1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DENES. 33 



no alteration in all the dialects of the family, whatever may be the dis- 

 tance intervening between the aborigines who speak them.*" 



No etymology or other explanation than that of the text v/ill be given 

 of words belonging to this category, because they admit of none. Thus 

 the context will indicate for instance that Ri?/ is a war club, that zve is a 

 kind of fish trap, etc., without any attempt being made at explaining the 

 origin of either word, or at giving a more literal sense of them than that 

 furnished by the translation, which would be impossible. They have no 

 derivation, but on the contrary may serve as the compounding elements of 

 other words of secondary import. 



" The second category comprises roots of simple import which are 

 genuine unsynthetical substantives though polysyllabic, generally dissyll- 

 abic, in form. To this category belong words as t3;ie, man ; fsbkJi^, 

 woman ; pdurdn, lake ; etc. They possess, to a limited extent, the 

 properties of the monosyllabic roots, being likewise merely determinative 

 and oftentimes varying but little with the change of dialect."i- 



Here it may be added that even in these nouns there is generally one 

 syllable which is more important and contains, as it were, the quintessence 

 of the word. Thus it is with the ne of t9ne ; the fse of t'sckid, 

 theppn oi pdurdn. In composite words, such syllables only are retained. 

 So the Carriers will more commonly say «^-^r«« murderer, than tdne-draiiy 

 while in such compounds as ji-t'se, she-dog, and pdu-tco^ big lake, the 

 weak or secondary syllable has also disappeared. 



"The,third class contains composite nouns formed, as a rule, by com- 

 pounding, though sometimes by agglutinating, monosyllabic or dissylla- 

 bic roots. Such are ne-na-pa-ra (literally : man-eyes-edge-hair) eye 

 lashes ; tdpe-te, wild sheep horns ; inai-rc, vegetable oil instead of mai-l<e, 

 literally, fruit-oil. These nouns being mere compounds of roots belong- 

 ing to the two former categories have the same degree of relative 

 immutableness with regard to the various dialects as the radicals which 

 enter into their composition. ";J 



In like manner, implements designated by names of this category 

 may be of as ancient origin as those denominated by words of the first. 



Thus, tsa-ni-pi], beaver snare, contains two ideas of simple import — 

 the medial m being merely euphonical and demanded by the following 

 /. That words of this class may not be confounded with terms of the 

 preceding, their compounding roots will be separated by a hyphen. 



* The Dene Languages, etc. Transact Can. Inst. vol. i, 1889-90, p. 181. 



t Ibi'i. 



X Ibid, p. 182. 



