Indian languages of Mexico and Central America and their geographical distribution / by Cyrus Thomas, assisted by John R. Swanton ; accompanied with a linguistic map.

  • Thomas, Cyrus, 1825-1910.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Indian languages of Mexico and Central America and their geographical distribution / by Cyrus Thomas, assisted by John R. Swanton ; accompanied with a linguistic map. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/126 (page 13)
    “El P. Christobal de Villalba [Villalta] (lib. 5, cap. 15, p. 324) sabia excelentemente la lengua cle los Uaquis, y propia de los cinaloas,’’ adds “por lo que lengua hiaqui, j lengua dnaloa es una niisma cosa.” On tbe preceding page (322) be also identifies tbe Cinaloa and Hiaqui (Yaqui) as one and the same— “Cinaloa 6 Hiaqui.” Now Kibas (284) locates tbe Hiaquis on tbe lower portion of the “Kio Hiaqui” (en las doze ultimas a la mar), but places the Cinaloas on the Fuerte, or, as be calls it, Pio Cinaloa or Rio Zuaque. He says (142) the river is called by various names, sometimes the Cinaloa, sometimes Tegueco, and sometimes Zuaque; that tbe four principal nations on tins river are the “Cinaloas, Teguecos, Zuaques, y Ahomes,” and, that the Cinaloa dwell in the mountains at the head of the river. It is evident from tlus and many other similar statements in his work that Ribas considered the “Cinaloas” as distinct from the Hiaqui (Yaqui), the Mayo, Tehueco, and Zuaque, though finguistically related to them. If there was a tribe of this name, which is possible, it is most likely they were absorbed by the other tribes on the upper Rio del Fuerte. Therefore Hervas’s identification of the Sinaloas \vith the Yaquis is an evident mistake, as Orozco y Berra points out. As to the apphcation of the name Cinaloa by Ribas to the Rio del Fuerte there is this evidence. Alegre (i, 230) says— El Zuague, d cuya rivera austral estuvo en otro tiempo la villa de S. Juan Bautista de Carapoa, que despues fabricado el fuerte de Montesclaros, se llamo Rio del Fuerte, y el padre Andres Perez [Ribas] llama por antonomdsia el rio de Sinaloa. The geographical position as given by Ribas is sufficient without any other evidence to show that he used the name Cinaloa to desig- nate the Rio del Fuerte and not the stream which now bears the name Sinaloa. Nothwithstanding this and abundant other evidence that the Yaqui and the Mayo resided on the rivers that bear their respective names, and the Tehueco and Zuaque on the Fuerte river, Bancroft (i, 608)says, “The Zuaques have their villages between the Mayo and Yaqui rivers,” and so locates them on his map (471). Possibly he refers to a more recent date, though apparently not. Hamy, probably by mistake, places on his map the “Hiaquis” on the Rio Mayo and the Mayo on the Rio del Fuerte. That the Yaqui, Mayo, and Tehueco spoke dialects of the same language is now well known from historical evidence, vocabularies, etc. However, the following proof from older writers is added: “La nacion Hiaqui y por consecuencia la Mayo y del Fuerte . . . que en la sustancia son una nusma y de una propria lengua” (Cancio, 2: 246), “Esta tribu [Mayos] es de la misma raza que la del Yaqui, y solo se distingue por el titulo de su rio. Su idioma [Mayo and Yaqui] por consiguiente es el nusmo, con la diferencia de unas cuantas voces” (Velasco, 1:302). Pimentel (i, 485) says the “Calfita” language is divided into three principal dialects—Mayo, Yaqui, and Tehueco;