[Footnote 54:  Perhaps these words may have been adopted into the Chilese language from the Spaniards, who speak a kind of dialect of Latin.  The remainder of this section is an abridgement of an Essay on the Chilese language, appended to the second volume of Molina.—­E.]

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The original language of Chili, generally called the Araucanian, is denominated by the natives Chili-dugu, or the Chili speech or language.  The alphabet is the same as the Latin, except the want of x, which indeed is only a compound letter.  The s likewise only occurs in about twenty of their words, and never at the termination; and the z is still more rare.  Besides the ordinary letters, the Chilese has the mute e, and a peculiar u like the Greek and French; the former being designated by the acute, and the latter by the grave accent, to distinguish them from the ordinary e and u.  This latter u is often changed to i.  It has likewise a nasal g and a th; which latter is often changed to ch, as chegua for thegua, a dog.  There are no gutturals or aspirates.  All the words end either in one of the six vowels, or in b,d,f,g,l,m,n,r, or v; so that there are fifteen distinct terminations.  The accent is usually on the penult vowel, sometimes on the last, but never on the antipenult.  The radical words, mostly monosyllables or dissyllables, are estimated at 1973.  As far as we have been able to discover, these radicals have no analogy with any other known idiom, though the language contains a number of Greek and Latin words very little varied, as in the following table.  It is proper to mention, that the orthography of the Chilese words is given according to the Italian pronunciation.

CHILESE.  GREEK.  SIGNIFICATION Aldun Aldein to increase.  Ale Ele splendour.  Amun Mouen to go.  Cai Kai and.  Ga Ga in truth.  Lampaicon Lampein to shine.  Mulan Mullen to pulverise.  Pele Pelos mud.  Reuma Reuma a stream.  Tupan Tupein to whip.

CHILESE.  LATIN.  Aren Ardere to burn.  Cupa.  Cupere to desire.  Dapein Dapinare to feast.  Ejun Ejulare to weep.  Lev Levis active, swift.  Lumalmen Lumen light.  Lui Lux brightness.  Man Manus the right.  Putun Potare to drink.  Valin Valere to be worth.  Valen Valere to be able.  Une Unus one.

The nouns have only one declension, or rather are indeclinable, the numbers and cases being marked by various particles; but each, in this way, has the singular, dual, and plural, like the Greek.  Thus Cara the city, has Cara-egu the two cities, and Pu-cara the cities, as in the following example.