1902-3.] The Nahane and their Language. 529 



least the Sicalh, content themselves with raising the voice from G to A, 

 or one full tone. 



The intonation of the Carriers varies too much according to the 

 different groups of villages to be recorded here. I will choose but one, 

 which is characteristic of the Hwozahne, or people of Stony Creek. 



Ntoen Iheoetni, au tsoetoest'soek ; 



i.e.. What does he say, we don't understand him. 



The elocution of the Chilcotin and of the Tse'kehne is more 

 uniform. Any member of the former tribe would, I think, easily 

 recognize the following sentence, which they are ever ready to utter 

 when anything is asked of them which they are not disposed to grant. 



* 



xc 



b ^i A '\ 



>» t?o 



Tla kan'te kule ; i.e., There is none. 



But to return to our Nah'ane dialect. From a terminological point 

 of view, it has all the appearances of an eclectic language. Indeed, I 

 would fain compare it to English, as it occupies to some extent, with 

 regard to the other Dene dialects, the position held by that language 

 relatively to the European idioms. Its vocabulary furnishes us, besides 

 fully forty nouns,^ which are more or less Tlhinket, several terms which 

 duly belong respectively to the Kutchin, the Hare and the Chippewayan 

 dialects. Here are a few examples. Kutchin : djugu, now, Nah'ane, 

 tiign ; Ikaon, quite, Nah'ane, Ihan ; cekivcet, knee, Nah"ane, ekwcet ; Hare 

 due, no, Nah'ane, tueh ; guntie, elder brother, Nah'ane, etiye ; Chippe- 

 wayan : sorha, well ; Nahane, saga ; csdmi, I drink, for which the 

 Nah'ane have an absolutely homonymous synonym. 



Even the Tsimpsian has lent them one word, lelk, to designate the 

 snake, a reptile which is not found within Nah'ane territory. A {q\\ 

 words of English have also crept into the Nah'ane vocabulary, and it is 

 worthy of remark that whenever an /occurs in them, the Nah'ane have 



I I may here draw the reader's attention to the fact that a people of a low mental standard, a nation of 

 uncultivated intellects, may borrow many unchangeable words from the vocabulary of its heterogeneous 

 neighbours, but will never attempt to appropriate verbs. The former they will leave in their original 

 form, or allow them through neglect or ignorance to slowly degenerate into more or less different terms ; 

 but when it is a question of verbs, the low type intellect is not up to the task of adapting them to the 

 exigencies of its grammar. In other words it cannot digest and assimilate them. 



