488 APPENDIX. 



Wdsiimid^ an eater, to wdssinishkid, a gormandizer. Kdgi'dood, a 

 speaker, Mgidooshkid, a babbler. And in these cases the plural is 

 added to the last educed form, making Mgidooshkidjig, babblers, 

 &c. 



The word nittd, on the contrary, prefixed to those expressions, 

 renders them complimentary. For instance, m'ttd naigumood, is a 

 fine singer, nittd kdgidood, a ready speaker, &c. 



Flexible as the substantive has been shown to be, there are 

 other forms of combination that have not been adverted to — 

 forms, by which it is made to coalesce with the verb, the adjective, 

 and the preposition, producing a numerous class of compound 

 expressions. But it is deemed most proper to defer the discus- 

 sion of these forms to their several appropriate heads. 



Enough has been exhibited to demonstrate its prominent gram- 

 matical rules. It is not only apparent that the substantive pos- 

 sesses number and gender, but it also undergoes peculiar modifi- 

 cations to express locality and diminution, to denote adjective 

 qualities and to indicate tense. It exhibits some curious traits 

 connected with the mode of denoting the masculine and feminine. 

 It is modified to express person and to distinguish, living from 

 inanimate masses. It is rendered possessive by a peculiar inflec- 

 tion, and provides particles, under the shape either of prefixes or 

 suffixes, separable or inseparable, by which the actor is dis- 

 tinguished from the object — and all this, without changing its 

 proper substantive character, without putting on the aspect of a 

 pseudo adjective, or a pseudo verb. Its changes to produce com- 

 pounds are, however, its most interesting, its most characteristic 

 trait. Syllable is heaped upon syllable, word upon word, and 

 derivative upon derivative, until its vocabulary is crowded with 

 long and pompous phrases, most formidable to the eye. 



So completely transpositive do the words appear, that like chess- 

 men on a board, their elementary syllables can be changed at the 

 will of the player, to form new combinations to meet new con- 

 tingencies, so long as they are changed in accordance with certain 

 general principles and conventional rules ; in the application of 

 which, however, much depends upon the will or the skill of the 

 player. What is most surprising, all these changes and combina- 

 tions, all these qualifications of the object, and distinctions of the 

 person, the time, and the place, do not supersede the use of ad- 



