ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 441 



uess are concerned, tlie former with tlie Greek and the latter with the 

 Latin language. In regard to the accent, we may also mention that in 

 some instances difference of accentuation in a word is, in Dakota, 

 resorted to as a means of distinguishing homophouous expressions with 

 different meanings, such as, for instance, would be in English present 

 and to present or in German "gebet," (give ye,) and " gebet," (prayer;) 

 or in Greek '>£oroz«? and ft-soToy.oq^ &c. Thus, in Dakota, hilta means the 

 root of a tree or plant, while hutd denotes the shore of a river or lalce, also 

 t\\Q edge of a prairie or wood. Consonants also often undergo changes 

 merely for the sake of enpliony, thus, gutturals become palatals, and 

 the change of Ic to c (tch) is of frequent occurrence, though in all such 

 cases care is taken not to obscure tliereby the indication of any etymo- 

 logical changes which words may have undergone, either by combina- 

 tion or inflection. 



We often find double forms of a word simultaneously existing, one of 

 them, however, being the older, the more complete; the other, the more 

 recent but already decaying and impaired form, wliich finally will 

 supersede the former, and remain alone in use. Thus, to give a simi)le 

 instance, chosen from a great number of similar examples, frequently' 

 very complex, intricate, and obscure, wlpi, in Dakota, means fuU; 

 but in the coexisting form, ipi, full, the "w" has already begun 

 to disappear, although both forms, wipi and ipi, are used, and will be 

 until the former (tcipi) becomes by degrees obsolete.'^ Other instances 

 are, woniya and oniya, {breath;) ^Yipata and Jpafa, (ornament;) 

 wihdi and ihdi, [grease, ointment ;) Vt^oiuha and oiuha, [a hag,) &c. We 

 must, however, be very careful not to mistake the significance of " «5'" in 

 such forms where, in one, its presence constitutes simply an addition to 

 the word, a sort of formative prefix, and, in the other, its absence is in 

 nowise an elision, for it is frequently found used as an element in the 

 ibrmation of certain derivatives or compounds. Thus, for instance, the 

 prefix "?('«" before a word commencing with a vowel becomes reduced fo 

 a simple ''?{\" in consequence of the elision of "«," for euphonic reasons. 

 It may also happen that the "lo" serves to distinguish certain modifica- 

 tions in the meaning of a word, so that the two forms, though closely 

 related, can no longer be considered as altogether identical. Instances 

 of this kind are, ^\opetOl^ and opetor), two verbs which are, indeed, often 

 confounded with each other, and used indiscriminatelj^ to express trad- 

 ing ; while, however, strictly speaking, opetoi) means to purehase, to hug, 

 to hire, and v^^opetoi), to hug, but also to hug and sell, to trade. Woica, 

 to paint, to ivrite, forms, by the addition of '^p'h'^ tlie usual ending of 

 verbal nouns, the word icoivapi, which means a writing, a hoolt ; while 

 owapi means more particularly a picture, something that is painted or 

 lettered, though these differences do not always seem to be kept distinct, 

 icotcapi being, in the Dakota dialects, used also for painting, picture, for 

 a letter, a sheet of paper ^ &c. The letter "/i," at the beginning of words, 

 frequently disappears likewise; thus we have the double forms ui and 



