The bases for definite knowledge of the Seri tongue are the five
vocabularies described on other pages (13, 95, 97, 102, and 107).
The earliest of these vocabularies, comprising eleven terms, was
collected in Hermosillo in 1850 by Señor Lavandera, presumably from the
tribal outlaw Kolusio, and transmitted to Señor Ramirez for discussion.
This pioneer vocabulary is superseded by those of later date.
The second Seri word-collection was made by Commissioner Bartlett at
Hermosillo in 1852; it was obtained from Kolusio, and comprises some
two hundred words.
The third vocabulary was obtained at Hermosillo during or about 1860,
doubtless from Kolusio, by Señor Tenochio; it comprises about one
hundred terms; it was discussed and published by Señor Pimentel, and
served as a basis for the first scientific classification of the tribe
and their collinguals.
The fourth Seri vocabulary was that obtained by M Pinart at Hermosillo
in 1879, almost certainly from Kolusio; it comprises over six hundred
words, with a few short phrases.
The latest word-collection is the Bureau (or McGee) vocabulary,
obtained on the Seri frontier in 1894 through Mashém, subchief of
the tribe; it comprises some three hundred vocables with a few short
phrases, accompanied by explanatory notes.
The several collections are entirely independent: Lavandera’s record
was made in Spanish, at the request of Ramirez; Bartlett was not aware
of the earlier record, and wrote in English; Tenochio knew nothing of
Bartlett’s work, was probably not aware of Lavandera’s, and wrote in
Spanish; Pinart, though French in blood and mother-tongue, was fully
conversant with Spanish, in which his record was made, and apparently
knew nothing of the earlier vocabularies; while the Bureau recorder had
not seen any of the earlier records and had shadowy knowledge of the
existence of two of them only at the time of making his own.
Naturally the several vocabularies overlap to a considerable extent,
and thus afford means of verification. Those of Bartlett, Tenochio, and
Pinart, all obtained from the same informant, are notably consistent,
despite the diversity in language on the part of the recorders; and
their correspondence with the Bureau vocabulary is hardly less close
(except for the comparative absence of terms for alien concepts in the
latter record) than their agreement among each other. Accordingly, the
linguistic collections, although far less full than would be desirable,
are fairly satisfactory so far as vocables are concerned; but unhappily
the few short phrases in the Pinart and Bureau collections are quite
too meager to elucidate the grammatic structure of the language.
The aggregate number of vocables in the several records is some seven
hundred. Of these over 97 per cent are apparently distinctive,
presenting no resemblance whatever to any other known tongue. The
remaining eighteen or twenty terms reveal resemblances to Aryan, Piman,
Cochimi, or other alien languages; but of these the majority express
Caucasian concepts, familiar enough to the outlaw informant, Kolusio,
though generally unfamiliar to Mashém and to other actual inhabitants
of Seriland.
A critical census brings out six vocables presenting phonetic
correspondences with those of one or more Yuman dialects, viz., the
terms for tongue, tooth, eye, head, blood, and wood or tree. Now,
examination of these terms indicates that the first two probably, and
the third and fourth possibly, are associative demonstratives rather
of mechanical than of vocalic character—e. g., the terms for tooth and
tongue are merely directive sounds accompanying the exhibition of the
organs, so that while the terms may not be onomatopoetic in ordinary
sense, they are instinctively mimetic or directive, in such wise as to
indicate that they may well have arisen spontaneously and independently
among different primitive peoples; also that they might easily pass
from tribe to tribe as an adjunct of gesture-speech. The term for blood
is still more decidedly mimetic of the sound of the vital fluid gashing
from a severed artery, or of normal pulsation, so that it, too, must be
classed as a term of spontaneous development. The Seri term for wood or
tree has an apparent analogue, with somewhat different meaning, in the
Cochimi alone; but since the knifeless Seri made practically no use of
wood in their aboriginal condition, and since the early Jesuit records
show that they sometimes transnavigated the gulf and came in contact
with the wood-using Cochimi, it seems fair to assume that material and
word were borrowed together. A similar suggestion arises in connection
with the term for dog; although the Seri have lived from time
immemorial in that initial stage of cotoleration with the coyote in
which the adult animals are permitted to scavenger the rancherias, they
were without domestic dogs until these animals were introduced into
northwestern Mexico by the Spaniards, when they apparently absorbed
the animal and its name at once from their eastern neighbors of the
Piman stock—presumably the Opata, or possibly the Papago, with both of
whom the Seri converts and spies were in frequent contact during the
Jesuits’ régime at Opodepe, Populo, and Pitic.
In weighing the linguistic relations, it is to be remembered that
the Seri are distinctive in practically every somatic and demotic
character, that they are bitterly antipathetic to aliens, and that
their race-sense is perhaps the strongest known. It is also to be
remembered that they are zoosematic in esthetic, largely zoomimic in
their primitive industries, putatively zoocratic in government, and
overweeningly zootheistic in belief; that nearly all observers and
recorders of their characteristics have been impressed by both the
distinctiveness and the primitiveness of their speech; that this speech
abounds in associative demonstratives and instinctive onomatopes to
exceptional degree; that they class themselves as much more nearly
akin to their bestial associates than to any alien tribe or people;
and hence that their speech is necessarily zooglossic in considerable,
if not unequaled, measure. It is to be remembered, too, that the law
of activital coincidences finds fullest exemplification in lowest
culture, as has been already shown, and as the zooglossic character
of the Seri speech would imply; so that a considerable proportion of
fortuitous resemblances might be anticipated. Finally, it is to be
remembered that despite the extreme provinciality connected with their
unparalleled race-sense, the folk have been in known contact with
Caucasian and Amerind aliens for nearly four centuries, and have been
steadily, albeit with exceeding slowness, absorbing alien activities
and activital products.
In the light of the history and condition of the Seri, a summary of
their vocabulary is of much interest. It is as follows:
Known vocables 700±
Distinctive terms 682±
Terms shared with other tongues 18±
Terms connoting Caucasian concepts 11±
Onomatopes and associative demonstratives 5±
Term shared with the Cochimi 1
Term borrowed from the Piman 1