APPENDIX. 



479 



the death of the Indian orator is not mentioned, that fact would be 

 invariably inferred. 



Names which do not terminate in a vowel sound, require a 

 vowel prefixed to the tensal inflection, rendering it ohm or ehun. 

 Inanimate as well as animate nouns take these inflections. 



PRESENT. 



Tecumseh, 



Tammany, 



Skenandoah, 



Nos (my father), 



Pontiac, 



Waub Ojeeg, 



Tarhe, 



Mittig (a tree), 



Akkik (a kettle), 



Moz (a moose), 



PAST FORM. 



Tecumsi-bun. 



Tamani-bun. 



Skenandoa-bun. 



Nos-ebun. 



Pontiac-ibun. 



Waub Ojeeg-ibun. 



Tai'hi-bun. 



Mittig-obun. 



Akkik-obun. 



Moz-obon. 



By prefixing the particle Tah to these words, and changing 

 the inflection of the animate nouns to iwi^ and the inanimates to 

 iioun, they are rendered future. Thus, Tah Pontiac-iwi ; Tah 

 Mitiig-iwun, &c. 



The names for the seasons only come under the operation of 

 these rules, when the year before the last, or the year after the 

 next, is referred to. The last and the ensuing season are indicated 

 as follows : — 



Spring, 

 Summer, 

 Autumn, 

 Winter, 



PRESENT. 



Seegwun, 

 Neebin, 

 Tahgwag' 

 Peebon, 



LAST. 



Seegwun-oong, 

 Neebin-oong, 

 Tahgwiig-oong, 

 Peebon-oong, 



NEXT. 



Segwung. 

 Neebing. 

 Taligwilgig. 

 Peebong. 



XTMfiWJU, i ueuoii-ouiig 



I spent last winter in hunting. 

 Ning'i nunda-wainjigai peebonoong. 

 I shall go to Detroit next spring. 

 Ninjah izba Wawia''tunong seegwung. 



5. Sexual Nouns. — The mode of indicating the masculine and 

 feminine having been omitted in the preceding Inquiry, as not 

 being essential to any concordance with the verb or adjective, is, 

 nevertheless, connected with a striking peculiarity of the lan- 

 guage — the exclusive use of certain words by one or the other 

 sex. After having appeared to the founders of the language a 

 distinction not necessary to be engrafted in the syntax, there are 

 yet a limited number of words to which the idea of sex so strongly 



