1889-90.] THE D^N]6 LANGUAGES. 195 



suiting therefrom, as its main object is simply to give emphasis and 

 elegance to the sentence. 



Naturally, the use of the substantive verb is incompatible with that of 

 the Dene adjectives, which are of themselves genuine verbs, combining in 

 their elements our personal pronoun, auxiliary verb, and adjective. I 

 divide them into two classes : primary and secondary adjectives, the first 

 of which, materially considered, correspond to the primary single-radi- 

 caled verbs, and as such fall under the scope of this chapter. 



They usually express qualities of simple import, as " good, bad, great, 

 small, wide," etc., and while in their primitive form they are merely de- 

 notive. All of them, in addition to the various forms which they are 

 Hable to assume as verbs, are also affectible by internal mutations con- 

 noting the nature of the object they qualify without, however, becoming 

 objective verbs. Thus n-cJia (third person singular of cescha) means "big," 



A 



without pointing to any peculiarity in the subject ; nin-cha is applicable 

 to a sphere or a spheroid exclusively ; din-cha, to an elongated object and 

 to vocal sounds ; hun-c/ia, to vastness or indefiniteness of proportions.* 



Dce-nin-c/ia, without being a composite verb in the estimation of the Dene 

 grammar, yet combines two forms, din and nln, and refers to such an 

 article as a ring which is intended for an elongated object, viz., the finger 

 (hence dos, euphonical inflection of din), whilst it is of itself circular in 



A 



form (hence nin). A similar analysis applies to hwo-din-cha. In accor- 

 dance with the law of euphonic sequence of the vowels, him, qualificative 

 of indefinite spaces, is changed into hwo ; dm has reference to vocal sounds, 

 and the whole compound denotes the peculiar resonance noticeable in the 

 voice of certain persons whose speech seems to emanate from cavernous 

 depths. t 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE COMPOSITE VERBS. 



Polysynthetism has generally been regarded, and not without reason, 

 as the chief characteristic of the American aboriginal verbs. It pervades 

 the languages of the remotest tribes to such an extent as to permit of their 

 being classed under one single denomination, despite their many termino- 

 logical and grammatical dissimilarities. Yet that particular feature can- 

 not be said to be their exclusive property. Many a verb of purely Indo- 



* Hun and its co-relative hwo characterize also the Impersonal. 



t Identical transmutations take place in many a non-adjective verb. 



