= Zuñi, Turner in Pac. R. R. Rep., III, pt. 3, 55, 91-93, 1856 (finds
no radical affinity between Zuñi and Keres). Buschmann, Neu-Mexico,
254, 266, 276-278, 280-296, 302, 1858 (vocabs. and general
references). Keane, App. Stanford’s Com. (Cent. and So. Am.), 479,
1878 (“a stock language”). Powell in Rocky Mountain Presbyterian,
Nov., 1878 (includes Zuñi, Las Nutrias, Ojo de Pescado). Gatschet in
Mag. Am. Hist., 260, 1882.
= Zuñian, Powell in Am. Nat., 604, August, 1880.
Derivation: From the Cochití term Suinyi, said to mean “the people of
the long nails,” referring to the surgeons of Zuñi who always wear some
of their nails very long (Cushing).
Turner was able to compare the Zuñi language with the Keran, and his
conclusion that they were entirely distinct has been fully
substantiated. Turner had vocabularies collected by Lieut. Simpson and
by Capt. Eaton, and also one collected by Lieut. Whipple.
The small amount of linguistic material accessible to the earlier
writers accounts for the little done in the way of classifying the
Pueblo languages. Latham possessed vocabularies of the Moqui, Zuñi,
A´coma or Laguna, Jemez, Tesuque, and Taos or Picuri. The affinity of
the Tusayan (Moqui) tongue with the Comanche and other Shoshonean
languages early attracted attention, and Latham pointed it out with some
particularity. With the other Pueblo languages he does little, and
attempts no classification into stocks.