502 



whole knowledge of the Chilian language may be 

 said to consist in the management of the verbs. 

 The relatives, the pronouns, the prepositions, the 

 adverbs, the numerals, and in fine all the other par- 

 ticles as well as the nouns are subject to this meta- 

 morpliosis, as chhi, what ? chiumen, what's to be 

 done ? mivu^ how many ? miviii^ how many are 

 they ? ehnimolan^ I have no occasion for you ; min- 

 che^ under, minchen^ to be under ; mel'i^ four, meliiiy 

 to be four ; í/f»^/, more, doin, to be more ; vem, like, 

 vemân, to be like another. 



Proper names are also susceptible of this elegance. 

 Thus from Pedro, is formed the verb pet7'on^ to be 

 Pedro ; Petrohui, was Pedro. In consequence of 

 this singular variation, the substantives and adjec- 

 tives produce some very curious verbs ; as from 

 pí¿/¡i or pîeliîi, the soul, is derived pullun^ to apply 

 the whole soul, to pay the greatest attention ; in like 

 manner from then^ time, comes thenen^ to arrive in 

 time ; from re^ pure, relen., to do only one thing, 

 &c. Owing to this ])roperty the translation of 

 European works into the Chilian is ver)' easy, in 

 which, instead of losing any of their spirit and ele- 

 gance, they acquire a degree of precision even su- 

 perior to the originals. This, among other instan- 

 ces that might be mentioned, is strongjv evinced in 

 the Christian Thoughts of the celebrated Bouhours, 

 which was translated in the year seventeen hundred 

 and thirteen. There can be no better test of a Ian- 

 guage than its translations, as its comparative rich- 

 ness or poverty is rendered more apparent in this 

 mode than in any othen 



