The San Francisco call., 1906-06-11
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University Savants Delve
Into the Mysteriesof
Indian Words.
Work to Preserve Record
of Tongues That Are
Fast Dying.

at the university are being u1lilzeo Dy
the anthropological experts to bring to
a conclusion a series of notable expert
ments and an investigation that is cal
.eulated to provide the world of scholars
with complete data relating to the fast
dying Indian dialects of the West and
Southwest. DR.. Pliny E. Goddard, whose
.Athabascan studies have included all
the more Important groups of the fam
lily in California, has already published
studies OF the Hupas in Northwestern
California and he is working up his
material now to complete a series of
four monographs on this one tribe.
When this work Is, ended DR.. God
,dard and DR.. KFeeber, both experts In
this field of research. hope to have
solved the problem of the geographical
division of the aboriginal tribes who
inhabited this region
Legends and mere fragments Of his
tory have proved inadequate, and so
1t is that in linguistic studies is deemed
to lie the only hope of solution. The
whole State and the southwest regions
as well have been covered by the uni
versity experts in this work of record
ing and preserving the linguistic pe-
culiarities of the Indian tribes, so that
when the Indians have entirely died
away and their tongues have perished
with them the world will have pre-
served, through the work of the uni
versity experts, records that scholars
will consider invalu ua BILE.
Especial attention is being given by
DIR. Goddard to the question of the re-
lation between the languages of the
different tribes of Indians. The great
Athabascan family, distributed widely
from Alaska to Mexico, is represented
by several tribes or groups in Califor-
MIA. A study of all the branches and
their dialectic and historical relations:
with one another, as we'll as with ad-
jacent tribes of other stocks, is ex-
pected to bring forth valuable inform
alton regarding their development and
migratfons. both In and out Of Califor-
mia. Also, the work is expected to sup
ply an answer to the problem of the
diversity of the original California In
dians.
The university savants have delved
as deeply into these mysteries as their
facilities would permit Especial ef-
fort has been made to acquire informa-
tion regarding the grammar employed
by the tribes in forming their SEN
fences. Where the languages were re-
garded as unrelated efforts have been
made to determine their roots for COM
parison instead of relying upon words.
Wherever there appeared to have been
borrowing OF words. the geographical
distribution of the words borrowed
their nature and the reasons for their
having been borrowed were studied,
Within each linguistic family the dia-
lects were examined to determine the
nature OF their differentiation.
The university scientists believe that
a knowldge of these developments will
tend to make much clearer the pro-
eesses that have been in operation in
division of prehistoric California Ian
guages into what now appear to be alb
solutely distinct families.
One result of the work thus far done
by the anthropologi experts of the
State University Is that the linguistic
families of the Indians of the State are
found to be divided generally into three
morphological groups, that is, groups
whose grammatical forms are essen
TALLY dissimiiar. The experts have
specialized on these groups, DIR. God
dard dealing with the Hupas in North
ern California, while DR.. Kroeber has
studied particularly the extinct and
nearly extinct languages of the Indians
between San Francisco and Santa Bar
bara. Bulletins on the Yokuts' lam
guage in South Central California have
been published and the Washoes of
East Central California and Nevada are
to be the subject of another bulletin.
1t Is the gathering together of all
these scattered mediums of information
that now engages the attention of the
savants of the university, so that when
the work is done scholars may have
great amount of systematized Inform
alton concerning these fast dying or
already extinct languages of the Indian
tribes OF California, and eventually
every linguistic family In the State be
thoroughly known and understood.