ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE DAKOTA OR SIOUX INDIANS. 443 



eacli otlier; thus, navJcawii) aud naisihtwlx), {to hcclcon icith the hand,) &c. 

 There are also iustauces of a permutation between p and t, such ii82)cUisve 

 aud 2JctusTc, {a Jirc-brand,) «S:c. Also t aud s sometimes interchange with 

 one another, as in IcTai] aud Ickii), which mean curved, whence the com- 

 pounds yuJiTai) and yiilcsai), meaning literally to mal-e curved or to 

 bend, &c. It now and then happens that such consonantal interchanges 

 take place, and are, moreover, accidentally coinplicatcd by a transposition 

 of the consonants in question; for instance, opTai/e and osvai/e, &c. It 

 is important to take all these various changes into careful consideration 

 when we wish to identify words in their different appearances, their in- 

 numerable protean transformations, and often surprising modes of dis- 

 guise, and to trace their origin, derivation, and various afiinities. 



In regard to the derivation and composition of words, the Dakota or 

 Sioux language is particularly clear and transparent. Derivations can 

 be traced with great facility, and in the matter of the formation of com- 

 pound words, this language is remarkably apt and Hexible. We will 

 take this opportunity to present but a few iustauces of Dakota etymol- 

 ogies, which will, however, be suflicient to enable the reader to form 

 some idea of this particular subject. Ti means to dwell, to live in, and 

 as a noun the same word means a diceUing-place, a house. With the 

 addition of the substantive ending j;i, {tijn,) it means a tent, such as 

 the Sioux Indians inhabit; while when cond)ined with the verb ojya, 

 which signifies to go in, to enter, to go to, it forms tiyopa, (for tiopa,) 

 which is a substantive and designates a door, a gate, an entrance. Da 

 is a verb which means to form an opinion, to tliinli ; its longer form is 

 dalia, with the same meaning. This word added to the adjective waite, 

 good, forms the compounds wasteda and wastedaJca, yvhich mean to deem 

 good, to tlmik well of -, hence, to love. On the contrary, when combined 

 with sice, had, it forms the compounds siccda and sicedalca, which mean 

 to consider had, and, by a natural transition, to hate. 



The word holU gives rise to a number of derivatives, of which we 

 will here mention but a few. The Avord itself does not appear to b<5 

 used independently ; but we may, perhaps, infer its fundamental mean- 

 ing, when we consider a compound expression like hoksi-celcpa, which not 

 .only means twins, but, in its i^robably more original signification, applies 

 to a flower, and denotes a blue ivild Jiower which appears frst in the 

 spring, the earliest spring-^ower, thus alluding to the first beginning of 

 floral vegetation. In a similar acceptation, it seems to enter as the 

 principal constituent part into all words exi)ressive of the idea of infancy 

 and childhood, as holc&iyopa, a child =ho]ciiio2)a, the verb ojia, most prob- 

 ably, with its meaning oifollou-ing, going along with; hohkidai), a boy, daq 

 being a very common diminutive termination, alluding here, it seems, 

 simply to the youth and small stature of a male during childhood, &c. ; 

 holxsiwii) and holcsiwiiyna, a virgin. In the latter expression we distin- 

 guish in the ending the word ivii), that by itself means, female, icomayij 

 and iviiyna, which is its diminutive, and stands to it somewhat in the 



