INDIANS (LANGUAGES OF AMERICAN.) 



73 



n'dappin (I am there); infinitive, achpin (to be 

 there). To these we add one other form, which, in 

 the Massachusetts language, Eliot called the instead 

 form, or form advocate ; as, koowadchanumivanshun 

 (I keep it for thee, I act in thy stead), from koowad- 

 chansh (I keep thee). He adds, that this form is of 

 great use in theology, to express what Christ hath 

 done for us ; as, rfmippoowonuk (he died for me) ; 

 k'nuppoowonuk (he died for thee), &c. (i) Personal 

 Forms or Transitions are, in fact, the manner of con- 

 jugating and declining all the verbs of each of the 

 preceding classes. The remarkable method of ef- 

 fecting this has been already alluded to; but it 

 requires a further development, in order to make it 

 plain and intelligible to those who are accustomed 

 merely to the structure of the European languages. 

 Mr Hecke welder, in his correspondence with Mr 

 Du Ponceau, explains it, in the Delaware language, 

 in the following manner; which, we may add, is 

 conformable with the views given of it, a century 

 and a half ago, by Eliot, in his Grammar of the Mas- 

 sachusetts dialect: "I do not mean," says Mr H. 

 " to speak here of the positive, negative, causative, 

 and a variety of other forms, but of those which Mr 

 Zeisberger calls personal, in which the two pronouns, 

 governing and governed, are, by means of affixes, 

 suffixes, terminations, and inflexions, included in the 

 same word. Of this I shall give you an instance 

 from the Delaware language. I take the verb 

 ahoalan (to love), belonging to the fifth of the eight 

 conjugations, into which Mr Zeisberger has very 

 properly div ided this part of speech : 



INDICATIVE, PRESENT, POSITIVE. 

 Singular. 

 N'dahoala, I love 

 K'daboata, thou lovest 



Plural. 



N'dahoalaneen, we love. 

 K'dahoalohhimo,* ye lovi 

 Ahoalewak, they love. 



Now for the personal forms, in the same tense : 

 First Personal Form.\ 



I, Singular, 



K'dahoatell, I love thee 

 N'dahoala, I love him or her 



I K'dahoalohhumo, I love you 

 | N'dahoalawak, I love them. 



Second Personal Form. 

 THOU, Singular. 

 K'dahoali, thou Invest me 

 K dahoali, thou lovest him or her 



Plural. 



K'dahoalineen, thou lovest us 

 K'dahoalawak, thuu lovest them. 



HE or SHE. 

 N'dahoaluk, he lo' 

 K-dahoaluk, he loves I 

 Wdahoalawall, he lov. 



Third Personal Form. 

 Singular. 



Plural. 



W'dahoalguna, he loves us 

 W'dahoalguwa, he loves you 

 W'dahoalawak, he loves them. 



Fourth Personal Form. 

 WE. Singular. 



K'daholenneen, we love thee 

 N'dahoalawuna, we love him 



Plural. 



\ K'dahoalohummena, we love yo 

 | N'dahoalowawuna, we love then 



Fifth Personal Form. 

 Singular. I Plural. 



K'dahoalihhena. ye love us 

 K'dahoalawawak, ye love them. 



Sixth Personal Form. 



Plural. 



N'dahoalgehhena, they love us 

 K'dahoalgehhimo, they love you 

 W'dahoalawawak, they love them. 



YE. 



K'dahoalihhimo, ye love me 

 K'dahoalanewo, ye love him 



THEY. Singular. 

 N'dahoalgenewo, they love me 

 K'dahoalgenewo, they love thee 

 W'dahoalanewo, they love him 



In this manner, verbs are conjugated through all 

 their moods aud tenses, and through all their nega- 

 tive, causative, and various other forms, with fewer 

 irregularities than any other language that I know 

 of." We add an example from the Massachusetts 

 language, as given by Eliot, who has used the English 

 verb to pay, with the Indian inflexions, in order, as he 

 expresses it, that " any may distinguish betwixt what 

 is grammar, and what belongs to the word. And 



* The reader should be apprized, that, in these and other examples from 

 the Delaware, the double consonants are used only to indicate that the pre- 

 ceding vowel is short, as in the German immer; and that the consonant is 

 not to be articulated twice. 



t Mr Du Ponceau, following the Spanish-American grammarians, calls 

 these personal forms Irantitiont. F.liot called them the ruffix Jormi, in con- 

 tradiitinction to the ample /otmi, in which the act related to inanimate 

 objects. 



remember (says he), ever to pronounce pay, because 

 else you will be ready to read it pau. Also remem- 

 ber that paum is the radical word, and all the rest is 

 grammar." The Indians, we believe, adopted the 

 word pay into their language, as we adopt French 

 and other foreign words into English. 



AFFIRMATIVE FORM. 



INDICATIVE MOOD. 



PRESENT TENSE. 



I. First Singular. 



Kup-pavm-ush, I pay thee I Kup-paum-unumwoo, I pay you 



Nup-payum, I pay him | Nup-poum- og, I pay them. 



THOU. Second Singular. 



Kup-paum-eh, thou payest me I Kup pount-imun, thou payest us 



Kup-paum, thou payest him | Kup-paum-oog, thou payest them. 



HE. Third Singular. 



Nup-paum-uk, he payeth me I Kup-poum-ukqun, he payeth us 



Kup-paum-uk, he payeth thee I Kup-paum-ukou, he payeth you 



Up-paum-uh, he payeth him j Up-paum-uh nah, he payeth them. 



WE. First Plural. 



Kup-pautn unumun, we pay thee I Kup-paum-unumun, we pay you 

 Nup-pawm-uun, we pay him | Nup-pawm-ounonog, we pay them. 



YE. Second Plural. 



Kup-powm-imwoo, ye pay me 

 K up-paum-au, ye pay him 



THEY 



IKup-paum-imun, ye pay us 

 Kup-pawm-oog, ye pay them. 



Third Plural. 



Nup-paum-ukquog, they pay me I Nup- Bawm-ukqunnonoK, they pay us 

 Kup-paum-ukquog, they pay thee f Kup-pattm-ukoo-o-og, they pay you 

 I p-paum-ouh, they pay him | Up-paum-ouh nah, they pay them. 



In consequence of this curious mechanism of the 

 Indian verbs, as Dr Edwards has remarked, in .his 

 Observations on the Language of the Muhhekaneew 

 (Mohegan) Indians, they cannot say, John loves 

 Peter, but must say, John he-loves-him Peter. 

 Hence, when the Indians begin to talk English, they 

 universally express themselves according to this 

 idiom. It is further observable (he adds, in speak- 

 ing of the Mohegan dialect, that the pronoun, in the 

 accusative case, is sometimes, in the same instance, 

 expressed by both a prefix and a suffix ; as, kthuw- 

 Aunin (I love thee); the k prefixed, and the syllable 

 in suffixed, both unite to express, and are both neces- 

 sary to express, the accusative case thee"* Mr 

 Heckewelder informs us, in explaining this curious 

 structure of the Indian verbs, that the form expres- 

 sive of the pronoun governed, is sometimes placed at 

 the beginning ; as in k'dahoatell (I love thee), which 

 is the same as thee I love, for k, from ki, is the sign 

 of the second person: sometimes, however, the 

 governing pronoun is placed first, as in n'dahoala (I 

 love him), n being the sign of the first person : one 

 of the pronouns, governing or governed, is generally 

 expressed by its proper sign, n' for the first person /, 

 k' for thou or thee, and w for he or him ; the other 

 pronoun is expressed by an inflexion ; as in k'dahoa- 

 lohhumo (I love you); k'dahoalineen (thou lovest us); 

 Wdahoalawak (thou lovest them). It will be here 

 perceived, that the governing pronoun is not always 

 in the same relative place with the governed. (A) 

 Voices, active and passive. The Indian verbs have 

 an active and passive form ; as, in Delaware, n'da- 

 hoala (I love), n'dahoalgussi (I am loved); in the 

 Massachusetts dialect, noowadchan (I keep you), 

 noowadchanit (I am kept). From this passive form, 

 says Eliot, verbals are often derived ; as, wadchannit- 

 tuonk (salvation), &c.- (/) Conjugations. The verbs 

 may also be classed under different conjugations, the 

 number of which varies in the different dialects. In 

 the Delaware, Mr Zeisberger and Mr Heckewelder 



* The word kthuwhunin, in Mohegan, does not, at first 

 view, appear to have an etymological affinity with the 

 Delaware example above given, k'dahoatell (I love thee) ; 

 but when we recollect, that the change of I into n, is a 

 common distinction between these two dialects, and that t 

 and '/ are constantly interchanged in languages, the affiu- 

 ity between these two words becomes more raanitV.it. 



