16. The Ugalents of Wrangell.--See Baer's Beiträge. These two
vocabularies represent the same language. The Ugalyachmutsi, although
left by Resanoff as an isolated language, is unequivocally stated by
Baer to be Kolooch. Its contrast with the Esquimaux of the Tshugatshes,
has always been insisted on.
17. Kenay vocabularies by Davidoff, Resanoff, Lisiansky, and Wrangell;
also an anonymous one from a native. Gallatin, in the Archæologia
Americana, goes so far as to separate the Kenay even from the Kolooch
language.
18. The Atna of Wrangell.--See Baer's Beiträge. Now, another American
language, spoken some hundred miles south of the Copper River, of
which we find a vocabulary in Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Travels, is
called _Atna_. It has no direct affinity with the present tongue. A
hypothetical solution of this coincidence lies in the fact, that in the
Athabascan languages the root _d-n_, or _t-n_ = _man_. That the Kenay
call themselves _Tnai_, or _Tnaina_ = _men_, is specially stated by
Baer, p. 103.
19. The Koltshany vocabulary of Wrangell.--See Baer's Beiträge. The
tables of the work in question shew the language to be undoubted
Kolooch.
20. The Sitca vocabularies--numerous. Cook's Norfolk Sound; the Sitca
of Lisiansky; the Sitca of Davidoff (see Archæologia Americana); the
Sitca of Wrangell. According to Captain Bryant, it is spoken from N.
lat. 59° to 5° S. by twenty tribes. The number of individuals who
speak it reckoned by Mr Green, an American missionary, at 6500--see
Archæologia Americana. The standard Kolooch is that of Sitca or Norfolk
Sound.
21. The Tunghaase of Mr Tolmie. Of this, the most southern dialect of
Russian America, we find a short vocabulary in the Transactions of the
Royal Geographical Society. It is truly stated to be closely allied to
the Sitca.
That there are no more than two groups required for the classification
of the above-mentioned languages, and that these are the Esquimaux and
the Kolooch, seems evident. That these groups are of no high value may
be shewn. It is undoubtedly true, that if we only compare isolated
vocabularies with each other we shall find little but points of
contrast. And we find less than might be expected even when we compare
groups of vocabularies.
1. The tables of Baer, exhibiting three languages for the Esquimaux and
five for the Kolooch group, give scarcely half a dozen words common to
the two.
2. The table of Lisiansky, with the Unalashkan and Cadiack on the one
side, and the Kenay and Sitca on the other, presents but little more.
3. The earliest language with which the Ugalyatmutsi was compared were
Esquimaux, and the contrast was insisted upon from the first.
It is only when we apply what may be called the _indirect_ method that
the true value of the Esquimaux group becomes recognised.
1. Each has affinities with the Athabascan tongues, and perhaps equal
affinities.
2. Each has affinities with the Oregon languages, and each perhaps
equally.
3. Each has definite affinities with the languages of New California,
and each perhaps equal ones.
4. Each has miscellaneous affinities with all the other tongues both of
North and South America.
These facts that connect the Esquimaux languages with those spoken
to the south of them involve, as may be easily seen, a theory of
much higher importance than the position of groups like the Kolooch.
They are taken along with the geographical position of the Esquimaux
race in respect to Asia, and point to the parts in question as the
starting-points for the population of the New World. Upon this latter I
can only say at present, that I find Esquimaux words in the following
languages:--