THE linguistic classification of the American tribes x is at present imperfect in many regions on account of the incomplete information about their tongues. A proper comparison of languages or dialects includes not merely the vocabulary, but the grammatical forms and the phonetic variations which the vocal elements undergo in passing from one form of speech to another. In some respects, the morphology is more indicative of relationship than the lexicon of tongues; and it is in these grammatical aspects that we are peculiarly poorly off when we approach American dialects. Yet it is also likely that the tendency of late years has been to underestimate the significance of merely lexical analogies. The vocabulary, after all, must be our main stand-by in such an undertaking.

For that reason I have thought it worth while to bring together a short list of common words, and show their renderings in a number of American tongues. Inasmuch as the languages north of Mexico—those in the United States and Canada—have been frequently studied and are readily accessible in published books, I have confined my specimens to the tongues of the central and southern regions of the continent.

The words I have selected for the vocabulary are those which I think would be most likely to indicate relationship, when such existed. But as every comparative linguist is aware, neither these nor any words are free from the risk of ambiguity and equivocation.