70 



INDIANS (LANGUAGES OF AMERICAN.) 



mar of the Delaware, before cited, no mention is 

 made of the article as a part of speech ; but Mr Du 

 Ponceau's investigations led him to the conclusion 

 that they possessed one, as he particularly stated, in 

 his notes on the new edition of Eliot's Grammar ; 

 and this was confirmed bj Mr Heckewelder, whose 

 letter on the subject is there published. The article, 

 which is mo, or ', is used for the English a and the ; 

 but it is not frequently employed, because the words 

 are sufficiently understood without it. In the Chero- 

 kee, we do not find that any distinct word is used for 

 our a and the ; but, where required, they use a word 

 equivalent to the numeral one, and the demonstrative 

 pronouns this, that, agreeably to the original use and 

 nature of the words which we now call articles. 



2. Noun*. (a) Cases. The Indians have no de- 

 clensions, generally speaking ; that is, the nouns are 

 not declined by inflections, as in Latin and Greek. 

 In the Delaware, however, according to Mr Zeisber- 

 eer, in two cases, the vocative and ablative (which 

 last Mr Du Ponceau calls the local case), there is an 

 inflection. The nominative case is simply the name 

 of the tiling, as in English; lenno (man), sipu (river). * 

 The genitive is expressed by placing the noun so em- 

 ployed immediately before that which is used in the 

 nominative, and sometimes by prefixing the insepa- 

 rable pronoun of the third person, v> ; as we say in 

 English, John his book (to be explained under the 

 head of Pronouns), for John's book ; Getannitowit 

 fuisall (God's son) ; Nihillalquonk wtanglowagan 

 (the Lord's death), in which last example, angloica- 

 gan signifies death, w is the inseparable pronoun his, 

 and the t is inserted for the sake of euphony. The 

 dative case is expressed by inflections in the verbs, 

 and by prefixes and suffixes, as will be explained 

 hereafter ; as, nemilan (I give [to] him) ; milup (he 

 gave [to] him) ; ndellup (I said [to] him). The ac- 

 cusative is likewise expressed in a similar manner ; 

 n'dahoala (I love him) ; Getannittowit n'quitayala (I 

 fear God; literally, God 1 fear him. The vocative 

 is expressed (in the Delaware) by the termination an, 

 and by enk, when coupled with the pronoun our ; as 

 Ninillalan (O Lord) ; wetochemelenk (O, our father); 

 the ablative or local case, by the suffixes ink and 

 vnk, and expresses in, in the, on, out of; as utenink 

 n'da (I am going to, or into, town) ; utenink noom (I 

 am coming from, or out of, town) ; wachtschunk 

 noom (I come from the hill ; ochunk (at his father's.) 

 (b) Numbers. The singular, in general, has no 

 particular inflections to distinguish it from the plural, 

 except in the third person, where it ends in /, but 

 most commonly in wall (in the Delaware). The 

 plural is variously inflected ; there is a singular num- 

 ber combined with the plural, as in our father, my 

 fathers, and also a double plural, as in our fathers. 

 Substantives are generally combined with the inse- 

 parable possessive pronoun, which, in the singular, 

 is n for the first person, k for the second, and w or o 

 for the third. Example : singular, nooch (my father); 

 singular with plural, noochena (our father) ; double 

 plural, noochenana (our fathers). The duplication of 

 a syllable, as nana in the first person, wawa in the 

 second, and wawawa.ll in the third, indicates the 

 double plural. So in the second person, kooch (thy 

 father) ; koochuwa (your father) ; koochewawa (your 

 fathers), &c. In speaking of deceased persons, the 

 plural form naninga is used, as nochena (our father); 

 nochenaninga (our deceased fathers). But the sub- 

 ject of the numbers of nouns requires a further re- 

 mark to explain a striking feature in these languages. 

 Some of them, as the Guaranese, in South America, 



The reader will, in all these examples, give the Towels 

 the foreign toundi ; tbui lenni ii to be pronounced lennee ; 

 ttpu, Kt\xx>, &c. The ch is guttural u in German. 



have only a singular number, and are destitute of a 

 distinct form tor the plural, to express which they 

 use either the word hetd (many), or the numerals 

 themselves. On the other hand, some, as, for exam- 

 ple, the Cherokee, have not only the singular and 

 plural, but a dual also, like the Greek and other 

 languages of the Eastern continent ; while a third 

 class, as the one last mentioned, have not only the 

 singular, dual, and common unlimited, or indefinite 

 plural of the European languages, but also an addi- 

 tional plural, which some writers have denominated 

 the exclusive plural, some the particular, and some 

 the limited plural. We shall illustrate this by some 

 examples. In the Delaware language, our plural 

 we is expressed by niluna and kiluna ; and, in 

 verbs, the initial letters n or k prefixed denotes 

 them respectively ; as, k'pendameneen means, gene- 

 rally, we have heard, or we all have heard, without 

 intending to allude to a particular number of per- 

 sons ; but n'pendameneen (the n from n-iluna) 

 means we, in particular (we who constitute our 

 family, nation, select company, &c.); but when no 

 discrimination is intended, the form kiluna, or its 

 abbreviation k\ is used ; as k'iluna e-lenape-wit (we 

 the Indians), meaning all Indians. We shall have 

 occasion to recur to this subject in our remarks on 

 the verbs. (c) Genders. There are no inflections to 

 denote the masculine, feminine, or neuter genders ; 

 but by a very curious and abstract classification, 

 nouns are ranked under two very general classes, 

 animate and inanimate. To the former belong 

 animals, trees, and all plants of a large growth, 

 while annual plants and grasses belong to the latter 

 class. The masculine and feminine, when it becomes 

 necessary, are distinguished, generally, by words 

 equivalent to male ana female, or he and she, in Eng- 

 lish. (d ) Diminutives. In the Delaware, these are 

 formed by the suffix tit in the class of animate nouns, 

 but by es in the inanimate : lenno (a man), lennotit (a 

 small man); wikwam (a house), wikwames (a small 

 house) : and, in speaking of a pretty little animal, 

 the termination is or shis is used; mamalis (a fawn, 

 or little deer); kuligatshis (thy pretty little paw), 

 which last example we have before employed to 

 illustrate the mode of compounding words. 



3. Adjectives. There are not many of these ; for 

 those words which, in English, are adjectives, are, 

 in these languages, verbs; and, although not inflected 

 through all the persons, yet they have tenses; and it 

 is, doubtless, in this qualified sense that doctor Ed- 

 wards is to be understood, when he says, of one of 

 the Delaware dialects, " The Mohegans have no 

 adjectives in all their language, unless we reckon 

 numerals, and such words as all, many, &c., adjec- 

 tives." We have noticed this remark of Edwards, 

 because it has often been quoted in European publi- 

 cations, and erroneous inferences have been drawn 

 from it respecting the philosophy of language. The 

 same remarks may be applied to the Cherokee lan- 

 guage. Degrees of comparison are generally, but 

 not universally, expressed by some word equivalent 

 to more or most. Numerals may also be classed 

 among 1 adjectives. Few Indians are accustomed to 

 calculate to any great extent; but their languages 

 afford the means of so doing, as well as ours, and 

 since the intercourse of Europeans with them, they 

 have got more into the habit. 



4. Pronouns. (a) Personal Pronouns are Separ- 

 able or Inseparable, but are more frequently used in 

 the latter form, examples of which are above given, 

 under the head of the Nouns. When two pronouns 

 are employed in verbs, the last, or the pronoun 

 governed, is expressed (in Delaware) by an inflec- 

 tion, as will be seen under the head of Conjugations 

 of the Verbs. The personal pronoun, moreover, 



