| Show LANGUAGE CLEW TO ALL PAST HISTORY Why Archeological Work Is Important To some It may may seem seem foolish h tor for fora tora man to weeks nn nail and months a recording the of ot speech h hor who recalls a I Ian Inn of or nn an aged Indian guage which will vanish completely language lan Ian language with that persons person's death dath That The guage Is completely outworn dc descendants of or those who used It arenow are To English or Spanish now I speaking the uninitiated It Is the mere recording recording record record- ing of or useless gibberish Yet the American Council 1 of ot with pride Learned Societies reports that one research worker hn has nearly completed records of or the lie Southern language that another I Is piecing together a record of or the nearly nearly near near- ly Iy vanished Mohican dialect of or the Eastern and that still another another an an- other has found round that a Ii handful of ot Indians In Oregon still speak spank the Cayuse lan language un e which It was WM thought vanished Ml tilt years jears rs ago nio Such work Is III more than Ihan a II pastime or a hobby To Tn archeologists and others Interested In Am Americas America's past It Is of or vital Importance Nithe t languages ls l's form one of or the most mot r. r re reliable reliable re- re liable means of tracing movements In prehistoric America Tottery weapons ons Jewelry Jewery basketry design and architecture nil all are ure clews ell to events 1 In that forgotten past t. t I Put nut ut inn Is a n thread running them all 1111 Ancient America the Ihl two tarn eon can had no nn fewer ever than limn l 1 languages Languages lan Ian fundamentally different each from the tho others In III lory Lary and phonetics Most of or them I tend had dialects Sortie Some oJIe even en hid st sep sep- po h prate forms for lor the use of men I and women How complex this was Willi a and till how great nil an aid It can cnn he be to In the th delver In to prehistory pre may be he real reaal Ired by hy remembering that I Europe andAsia and Asia combined have only about 2 23 i language e stocks In tracing the movements of at an nn- clent dent Americans scientists can cnn make uncannily accurate guesses from evidence evi l dence thence they dig from ruined villages Cut Dut there are many monr open links link 0 Occasionally Oc Oc- the student of ot native tans tanser Ian can aD close those links the pottery shards shards show v It or not er cr Inhabitants of Idaho It If Ob time one the languages lan lan- Pennsylvania moved mo to will II show It If Ir the languages can be lie studied If It the language of the Mound Builders of ot Ohio were a available for study for Instance It might re reveal similarities to the language lan Ian language gua guage e of ot the Mayans and amI the tho Aztecs which many to prove pro a 1 r relationship have suspected but have e archeologists never been ben able nille to pro prove pro e. e This Interest In Indian languages Is not new The Spanish priests gathered Indian words In to Mexico as early arly as 1 1371 jl Roger Koger Williams stud stud- led Indian Indian languages In fn New England Eng land In the John prepared prepared prepared pre pre- pared hI his famous Indian Grammar In 1000 1060 Thomas Jefferson In InI I 1701 JUI made nn an effort to rescue vanishIng vanishing vanish vanish- In Ing Indian tongues and when he sent Lewis and Clark to the Pacific he told toM them to study Indian languages Hut Butt only In recent years have hav scientists taken up the task In earnest earnest earn earn- arnost est ost ns as a phase of or archeology |
