1S85.] U1 - [Brinton. 



of a lingo as simple as " pigeon English." I have illustrated this 

 in a recent work by a specimen of the Lenape (Algonkin) lan- 

 guage, as in use by the settlers on the Delaware river in the 

 seventeenth century. We know that an early missionary trans- 

 lated a catechism and preached sermons in this jargon. No 

 doubt he thought he was using pure Lenape, and had that dia- 

 lect shared the fate of so many others, and become extinct at an 

 early date, we should at this day be obliged to accept Campa- 

 nia 1 works as authentic examples of it, and should thus derive 

 an entirely erroneous notion of its character.* I urge, therefore, 

 that we should be extremely cautious about pronouncing on the 

 structure of a language unless we have specimens of native com- 

 position — texts of aboriginal literature. 



Even here we are not on perfectly safe ground, for there can 

 be no doubt but that many native tongues have materially 

 changed since their speakers have been brought more or less 

 •directly into eontaet with the whites. 



On this point, the Rev. John Kilbuck,a very intelligent native 

 Delaware Indian, writes me that most of his people speak Lenape 

 only, but that they have come " to think like white men," and 

 that the structure of the language is materially different from 

 what it was formerly. This difference, as explained to me, is 

 clearly that it is becoming more analytic, and is losing the flexi- 

 bility, the power of polysynthesis, which it formerly possessed 

 to a striking degree. 



As 1 shall show later, Dr. Amaro Cavaleanti says the same of 



* See The Lenape and iheirr- Legends. By D. G. Brintoo, pp. 74-5. (No. v. of 

 ^Briiitera's " Library of Aboriginal American Literature.) The Lenape, as pre- 

 sented in Campanius' Catechism, offers no signs of incorporation, although it is 

 really a markedly incorporative tongue; and polysynthesis does not appear, 

 although it was on this very dialect that Duponoeau chiefly founded his 

 theories! TSie pretended, oration by a native chief which Campanius gives in 

 ithe original in his. History of New Sweden is in this same ungrarnniatical jar- 

 gon. His works, should be a stan&a-g warning to students of American 

 languages to be extremely solicitous about their authorities. Campanius lived 

 seven years among the Lenape and studied their language zealously. Even 

 Zeisberger, whedived sixty years among them, does not appear to have recog- 

 nized the sigrvifipance of the vowel changes in the verbs, the use of thoobvia- 

 tives, and sv&h.like delicate poiats-of their syntax,. 



