Garza is an extinct Pakawan language of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It is known from two tribal names and twenty-one words recorded from the chief of the Garza by

Jean-Louis Berlandier Jean-Louis Berlandier (1803 – 1851) was a French-Mexican naturalist, physician, and anthropologist. Early life Berlandier was born in Geneva, and later trained as a botanist there. During this time he probably served an apprenticeship to a ph ...

in 1828 (Berlandier et al. 1828–1829, 1850: 143–144). At that time, the Garza all spoke

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

and were acculturated. The Garza may have been the same as the Atanguaypacam tribe (of the

Comecrudo Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande of which ''Comecrudo'' is the best known. Very little is known about these languages or the people wh ...

) recorded in 1748. The Garza were called something like ''Meacknan'' or ''Miákan'' by the neighboring

Cotoname Cotoname was a Pakawan language spoken by Native Americans indigenous to the lower Rio Grande Valley of northeastern Mexico and extreme southern Texas (United States). Today it is extinct. Vocabulary The following vocabulary list of Cotoname ...

(Gatschet 1886: 54) while they called the Cotoname ''Yué''. ''Garza'' is Spanish for "

heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

References

Sources

* Berlandier, Jean L.; & Chowell, Rafael (1828–1829). ocabularies of languages of south Texas and the lower Rio Grande (Additional manuscripts, no. 38720, in the British Library, London.) * Berlandier, Jean L.; & Chowell, Rafael (1850). Luis Berlandier and Rafael Chovell. ''Diario de viage de la Commission de Limites''. Mexico. * Gatschet, Albert S. (1886). omecrudo and Cotoname vocabularies, collected at Las Prietas, Tamaulipas Ms. 297, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. * Saldivar, Gabriel. (1943). ''Los indios de Tamaulipas''. Instituto panamerico de geografía e historia, Publication 70. Pakawan languages Comecrudan languages Extinct languages of North America {{indigenousAmerican-lang-stub