Grammatical Sketch of the Heve Language Part 1

Grammatical Sketch of the Heve Language.

by Buckingham Smith.

HISTORICAL.

This tongue was spoken in the middle of the last century over a region of country princ.i.p.ally within Sonora, the northernmost of the seven Provinces then comprising the kingdom of New Galicia under the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The limit of Sonora on the east was continuous along the chain of mountains that divides it from Taraumara,--from Sateche, the farthest of the Indian settlements in that district, southwardly eighty leagues to Bacoa Sati the first of its towns. On the west the Province was washed by the sea of Cortez from the mouth of the Hiaqui to the Tomosatzi, or Colorado, the waters of the Hiaqui forming its limit to the south; and on the north by a course from the Mission of Baseraca westwardly through the Presidio de Fronteras to that of Pitic (Terrenate), a distance of seventy leagues. According to the opinion of a Jesuit Father, the author of an anonymous work in, ma.n.u.script on that country, written in the year 1762 at Alamo, it was thought also to be the most important among the many Provinces of Mexico, whether for fertility of soil, gold was.h.i.+ngs, or silver mines; and not less distinguishable for the docility and loyalty of those aboriginal inhabitants who had early given their adhesion to the government to secure religious instruction.

[Footnote 1: The t.i.tle of the work, in ma.n.u.script, from which the grammatical notices have been elaborated is Arte y Vocabulario de la lingua Dohema, Heve o Eudeva; the adjective termination of the last and first name being evidently Spanish, as is also the plural terminations used elsewhere in some of the modifications of those words. We have only the definition of Heve with certainty given as "people;" to the word "nation" in the vocabulary, there being attached the remark: "I find no generic term: each (nation) has its specific name; the Eudeves are called Dohme." Another like work, also unpublished, with the t.i.tle _Arte cie In lengua Pinea_ has the dictionary inscribed _Vocabulario en lengua Nevome_.

In the uncertain relations.h.i.+p of the tribes to each other, better marked and measured perhaps by the proximity of their idioms than by any other means with which we are acquainted, a thought has been taken from the indistinct manner in which these different people are spoken of by those who have been among them to advance in the present t.i.tle, (since we may not be at liberty to reject,) the word Dohme for the family; and Pima generally for the common language, under which the Opata, Heve, Nevome, Sobahipurls and the rest may be placed, as they shall become known, each by its separate dialect.]

The Missions of Sonora included moreover a section to the south bounded by the River Chico within the Province of Ostimuri. To the north, within the religious precinct, was the Pimeria Alta through the Sobahipuris up to the junction of the river of that name, (otherwise the San Pedro,) with the Gila; thence for a distance of more than one hundred and thirty leagues, after pa.s.sing among _rancherias_ of Pima, Opa, and Cocomaricopa, and having received in its course the Asumpcion, or Compuesto--from its being formed by the united waters of two streams, the Salado and Verde--it enters the Tomosatzi, closing that Pimeria of innumerable tribes described by the missionaries as sealed in productive places, and in a genial climate. Other Indians of the same names, the Yuma also and Papapootam (Papago) lived beyond, as appears from the accounts given by the spiritual invaders of those remote regions, chiefly the Fathers Kino, Keller, and Sedelmayer.

The two princ.i.p.al nations of Sonora are spoken of as the Opata and Tima, since the Eudeve should be reckoned with the Opata, for the reason that its language differs as little from that of the other as the Portuguese from the Castilian, or the Provencal from the French; and likewise should also be added the Jove, who, having mingled with the Opata, no longer use their own tongue, except in some instances of the aged. It is one difficult to acquire, and different from any other in the Province.

The Opata are the best of the native Christians, having never turned upon their teachers, nor once risen against the royal authorities; nor do they, like other Indians, make the women bear the heavier share of the labor in the fields. They are industrious husbandmen; but they are not any the less wanting in valor on that account, having oftentimes shown their good conduct when bearing arms with the king's forces at the expense of the Missions. Individuals there were, and perhaps still are, who did the work of blacksmiths, carpenters, tailors, stone cutters, masons, learning any craft readily, and practicing it with skill. They and some of the Endeve, although in a less degree, are to the other Indians what the people who live in towns are to those in the country, still for all it was remarked, they were none the less Indians. Such was the general character of the Opata, which is the same that is given of them in our time by that curious and instructive observer, John R. Bartlett, in his narrative of an expedition into that country.

The Jove were a rural people, quite the greater number of them, unwilling to be brought together in communities, lived in chasms among the ridges where they were born, proof to the solicitations of kindness and conveniences of civilized life. The other portion of them dwelt in Ponida, Teopari and Mochoba. The good missionary at Bacadeque endeavored to bring into towns those who inhabited the rancheria of Sathechi and the margins of the Mulatos and Arcos, rivers to the south, without avail. They live among briars, owning a few animals, subsisting on wild fruits and vegetables, gathering an occasional stalk of maize or a pumpkin that nature suffers to grow in some crevice here and there made by torrents bursting from the mountains.

These nations, the Pima and the Opata, Eudeve, Jove, forming two people, occupy the greater portion of Sonora, seated far inward to the west from the Cordillera. The limit on the south is where stood the deserted town of Ivatora thence to Arivetze, Bacanora, Tonitzi, Soyopa, Nacori; on the west from Alamos, through parts of Ures and Nacomeri to Opedepe, and Cucurpe; on the north from Arispe, Chinapa, Bacoquetzi, Cuquiaratzi to Babispe, and from that Mission of Babispe on the east by mountains of low elevation returning to Natora.

The Pima occupy a still wider territory, extending on the south into Cinaloa, on the east in to the Province of Taraumara. The Upper Pima are found far to the north living by the Sobahipuris to its outlet, and on both banks of the Gila to the Tomosatzi, in vales of luxuriant beauty, and in wastes of sand and sterility between those rivers and the sea,--having still other tribes beyond them using the same language in different dialects. The Lower Pima are in the west of the Province, having many towns extending to the frontier of the indomitable Seri, who live some thirty leagues to the north of the mouth of the Hiaqui and have their farthest limit inland, some dozen leagues from the sea, finding shelter among the ridges, and in the neighboring island of Tiburon.[2] Those of the Pima who reside on the south, in the Province of Cinaloa, the history of their migration thither is of the earliest, and belongs to that which should relate the closing scene in the journey of Cabeza de Vaca, with the strange success that eventually, at the close of a century, attended his Christian purpose.

[Footnote 2: The Guaima speak nearly the same language as the Seri, are few in number, and live among the Hiaqui in Belen and elsewhere, having retreated before the sanguinary fury of their congeners

_MS._]

All these nations, save the last, and all others who inhabit the country excepting the Apaches--including a numerous people on the Gila and on the farther bank of the Colorado--speak the same language, with so slight differences, say the missionaries, that they who shall have attained the one of the Opata and Eudeve with little difficulty will master the rest. And for this we have that early authority referred to, of three centuries since: "They made known to us what they would say by means of a language they have among them through which we and they understood each other. Those to whom it properly belongs we call Primahaitu, which is equivalent to when we say Biscayans. We found it in use over more than four hundred leagues (miles?) of our travel, without another in the whole extent." The name thus given by the narrator of the Naufragios seemingly exists in these words, their definitions taken from a dictionary in MS. of the Pima language written by a missionary. No, _pima_: Nothing, _pim' haitu_. Ques.

What, _Ai_? Ans. _Pimahaitu_ (nihil).

GRAMMAR OF THE HEVE LANGUAGE.

PART I.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

It has been thought proper to use nineteen characters in the language, among which are not included f, j, k, w, x, y, nor l, although the sound of l is somewhat heard in the soft enunciation given by the Indian to the letter r.

The k is sufficiently supplied in the syllabic sounds que and qui, where the u is silent, although gue and gui are each of two syllables.

There has been a disposition to omit the g also, the sound of which, as in go, if the natives had not originally, they certainly possess at present, got from the Spaniards. This should excuse its appearance here. The sound of z is strong as heard in _fits_.

The vowels are sounded as in t_a_r, b_e_ar, s_i_lk, d_o_e, r_u_e.

PART II.

ETYMOLOGY.

SUBSTANTIVE.

_Substantives_ in this language are declined without the use of articles.

2. Those which may be called _verbal_, from their origin in verbs, are much used: hiosguadauh, painting, or writing, is the pa.s.sive (is painted) of the present active hiosguan, I paint. They have their times: hiosguadauh is in the present, expressing the picture I form now of the pa.s.sive preterite hiosguacauh, the work I have executed, of which hiosguatzidaugh, the picture I will make, is the future pa.s.sive: and when to these verbal substantives is added the particle gua, it denotes place, as, No hiosguadaubgua, the place where I paint, etc.

GUA.

3. But words signifying kindred, have their termination usually in gua also, for which see section 16.

SIVEN, RINA.

4, 5. _Other verbal substantives_, signifying instruments, are made from the future active: thus, the verb metecan, I chop, having metetze in the future, receives siven in lieu of the final syllable, and makes the substantive, metesiven, axe or tool with which to chop. Many of these words likewise terminate in rina, as bicusirina, flute, from bicudan, I whistle, and bihirina, shovel, from bihan, I sc.r.a.pe.

RAGUA, SURA.

6, 7. Many _abstract nouns_ are formed by the addition of the particle ragua, as vade, joyously; vaderagua, joy; deni, good; deniragua, goodness; dohme, man, or people; dohmeragua, humanity; and so diosragua, divinity. Others, substantive nouns, applied to certain places end in sura, as, omasura, canebrake, from om, cane, and sura, in or among; huerigosura, reedfield; huparosura, mesquitscrub: and so a town is called Oposura, because it is among some trees called opo, elm.

8. The _verbs are substantives_ likewise, and as such are declined as much so as the same words are conjugated when verbs: thus, nemutzan, I bewitch, is also wizard, and hiosguan, I write, is scrivener; but it is to be observed of these substantives, as well as of those which end in daugh, that they too have equally their times, as nemutzan, the wizard--that is now, in the present; nemutzari, the preterite that has; nemutzatze, the future that will, with the difference that these terminations are active, while those in daugh, etc., are pa.s.sive.

ADJECTIVE NOUNS.

TERI, EI, RAVE, E, I, O, U.

9, 10, 11, 12. The many _adjective nouns_ ending in teri, and ei, signify quality, as, baviteri, elegant; aresumeteri, different or distinct; tasuquei, narrow; asoquei, thick; sutei, white; and so of the rest signifying color. Some ending in rave, denote plenitude; for example, sitorave, full of honey; composed of sitori, honey, and rave, full; seborrave, full of flies; aterave of ate, louse, etc.; others, ending in e, i, o, u, signify possession, as, ese, she that has petticoats; cune, she that has a husband; guasue, he that has land for planting; huvi, the married man, from hub, woman; nono, he that has a father, from nonogua, father, and sutuu, he that has finger-nails, from sutu: and they, moreover, have their times like verbs, since, from ese is formed esei, preterite, she that had petticoats; cunetze, future, she that will marry, etc.; and afterwards they are declined as nouns, as, _Nom._, esei; _Gen._ eseigue. (For other form of the possessive, see section 19.)

CA, SARI, SCOR, SGUARI.

13, 14. It is usual for the want of many positive affirmatives in the language to express by the positive of the opposite signification, adding the negation ca, as, nucuateri, perishable; canucuateri, everlasting; cune, married, f.; cacune, not married; hubi, married, m.; cahubi, not married, etc. Those ending in sari, and scor, mark a bad, or vicious quality, as, dedensari, tobacco-smoker, from deinan, I suck; and hibesari, gluttonous, from hibaan, I eat; nehrisari, talker, from nehren, I talk; capasari, old rags, from capat; baniscor, weeper, from baanan; cotziscor, sleeper, from cotzom; dioscor, vagabond, from dion, I walk, or vacosari, which has the same signification, from vacon. The termination, sguari, is used in this sense: dotzi, old man; dotzisguari, very old man; hoit, female of middle age; hoisguari, very old woman.

DECLENSION.

Substantives of the First Declension form their genitive in _que_, and usually are such as terminate in a vowel.

_Nominative_, Siib, hawk, _Genitive_, Siibique, of hawk, _Dative_, Siibt, to hawk, _Accusative_, Siibe, hawk, _Vocative_, Siib, hawk, _Ablative_, Sibitze, in Sibide, by > hawk.

Sibiquema, with /

The plural of substantives (requiring a special notice) will be treated of hereafter. Substantives of the Second Declension form their genitive in _te_ and _t_.