it contains and to extract their symbolic significance.

The Chane-abal dialect of Chiapas (52) is a mixed jargon, the component elements of which I have endeavored to set forth from MS. material collected by Dr. Berendt.

Another language of Chiapas is the “Chapanecan.” In (57) and also in the introduction to (45) I have shown, from unpublished sources, its close relationship to the Mangue of Nicaragua.

The Mazatec language of Oaxaca, is examined for the first time in (56) from material supplied me by Mr. A. Pinart. It is shown to have relations with the Chapanecan and others with Costa Rican tongues.

The article on the Chinantec, (56) a little-known tongue of Oaxaca, is an analysis of its forms and a vocabulary from the Doctrina of Father Barreda and notes of Dr. Berendt.

The Cakchiquels occupied most of the soil of Guatemala at the period of the Conquest, and their tongue was that chosen to be the “Metropolitan” language of the diocess. In (53) I gave a translation of an unpublished grammar of it, the MS. being one in the archives of the American Philosophical Society. In some respects it is superior to the grammar of Flores.

The higher culture of the tribes of Central America and Mexico gives a special interest to the study of their languages, oral and written; for with some of them we find moderately well-developed methods of recording ideas.

Much of this culture was intimately connected with their astrological methods and these with their calendar. This remarkable artificial computation of time, based on the relations of the numerals 13 and 20 applied to various periods, was practically the same among the Mayas, Nahuas, Zapotecs, Mixtecs, Chapanecs, Otomis and Tarascos – seven different linguistic stocks – and unknown elsewhere on the globe. The study of it (30) is exclusively from its linguistic and symbolic side.

It is strange that nowhere in North America was any measure of weight known to the natives. Their lineal measures were drawn chiefly from the proportions of the human body. They are investigated in (31).

Under the names Chontalli and Popoluca, both Nahuatl words indicating “foreigners,” ethnographers have included tribes of wholly diverse lineage. In (32) I have shown that some are Tzentals, others Tequistlatecas, Ulvas, Mixes, Zapotecs, Nahuas, Lencas and Cakchiquels, thus doing away with the confusion introduced by these inappropriate ethnic terms.

No. (33) is an article for the use of students of the Nahuatl language, mentioning the principal grammars, dictionaries and text-books which are available.

The numbers (34), (35), (36), (37), (38), (39), (40) and (41), are devoted to the methods of writing invented by the cultured natives of Mexico and Central America in order to preserve their literature, such as it was. The methods are various, that of the Nahuas not being identical with that of the Mayas. The former is largely phonetic, but in a peculiar manner, for which I have proposed the term of “ikonomatic,” the principle being that of the rebus. That this method can be successfully applied to the decipherment of inscriptions I demonstrated in the translation of one which is quite celebrated, the “Stone of the Giants” at Orizaba, Mexico (41). The translation I proposed has been fully accepted.¹³