Parts of the Bible and books of elementary instruction and newspapers constitute the Cherokee literature. - Below the Cherokees were the Muskokees or Creeks, the Choctaws and Chickasaws, the last two speaking the same language, the first a language bearing strong analogies to it. The Spaniards cultivated the Timuquan, a Choctaw dialect, and a grammar, catechism, etc, were printed in it as early as 1613 - '27. The Choctaw proper has been thoroughly investigated in our time by the late Rev. Cyrus By-ington, whose "Definer" (1852) and "Choctaw Grammar" (Philadelphia, 1870) give very satisfactory means of study. The language is remarkable for its multitudinous particles with nice shades of meaning. It has the usual separable and inseparable pronouns, and the double we. Like the Dakota, Mexican, San Antonio, and some others, the third person singular of the present of the verb has no pronoun, and gives the simplest form of the verb. The inseparable pronoun for the first person is a suffix; for the second, an affix: Takchih, he, she, or it ties, or they tie him, her, it, or them; ishtakchih, thou tiest him, etc.; takchilih, I tie, etc. Among the peculiarities is a pronoun used among those related by marriage.

The Muskokee language is divided into the Musko-kee proper or main Creek and the Hitchitee. The only grammar is that by Buckner (New York, 1860). The verb in its modifications differs from the Choctaw. Issetv (v representing an obscure sound), to take; esais, I take it; esichkis, thou takest it; esis, he takes it, etc. Neither Creek nor Choctaw has the sound of a in fate or the letters d, g, j, r, v, or z. - The Natchez, on the Mississippi, had a peculiar language which has some analogy with the Maya. Of the other Louisiana tribes our data are limited; the Chetimachas and Attakapas had languages that enter into no known group. Those of Texas were studied by the Spanish missionaries, and works were printed in them, but their affiliations are not known. - The languages of Mexico have been classified by recent scholars, Orozco and Pi-mentel. The first family is the Mexican, including the Nahoa, the Pipil in Central Ameri-ca, the Zacateco, the Chimarra and Concho in Chihuahua, the Ahualulco in Tabasco, the Jalisco, the Acaxee, the Sabaibo in Durango, the Xixime and Tebaca in Sinaloa. It extended from the Gila and Rio del Norte to Guatemala. As the language of one of the most civilized races in the new world, it was studied by the Spaniards and cultivated, a professorship being founded in the university of Mexico. A number of grammars have appeared, by Olmoz (1555), Molina (1571), Rincon (1595), Guzman (1643), Vetancurt (1673), Avila (1717), Zenteno (1753), Aldama (1754), and Sandoval (1810); and the dictionary of Molina (1571) is very full.

A general view of the language by Albert Gallatin will be found in the "Transactions of the American Ethnological Society," vol. i. The Mexican language lacks the sounds I, e, g, r, j (Spanish), 11 (Span.), and gn (Italian), but it abounds in t, z, eh (Span.), tz, and in the sylla-bles tla, tli, atl, itl; x is pronounced with a pe-culiar guttural sound. The tone generally strikes the penultimate of the polysyllabic expressions, in which the particles ca and ti predominate. Gender is distinguished in animals by the prefix okich, male, cihua, female. There is only one variation for case, e being added for a vocative by men, but only an accent on the last syllable by women. As a general thing, inanimate tilings have no different form for singular or plural; some have, as milli, sowed ground, plural miltin. Of plurals of animate nouns these are samples: Ichcatl, a sheep, ichcame, sheep; coatl, a snake, cocoa, snakes; tatli, father, tatin, fathers. All nouns may unite with four particles: tzin or tzintli, signifying respect; ton or tonth, depreciating; pol, signifying excess; pil, diminutive implying affection: as ichcapil, a lamb (dear little sheep). Possessive affixes are no, mo, i, to, anmo, in.

Calli, house; nocal, my house; nomill, my sowed ground; ical, his house; icxitl, foot; nocxi, my foot; teotl, God; noteouk, my God; dropping a termination, and sometimes substituting another. The inseparable pronouns for conjugations are: 1st person singular, ni; 2d, ti; plural, 1st, ti (strongly accented); 2d, an, am. Ninemi, I live or walk; tinemi, thou; nemi, he; tinemi, we; annemi, you; nemi, they. In the imperative, ti and an, of the 2d person, change to xi, and ma is prefixed to all persons. Ma or macuela is prefixed for the optative. Participles are wanting. It has the usual transitions. Ni tlazotla, I love; nino tlazotla, I love myself; ni pia, I guard, e. g., John; ni tlapia, I guard him; ni tepia, I guard it, etc. The Mexican has given us two common words, tomato (tomatl, waterberry) and ocelot (pcelotl). - The next family is the Otomi or Hiahiu (pronounced Hianghiung), a monosyllabic language resembling the Chinese. Its dialect is the Mazahui. The Otomi is spoken in Mexico, Michoacan, San Luis Potosi, Quere-taro, most of Guanajuato, and parts of Puebla and Vera Cruz. Its grammar is peculiar from the fact that the verb remains unchanged, the pronoun being conjugated.

It has many words of the same letters distinguished by the intona-tion. It lacks f, l, r, and s, and abounds in guttural and nasal sounds; has a peculiar c (cc=qq), pronounced with the root of the tongue and palate; a dental t (tt); and a variety of vowel sounds quite unusual, a having four, e four, i three, u four; and z has three sounds. Distinctions are made by prefixing na, ma, xa: nho or manho, good; xanho, a good thing; mddi, to love; nahmddi, love. - The Huaxteco-Maya-Quiche is a remarkable language, extending over a very wide range, of which the Huax-teco seems a northern offshoot. It is spoken with the Totonac in Puebla, Vera Cruz, and San Luis Potosi. The Maya proper and its dialects, the Lacandon, Peten, Caribe, Chanu-bal, and Punctunc, are spoken in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Tabasco; while its kindred tongue, the Chontal, prevails in Tabasco, Oajaca, Guerrero, and Guatemala; the Quiche and Mam in Chiapas and Guatemala; the Tzendal and Tzotzil in Chiapas; the Col in Chiapas and Guatemala, with the Totzlem. Gage made the Poconcho, a dialect of the Mam, known to English readers two centuries ago.