= Bethuck, Latham in Trans. Philolog. Soc. Lond., 58, 1856 (stated to
be “Algonkin rather than aught else”). Latham, Opuscula, 327, 1860.
Latham, El. Comp. Phil., 453, 1862.
= Beothuk, Gatschet in Proc. Am. Philosoph. Soc., 408, Oct., 1885.
Gatschet, ibid., 411, July, 1886 (language affirmed to represent a
distinct linguistic family). Gatschet, ibid., 1, Jan-June, 1890.
Derivation: Beothuk signifies “Indian” or “red Indian.”
The position of the language spoken by the aborigines of Newfoundland
must be considered to be doubtful.
In 1846 Latham examined the material then accessible, and was led to the
somewhat ambiguous statement that the language “was akin to those of the
ordinary American Indians rather than to the Eskimo; further
investigation showing that, of the ordinary American languages, it was
Algonkin rather than aught else.”
Since then Mr. Gatschet has been able to examine a much larger and more
satisfactory body of material, and although neither in amount nor
quality is the material sufficient to permit final and satisfactory
deductions, yet so far as it goes it shows that the language is quite
distinct from any of the Algonquian dialects, and in fact from any other
American tongue.